Does your SYSTEM support your policy and your curriculum? (with Jalita Johnson)

If we try to make schools in the US more like schools in other countries, will that result in more effective practices? Why do policies work in some districts, but not others? Many ideas sound good on paper; but the people working with students or leading schools are telling a different story. That’s why I invited reading specialist Jalita Johnson to episode 151 to share her expertise on these topics.Jalita Johnson is a reading specialist in the Northern Virginia area and is also a veteran, wife and mom of 4. She completed her undergrad studies at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU near Ft. Liberty (formerly Ft. Bragg) North Carolina. She holds a Master's Degree in Elementary Reading.​​She is currently enrolled in a Doctoral bridge program at George Mason for Educational Leadership. Over the years, she has come to realize that she committed to being a lead learner.In this conversation, she shares:✅Being an agent for change: Why her military background gave her the skills and experience to lead reform initiatives in education ✅Syntactic complexity, and the disconnect between decoding/encoding and language comprehension✅Professional development and learning communities: Does one size fit all?✅What challenges come up when federal, state or district-level reform initiatives are modeled off of policies from other countries or states? The following resources were mentioned in this episode:“Hacking School Leadership: What makes Teachers Happy and Why it Matters to Students” by Erika Garcia-Niles (Link here: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-School-Leadership-principals-happiness/dp/1956512446/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OW0WCCPY7Q3F&keywords=hacking+school+leadership&qid=1699901781&s=books&sprefix=hacking+school+leadership%2Cstripbooks%2C87&sr=1-1)Stacy Roberts, M.Ed, CCC-SLP, from Explore to Express (Link here: https://www.exploretoexpress.com/)In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/I also mentioned The School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers guide their teams to support students’ executive functioning across the day. This program will help you plan direct therapy, but will also help you lead change management on your team, no matter your job title. You can learn more about the School of Clinical Leadership here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Om Podcasten

On the De Facto Leaders podcast, host Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan helps pediatric therapists and educators become better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. With over 15 years of experience supporting school-age kids with diverse learning needs, Dr. Karen shares up-to-date evidence-based practices, her own experiences and guest interviews designed to help clinicians, teachers, and aspiring school leaders feel more confident in the way they serve their students and clients. She’ll cover a range of topics designed to help you support students' emotional and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood, including how to support language, literacy, executive functioning, and how to help IEP teams working together to support kids across the day. Whether you want to learn more effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be a more influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, Dr. Karen has you covered.