22 schools. Multiple ELA programs. Multiple math programs. Kids transferring between buildings and landing in totally different language, totally different lessons. That was Waukegan Public Schools when Eduardo Cesario arrived eight years ago. On Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Eduardo, now Deputy Superintendent of Academic Programs and Supports, to walk through how the district built coherence without steamrolling teachers: • A districtwide curriculum audit

Seven school districts. One regional CTE center. A 30-mile bus ride to give rural North Dakota students the same options a suburban high school takes for granted. That's Grand Forks Public Schools' approach - and on Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Eric Ripley, Executive Director of Career & Technical Education, to unpack how it actually works. Eric brings 28 years in CTE - a decade in the classroom, 18 as an administrator - and a sharp point of view on where

72 → 280 students. 500-person waitlist. 7am zero period fills up first. That's Williamson County Schools' Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center - in a district where 90%+ of students go to college and the average ACT is above 26. On Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Jeremy Qualls, Executive Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Director of CTE. What Jeremy has built breaks the usual pattern: • CTE positioned as a college-application accelerator, not

Drum roll, please 🥁 🥁 🥁 We're excited to announce our next live learning session as our State Deep Dive: Florida, happening on August 11, featuring expert speaker Bryan R. McCorkle! This session is a must for anyone looking to understand Florida’s K-12 market and the structural shifts it is currently undergoing, having the ability to impact your go-to-market strategy. Don’t miss your chance to learn from a leader in the field! Register now to secure your spot: https://lnkd

67.5% → 93%. That's the graduation rate for students with IEPs at Vallejo City Unified before and after one year under Kristen Hardy, Executive Director of Special Education / SELPA. Beyond the Box is back after the summer break, and Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Kristen to unpack what actually moved the number: • Every mild/moderate IEP student in core curriculum. No pull-out to worksheets. • Co-teaching with self-selected partners and protected planning time. • Master sc

North Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents leaders are running districts where the gap between "what works" and "what reaches every student" is the daily job, not the conference topic. Proud to support the celebration, and the year-round work behind it. Thank you Dr. Rick Fernandez. Read more

Alyssa Mathewson, NovoDia's Director of Partnerships, spent Friday at the California Distinguished Schools Awards Ceremony - a room of more than 1,000 educators, schools closing gaps, and teachers being recognized for the work that's moving student outcomes. She also sat in on a literacy session with the California Department of Education, where one data point stood out: growth is trending in the right direction, but at the current pace, getting every student where they need

This week, NovoDia and ESC 20 took a step forward in a collaborative project to bring curriculum infrastructure to districts across the region. Thank you to Lindsey Vela, Ph.D. (ESC 20), Sheryl Mills, and Donisha Miller (Poteet ISD) for hosting the first of many teacher training sessions. The session marked the start of what we expect to be a long and fruitful partnership - one focused on giving teachers a coherent, aligned instructional system rather than another disconnecte

Alyssa Mathewson and Bryan McCorkle represented NovoDia at this month's RTM Business Group K-12 event in San Diego. The setting on the bay was hard to beat, but the conversations were what stood out: a thoughtful group of district leaders, a lot of candor, and the kind of unhurried exchanges that don't usually fit into a normal workweek. These rooms matter. They're where the gap between "what's working in pockets" and "what works at scale" gets discussed honestly, by the peop

New Episode of "Beyond the Box" Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Rusty Gordon, Director of Pupil Services at Marysville Joint Unified School District in California, to explore how to integrate special education into a coherent districtwide instructional system. Rusty has spent years doing the unglamorous but essential work of connecting special education to core instruction - across schools, across teams, and across leadership cycles. The conversation gets practical fast: how

This week, our team was in San Antonio for the Institute for Education Innovation Spring Summit - three days alongside superintendents and district leaders organized around one theme: Scaling with Intention. What we heard in the 1:1s reinforced something we see everywhere: the ambition is there. The gap is infrastructure. Districts with 18 sites struggling to keep curriculum coherent across buildings. Districts with 92 schools that have done the hard work of alignment, but ar

New Episode of "Beyond the Box" Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Troy Lange, Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services at Eagle County School District in Colorado, to answer it. Troy oversees special education, gifted & talented, and nursing services across a district serving students ages 3 to 21. The conversation gets into real operational terrain: moving from teacher-selected materials to a districtwide service delivery model, building intervention fidelity that

New Episode of "Beyond the Box" Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Brooke Martin , Executive Director of CTE at Aldine ISD , to explore what it takes to lead Career and Technical Education at true scale. Serving more than 20,000 students across 45+ programs, Aldine is tackling challenges many districts face: aligning TEKS with fast-moving industry demands, building coherent pathways across programs, expanding access for multilingual and specialized student populations, and s

On January 30, Yair Shapira , PhD, Founder & CEO of NovoDia , will join our Edtech Insiders webinar to discuss how multimodal approaches can support coherent, standards-aligned learning systems designed for real classroom use. Yair brings deep experience building curriculum infrastructure and supporting district-level implementation. Join live or receive the recording! Register here: https://lnkd.in/g9rDqDUg Read more

Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Christopher Sanzeri from Elgin Area School District U-46 to explore how districts can move away from fragmented, supplement-heavy special education models toward coherent, aligned curriculum systems. The conversation covers U-46’s shift to resource-first curriculum design, the launch of the Multi Abilities Classroom (MAC) model, and how coherence, teacher autonomy, equity, and thoughtful use of AI can coexist in real district settings. A

Looking forward to this conversation. Learning is becoming increasingly multimodal, which raises important questions for how instruction is designed and sustained in real classrooms. Video, audio, AI, and interactive experiences open new possibilities, but they also introduce complexity for schools and districts. What I’m most interested in discussing is how multimodal learning can live inside curriculum systems that teachers can actually use and sustain, while ensuring rigor

A strong conversation with Dr. Ronald Taylor and Zeek Edmond , Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning at Tacoma Public Schools , on what actually shapes outcomes at scale - early learning access, teacher retention systems, and the often-overlooked power of master scheduling. What stood out to me is how many equity gaps aren’t philosophical, but structural: access, minutes, coherence, and adult decisions embedded in systems. Proud for NovoDia to support Beyond t

🎙️ Beyond the Box - Episode 2 In this episode of Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Dixie Rosier, Assistant Superintendent of Learning & Instruction for HOBBS MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS , to discuss how districts can move beyond traditional instructional models to build literacy-rich cultures and meaningful career pathways. The conversation explores: - Making literacy joyful, visible, and community-centered - Investing in teacher excellence and National Board Certifi

🎙️ Beyond the Box - Episode 1 We’re sharing the first episode of Beyond the Box, a conversation series hosted by Dr. Ronald Taylor and sponsored by NovoDia. 🎧 Audio and 🎥 full video links are available in the first comment. In this episode, Dr. Taylor speaks with Peter McWain , Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Santa Fe Public Schools , about system-level instructional improvement - including growth vs. proficiency, curriculum quality, teacher capaci

"Lesson 12" “Lesson 12 - updated after PD.” “Lesson 12 - revised for clarity.” “Lesson 12 - NEW pacing.” “Lesson 12 - Final.” “Lesson 12 - Final (Real Final).” Every change makes sense on its own. A tweak to help a student. A clearer prompt. A better example found mid-unit. But add enough of these tiny, well-meaning edits, and something else emerges: Not coherence, but chaos built from good intentions. A patchwork of lesson versions that only the people who wrote them can fu