Serving Lake &
Geauga Counties

Staff Recommended Read/Podcast List

The staff of State Support Team 4 would like to use this space to share with you our favorite books and podcasts. Each month you will be introduced to a new staff recommended book or podcast. We hope that you find something new to consider and possibly impact your personal professional development.

Happy Reading!

October Recommended Read

Effective Universal Instruction: An Action-Oriented Approach to Improving Tier 1

By: Kimberly Gibbons, Sarah Brown & Bradley C. Niebling

Book Reviewed By: Ashley Girt

Book Synopsis:

This highly relevant text helps school leadership teams accomplish the crucial yet often overlooked task of improving tier one universal instruction within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Strong universal instruction reduces the numbers of PreK-12 students who need additional services and support. Providing clear action steps and encouraging guidance, the expert authors present a roadmap for evaluating the effectiveness of tier one, identifying barriers to successful implementation, and making and sustaining instructional improvements.

Why I Recommend This Book:

More often than not, schools have found themselves attempting to intervene their way to improvement without much success. This book gets to the heart of what principals all too often neglect - implementation fidelity of the core (tier one) curriculum. Gibbons, Brown, and Liebling not only remind us of the importance of Tier 1 instruction, but also provide practical ways that school leadership teams can assess their school's current state of effectiveness, remove barriers to improving instruction, and most important, reflect on their own efforts.

September Recommended Read

The Knowledge Gap

by: Natalie Wexler

Book Reviewed By: Jennifer Kuhn

Book Synopsis:

"The Knowledge Gap" examines the systemic problem in elementary schools, especially those serving low-income students, of neglecting to build students' background knowledge in subjects like history, science, and art. Historically, schools have focused heavily on drilling students on reading comprehension strategies, which research shows is less effective for improving reading ability than providing content knowledge. This skills-focused approach disproportionately cultivates a disadvantage for students from low-income families, as they often lack the broad knowledge that more affluent peers acquire at home. The book explores how this misguided instructional approach evolved and how it can be changed to provide a more meaningful, rigorous education for all students.

Why I Recommend This Book:

As Ohio districts work to select and implement high-quality instructional materials in English language arts, "The Knowledge Gap" provides a compelling rationale for choosing a knowledge-building curriculum over a skills-focused approach. Wexler's book makes a clear case for why this shift in instructional approach is necessary to better serve the needs of students in our classrooms.

August Recommended Read

Does Compliance Matter in Special Education? IDEA and the Hidden Inequities of Practice

by: Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides

Book Reviewed By: Dr. Tricia McCollum

Book Synopsis:

Using Data collected from three suburban school districts, Voulgarides helps us to understand how compliance with IDEA intersects with decades of evidence of racial inequities in student outcomes. This timely and thought-provoking book unpacks the civil rights history of IDEA, examines the impact of its procedural focus on educational practice, and questions why racial inequities in special education persist despite good intentions by policymakers, educators, and school personnel.

Why I Recommend This Book:

This is such a timely book as we examine disproportionality and the least restrictive environment within school districts. I love books that make you question what the status quo is and make you wonder about what could be different.