Implement. Change in Education.
Whether your goal is to scale up existing practices, sustain what’s working, remove what’s not, introduce a new practice, or navigate a transition, we explore how education leaders leverage implementation to get better results for students. Because implementation matters most during times of change.
This podcast is a production of EdScale (www.edscalellc.com), where we help educators get better results through a relentless focus on effective implementation. Every month on the podcast we will feature:
- The audio version of our monthly blog post on implementation
- A conversation with an ambitious education leader who is leveraging implementation and change management to get bet results for students
Hosted by Tom DeWire, Founder of EdScale and author of the book “How to Implement (just about) Anything,” Lessons from 25 years in public education. Learn more at www.edscalellc.com.
This summer, I led a learning lab, "How to Implement (Just About) Anything," for about 250 Alabama CTE directors and career coaches at their CTE Summer PD Conference in Mobile.
Their state superintendent opened the morning with three words I keep coming back to: strategy, focus, and resources. And when I asked that room to turn and talk, the whole place came alive. Their implementation health quiz scores were some of the strongest I've ever seen.
Which raises the harder question this episode is about: what do you do when you're already on top?
In this episode, I share clips from that session and the moves I'd consider next, including the one tool I'd hand any leader on Monday morning: a plan on a page.
Thank you, TEAMTRI, for having me.
Want to know where your own implementation stands? Take the same quiz those directors took. The link is in the episode notes below.
Show notes:- EdScale Implementation Health Quiz
8 Sept 2026
#40 Blog: In August every plan still looks possible
In August, every strategic plan still looks possible.
The plan is on the wall. The team is in the room. Every person in it means it.
Then it’s October. The plan hasn’t failed; it just hasn’t come up in a while. Nobody decided to remove it. It quietly stopped showing up.
Plans rarely die from being wrong. They die from having nowhere to live.
So here’s the test: look at your recurring agendas, standing decisions, and the data you actually review. If your priority isn’t showing up there, it isn’t protected yet.
The fix is simple: put the whole year on the calendar now. Progress-monitoring meetings, data reviews, coaching cycles, straight through June.
The dates will move. That’s fine. A meeting that exists can be moved. A meeting that was never scheduled just never happens.
Right now there’s room on the calendar. By October, there isn’t.
To the district, state, and school teams doing the unglamorous work right now: thank you. It matters more than the launch did.
Listen to the latest episode for more. I put the five questions we use for a first 30-day check-in into a one-page agenda. Free, no form. Link below.
Show notes links: - Use this agenda for your first 30-day check-in
25 Aug 2026
#39 Guest: Dr. Cheryl L. Dyson, Superintendent & Dr. Sarah Sirgo, Chief of Staff - Frederick County Public Schools
"A principal looked at who wasn't showing up, found out why, and fixed that."
That is the sentence I keep coming back to from my conversation with Dr. Cheryl Dyson and Dr. Sarah Sirgo of Frederick County Public Schools.
Frederick cut chronic absenteeism from about 26% to 16.7% in three years. In its community schools, chronic absenteeism dropped 18 percentage points.
But the episode is not really about attendance as a metric. It is about what happens when a district narrows the work, protects the schoolhouse, and gives principals enough room to solve the actual problem in front of them.
Dr. Dyson talks about one school where students were not coming because they did not have clean clothes until a nonprofit brought in a truck full of washers and dryers. Dr. Sirgo talks about moving the conversation away from blame and toward support: "What support do we need to provide to get kids to come to school?"
In this episode of 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, we unpack:
How Frederick moved from 26 KPIs to 17
Why strategic staffing matters for both teachers and principals
How science of reading training, DIBELS, and intervention routines are showing up in early literacy
Why math may require a different implementation playbook than literacy
Who has been a guest on Implement. Change in Education
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Laura Weeldreyer
Derek Mitchell
Joanna Staib
Jon Wickert
Dr Maria Navarro
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100
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Engagement
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