Kathleen Cushman presents youth voices to audiences of educators

The Practice Project began in 2008, as an initiative of the national nonprofit What Kids Can Do, Inc. (WKCD) with support from MetLife Foundation. Directed by Kathleen Cushman, the collaborative research project, involving 160 diverse urban and rural adolescent youth from around the United States, centered on the question “What does it take to get really good at something?”

Cushman regularly presents the results of the Practice Project research to audiences of educators interested in increasing student engagement, motivation, and achievement. In keynote speeches, conference presentations, and workshops, she brings compelling video of her young collaborators to teachers, administrators, and youth development professionals. Her new book with WKCD students, Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery (Jossey-Bass, 2010) sets forth the voices of those students and provides practical worksheets and materials for classroom teachers.

Among other speaking engagements, Kathleen Cushman addressed high school teachers and administrators as keynote speaker at the June 2008 Oregon High School Institute in Portland, Oregon, sponsored by Employers for Education Excellence (E3). She also gave a keynote and facilitated two days of workshops with teachers at the Small Schools Institute of CES Northwest’s Small Schools Project in June 2008.

In fall 2008, Cushman presented the student voices from the WKCD Practice Project research for educators and community members who came to a Public Education Institute at the Center for Effective School Practices, at Rutgers University in New Jersey. That same month she traveled to California to facilitate workshops for secondary teachers involved with UCLA Center X, a professional development group based at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Cushman was guest speaker at the June 2009 conference “Building Resiliency in Schools,” conducted by the Resiliency Project of the Brooklyn Office of School and Youth Development, New York City Department of Education. Educators from 20 schools and Brooklyn neighborhoods participated in a discussion of the Practice Project and its implications for youth at risk of school failure.

In San Antonio, Texas in December 2008, Kathleen Cushman spoke and gave workshops for secondary administrators in the North East Independent School District (NEISD). Students from NEISD participated in the Practice Project research and Cushman featured their voices in her audiovisual presentations there.

Cushman also gave a workshop-presentation about the Practice Project at the Annual Conference of the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) in December 2009.