Author: communications

Liz Mumford:
Utah is the only state that has a Community Council program where trust funds go directly to a local community to make the decision.

Bree Ervin:
So it is really nice to see that this is not just words on paper, it is action.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're already seeing an impact with your children.

Julianne Best:
And the way that we're doing things, he's getting it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that.

Julianne Best:
Showing a big difference.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Did you know the Utah Trust Lands Administration manages millions of acres of land? And through the leasing and sales of that land, they raise hundreds of millions of dollars that go directly into K-12 schools in Utah? On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Hidden Valley Middle School to show you how School Community Councils, which include parents, teachers, and the principal, decide how to use the money. Find out why Hidden Valley Middle School's Land Trust Plan stands out among others in the state, and how, in the end, students in the classroom are the clear winners.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with the director of the advocacy office for the Trust Lands system. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what that means and what your job entails.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, thanks, Dr. Godfrey. It's great to be with you today and talk to the Jordan community. I am Liz Mumford. I represent all of the beneficiaries across the Trust system. That means public education and other state institutions that get distributions that come off of the revenue from Trust Lands.

Anthony Godfrey:
And talk to people about what Trust Lands are.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, Trust Lands is a great story. It goes clear back to the history of our country and the origin of states. And when states came into the union, there was a recognition that they needed some kind of revenue to be able to fund important functions like public education and hospitals and higher education. And so the federal government granted lands to each state at statehood. And if you were to look at a map of Utah and see little sections of our state, you'd see this checkerboard pattern where, in every single township, four parcels were granted to public education to help fund public schools. And eventually, that was formalized into a trust and an endowment system. And that's where the money comes from each year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Parcels in every township, I didn't realize that the distribution looked like that.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, it's really interesting. Some states, when they came into statehood, just received one section. But there was this understanding that we were an arid state, that land might not have as many natural resources. And so the federal government granted four sections in every township for public education.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how does that system work now? Explain to folks what that means for us in schools right now.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, let's kind of talk about how Trust Lands, the administration makes money with those lands in this time. So there's a lot of different activity happening on those lands. Everything from oil and gas drilling, there are some coal mines, there are sheep and cattle grazing permits, there's geothermal production, there's real estate development. Critical minerals are an emerging opportunity for revenue on Trust Lands. And they are constantly looking for the highest and best use of activity in those areas. It's an important part of county economic development, and that supports taxes in schools as well once those businesses become functional and they become part of the tax base. But all across Utah, there's economic activity happening on Trust Lands. Each year, the Trust Lands Administration takes that total revenue that they earn on the Lands and transfers it over to an investment office. And that's known as SITFO, and it becomes part of a permanent fund for public education.

Anthony Godfrey:
And those funds have grown dramatically in the last 20 years, I would say. Even in the last 10, there's been a huge uptick in the amount of funding that's available.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, that's a great point to make. So part of that is just the sophistication of their investment policy over at SITFO. So they manage that permanent fund, and they're managing it with experts in their industry. It also is the power of compounding. And so what we're seeing is the fund itself is creating increasing opportunities every year. It's up to almost $4.8 billion.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. And the distribution is a per-student distribution throughout the state that goes directly to schools to be administered through the School Community Council. And for the benefit, for academic benefit for students. So talk to us about that process.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah. So in state code, there's a formula that they use each year to determine that distribution. And some of your listeners may remember a few years ago, they voted on Amendment B. And that was an increased percentage that went out to public schools each year. So there's a formula based on student enrollment, the balance in the account, and on that statutory formula with 5%. And each year, SITFO calculates the total amount that would go out to public schools. And then there's a formula that dictates how much goes out to students. So this year, it's about $200 per student that's going out to Community Councils. And you hit it right on the head. It's the greatest academic need. That's their priority is crafting a plan, setting goals within your school community, and figuring out what are places where you can amplify funding that's coming from the legislature and other avenues, and meeting the needs within your school.

Anthony Godfrey:
And within these agencies that you've described, or working with these agencies, you're our advocate to be sure that schools are receiving what they should be, and that we're really focused on making sure that revenue is handled well and goes where it should.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, that's a great point. It's a complex system here within the Trust. And so Trust Lands Agents Administration really focuses on the land management. SITFO really focuses on the fund investment. The School Children's Trust Program at the State Board of Education, they train councils, monitor the spending, and track compliance, and support good plan development. And our office serves as the independent advocate. There have been times in the history of the Trust system where lands were sold for less than fair market value, or there were risks in the system that compromised the value. And really, as the Trust system has become more formalized, and all these structures are in place, part of our role is just to protect the system, to make sure there's good governance, to make sure there's good policy. We work a lot with legislators on an annual basis looking at the Trust system and the statutes, and ways that we can just make sure the revenue continues to increase, and public schools get the money that they're guaranteed through this program.

Anthony Godfrey:
And with all these processes, and with your advocacy, and with good coordination among these offices, we have a trustworthy Trust.

Liz Mumford:
We do. It's amazing. When you look across the United States of America, Utah is the only state that has a Community Council program where Trust funds go directly to a local community to make the decisions. And that's really powerful. I think it helps strengthen our school culture. It builds parent engagement, and really lets us address things in a case-by-case basis.

Anthony Godfrey:
If I may insert this here, cue the old-timey music. But in the 1990s, back in the 1900s, Jordan School District actually pioneered the School Community Council. And that then was put into law later. But they were called School Community Groups. So you used to be able to know who'd been working in Jordan for a very long time if they called it a School Community Group. And then when it was put in law, it was a School Community Council.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, that's so great. So many people in our state were part of that important transition. PTA was a huge element of fighting for Community Councils and for also just creating the modern Trust system in the 1990s. And it's just evolved over time and become more and more effective at getting the money down to the school level. I know when I started serving on School Community Councils 20 years ago, we were just receiving a small amount of money each year. And you might be able to buy some books or a software program or do a parent night with science or something more programmatic. And the money is to a level now where schools are able to invest in full-time equivalents. They're able to hire a teacher, pay for productivity . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Lower class sizes.

Liz Mumford:
Lower class sizes, hire interventionists to help with reading. It's really powerful money that they can count on from year to year. And that's changed how impactful their plans can become.

Anthony Godfrey:
And over the years, as the amount of money coming to schools has grown, we've talked with principals about this is money you can rely on. The exact amount per student is going to vary. But you can feel confident hiring staff. Initially when we were switching from books and supplies to staff, it was a bit of an adjustment because it's a different source of funding. But there's a huge impact, a huge positive impact in our schools because of this funding. And as you said, it's a really important point. Jordan had a role. PTA had a huge role. The legislature putting it into law so that everybody has access to a School Community Council and can access these funds in a meaningful way. It was a lot of groups coming together to help public education. And that's really inspiring. And it's been very successful. And I appreciate the role that you play in making it such a success.

Liz Mumford:
Thank you. Well, we just believe that advocacy and understanding of the trust is so important. So when teachers in Jordan and parents in Jordan understand the Trust system and become champions for this program, it helps all of us protect the Trust and the school children's interest in it. So we're excited about the future of the Trust as the fund continues to grow. And we just believe that parent engagement and teacher participation in developing these plans collaboratively with principals is a huge part of that success.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, you talked about being on a School Community Council 20 years ago. Is that what started you along this path to this position?

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, it really is. My background was being a parent. I had four boys that were all students in public education. And I got involved initially with PTA. And then I added that Community Council to that service. And they really complement each other well as PTA's work together in conjunction with Community Councils to support schools. But Community Councils really have this great role of greatest academic need. And I loved being able to influence decisions at my school. And it also becomes a place to talk about school issues, whether those are traffic drop-off issues or different things within a school community. And so I loved that opportunity. Eventually, I worked in a school and became a part of the plan as an educator, and then had an opportunity to review plans as a local school board member. And so I really watched the process from all different levels. And I think that's what makes the plan so cohesive and impactful is because every person along the way influences those plans and has a common goal to support the greatest academic need of our kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's fair to say no one has seen every angle of this program like you have. A school board member has to approve those plans. So you've seen it from parent, educator, board member, and now at the state level.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, I hope that brings a unique perspective. I think principals play a really critical role in plans. And I've never had that perspective, but I've sat side by side with lots of principals. And they take on a big burden because they have to manage the website and all the deadlines and the processes. And really, principals have such an influence on the culture of the Council and how they engage with parents. So I really value what they do.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s a good point.

Liz Mumford:
But yeah, this whole process takes a lot of people working together.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the principal does balance out not taking over, but making sure things move forward and everyone has a voice and that everyone's connected to the genuine needs of the school.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, that's a great way to describe it because in the big picture, the principal understands a lot of the dynamics at the school and the Council has an influence on this portion. And so when they bring parents and educators to the table and you're sitting down in a library talking about what are the needs in your school, what's the data in your school, did the plan last year work, what do we need to tweak, the principal becomes a great facilitator in that discussion.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much. And we're actually at Hidden Valley Middle School right now to talk about their plan because this is one of the plans that you've highlighted.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, each year we like to look at districts across the state and charters across the state and kind of look for examples of great plans. There's so much great work happening in lots of different schools. There's over 1,000 schools across the state and they each have a unique plan. But it's fun to highlight Hidden Valley today. You'll know, Superintendent, that Jordan District received $10.4 million. That's what's going out to Councils in this school year for the plans that they crafted and approved together as Councils. And so we really were impressed at Hidden Valley. They really were strategic in how they used data in their plan. And we love the way that they approached personalized academic tracking. And they're working on ways to direct their core subjects. And so using interventions and ways to target students, we felt like that's just a really powerful way to augment the other work that's happening in the school.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to talk with some of the folks who put that plan together. Thank you very much for highlighting Hidden Valley and for spending time with us today to help us better understand this program.

