Knowledge for Teachers

If your school's intervention system feels like an endless treadmill, this episode is a must-listen. Dr Sarah Brown (President of System Impact Consulting) and Dr Stephanie Stollar (Creator of the Reading Science Academy) join the podcast to dismantle the most common mistakes schools make with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).  

 

In this episode, you will learn why the MTSS pyramid is actually a map of school resources rather than a tool for sorting students. Stephanie reveals the dangers of the "screen to intervene" trap, explaining why we must evaluate core Tier 1 instruction before pulling kids into intervention groups. We also discuss why expecting teachers to overhaul their practice without structural support ignores the reality that adults go through an acquisition stage of learning too. Get ready to shift your focus from admiring the problem to taking definitive instructional action.

Resources mentioned:

MTSS for Reading Improvement by Dr Sarah Brown and Dr Stephanie Stollar

MTSS for Reading Improvement - Free Reproducibles

Routines for Reading Results (upcoming second edition of Teaching Struggling and At-Risk Readers)

Effective Universal Instruction book by Bradley C. Niebling, Kimberly Gibbons and Sarah Brown

StephanieStollarConsulting.com

System Impact Consulting

You can connect with Sarah:

Linkedin: @sarah-brown-ph-d-9177b516

Website: systemimpactconsulting.com

 

You can connect with Stephanie:

Twitter/X: @SStollar6

Facebook: @StephanieStollarConsulting

Linkedin: @stephanie-stollar

Website: stephaniestollarconsulting.com

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website:learnwithlee.net

Substack: knowledgeforteachers.substack.com/

 

About Sarah
Dr. Sarah Brown is a consultant and co-author of the books, Effective Universal Instruction, MTSS for Reading Improvement, and Routines for Reading Results. She empowers schools through her MTSS Data Academy. She’s served in a variety of educational roles, including Bureau Chief leading Special Education and MTSS implementation for Iowa, Special Education Director, Professional Learning Administrator, and School Psychologist. Dr. Brown is passionate about empowering systems to improve outcomes for every learner. She splits her time between the midwest and the southwest and her greatest accomplishment to date is toilet-training her cat, Oliver.

 

About Stephanie
Stephanie is passionate about using MTSS as the framework for helping all students become skilled readers. She is the co-author of the books MTSS for Reading Improvement, Promoting Effective MTSS Implementation, Reading Assessment Done Right and Routines for Reading Results. 

 

Stephanie is creator of the Reading Science Academy, co-creator of MTSS CollecAve, and serves on the boards of the Evidence Advocacy Center and the International MTSS Association. 

 

Her past roles include Assistant Professor, Vice President of Professional Learning at Acadience Learning, and School Psychologist. Stephanie believes that supporting all educators to have deep knowledge about reading is foundational to high achievement for every student.

 

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 
https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

In this episode Brendan Lee is joined by Professor Stuart Kime, a leading voice in evidence-informed school improvement and co-founder of Evidence-Based Education. We dive into the Great Teaching Toolkit and explore how to bridge the knowing-doing gap in professional learning. Knowing the research is important, but it does not automatically translate into changing your teaching habits.  Stuart explains how to hold a mirror up to our practice using objective tools. You will discover why video feedback is critical for bypassing our expert blind spots and how student surveys can reveal the true reality of your classroom environment. They also discuss why schools need to move away from standalone courses and build a supportive culture of continuous improvement. If you want to turn evidence into concrete action this conversation is essential listening. 

Resources mentioned:

Evidence-Based Education (EBE)

The Great Teaching Toolkit

The Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review (2020)

The Great Teacher Toolkit: School Environment and Leadership Evidence Review (2022)

EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit (Steve Higgins)

You can connect with Stuart:

Twitter: @profkime

Linkedin: @stuart-kime-ebe

Website: evidencebased.education

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

 

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 
https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

In this episode of Knowledge for Teachers, host Brendan Lee sits down with Karen Robertson, national CEO of Life Ed Australia, to explore the escalating youth health crisis and the critical role of health literacy. Far from just kicking a ball around, modern preventative health requires a robust, evidence-backed approach.

