George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development featured Deborah Ball in the latest episode of the EdFix podcast, released on July 21, 2021. In the episode, Ball discusses the power and possibility of mathematics teaching to disrupt patterns of racism and oppression. She “pushes back on the notion that math is culturally neutral. In fact, she believes that changing the way we teach math could help break patterns of inequality and injustice that are perpetuated in our classrooms.”

Listen to the podcast episode here.

On March 21, 2021, the Detroit Free Press featured an op-ed by Deborah Ball and Alyssa Brandon, communications coordinator at TeachingWorks and a master's student in leadership and policy at the University of Michigan School of Education. In their essay, Ball and Brandon discuss the safe return to school by examining the larger context of white supremacy in education.

“As districts emerge from the quarantine of the last year, the plans for a safe return to school must take a fuller view of the safety needed to dismantle anti-Blackness and white supremacy in our educational systems. Taking a fuller view of safety requires refusing crisis language about Black and Brown children. It requires instead planning for the return to in-person schooling in ways that build from where children are and what they know and can do, rather than constructed imaginings of where they ought to be.”

Read the op-ed here.

A short animated video narrated by Deborah Ball and produced by the McKnight Foundation in partnership with Ball’s colleagues at TeachingWorks, Alyssa Brandon and Antoinette Wade, has been named a finalist in two categories for the Shorty Social Good Awards. Teaching is Powerful builds on the idea of discretionary spaces advanced by Ball in her presidential address at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. According to the entry by the McKnight Foundation:

Our strategy was to convert what had been a lengthy academic lecture into a short animation to vividly illustrate how subtle acts of teaching can perpetuate patterns of racism and oppression or, alternatively, contribute to a more just and equitable public education system. Such subtle acts might include how teachers pose questions; whom they call upon; whom they consider disruptive or simply curious; which students they expel out of the classroom to detention or the principal’s office; whom they praise and whom they critique.

The Shorty Social Goods Awards are “an awards program created to raise global awareness around the positive impact brands, agencies and nonprofits can have on society.” Winners will be announced on November 19, 2020.

Watch the animated video here.

See the full Shorty Social Good Awards entry here.

In a June 19, 2020, opinion piece in The Hechinger Report, Gene Pinkard, director of practice and leadership at the Aspen Institute’s Education & Society Program, calls on educators to presume the brilliance of the Black students in their classrooms. In “We commemorate Juneteenth — why not make that sentiment last all year?” Pinkard references Deborah Ball’s work on discretionary spaces:

Professor Deborah Ball masterfully illustrates how every classroom is fertile with opportunities to elevate children or, conversely, to stifle them. Ball unpacks micro-moments where teachers send implicit and explicit messages to students. She calls them “discretionary spaces,” and they are myriad: A teacher is estimated to have 1,200 to 1,500 student interactions every day. Ball challenges us to “take as axiomatic the brilliance of Black children” to receive students as capable contributors.

Pinkard goes on to outline actionable ways that schools can enact this in practice and closes with this call to action: “We can create classrooms and systems founded on elevating the genius of Black and Brown children. Schools, too, can be the places where students ask tough questions, find their voices and construct new understandings. When we make space for the brilliance of our children to shine in full, they solve the problems we give them, mathematical and otherwise. That would be worth celebrating.”

Read the piece here.

TeachingWorks, the organization founded and led by Deborah Loewenberg Ball, recently announced that they will waive the registration fees for their Virtual Summer Institute for anyone who needs it. Following up on their open letter on racial violence and the responsibility of educators to use teaching and teacher education to disrupt and dismantle patterns of racism, white supremacy, and oppression in schools and society, TeachingWorks acknowledged that:

Solidarity requires collective action, and collective action requires that as many of us are on the ground working together to advance this work as possible. We do not want financial barriers to prevent anyone from accessing the program. If you need, please use promo code TWNEEDSU at checkout on Canvas Catalog to register for free.

Deborah Ball will present the keynote address on Sunday, July 19, and will also co-facilitate a number of other sessions at the summer institute, including a virtual laboratory class on elementary mathematics.

For more information and to register, please visit the TeachingWorks website.

In response to the challenges resulting from distanced teaching and learning during COVID-19, EdThena recently launched #PLtogether, a professional development resource for teachers, instructional coaches, school leaders, and district administrators. As part of the initiative, EdThena CEO Adam Geller interviewed Deborah Ball on a range of topics including ways to connect with students during physical distancing, high-leverage instructional practices, fun and challenging mathematics problems for children, and the importance of content in building equitable learning opportunities.

The five-part video series featuring Ball is available here.

In an effort to prepare educators to redress the impact of extended time out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Instruction Partners recently launched a series of interviews with content experts, researchers, and leading practitioners to consider the question: What do we know about what works and what does not work to intervene effectively and accelerate student learning?

As part of the series, Deborah Ball was interviewed by Instruction Partners CEO Emily Frietag about effective mathematics questions to accelerate student learning. Ball discussed the use of complex and open-ended mathematical problems to engage children. “What we know but have rarely been able to act on is the idea that mathematics actually is a whole set of ways of thinking and kinds of problems, kinds of questions that little children, beginning at a very young age, and certainly going on through elementary school and further, have an affinity for, that don't correspond well to thinking about whether kids are ‘behind’ or ‘ahead,’” she said.

Video of the interview and an abridged Q&A are available here.