Liz Mumford:
Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. We just really appreciate the great work that happens at the Trust Lands Administration, with SITFO, at the State Board of Education, and then here at the local level in schools. Amazing work across the state.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks to everyone behind the acronyms that she just mentioned and all the people out there who are working so hard for our students to make sure they have the resources they need.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll talk with some of the people involved in creating Hidden Valley Middle School's Land Trust Plan.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian, commercial pilot, programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of career and technical education, CTE, in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or for a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and technical education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District, visit cte.jordandistrict.org today. And let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Hidden Valley Middle School talking with three members of the School Community Council. Introduce yourself, talk about your role on the Council, and your relationship to the school.

Julianne Best:
OK, I'm Julianne Best. I'm the Community Council Chair, or I was when we wrote this plan. I'm now a full-time math teacher here at the school, and I love Hidden Valley.

Bree Ervin:
I'm Bree Ervin. I am co-chair of the School Community Council here at Hidden Valley Middle School. I am also president-elect for our PTSA.

Sterling Hunt:
Sterling Hunt, principal at Hidden Valley Middle. And I was moved here just after winter break on January 2. And so I had the great privilege of really walking into a fantastic School Community Council team.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you've been highlighted at the state level just for the great work on your plan, focused on the highest academic need here at Hidden Valley. So tell us a little bit about what that entails and about your plan and what your focus is as a school with those Land Trust funds.

Julianne Best:
Well, I remember that when we were in that meeting, we wanted it to be very focused on what the kids needed, because we didn't want to be putting extra things where the money wasn't needed. And so for us, we needed a lot of growth with, especially, math and with some of our other subjects. I'm trying to remember what they were like.

Sterling Hunt:
Language arts could use some help in improving student outcomes. Our science team was really leading out building-wide. And we were happy with where they're at. So our goal there was just to continue to sustain that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the things that you focused on to help boost those math and language arts scores?

Bree Ervin:
Really want to focus on helping our teachers. Our teachers, if they have more assistance, more time, more peer-to-peer collaboration, then they can better perform to help our children. So we made sure that our teachers had academic coaches. We made sure that they had collaboration days. And over the summer, that they had PLC planning time as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what did that look like? You paid for part of that collaboration time over the summer using Land Trust?

Bree Ervin:
Yes, we paid for 15 hours of PLC planning and curriculum alignment over the summer. So whenever our teachers had time to get it done, they got it done instead of trying to squeeze it in during the school year and interrupt instruction time for our students.

Anthony Godfrey:
It really is different when you're able to take a pause over the summer and focus. And there's more work that happens over the summer than most people realize. And it's nice that the School Community Council recognized that and actually compensated teachers for time to be together. How did this feel as a parent to be part of this process and to be able to focus on academics and supporting teachers?

Bree Ervin:
It felt really good. I see what the plan has done. I see how that's playing out currently with my ninth grader and my seventh grader. So it is really nice to see that this is not just words on paper. It is action.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're already seeing an impact with your children.

Julianne Best:
Yeah, as a parent as well, I have to add to that. So my son was in seventh grade last year, and he's eighth grader this year. Elementary school, he was always getting ones on his RISE for math. It was really rough. And so now he's here. And the way that we're doing things, he's getting it. He's getting all threes now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I love that.

Julianne Best:
Showing a big difference.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful.

Bree Ervin:
We've got great teachers here as well. So that definitely helps out of our teaching staff here.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've been here, as you indicated, less than a year, but the end of one academic year and the start of another. Talk to me about the impact of this plan and this School Community Council.

Sterling Hunt:
It's exciting to work, to come in mid-year. It's exciting to meet really engaged parents that are working with us on our School Community Council and PTSA and our other programs in the building. It's exciting to work in a building that has fewer than 3,000 kids where I came from previously at Copper Hills. And so coming here, working with this particular team, these parents were very engaged. Many of them work in the building as subs. They come in when our teachers aren't here in the building. They know our students. They have students here. And so the goal is, as our team, is we know what our challenges are. Let's work together and provide the resources to our teachers and to the students in order to close these gaps.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how intentional, just as you've described, the Council was about this is our need. What can we do very concretely to help this? And to already see impact is tremendous. Just to close out, tell me what you love most about Hidden Valley Middle School.

Julianne Best:
I love the students. I love the staff, but the kids, they're the center of it. They're wonderful. They're smart. They're funny. They're just amazing little human beings that are getting better every day and getting smarter every day.

Bree Ervin:
I love the community that we have here. My daughter did competitive cheer at a gym. So a lot of the boys and girls that were there go to school with her. So they know me. My son plays tackle football here in Riverton. And I see a lot of the boys that he's played. So I have a lot of extra children here. So it is just a lot of family-oriented love here. And that's what we're here for. We're here to love on these kids and take care of them and protect them, even though they may not like having homework. But that's what's necessary sometimes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Part of the package. Yes.

Sterling Hunt:
I just want to emphasize, we do have a fantastic community here. And there's something special coming down off the hill into this little bowl where Hidden Valley sits. And we know our students. We know our parents. And it's programs like the Land Trust that allows our parents to be involved, really intentionally involved, in what resources we're going to provide our teachers and students to improve student growth, student engagement, overall student success. And I've thoroughly enjoyed that, being here at Hidden Valley, just working with great parents and great faculty and staff members and awesome students with a common goal of, we only get them here for three years. They're going to be the best three years they're going to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. It's a wonderful community, an incredible school. And it's a pleasure talking with all of you today. Thank you for everything you're doing to make this such a great place to be.

All:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you will do today!” We'll see you out there.

Teacher:
I was in complete shock. Like our school, my students, my 14-year-olds, are going to do a performance for her. I mean, I had confidence in the kids, but it was really exciting and a big honor.

Student:
She said, you should go to law school. And at that moment, I hadn't even heard the fact that she said that. I actually just was like so in the zone by answering and like, I gotta be good. Like this is the Supreme Court Justice.

(upbeat music)

(bell ringing)

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is something students, teachers, staff, and invited guests will likely remember for a lifetime. On this episode of the Supercast, hear how a visit to Jordan School District by United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor left a lasting impact on the lives of the people she met, even inspiring one student to chase her dream of going to law school and following in the footsteps of Justice Sotomayor.

(upbeat music)

Anthony Godfrey
We're talking with some of the people that were involved directly with US Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's visit. And today we are at Fort Herriman Middle School to talk with a teacher who had a rare opportunity with the Justice. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what happened.

Teacher:
Yeah, my name is Emma Van de Graaff and I teach eighth grade US history here at Fort Herriman. And this summer I got a call saying, “Hey, we have a really special VIP person coming, and we'd love to have your students join and have your students give their speeches that they did for this project we do called ‘We the People’ and would we be interested?” And of course, when I heard what it was and who it was, absolutely, I was like, “Yes, they will present. I will speak on behalf of them. We are excited to be here and ready to go.”

Anthony Godfrey
And we loved that you were so eager to do it even before you knew all the details about the visit. For those who may not have listened to a previous Supercast episode about We the People, talk about that competition and what it involves and what it means to the kids.

Teacher:
So ‘We the People’ is a nationwide program. Not every state or every school necessarily participates in it. We have been doing it here at Fort Herriman for the past couple of years. We have all of our eighth graders participate. It is basically a mock congressional hearing where each group is given a different topic about the Constitution and they prepare a four-minute speech on that topic and then after they perform their speech, judges will ask them follow-up questions about their topic and they're expected to have evidence from Supreme Court cases, primary sources, current events, all of these different modes of information to back up their opinion. And it really is quite impressive to see eighth graders get this level of depth of knowledge about the Constitution.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's impressive and I'm excited that we do it in so many schools in Jordan School District. You've had great success with this group of students. Talk about that, what happened last year.

Teacher:
Yeah, these students worked really, really hard and did a phenomenal job. So we were able to go to the state competition and this was the first year our school placed first in the state competition. And they were excited. A couple of our top groups got, our top group got 100% like a full perfect score. They did a really good job of just being personable and relating all of these constitutional ideas and theories and court cases to themselves. And the other groups were just so intelligent and so engaged and passionate about what they were talking about. I think that really carried them through.

Anthony Godfrey:
What was it like when you heard who was coming and who you would be doing this for?

Teacher:
I was in complete shock. When they first told me a Supreme Court Justice, I at first assumed a Utah Supreme Court Justice, which is cool. But then when they told me, no, a federal Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, I kind of like just was in shock. Like our school, my students, my 14-year-olds are going to do a performance for her? I mean, I had confidence in the kids but it was kind of overwhelming but also really exciting and a big honor.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk to us about that day and the impact afterward on you and on your students.

Teacher:
I think what was so cool about it, there's a few different things. First of all, I kept telling my students, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You are never gonna have a chance to be this close like face to face and just have a real conversation with a Supreme Court Justice. And I wanted them to remember this moment, realize how important it is because I love eighth graders, but sometimes they don't grasp how big of a deal something actually is. And for my students that were presenting, at first they said, “Yeah, absolutely we'll do it.” And as I got closer and closer, they started to be like, “Wait, this is a big deal. Like I am presenting in front of a Supreme Court Justice.”

