During fieldwork, a case manager said something that’s stuck with me: “I need something I can reference when I’m trying to figure out where to send clients. Something that explains […]
The Adult Who Was Never There
Gutman and McLoyd’s research found something specific: children whose adults actively organized their engagement with school, institutions, and community resources developed measurably stronger academic self-efficacy than children whose adults were […]
Learning in Circles, Not Lines
Standard curriculum design assumes learning moves in a straight line. Module one, then module two, then module three, each building cleanly on the last. That is not what I’ve watched […]
Support, Challenge, Vision
I didn’t design our fifteen-month curriculum around a theory. I designed it around what I watched work, and only later found the theoretical language for it. Daloz (1999) describes effective […]
Redundant, and Ignored Anyway
Tout (1997) made an argument I think about often: the phrase “critical numeracy” shouldn’t need to exist. Real numeracy, properly defined, already includes critical thinking. Adding the word “critical” in […]
The Debt That Was Never a Choice
Some of the residents who come through Fresh Start Housing arrive already carrying debt they never agreed to. Pogrebin et al. (2014) documented this precisely for returning citizens: parole fees, […]