{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Ask A Kansan","title":"Rebuilding Classrooms: Cathy Hopkins on Policy, Teachers & Change | Kansas Education","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4141,"description":"What happens when an entire education system hits a moment of collision — new leadership, new laws, and old habits all colliding at once? On this episode, we sit down with Cathy Hopkins, chair of the Kansas State Board of Education, to find out. From accreditation reform to the fight over cell phones in classrooms, Cathy pulls back the curtain on what's really happening inside Kansas schools right now — and why she believes the state is at a genuine turning point. We talk through the science of reading, why cursive handwriting is making a comeback, how one small district's cell phone policy quietly cut discipline problems in half, and what it actually takes for a rural community to rally around its school. Cathy also opens up about her own path — six kids, a stint away from Kansas that only confirmed it was home, and a run for the local school board she lost by just five votes before landing on the state board altogether.\nHighlightsCathy represents District 5 — 44 counties across western and northern Kansas — and breaks down how Kansas's 10 board districts are drawn around student population, not geography.Kansas has nearly 500,000 K-12 students, with wildly different district sizes — from under 100 students in some rural four-day-school districts to 45,000+ in Wichita's District 8.The \"science of reading\" and the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy, including a new state requirement that elementary teachers and reading specialists be trained in structured literacy by July 2028.What the State Board of Education actually does: accreditation, teacher licensure, curriculum standards, and high school graduation requirements — while emphasizing local control.KESA (Kansas Education System of Accreditation) has shifted from a compliance-driven model to a support-driven school improvement model built around four fundamentals: structured literacy, standards alignment, balanced assessments, and quality instruction.The new \"bell to bell\" cell phone ban law,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/31uDhQmE-73zaqpWjXtwnyYffNMsUnDPiL6GtjTddEQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mNzBm/YzFkNDBkODVjNGM2/MzMwMGViYjhmZTY4/Nzc0Mi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}