Anthony Godfrey:
You’re right.

Teacher:
Yeah, and so I told all of them, I was like, “This needs to be in a college application essay for you, like this is a pretty big deal.” And I think they were touched. And one of her main messages was, “You can be whoever you want to be, you can become whoever you want to become.” And I hope that is what students took home from her.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I could see the impact. I got to see that up close. I was on stage with her as we watched your students perform. And it was really incredible. I was very proud of the work that you and your students had done. And just how prepared they are for that day on stage, but also just beyond middle school and beyond their education. Just . . . they're gaining great experiences because of the time you're putting in and the opportunities you're making available to them. So thank you for that.

Teacher:
Thank you. No, I really think ‘We the People’ honestly sets them up to become great citizens. And I truly think that in many ways they have learned and have a greater understanding than many adults in our country do. So, I was glad they were able to kind of show off and bring back a little spotlight to them.

Anthony Godfrey:
This was not just to a US Supreme Court Justice, but there were about a thousand students, high school and middle school there in the audience, which has added pressure on your students. So, it was particularly impressive that they did so well.

Teacher:
They were nervous. You could tell they definitely had, were a little anxious for it to start, but they had practiced this so many times and had prepped at so many different levels the previous spring that I knew they were ready. I kept telling them they were ready. And I told them if they made a mistake on their speech, no one was gonna even know.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know what? I couldn't tell they were nervous, and I heard zero mistakes. It was amazing.

Teacher:
Yeah, they did phenomenal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you so much for the extra work you do to make this possible, and great things are ahead.

Teacher:
Thank you.

(upbeat music)

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with one of the students who was on stage with Justice Sotomayor. Tell us your name and a little bit about your interaction with her.

Student:
My name's Brecklyn Coleman and I got the opportunity to go and present in front of Justice Sotomayor about a ‘We the People’ case that I got to go and present at a state comp and I won the competition. It was about freedom of speech and it was a really cool opportunity that nothing honestly could have prepared me for.

Anthony Godfrey:
You and your team gave Justice Sotomayor and me an opportunity to ask you questions. And I was scrambling like, how can I think of a question that's worthy of how well they've prepared? And she asked you a question that you answered very, very well. Tell us about that.

Student:
They asked me a question about how the school can implement themselves in a situation where a student athlete says something rude outside of the school on a group chat about the coach and then goes back and all the girls are angry at the coach because she went on and said something rude outside of the school environment. And I went on to express how freedom of speech can protect that right, but not if it implements itself in the school environment because that's the coach's job, is to keep the education well, keep everything just in line, and make sure that the school environment and the learning environment doesn't get taken advantage of or changed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, we have dealt with issues like this, and you absolutely read my mind, and you said exactly the right answer about the school only being able to get involved if it's a disruption to the learning environment. And what did Justice Sotomayor say in response when you gave this complete, accurate, well-thought-out answer?

Student:
She said, "You should go to law school." And at that moment, I hadn't even heard the fact that she said that. I actually just was so in the zone with my answering and I gotta be good. This is the Supreme Court Justice. My answer has to be perfect. This has to be the best thing I've ever said. And I didn't even hear the fact that she said that. So then I went backstage afterward and my whole team was like, "She just told you to go to law school." And I was like, "Oh my gosh, she did." So it was kind of just this crazy moment afterward that I was like, "Dang."

Anthony Godfrey:
Actually, I have to correct you on one point. Justice Sotomayor said, "You need to go to law school." And she meant it, I could tell she meant it. So what were you planning before you heard this and what are you planning now?

Student:
I was planning on going to law school before I heard this. And then I also play like a bunch of sports. So I do CrossFit. So that's like lifting, calisthenics, and just a full thing of working out. So I wanna go pro in that sport. And then I plan afterward to go to law school after I attempt that dream.

Anthony Godfrey:
That sounds like an incredible combination. And I'm sure you're gonna be successful at whatever you try. I was very impressed with you and your teammates and your teacher and all the work everybody did to prepare. But especially on stage, in front of high school and middle school students and the US Supreme Court Justice, to have such calm and such a great answer is super impressive. So, I'm excited to see your career in the future. I know you have great things ahead. And congratulations on having this incredible interaction.

Student:
Thank you so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear two selections that the Vanguard Jazz Band from Mountain Ridge High School played for Justice Sotomayor.

(upbeat music)

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

(upbeat music)

Female Voice:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District. And
we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Jordan District. We can't wait to connect.

(upbeat music)

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with Cris Stiles, the Director of Bands here at Mountain Ridge High School. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about that night.

Band Director:
Yeah, yeah, I'm Cris Stiles. I've been in the District for about five years now, teaching here at Mountain Ridge. That was such a surreal night. I'm still sort of pondering on what we actually saw and got to hear. She was such a classy and well-articulated woman. And the things she talked about from her role on the Supreme Court to her book. I mean, all of it was just inspiring from top to finish. To really get to play for her and play some tunes that were familiar so she felt comfortable in the space was sort of our whole intent of choosing the literature that we played. Kids played great, she sang along, and I could tell she was touched that we had gone out of our way to find some music that would be familiar to her.

Anthony Godfrey:
She was definitely moved by the performance and the effort that went into preparing songs for her that were familiar. And like you said, it's a really important point. You were making her feel welcome and comfortable. And it was a great way to start off the evening. This was the fireside chat where we had about a thousand employees and their guests along with a few students to visit with Justice Sotomayor. You prepped this very, very rapidly. This is the first week of September. And when we knew that was her availability, we thought, well, student performances, there's not gonna be a lot of lead up time. So tell me about that accelerated process.

Band Director:
Yeah, yeah, two weeks to prepare for a concert is not a whole lot of time, but the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra here at Mountain Ridge, that's sort of what we do. We're the gigging band here on campus. And we put on a gala, a two-night catered meal for a bunch of guests that we put together after the holiday break in January and February. So, we had a month to learn 30 tunes. So learning fast and getting it done is not uncommon for this group. So, I'm grateful in a lot of ways they're the most uniquely suited to learn and do the thing. But yeah, putting it together in two weeks, it was a lot of like, hey, we don't have time. You're not gonna be able to learn this during class, please pick it up at home, do the thing. But we tried to pick literature that was both accessible to play as well as exciting to the listener. So I think a good example of that would be “The Notorious RBG.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, tell us about that selection.

Band Director:
Yeah, yeah, the tune that honors the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a tune originally written for jazz educators at the JE and the Jazz Educator Network Conference in New Orleans. But it's not terribly difficult. It was designed to sort of be something you could read in like one sitting for all these professional educators that go to the conference. They sort of handed it out, and they played it on the spot. So it's got this cool jazz hip hop infusion to it. And I think the kids, it took them a minute to sort of figure out the groove and what was going on. But as soon as it locked in, they were very . . . their ability to read it was right on the ball.

Anthony Godfrey:
You also performed an anthem that is really important to her. It's an unofficial anthem, but it's the anthem of the New York Yankees really, because she's a huge Yankees fan. And if you do your research, she is credited with saving baseball at one point. But anyway, you selected a number of songs that were important to her. Talk to us about that selection.

Band Director:
Yeah, the unofficial winning anthem, when the Yankees win, they play the theme from “New York, New York,” of course made famous by Frank Sinatra. And that was just an easy tune to put together 'cause the kids know it and they could sing it along. We wanted to make sure that we played something New York. No issues, you know, grew up in the Bronx. There's not like a Bronx anthem. There's nothing specifically for the north side of the island.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are a few, but they probably aren't compatible with jazz band performance.

Band Director:
Yeah, yeah, maybe it's hip hop tunes that we could have pulled out, but not here for this instrumentation. But yeah, the Yankees anthem was easy. And then knowing that her parents were from Puerto Rico and had chose to come over and move on to the mainland, "En Mi Viejo San Juan", is sort of the unofficial anthem for those that have moved from Puerto Rico to the mainland.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was such a high for her and such a great performance. She came up on stage and had to have her picture with the jazz band, which was really exciting. And when I heard the research you had done to choose these selections for the band to perform, I went back and I thought, I need to do some more research before I interview her on stage. So you inspired me to dig even a little deeper into her life to be sure I was prepared for that. So, I appreciate the extra effort and that you really leapt into action with all the students to make it such a memorable night for her and for all of us who were there. What's coming up next with the Vanguard Jazz Group?

Band Director:
Let's see, we have our fall concert in October. We'll be performing at the Essentially Ellington Festival at Brigham Young University, which is a big regional festival run by the guys in New York that run Jazz at Lincoln Center. We have region and state jazz that we've qualified for for the last three years. So we're hoping to get that done again, as well as our own, like I mentioned beforehand, our Valentine's Gala in February, our two-night catered meal that is 90 minutes of live jazz with our jazz orchestra and our jazz choir. Each member of the jazz choir gets a solo. So the band gets to play with the vocalist basically all night long, and we get decent catering. So the meal's tasty and the music is good. We turn the lights down real low in the tech atrium and put up a tablecloth on the tables, make it nice and classy and exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So lots of opportunities to experience these great performances. Check out the Mountain Ridge website. We'll put a link in the bio and anyway.

Band Director:
Perfect, we'd love to see you there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks again. And we look forward to future performances this year.

Band Director:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're in the hallway now outside of the practice room at Mountain Ridge High School with two of the students that are part of the jazz band that performed for United States Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor. Thanks for talking with us. Introduce yourselves.

Student:
I'm Hewston Knotwell. I play the bass bone.

Student:
I'm James McFarland and I am the lead trumpet.

Anthony Godfrey:
You play the bass bone?

Student:
Yeah, the bass trombone.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the bass bone. That sounds, when you leave the ‘trom’ off, the bone sounds a lot better. That's really cool. Tell me, what was it like playing for Justice Sotomayor?

Student:
It was really cool. Like, I know I'm probably never gonna get, never going to be able to do it again. Like, I've never even thought that was a possibility to play for a United States Supreme Court Justice. So, it was really cool just like having her there in general and having that opportunity.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did it add any nerves to be playing for her?

Student:
Oh yeah, I'm gonna be 100% honest. I was a nervous wreck. Yeah, before I was sweating up a storm, it was disgusting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's, I guess as it should be, before a big performance, you're getting focused. But you guys kept everyone entertained. They had to come through security. So people were arriving early. So you had a long warm-up before she came in and you got to play for about an hour. I love that people got to see you play and hear you play for that long. People from the community, teachers from other schools that might not otherwise get to hear you play. Tell me what that was like to get to play for an audience like that.

Student:
I mean, that's normally what we do. We do a lot of gigs that are background music for events.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you do that often, but how does it switch? How does the feeling switch when she comes in?

Student:
Oh, it was completely different performance.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Student:
Like having, just having her there in general is like, okay, wow, we really need to step up.

Student:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I was really impressed that you pulled off these very specific tunes that were just for her with such a short time. This was the first week of September that she visited. So, what was it like preparing for that?

Student:
I did a lot of personal practice. I would go home after school and I would probably practice for 30 minutes to an hour every day. So, it was definitely like self-reliant. You have to keep the arm in the system or else you wouldn't have put on such a performance.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's something I always think about when I see live musicians perform. I think how many hours of personal practice time were required to make that happen. And since you weren't just pulling things out of the repertoire and it was so early in the school year, that just required a different level of focus.

Student:
As soon as we got there, like I do marching band over the summer. So, one of our school administrators came in and was like, we need a jazz band to play on September 3rd. It was two weeks from that day. So, it was a little bit stressful getting it all together. And our director was also feeling it. He was like, “Oh my gosh, what are we gonna do?”

Anthony Godfrey:
I was just on the side of the stage and I got to watch her reaction as you played this song that meant so much to her. Tell us about the background of that song.

Student:
So in "En Mi Viejo San Juan", our director told us that it was one of the songs that Supreme Court Justice had openly cried about and it's Puerto Rico's anthem.

Anthony Godfrey:
It means a lot to her and her family and I could see that in her reaction because I was standing on the side of the stage and got to watch that. So, well, I was very proud of your performance. I was so thrilled that she got to hear that and that you picked songs just for her. That's an important part of that visit and a memory that will last for a long time for me. So, thank you for all of the effort you put in for doing such a great job.

Student:
Thank you for the opportunity. It was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now we get to actually listen to performances from the jazz band. Tell us about the two performances we're about to hear.

Band Director:
Yeah, so the two songs that we're gonna play for you today are from the selections we chose for the night for the Supreme Court Justice. Of course, “The Notorious RBG,” a theme honoring the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as "En Mi Viejo San Juan."

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, thank you.

(jazz music)

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.

(jazz music)

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about Taylor specifically.

Coach:
There was a college coach that came out and visited our high school. He said talent like Taylor is once-in-a-generation talent.

Anthony Godfrey:
Spending a week with those players, did that give you something to reach for?

Taylor:
It was really fun playing with them because I never played with that level of people before.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. As a junior at Riverton High School, she's being called a once-in-a-generation talent and is being recruited by top-tier universities. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk with standout volleyball player Taylor Freeland and her head coach, Kaipo Tagaloa, about Taylor's incredible journey on the court. She shares what it's like training with the U.S. Women's National Team and what drives her on and off the court.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're standing outside the trophy case here at Riverton High School with Taylor. Taylor, introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your time as a volleyball player so far.

Taylor:
My name is Taylor Freeland and I am 16 years old and I'm a junior at Riverton High School. I think I've been playing since like elementary school, like sixth grade, fifth grade. I started rec ball with my friends and we made a team, and they actually kicked us out because we kept beating everybody.

Anthony Godfrey:
They kicked you out of the league, that's how good you were?

Taylor:
Yes, because we made this group with all of our volleyball friends and then they didn't let us play anymore the next season, because...

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a pretty good honor. I would have liked to have been kicked out of a sport because I was too good.

Taylor:
Yeah, it was kind of crazy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did you play other sports first and then land on volleyball eventually?

Taylor:
I did play basketball probably a little bit before I started volleyball because my mom played basketball, so she put me in that sport, and then I started volleyball a little bit after I played basketball. I played them both at the same time until eighth grade, and then I stopped when high school sports started, and I started playing volleyball.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why did you choose volleyball?

Taylor:
I didn't really like running, so ...

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, fair enough. Not running would really get in the way of being successful at basketball.

Taylor:
Yeah, and I felt like I was better at volleyball so I just pursued it all the way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, from what I hear you're not only better but you are extremely good, very talented and hardworking and a rare, rare talent. Tell me about...you already have some future plans and some goals. Tell me about that.

Taylor:
I did just this summer. I committed to Wisconsin volleyball and I am super excited and I don't know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why is it that you loved about Wisconsin?

Taylor:
I liked their coach a lot. I liked their coach and all the girls were so nice. It just seemed like the funnest place to be, the best place to be. They're a really successful team and they have won a lot of things. They're...I don't know. They're just awesome. They seemed awesome and I went to the camp and I didn't know anything about them. I went to the camp and it was just the best thing ever. I was just like, "Okay, I have to hold off. I have more camps to go to and see what's going on." I really like this place and then I just settled on that because they're the best.

Anthony Godfrey:
They became the ones to beat pretty quickly.

Taylor:
Yeah, honestly, yeah. They were hard to beat.

Anthony Godfrey:
How many schools were interested? How many camps did you go to?

Taylor:
I went to four. I went to BYU with most of my teammates because it was nearby and it was one of my options. Then I went to Wisconsin and then I went to Louisville and then I went to Texas A&M.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is as a 15-year-old?

Taylor:
I was 16.

Anthony Godfrey:
You were 16. But the summer after your sophomore year?

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really exciting. I'm sure they're very excited to have you. Talk to me about your team this year.

Taylor:
We lost four seniors last year, but we have one senior this year and she's the best and she's a libero. We have, I don't know how many juniors. Most of our team is juniors, I feel. We have grown a lot since the summer. We started Nebraska camp. I wasn't able to go because I had USA stuff the week before. So I didn't make it to that, but our team went there for camp and summer, and they worked hard and pre-season stuff. Everyone worked really hard. Our first practice I remember, I was like, "This is going to be a good season because the practice was so good. It was so technical. It was so productive. We did so many things." I was like, "If this is already our first week of practice, our first day of practice, this is going to be awesome. We're going to learn so many new things."

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds wonderful. It sounds like a great team. Now I understand you also trained with the U.S. National Team this summer. Talk to me about that. What does that mean, the U.S. National Team?

Taylor:
It was pretty much a tryout to play for the U19 team or the U23 team for the U.S. National Volleyball Team. I got to go, and it was so fun. It was a week of training. Then they went to go play in Panama, I'm pretty sure, in a tournament against a bunch of countries. It was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
U19 and U23, that sounds like you're a few years early for those.

Taylor:
I know. My teammate, actually, the same age as me, she was born in 2010 and I'm born in 2009. That's the difference between the teams because she's on U17 and I'm on U19. I was on the roster for U19. It was just because I was born in 2009, I'm on the older team.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's exciting. What did you learn during that week?

Taylor:
I learned that you have to work hard to get what you want.

Anthony Godfrey:
Spending a week with those players, did that give you something to reach for? Did that give you some vision for what it's like playing at the next level?

Taylor:
Yeah, of course. All the players are so good. It was really fun playing with them because I never played with that level of people before. It was really fun. It made me realize how good …. those are the best of the best. I got to play up to how they play.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a goal now.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I understand that your whole family is athletic. Your mom played basketball. Tell us about the rest of your family.

Taylor:
My dad played football at BYU with my mom. She played basketball. Then her last year she played volleyball. That's where volleyball came in. My oldest sister, she did track at BYU. She threw shot. I don't know, she did a lot of things honestly. My brother Blake, he just was at the Colts in the NFL. He got transferred over to the Bengals in Ohio. My middle sister, her name is Marin. She got finished with D-1 volleyball at Arlington, Texas. She just graduated there for her fifth year. My closest sister, I'm the youngest by the way. She didn't graduate. She's a junior, same year as me. She's at High Point University playing D-1 volleyball.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, that's wonderful. You guys have gone to a lot of each other's games over the years, I suspect.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let’s talk to your coach a little bit about you. I want to talk to you about Taylor and her skills and her potential.

Coach:
Taylor has amazing potential. I don't think she realizes how good she can be. I'm excited to watch her grow and and I am excited to be her coach to help her grow in that aspect. To become one of the best in the country hopefully.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're just out in the hallway here because they're occupied in the gym. Could you set her up and could you spike it for me?

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've heard about how fast you hit this ball. They can't see it on the podcast but I want them to hear the ball whooshing through the air.

Coach:
Hit it towards the bleacher maybe. I'll just toss it and then just two step jump.

Taylor:
Just two step jump?

Caoch:
I mean max jump. I'll just toss it like this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh no. Does that just feel natural to you to smack the ball around like that?

Taylor:
Yeah I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I was going to say you're beaming. There's a smile on your face after you hit the ball like that.

Taylor:
Yeah it's so fun.

Coach:
She's not even warmed up and she hit it better than most people hit the ball.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's see you set the ball.

Taylor:
Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh my goodness that's like breathing. Alright how do you set the ball well?

Taylor:
Okay so this is the high line so you go... Oh you go moose.

Anthony Godfrey:
Moose?

Taylor:
Yeah like you're moose.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Taylor:
And then you like kind of make it like a triangle.

Anthony Godfrey:
Triangle.

Taylor:
And then you go Superman. And then you... But like just push up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Superman. Oh Superman. Okay. Bullwinkle and Superman.

Taylor:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow I actually set the ball.

Taylor:
That was good.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're a very good instructor too.

Taylor:
Thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
You can coach in your later years.

Taylor:
Yes I'm ready.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can already see that. If you can get me to set and bump then I'm not even going to try to spike. I don't have that spike vibe I don't think.

Taylor:
Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
But I'm super impressed. I'm impressed with your skills. I'm impressed with your mindset and your approach. And I'm really excited to watch your career.

Taylor:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back and Coach Tagaloa shares his journey as a professional volleyball player.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian, commercial pilot, programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education, CTE, in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or for a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District, visit cte.jordandistrict.org today and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with the head girls volleyball coach here at Riverton. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your career.

Coach:
Hi, my name is Kaipo Tagaloa. I'm the first-year head coach here at Riverton High School. I started playing volleyball at 18, so I was a little late bloomer with volleyball, but I was fortunate enough to go play in college at Southern Virginia University. I played under Tom Peterson, who's a three-time national championship head coach. I now compete semi-professionally here in Utah with a team called Salt Lake Apex. My current career has revolved around coaching and playing semi-professional and I love both of it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your semi-professional career.

Coach:
Yeah, professional volleyball is very small and not really known for men's volleyball here in the US, but last year was a first year for our team in the league here in the US. And so this is our second season and we did pretty well last year throughout the country, traveling to different states, playing a lot of different teams.

Anthony Godfrey:
And if someone was interested in going to see you play, how would they do that?

Coach:
Because men's professional is a little difficult, there's not games like there would be in high school or college. It's more weekend tournaments where we play a few matches each weekend in different states throughout the country.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're traveling.

Coach:
Yep. We travel Florida, Midwest, Arizona, Washington, all over the place.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's fair to say that you represent the state of Utah in semi-professional volleyball.

Coach:
Yeah, pretty much. We have 15 guys on our roster and they're all from Utah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you love most about coaching volleyball?

Coach:
The thing I love most is the growth of the individual, mentally and physically with the skill set of the sport, but more so watching them grow as a person and seeing change within them and confidence building along with the technical aspect of the sport of volleyball.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this team this year.

Coach:
This team has a great potential to be great. We are working a lot on our mindset and building a confident go-getter “I can” type of a mindset. And as that is being established, their confidence is growing and then their skill is evolving around all of that. And they're able to perform the things that we're drilling and practice every single day.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about Taylor specifically.

Coach:
Taylor, there was a college coach that came out and visited our high school and did a tour, a top ten D-1 school. And he said talent like Taylor is once a generational talent. And he said her level of skill you don't see that often is what that means. And so she's pretty special. I don't think she realizes how special she is or how good she can be. But she is phenomenal at only a junior in high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
It must be really rewarding to see that talent and get to work with her.

Coach:
Oh yeah, it's awesome to be able to work with someone that could potentially play at the highest level that there is in volleyball.

Anthony Godfrey:
How is the season shaping up and who are your biggest rivals? Who are your biggest targets?

Coach:
We've had a rough shaky start to the season, but we just started region play last week and we played Copper Hills and Herriman High School. And we won both games, very difficult matches, but we were able to win in overtime points, which volleyball usually you play to 25, best of 25. But several of our sets were in 28 to 30 and we won by two points. And after we played Herriman last week, I found out from someone who keeps records that that's the first time in five years we beat them. And so I thought that was a pretty cool thing that I was able to tell the girls the following day.

Anthony Godfrey:
That feels good. Volleyball to me always comes across as a very supportive sport. Like after every point, everybody kind of gathers and supports everybody and then goes back to their spots. Is this a team that supports each other well?

Coach:
Yes, that is something we've been working on really hard. After every point, it's important to huddle with your team. You get in the middle of the court and you just breathe. You go through what just happened, things we need to change and fix. You do all that within 10 seconds. But we're working on a lot of that. Volleyball is one of the most mental sports there is because it's literally a team sport. You can't do it by yourself.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the beauty of it. There are many additional lessons embedded in a sport that requires that of its participants.

Coach:
Yes. You can't just be a Michael Jordan and expect to win.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right. Well, thank you very much for talking with us. I really appreciate the time you took to go out of your way to be here. And we're really excited to see what happens this season.

Coach:
Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.

Karen Smith:
I played with Andrea Bocelli and Yo-Yo Ma. And...

Anthony Godfrey:
You played with Yo-Yo Ma?

Karen Smith:
Yeah, on my birthday actually.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you love most about teaching math?

Karen Smith:
Well, where do I start? Teaching math is awesome. I love math, first of all. It's just so fun. The way everything works, it's like a giant puzzle.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Before she was inspiring middle schoolers to love math, South Hills Middle School teacher Karen Smith was performing on stages alongside iconic artists like Stevie Wonder, Yo-Yo Ma, and John Williams. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Ms. Smith to explore her incredible transition from freelance cellist to dedicated educator. Hear how she traded life on stage for a second career in Jordan School District and learn how her unique journey helped her find a passion for teaching math that runs as deep as her love for music. We're talking today with Karen Smith, who teaches math here at South Hills Middle School and is an extraordinary cello player. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your career.

Karen Smith:
My name is Karen Smith. I'm super happy to be here. I started my career as a musician, so I was a professional cellist first, and that started with . . .  after getting my bachelor's degree in Texas at Rice University, my husband actually won a Fulbright to study French horn in Munich. So I went with him and studied cello there. And after about a year I got a job as, it's called a practicontan, which is like an intern at an orchestra called the Württemberger Schaffel-Hermany-Reutlingen. And so I did that for a year, studied in Germany, took some auditions. We kind of got tired of being completely broke and having no money. So we wound up coming back to America and made a home in Texas in Dallas this time, and taught a bunch of lessons there but also had our freelance careers there. So for about 17 years I was freelancing in the Dallas area. I got to do a lot of fun stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
What does freelancing look like? When you're a freelance musician in the Dallas area, what does that look like?

Karen Smith:
It is incredibly different all the time. So, one day you're playing a concert on stage just standard classical rep with the Fort Worth Symphony and the next day you're playing a church service and the next day you're playing a recording session for a movie score and then maybe a couple days after that year playing a rock concert. It's just all kinds of stuff. Oh, and then maybe like a wedding or a party or...

Anthony Godfrey:
So the whole range?

Karen Smith:
The whole range, yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
And was Dallas a fertile area for you to be able to play cello frequently?

Karen Smith:
It was. It was a great place for freelance work.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, since I'm a pop culture junkie, about some of the movie soundtracks and the concerts that you've played.

Karen Smith:
Okay, so the movie score that I recorded that is most well known, is not that well known. It's for a movie called “A Ghost Story” that starred Casey Affleck, if anyone's familiar with that. And other concerts I've played with people that you might have heard of. My very first rock concert ever was with Don Henley, the lead singer of the Eagles. That was when I was in college. I had no idea who the Eagles were at that point.

Anthony Godfrey:
So were you playing “The Heart of the Matter” in the background there? What did you play?

Karen Smith:
I think it was called “Remember the River” or something. And then I played a concert with Tommy Lee, the drummer from Motley Crew.

Anthony Godfrey:
Motley Crew. Yes.

Karen Smith:
Yes. So he used to have a reality TV show called Rockstar Supernova. And the winner of Rockstar Supernova's prize was to go around the country playing concerts with Tommy Lee. And they hired a string quartet at every stop, and one of the stops was Dallas, so we played a string quartet with Tommy Lee. That was my first ever fist bump on stage, by the way. I had never had a fist bump before, because you know when we were kids, we didn't do that, right? It was like high five.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you played with the symphony, you didn't do a fist bump?

Karen Smith:
There are no . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
No fist bumps as the guest conductor walks off stage, there wasn't a fist bump to the first chair.

Karen Smith:
I feel like there should be.

Anthony Godfrey:
There really should be. But Tommy Lee, the fist bump, that makes sense.

Karen Smith:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did he throw like drumsticks into the crowd and you threw your bow into the crowd? Or how exactly did that work?

Karen Smith:
My bow cost more than his drumsticks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I hope that's fair. That would be a bad idea. So you played for Tommy Lee, but it sounds like he was nice.

Karen Smith:
He was nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how was Don Henley?

Karen Smith:
Super nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Karen Smith:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I understand that on these sorts of gigs, you don't get a lot of notice. It's not like you're practicing for weeks and weeks. It's like, “hey, we need you tomorrow.” Tell me about what the timing looks like.

Karen Smith:
Oh, and sometimes you do get called a little bit more beforehand, but what you don't get ahead of time is the music. Usually you walk in and then the music is on the stand and they're like, “well, this is what you play.” So you have to be adept at sight-reading, being able to play the music the first time you see it. That's just part of our skill set as freelance musicians.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how would you find work as a freelance musician? Would it be word of mouth? Is that mostly what it is? I assume you don't go on Facebook Marketplace and say, "We'll play water music for whatever."

Karen Smith:
It is absolutely word of mouth. So it's helpful if you have like one or two connections in an area when you move there, and they can like vouch for the fact that you are -- you can play your instrument and that you will arrive on time and not just totally forget and sleep through it and be there with a good attitude also. As you can imagine, it's really competitive to get any work. So if you mess up one of those things, you're done.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, you said that your husband played French horn, and I understand that, as I've talked with performers over the years, that the brass has a certain kind of personality. The strings have a kind of personality. So do French horn players generally get along with cellists, or is this a rare combination?

Karen Smith:
That's so funny that you ask that. Yeah, brass players are known to be a little sillier than string players. String players are known to be kind of more serious. Yeah, I should say at this point that my mom is also jealous of my dad as a trombone player, so the whole like brass string thing works well in my family.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so you were just following tradition.

Karen Smith:
Sure, yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, that's great. So did any of your jobs overlap, you and your husband's work?

Karen Smith:
Believe it or not, only once or twice. Yeah, we were just always going different directions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, okay. So what was maybe your favorite gig as a freelance artist or one of your favorites.

Karen Smith:
My very favorite was a concert I got us to play for the Fort Worth Symphony where John Williams was conducting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh my goodness. You got to perform under John Williams?

Karen Smith:
Yes, yes, we played a bunch of John Williams music under John Williams conducting and it was just fantastic. I mean Star Wars, ET, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, it was, it was amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is wild. So tell me about the schedule for that performance. When, when did you find out this was going to happen and what was he like?

Karen Smith:
Okay. So I did not get much notice for this one. The reason I got called at all was there was a woman who was a member of that cello section whose mother unfortunately passed away. And so at the last minute they needed a sub. And they called me the day before the first rehearsal. So I got the music a day before the first rehearsal. And then that was two days before the concert. So I think that's right. It might have been one day before the concert also. I believe there were two rehearsals and then the concert. So it was quick.

Anthony Godfrey:
What was it like working with John Williams?

Karen Smith:
John Williams is, oh, he's amazing. He's so warm and supportive and encouraging, and he's just magnificent. Like, I've got nothing bad to say. He's just amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Was he trying to accomplish anything different with that performance, or was he trying to evoke what people were expecting from music that they've loved for a long time?

Karen Smith:
I think he was having us play it just the classic best way. So it sounds just like on the soundtracks. And that's what we wanted.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the way to go. Nobody's going to say, “I wonder how he can change these songs that have such memories associated for me.”

Karen Smith:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've played with Don Henley, you've played with Tommy Lee, you've played with John Williams. Who are some of the other famous people that you've played with?

Karen Smith:
Let's see, I've played with Stevie Wonder twice. The first time was when I was 18, the 1996 Olympic Games came to Atlanta, which is where I'm from.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you were 18, you played?

Karen Smith:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Karen Smith:
That wasn't for money, that was with my youth orchestra, but it was fantastic. It was televised as part of the closing ceremony to the Olympics. And he sang "Georgia."

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, really?

Karen Smith:
Yeah, that was great.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what else have you, what else did you perform with him?

Karen Smith:
Maybe 10 years ago, he was doing his Songs in the Key of Life Tour, and he came through Dallas when I was living there, and he had a string ensemble play with him. We did "Isn't She Lovely?" and I think "Pastime Paradise."

Anthony Godfrey:
Really? Did you do "Superstition?"

Karen Smith:
We only got to play those two with him. He did a lot of numbers without us.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I don't know how the cello would fit into that song, but I can't believe he did his Songs in the Key of Life Tour, and I didn't know about it. I did get to see him once, but there was no symphony with him. That's fantastic. Anyone else?

Karen Smith:
Yeah, I played with Dierks Bentley, the country singer. In 2015, the Academy of Country Music Awards was hosted in Dallas, instead of where it usually is in Nashville. And so they needed a few string players to be on television with Dierks Bentley playing a song called "Riser." So that was really fun to see the whole production element and just be in Cowboy Stadium, packed with people. It was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
The production element of an award show.

Karen Smith:
Of an award show on live television, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. So you have some range. Tommy Lee, country, John Williams.

Karen Smith:
Yeah, cello can really go anywhere, which is super fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's always room for cello.

Karen Smith:
Yes, there's always room for cello. I've played with Andrea Bocelli and Yo-Yo Ma.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've played with Yo-Yo Ma?

Karen Smith:
Yeah, on my birthday actually.

Anthony Godfrey:
Who's it like around the campfire? Like, let's jam, let's grab our cellos.

Karen Smith:
Totally. I mean, he would do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
He would do that.

Karen Smtih:
He would do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
When did you play with him?

Karen Smith:
It was with the Fort Worth Symphony. He was playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto, and I was in the cello section just enjoying every moment.

Anthony Godfrey:
How do you focus on playing when he's right there?

Karen Smith:
It's not easy, but also you don't want to mess up in front of him, right?

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. That's true.

Karen Smith:
So you just make it happen.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Well, nothing will put you in the zone, I guess, than like playing for Yo-Yo Ma or playing with him.

Karen Smith:
Absolutely. It's very inspiring.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's a storied career. Cool. Who are some of the people, famous people that you've taught math with?

Karen Smith:
That list is unfortunately very short. That's a much shorter list.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay fair enough. I know that you don't perform as much as you used to not nearly as much but you're still performing. What is your next performance?

Anthony Godfrey:
I'll be playing with the Salt Lake Symphonia on Monday, September 14th. We have a concert at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Salt Lake City at 7.30 p.m. We've got some Mendelssohn, some Bach Double Violin Concerto, and a piece by Britain called “The Simple Symphony.” I think it's gonna be great. I'm really excited.

Anthony Godfrey:
So people would just search Salt Lake Symphonia?

Karen Smith:
That's right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. And we'll put a link in the show notes as well so people can grab a ticket if they're interested in coming.

Karen Smith:
Perfect, thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear performances from Karen Smith and about her journey to becoming a teacher.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
Looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? Jordan School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or a substitute teacher. Apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire custodians and bus drivers. In Jordan School District, we like to say, people come for the job and enjoy the adventure. Apply today at employment.jordansdistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
So then you switched to become a teacher. Tell me about how that change came to be.

Karen Smith:
Okay, well, after about 17 years in Dallas, We, my husband had switched into the corporate world at this point and he got the opportunity to move to Utah. They didn't tell us we had to, but we decided we want to. We didn't have any family in Texas. And frankly, I hate the weather there. It's so hot, like March to October, it's hot.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's like furnace blow, hot air in your face, all the time hot.

Karen Smith:
Yes, yes. And I also love mountains. So I was like, well, let's go to Utah. So we came out here to Utah and I was trying to get some freelance work. This was about the time that COVID hit, so that was not great. And I started experiencing what it's like to stay home with my family in the evenings, instead of always running around to a gig and getting home between midnight and two in the morning. And I kind of liked it. So at this point, I should also say, I was experiencing some burnout from just being very busy in Dallas. My children were young, they were about five, seven years old. So I started thinking, “maybe I should teach.” And that idea just sounded better and better by the day. So I eventually enrolled in a program through WGU to get my master's in middle school mathematics education.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you've been teaching here at South Hills for your whole career?

Karen Smith:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's six, seven years?

Karen Smith:
I'm starting year eight.

Anthony Godfrey:
Starting year eight. And you were Educator of the Year for South Hills Middle School last year. So I'd say it's gone pretty well.

(laughing)

Karen Smith:
It's gone all right. I love it here. This is a great place to be.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you love most about teaching math?

Karen Smith:
Well, where do I start? Teaching math is awesome. I love math, first of all. Like, it's just so fun. The way everything works, it's like a giant puzzle. And trying to get students to see that puzzle is like the most amazing thing. I love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a really good description. And I'm sure it's rewarding to see the light bulb go on as middle school students get it on various concepts. like, “oh, I figured it out and I know what to do next.”

Karen Smith:
Absolutely, 100%. And we've changed our curriculum recently. We're doing a different style curriculum where they really kind of dive into problems and try to figure out how the problems work instead of us just showing the steps for how to solve everything. And that light bulb moment happens so much more often now. So I'm loving it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Good, I'm so happy to hear that. Do you ever use the cello or music to cross over? I know there's a relationship, but it might be a little weird to pull the cello out in the middle of math class.

Karen Smith:
Yeah, I mean, I wish I could have an excuse to do that, but I haven't figured out how to make that happen and have it actually be relevant to their math learning.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, tell me if I want to sound really cool with a cellist because my brother-in-law plays cello, what can I throw out there? What can I ask him about his cello or the music he's playing that will make me seem like I really know what's going on?

Karen Smith:
Yeah, you could ask him like, what's his favorite recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto? Do you like the Jackie du Prey or the Sol Gebeta better?

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay. I mean, I'll listen back to that and write it down and rehearse it, and then I'll ask him that.

Karen Smith:
Do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
I want to blow him away. That's going to be fun. What would you say, I mean, you've been teaching, like you said, for seven years now. It's your eighth year. What would you say to those who are considering maybe a career change into teaching later on?

Karen Smith:
I would say it can be it can be really rewarding. It's always interesting. It's never boring. The students make sure of that. It is a lot of work. You're on your feet all day and you come home tired but it is totally worth it.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're going to hear you now play two pieces. Tell us about the first piece that you're going to play.

Karen Smith:
We're gonna hear a little bit of the first movement of the cello concerto by the great French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. This is a piece of romantic written in France in the 1800s and I just think it's super exciting. And I'll be accompanied by Eric Noyes who is the choir director at our school. I hope you love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it lives up to its name. From your description, it is romantic, it does evoke 18^th century France, and I didn’t even have any temptation to check my phone, which should say that I was entranced because this time of day I tend to check my phone about eight times a minute. It was so good and I don't know the technique but the tone of the sound was just beautiful. So thank you for sharing that with us.

Karen Smith:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
And let's hear one more. What else are you going to play?

Karen Smith:
I'd like to play “Bring Him Home” from Les Mis.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, here we go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you for sharing your talents with us today. Thank you for those beautiful performances. Thanks to Eric for accompanying you today, and this has been a real treat.

Karen Smith:
Thank you so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.

Brooke:
We do. Some of our most exciting trends are happening in math, well, in math, English language arts and science. So we are element . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
In other words, in every area in which we are tested.

Brooke:
In every subject. We are excited about everything.

Ben:
As we're bringing on more AP subjects and more students taking classes and taking the tests, those pass rates are increasing. That's what we want to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Have you ever wondered what enrollment looks like in Jordan School District? How about where reading scores are headed, or how we're doing on graduation rates? On this episode of the Supercast, we are drilling down on Jordan School District data with our very own experts who simply love crunching the numbers and sifting through statistics. Listen and find out why we have a lot to celebrate, and why hard work done by students, teachers, staff, and parents is paying off.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are talking today with Ben and Brooke about Jordan School District by the numbers. Would you please introduce yourselves and talk a little bit about your role in Jordan School District?

Brooke:
Well, hello. My name is Brooke Anderson. I'm the data scientist for Jordan District. I've been here in Jordan District for over 10 years now. It's been great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome.

Ben:
I'm Ben Jameson. I'm the Director of Assessment Research and Accountability, and I'm excited to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the things that you oversee in the department. What are some of the things that you work with?

Ben:
So I oversee all of the state and federally mandated assessments, as well as surveys between Brooke and I, we work a lot with the data in the District, and help schools with school improvement projects as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Brooke, as a data scientist, you do a lot to support the work in our schools. Talk about what your relationship is with Teaching and Learning.

Brooke:
Oh, I love answering questions. So my main relationship is, I hope people will ask me a question. So, you know, we have a lot of initiatives. We have implementations, and there's always questions. Is this going well? Is this effective? So I try to help District leaders answer those questions. Teachers and school leaders have those same questions. They want to know what's happening, what's going to happen, was the thing that we tried working out. So I love meeting with teacher teams and helping them understand what they can do with the data that they have, and what it all means, and whether or not what they're doing is effective. And I will say it's great because almost all the time I get to tell people that their hard work is really paying off, and we all love that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And it's great to have the backing of a data scientist telling you, “yeah, this is working.” This is doing what you think it's doing. Or let's adjust it a little bit. Let's see what we can, let's see what we can tweak. Because we don't want just action, we want progress. And that's what we want to talk about today, is, you know, many of the areas that we're focused on in the District and the progress that we're making. But let's start with this. Our demographics are changing, and our enrollment is going down. And this is true of, I think, most, if not every district in the state and really throughout the country. Talk about some of those trends in enrollment in Jordan School District.

Brooke:
It is true of every district in our state. So overall, as a state, we are seeing fewer students coming into the school system over time in these recent years. And then in our district, we've seen about a 2%, a little over 2% drop, between the 2025 school year and the 2026 school year. So we'll see how it turns out for this school year. But that drop is really happening in our kindergarten enrollment. So we have fewer kindergartners coming in, even though our high schools are bigger than they've ever been. We have more students in high school than ever, but we have fewer kindergartners than we've seen in a while.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which translates eventually into fewer high school students than we've seen in a long time, depending on who moves in in the meantime. And, you know, these are trends that we track in a very different way than we used to. When I started many years ago in the District Office, we would drive through neighborhoods and new neighborhoods and say, “oh, we see some basketball standards, some, you know, bikes in the front yard. Looks like there'll be some kids in this neighborhood,” as opposed to the very specific methods that we have for determining just how many students to expect from a particular neighborhood.

Ben:
That's funny. I used to do that, too. When I was in a school, I would drive around the neighborhoods just to get kind of a feel for what's happening, look for new builds, look for younger kids playing in playgrounds and that kind of thing. That actually was kind of fun, even though we certainly have a much more scientific, data-savvy way to do that now.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have access to birth rate data and that sort of thing. And the trend overall, long term, will pick up again. Our enrollment will grow once again, but the economy and other things are impacting that for now. But in the meantime, great things are happening for the students that we have. I want to talk about Acadience reading, and Acadience reading is the way that we measure literacy at the elementary level. So talk to me about—let's talk about students starting elementary and ending elementary heading into middle school. What did those literacy rates look like? And there's a lot to celebrate there.

Brooke:
There is. And I was really pleased to be out at two middle schools just last week talking to them about the literacy rates for their incoming seventh graders and how those students were more prepared than ever to read on-grade level, complex text, because our sixth graders are leaving sixth grade, leaving elementary school with higher literacy rates than we've seen before. Right now, about 83.5 percent of them are reading at the expectation at benchmark.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what that means is students are reading at the level you'd expect them to as they enter seventh grade, in the '80s. Now, we would love that to be 100 percent. We want that to be better. But it's better than it's been for a long time, if not better than ever.

Ben:
Actually, it is. In terms of sixth graders exiting out of the elementary program and into our middle school program, they're at their highest literacy rate ever. And that is exciting. That means, as Brooke said, they're more prepared for seventh grade. But that also is indicative of the growth of our elementary program in terms of literacy instruction. And so that's exciting as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about what testing looks like in literacy at the elementary level, beginning of year, middle of year, end of year.

Ben:
So we use the Acadience Reading Assessment, which is actually a screener. Its job is to identify whether or not a student is at risk for later literacy issues. And it simply gives us a yes or no. Yes, a student is at benchmark, or no, a student is not at benchmark, and intervention is needed. And we have a team of testers that go around to each of our elementary schools, and they meet with kindergarten through third grade students in a one-on-one setting for anywhere between five to 15 minutes. And they administer various measures that measure things like for sound fluency, or a capacity for students to blend words, or they'll read texts. And then we're looking at word count accuracy over a minute, and that kind of thing. So the assessment is really one-on-one between a tester and a student, and it gives us some good information about where that kid is in terms of their reading ability and what kind of intervention we maybe need to look at to help them improve their reading skills, if that's needed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you for describing just how complex and sophisticated that testing is. Let's talk about kindergarten, 80% at or above benchmark, which is our highest ever. Explain that a little bit.

Brooke:
So our kindergartners obviously have done wonderful things, and our kindergarten teachers have done wonderful things. We've had a really great program at the District level called Planet Kindergarten, where our literacy specialists are bringing our kindergarten teachers in, offering them a lot of support, a lot of professional development, helping them see, okay, here's what we do with students who are coming in, with the wide variety of skills they might need help with, and trying to get to the point at the end of kindergarten where they're well prepared for first grade. Because one of the things we really want to avoid is that kind of summer slide between kindergarten and the beginning of first grade. It's great if we can get students to read by the end of kindergarten. They still have to be doing it when they come back as a first grader.

Anthony Godfrey:
These are kindergartners who are very well prepared, and we want to start where they are and take them to the next planet from Planet Kindergarten. I loved getting to see Planet Kindergarten in action last year. Planet Kindergarten involves very specific goals that students are trying to reach by the beginning of November, letter names and sounds. Now we have goals about the number of words they can read by the end of the year, and it's really exciting. There's no grade level where you get to see more progress, I think, than in kindergarten just from the start of the year till the end, and it's very exciting. And this success, as you said, is really because of family support and our kindergarten teachers diving in and trying some new things and doing really incredible work. Anytime I see our District literacy team, they are dressed in various costumes or t-shirts depicting favorite kids' books. They are on-brand at all times, all in, and that's typical of everyone in our Teaching and Learning department that's helping support our teachers and coaches and administrators out there in our schools.

Brooke:
And I'll also add our secondary literacy team, our secondary literacy team of one, Brandee Bergum, has been doing fantastic work, which is why we see such a gain in ELA proficiency in middle schools. She's got teachers working with the University of Utah Reading Clinic in order to help support students at every reading level in a middle school setting, and we really see those results coming through.

