Our Op-Eds & Articles

By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published by EdNC, November 19, 2019

Digital learning has gotten a bad rap, in some cases reasonably so, especially for the lack of results with disadvantaged learners. Meanwhile, alarms are sounding about the rise of online screen time co-timed with surges in anxiety, depression, suicide and insomnia among teens and young adults, here and abroad. While providers entice students with more game-like digital learning — possibly an extra blow to students’ mental health — parents are paying consultants substantial sums to reverse screen addiction.

By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published in Education Next, October 22, 2019

A charismatic charter network leader reminded us recently of his high-poverty schools’ laudable learning results. His secret sauce? Wooing the best teachers and principals away from surrounding districts.

We call this a “Talent Hog” strategy, and its prevalence explains, in part, why reforms that succeed in some schools fail at scale—leaving cities, states, and their children, back where they started. There is a better way, but it requires a policy solution.

By Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel; first published by Education Next, June 13, 2018

Educators nationally are striving to incorporate more personalization: giving students what they need by adapting what, when, how, and where students learn. But personalized learning is just one of several big instructional trends—high standards, aligned curricula, teaching the whole child, improving social-emotional skills, to name a few. None has achieved its potential.

Personalization, along with those other reforms, is missing a key ingredient: school staffing models to carry reforms, whatever they may be, into millions of classrooms with success.

By Thomas Arnett and Bryan Hassel; first published on The 74, May 28, 2018

K-12 education is abuzz with interest in personalizing instruction and a drive to change the student experience. Yet amid this innovative fervor, the traditional classroom staffing arrangement is still an unquestioned assumption in many schools, with each teacher working largely alone, taking sole responsibility for a roster of students. By adding personalized learning to teachers’ workloads without changing how schools are organized, schools face a great risk that their attempts to personalize learning will fall short of their promise.

By Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel, first published by Education Next, March 21, 2017 

You’ve probably read an article with a headline like this. Why say it again? Because class-size reduction continues to be so seductive. Our own state of North Carolina is just the latest in which policymakers have succumbed, causing a political firestorm this winter. Here it’s Republicans, but Democrats have heard the same call elsewhere. We thought we’d remind policymakers why they need to avoid the temptation.

By Emily Ayscue Hassel & Bryan C. Hassel, first published in The 74 Million, March 14, 2017

A decade ago, inspired by the best teachers we’ve known, we formed the seed of an idea — the notion that great teachers, those who induce high-growth learning and strong student thinking skills, could and should have far more power to lead instruction, help colleagues succeed, and innovate to reach more students. For a lot more pay.

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett; first published in School Administrator magazine, August 1, 2015

You know rock star teachers when you see them. They are capable of commanding attention day in and day out, and they motivate students to achieve well beyond standard expectations. They even help other teachers succeed.  

So how can school districts attract them, especially to hard-to-staff schools and subjects?

Four districts that implemented the Opportunity Culture model — Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Cabarrus County, N.C., Syracuse, N.Y., and Nashville, Tenn. — have found a way to keep great teachers in the classroom and reach more students, offering leadership opportunities, on-the-job training and higher pay. Schools reallocate their own budgets using new staffing models that fund pay supplements permanently, rather than with temporary grants, increasing the attractiveness of the roles.