This summer, as part of the TeachingWorks Virtual Summer Institute, Deborah Loewenberg Ball and Darrius Robinson, doctoral student and experienced mathematics teacher and coach, will lead a virtual laboratory class on elementary mathematics. Drawing from video of past Elementary Mathematics Laboratories (EMLs), this class will explore the teaching and learning of complex elementary mathematics—fractions (definitions, representations, placement on the number line), as well as reading, interpreting, and solving equations—and practices and techniques that include explaining, representing, proving complex claims, presenting in public, and listening to others’ mathematical ideas attentively, respectfully, and critically. This lab class, which runs July 20–24, is structured to make it possible for educators, policymakers, and education advocates to engage directly in the close study of teaching practice in elementary mathematics. The program will provide participants with opportunities to delve into the complexity of teaching, explore and challenge what it means to use skillful teaching practice to disrupt injustice, and develop specific professional skills.

In preparation for each day, workshop attendees will view selected videos from previous EMLs; videos will be posted in advance and viewed asynchronously. Ball and Robinson will then host a synchronous session each day during which participants will meet virtually to debrief the videos, ask questions, and review student work before attending virtual professional learning workshops in the afternoon.

This year, the lab class will be part of the TeachingWorks Virtual Summer Institute, which runs from July 20 to August 5, 2020. “I am excited for the virtual laboratory class to reside within this larger context that supports teachers and teacher educators as they build vision and skill to advance justice in their classrooms,” Ball said. The institute is composed of three strands: virtual K-12 laboratory classes and professional learning workshops, virtual teacher educator and teacher leader professional learning workshops, and a virtual practice-based teacher education workshop. Each strand will provide participants with opportunities to focus on practice and how it can advance justice and equity. Some workshops will focus on the complexities of teaching and learning, while others will center on the practices of teacher education, professional development, and school leadership that support teachers’ development through a focus on high-leverage practices and practice-based teacher education pedagogies. Participants will gain practical strategies, tangible resources, and hands-on experience in using teaching to disrupt patterns of injustice and exclusion in classrooms or in online environments. Participants may choose to participate in one, two, or all three strands of the summer institute.

For more information and to register, please visit the TeachingWorks website.

TeachingWorks, an organization founded by Deborah Ball and housed at the University of Michigan School of Education, was recently featured by the university on their Michigan Impact website. The website shares stories about the many ways the University of Michigan is making a positive difference throughout the state of Michigan.

The story and accompanying video on TeachingWorks highlight the Grand Rapids Mathematics Collaborative, a partnership with Grand Rapids Public Schools, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, Kent Intermediate School District, and Grand Valley State University. The partnership aims to advance a program of professional learning, development, and support to improve mathematics teaching in grades 3 through 8 in the greater Grand Rapids area. In addition to Ball, the story features Thomas Standifer II, principal of Mulick Park Elementary School, Tiffany Ancel, a teacher at Mulick Park Elementary School, and Alex Kuiper, a teacher at Godfrey Elementary School. In discussing the TeachingWorks approach, Ball says, “it’s about making teacher education much more about the practice of teaching directly, much more about learning the subject matter content in a way that enables you to actually help a child learn.”

Read the story here.

Watch a video about the partnership here.

In commemoration of the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, The Topeka Capital-Journal is running a series of special articles examining the enduring legacy of the landmark Supreme Court decision. In the May 2, 2019, article, Deborah Ball discusses the ways that implicit bias, systemic racism, and habits intersect in classrooms to create disproportionate discipline and outcomes for children of color.

“The problem is that we see that even 65 years after Brown (v. Board), the many things that led to this point, that schools are really in many ways just as segregated, more segregated than they’ve been in a long time,” she said. “The patterns that led to, for example, disproportionate punishment practices or disproportionate assignment of brown children or black children to special education, underassignment of those same children to gifted programs, those are all part of larger patterns in which stereotypes and biases kind of reflect through actions.”

Read the article here.

Deborah Ball was one of the past guests invited to help Oregon State University’s Research in Action podcast celebrate their three-year anniversary by reflecting on lessons learned that could help other researchers. In the April 22, 2019, episode of the podcast, Ball discusses the ways in which citation of others’ work is both a scholarly and a political endeavor—that it is never neutral. Ball says, “the active work of thinking about who is going to be made visible and whose work is going to be credited is really important.”

The podcast is available here. (Ball’s clip is from 7:31 to 10:47.)

Deborah Ball, along with six other education researchers, was featured by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for #ThankAScientist week. During #ThankAScientist week, Twitter users were encouraged to thank scientists from all fields for the research they produce and the positive impact they have on society.

A complete list of scholars featured by AERA is available here.

Deborah Loewenberg Ball has been named to a panel of distinguished faculty members at the University of Michigan convened to examine the intersection between political thought/ideology and instructors’ responsibilities to students. The panel is being led by U-M President Emeritus James Duderstadt. In addition to Ball, the panel includes Susan Collins, Deborah Goldberg, Don Herzog, and Bill Lovejoy.

The panel’s primary objectives are:

• To examine relevant university policy, including but not limited to statements in the Standard Practice Guide and the Faculty Handbook.

• To gather and review relevant policy statements of peer institutions.

• To gather input from stakeholders across the university.

• To recommend how to clarify current policy or create new policy that clearly articulates institutional principles and expectations at the intersection of faculty members’ responsibilities to students and their own personal views.

More information about the panel is available in The University Record here.

The July–August 2018 issue of the Harvard Business Review includes an article that features Deborah Ball and her iterative efforts while dean of the University of Michigan School of Education to understand and clarify the purpose and values of the school. In “Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization,” Robert E. Quinn and Anjan V. Thakor interview a range of leaders, from CEOs to deans to non-profit executive directors, to outline the steps and strategies leaders use to rally their organizations behind an authentic higher purpose. Quinn and Thakor recount how Ball interviewed every faculty member at the School of Education when she first became dean to “learn and unlearn the organization,” using this information to build a strategic plan that drew on the school’s strengths and commitments in the service of social good.

Read the article here.