Anthony Godfrey:
Brandee's just done a great job of involving the University of Utah to make sure that all of our secondary reading teachers have the same understanding of literacy instruction and are able to help those students who may have fallen through the cracks catch up and accelerate those who are ready for more. Now, there's a lot of discussion at the state level around literacy, and, you know, that retention is an option in third grade in ways that it hasn't been before. How is that changing the way that we look at literacy in our District?

Brooke:
One of the things we're very focused on is trying to intervene as early as possible, which is why we use the Acadience Reading Screener. What we're looking for is, “how can we resolve any reading difficulties a student demonstrates in kindergarten or first grade?” So by the time we get to third grade, retention based on their reading skills isn't an option. So we really are trying to get students to show growth and show greater proficiency and respond to their interventions.

Anthony Godfrey:
It feels great every year when I get to say that we've had the best kindergarten reading scores we've ever had, and I get to say that year after year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. We discuss graduation rates in Jordan School District and what they mean.

Male Voice:
Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Female Voice:
They're out on the job in the rain, sleet, snow, ice and in the sunshine. As Jordan School District students navigate their way to and from school every day, we are truly grateful for our city crossing guards, always vigilant and looking out for students to ensure everyone's safety. Because they work so hard protecting our kids, let's give those crossing guards a hand. If you're driving near or around schools, slow down, pay attention, watch for students and staff, and follow instructions from the school crossing guards, and know our cities are always looking to hire crossing guards. If you like kids and need some flexible hours, contact your local city and apply to be a crossing guard today. Together, let's make this a safe and successful school year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about RISE scores. Tell me about RISE scores, talk to folks about what that means, and we have a really good upward trend.

Brooke:
We do. Some of our most exciting trends are happening in math, well, in math, English language arts and science. So we are element . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
In other words, in every area in which we are tested.

Brooke:
In every subject. We are excited about everything. I'm really excited to see the work that our science team has done in the elementary school. We've implemented a curriculum that's very hands-on, teaching students to think through the scientific process, to demonstrate what they know.

Anthony Godfrey:
And they've made it competitive in a positive, friendly, fun way. The pony races are really taken off. Kids are eager to make sure that they're learning everything they're supposed to and beyond.

Brooke:
That is our science team in a nutshell, Rachel and Lynn. They are fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
They are a blast.

Brooke:
And they help people be eager to learn. And it really shows in what students have been able to demonstrate about their science thinking skills on the RISE test. We've got the highest science scores in elementary that we've ever seen. And it's been a huge improvement over, you know, five years. We see a five-year increase of 16%, 10% in certain grade levels. It's fantastic.

Ben:
The cool thing, particularly about the RISE science test, is that it's not just your standard multiple-choice test. Kids are actually running experiments, and they're collecting data during the test. And the best assessment is one where students are learning, and they're participating in the learning experience, not just demonstrating knowledge or recalling information. The RISE science is very interactive, and it's very much aligned with science reasoning skills. So they'll go through the scientific process as they take the assessment. So students actually tend to like taking the assessment because it's interactive. It's interesting. I have three boys, all of whom have taken the RISE multiple times, and the science one is their most favorite because it's interactive.

Anthony Godfrey:
I guess that's an occupational hazard that your sons are going to have to be asked what their favorite standardized test was. Not many parents are asking that, so bravo, Ben, for checking in on that. But you're right. It's hands-on. Let me just summarize some of the numbers. Our middle schools are on a four-year upward trend in language arts scores and a six-year upward trend in mathematics scores. Science is also on a six-year upward trend at all grade levels with a 7% point gain. There's an 8% point gain in elementary schools over the last six years on RISE and a 7% point gain in middle schools over the last four years. So a lot of great things happening, a lot of intentionality around our instruction, and teachers, students, and parents are doing an incredible job.

Brooke:
I also have to shout out our math team. I'm looking at our results for seventh grade math, which is such an important year for math. If we want students to succeed through middle school and high school, we know they need a strong foundation in seventh grade math. There's a lot of algebra concepts that are going to be the foundation for everything else. And we see a huge increase over the last five years in the number of students able to be proficient in demonstrating those skills. So great job to our math team and working with our teachers to open up math discourse, to have students dive into that kind of math problem solving in class, and get them thinking more about how to be mathematicians.

Anthony Godfrey:
They've done a lot of heavy lifting, our math specialists, really transforming the way that we teach math, where we start with a little bit of a struggle. Here's a problem. How are you going to solve this? And then it leads the student to that direct instruction, this is how it's done. This is how we get to that answer. And that's very satisfying. And they've done a tremendous job of supporting teachers in looking at problem solving in a different way. And as you said, it's translated into not just better math scores, but mathematical thinking at a deeper level with our students.

Ben:
So I think the cool thing about all three subject areas and the teams that are working to enhance our instruction and the teachers that are working hard as well is the fact that RISE is a rigorous assessment. And the fact that our scores are going up means that our instruction is growing in rigor as well, which means that our students are growing in their capacity to think critically. That's really, that's our vision for our students as they move through Jordan's educational program and graduate with the capacity and the skills to think critically in the world around them.

Anthony Godfrey:
I worry that I've left people out. Let me just say there is enthusiasm, energy, creativity, and intentionality from our teachers at every level, from all of our specialists and consultants in Teaching and Learning. It's just, it's really exciting to see. And we're making progress over the last few years, unlike we've experienced before. And that's a team effort. That's everybody working together. Let's talk about AP exams. When we're looking at AP, we're looking at participation because we want a lot of students to be a part of that and feel prepared for that. And then we're also looking at the outcomes. Are we providing support to students so that they're getting the scores they're hoping for? Talk to me about both aspects of AP testing in Jordan School District.

Brooke:
So students can take an AP class and not necessarily take the test, which obviously isn't the outcome that we want. If you're taking the AP class, we want you to take the test. And so we've done a lot of work, especially Chris Richards-Khong, to make sure that students can access the test. If they need help paying for the test, we can help them do that. We've seen a huge jump in participation, at least 10 percentage points over the last 10 years. So we want, right now we're sitting at about 87 percent of students who take an AP class will go ahead and take the test, which is fantastic. We want that to go even higher, but it's a lot of great progress.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just to cite the statistic here, over the last 12 years, there has been a 93 percent increase in the number of exams being taken by students in Jordan School District. So our efforts to provide that next level of instruction and achievement is working, and that's counselors and teachers and administrators all working together and parents supporting that. Talk to me about the pass rate overall for middle schools and high schools, Ben.

Ben:
The pass rate for middle schools has increased 12 percentage points over the last four years, which is pretty exciting. Normally you would expect as participation rates increase, there's at least the chance that pass rates will decrease, but that's not the case. We're seeing both increase. For high schools, the pass rate has increased nine percentage points over the last four years. So as we're bringing on more AP subjects and more students taking classes and taking the test, those pass rates are increasing. That's what we want to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Now let's talk about the granddaddy of them all, the graduation rate. That has been looking great for a while now.

Brooke:
Yes. So we've been able to get a percentage point kind of added to our graduation rate pretty steadily over the last 12 years, which is fantastic. If we look from our 2025 rate, which is our last official rate, we're still working on finalizing our 2026 rate. Our last official rate in 2025 was 91.8. And if we look back to 2015, it was 85.3. So that's a really steep increase over time. And it's contributed to by our middle schools, our high schools. It's a lot of work to get more kids over that finish line.

Anthony Godfrey:
And we talked about those kindergarten reading scores. That's where graduation rates start, is helping make sure that students have a wonderful foundation in kindergarten. Now, talk about what that graduation rate really means, because the dropout rate is different based on the way that we're required to report that. There's this impression that 8 percent of our students are dropping out, and that's not the case.

Brooke:
So our dropout rate is based on the fact that once a student hits ninth grade, we are responsible for their graduation outcome. Until they enroll somewhere else, we need to know what happened to that student. And so a lot of the students who are in our dropout rate didn't actually drop out. One, they might have gone to a different place and just not told anybody, so we can't find them. They're an unknown. They might have transferred to adult ed, and that would count against our graduation rate as well. They might have withdrawn, or they might have a pending graduation, where they said, “you know, I didn't graduate on time, but I'm really trying by October,” and maybe they do it, and maybe they don't. So there are different kinds of flavors of dropout, and students who say, “I'm dropping out of school, I'm not doing this anymore,” we have actually lowered that rate down to about half a percent. That's a couple dozen kids. So we want that to be even lower than that. We don't want any student deciding, “I'm done with school, I'm going to drop out, I'm not finishing.” But we have managed to lower that down to a very, very low level.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it requires a little CSI work sometimes, a little detective work when someone registers for one quarter in ninth grade, and then they move to Virginia, and we don't know exactly where to transfer them to. They're counted as a dropout just because they've moved, and we haven't been able to transfer that. Sometimes it's just a matter of tracking the records properly and entering things correctly. So when you say that we're still calculating the 2026 graduation rate, that's because we're sifting through that data to be sure that it's accurate. It's very encouraging to see so many students graduating, and for graduation to mean more and more because of the increased rigor and the increased opportunities that are available to students. Well, thank you for all of the work that you do to help us improve our practice, to know where we stand, and to know what we need to do next. So I really appreciate all your support, and thank you for having so much good news to share.

Ben:
It was a pleasure. Thanks for having us.

Brooke:
I always love sharing good news.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, “Education is the most important thing you'll do today!” We'll see you out there.