Listeners will discover surprising data from the frontlines of education, including why 81 per cent of children aged two to five are already using the internet. Karen unpacks how to transition from traditional, fear-based warnings to a strength-based curriculum that builds critical thinking. Crucially, you will learn how Life Ed carries the load for time-poor educators, with research revealing that 89 per cent of teachers report significantly improved confidence in embedding wellbeing strategies post-visit.

Tune in for a thoughtful discussion packed with practical, research-grounded insights to help your students truly thrive.

 

You can connect with Karen:

Linkedin: @karen-robertson-mtc

Website: lifeed.org.au 

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website:learnwithlee.net

Substack: knowledgeforteachers.substack.com/

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 

https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

In this special follow-up to the popular episode with Dr. Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta on the Morningside Model that Guarantees Two Years of Growth in One, host Brendan Lee draws out the practical learning science expertise of university lecturer Dr Russ Fox and MTSS leader Karina Stocker. This conversation bridges the macro principles of the Morningside model directly with the reality of the classroom through the lens of the Instructional Hierarchy.

Listeners will hear Karina and Russ break down how to spot the hidden "tool skills" that frequently block student progress in reading and mathematics. They challenge common misconceptions about explicit instruction, detailing why the "We Do" phase must be a dynamic, data-driven interaction to build accurate acquisition. Plus, they share how to transition students into fluency building by measuring the rate of correct responses rather than simple percentages.

If you’re keen to delve deeper into the key mechanisms behind the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction and more, then this conversation is essential listening.

Resources mentioned:

MorningsideAcademy.org

Ryan O’Donnell’s documentary about Morningside Academy: The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction

Thomas Gilbert’s Mathetics

S01E01 – Dr. Russ Fox on building relationships, routines and using reinforcers 

Trina Spencer: Learning How Learning Works Helps Teachers Teach 

Mastery Schools Australia

Brendan Lee: "Engineering the Aha! When Discovery Learning Actually Works"

Stocker, K. L., Fox, R. A., Swain, N. R., & Leif, E. S. (2024). Between the lines: Integrating the science of reading and the science of behavior to improve reading outcomes for Australian children. Behavior and Social Issues, 33(1), 504-531.

You can connect with Karina:

Linkedin

You can connect with Russ:

Linkedin

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 
https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

As teachers, we’ve all felt the frustration of watching a student fall through the cracks because the curriculum is moving faster than they are. We’ve all wondered: how do we actually catch them up without just ‘watering down’ the work?

In this episode, Brendan Lee is joined by Dr. Kent Johnson and Andrew Kieta from Morningside Academy. What makes this conversation so special is that it’s not just theory. Morningside has spent over 40 years in their Seattle lab school proving that these challenges have answers. They have essentially "cracked the code" on the most persistent problems we face in schools.

They dive into their world-renowned model of Generative Instruction, exploring how they use "Precision Teaching" to build effortless fluency and why they group students by achievement rather than age. You’ll learn why a student who is 100% accurate can still be struggling and how a "Money Back Guarantee" on student growth is actually possible when you engineer instruction with this much precision. This is a deep look at how we can stop "praying and spraying" our teaching and start giving every student the success they deserve.

Resources mentioned:

MorningsideAcademy.org

Morningside Summer Institute

John Dewey: How We Think

Lev Vygotsky

Michael Maloney

Israel Goldiamond

Tom Gilbert - Mathetics

Ogden Lindsley

Carl Binder

Owen White

Norris Haring

B.F. Skinner

Jerome Bruner

Fred Keller

Brendan Lee: "Engineering the Aha! When Discovery Learning Actually Works"

Ryan O’Donnell’s documentary about Morningside Academy: The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction

You can connect with Kent:

Linkedin

You can connect with Andrew:

Linkedin

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

 

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 
https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast