Balancing Work, Motherhood, and Academics

Amandy Payne, a dedicated educator and reading specialist with 17 years of teaching experience, highlights the transformative power of asynchronous learning in the ACE Curriculum and Instruction Doctorate Program, where she specializes in literacy. Despite her roles as a mother and wife, she successfully balances her commitments, crediting the program’s flexibility and family support for her accomplishments.

Recent Episodes

Higher education is at an inflection point. Institutions are facing a demographic cliff in traditional-age enrollment, softening international pipelines, and increasing scrutiny around the return on investment of a degree. At the same time, the World Economic Forum reports that 59 out of every 100 workers globally are projected to require reskilling or upskilling…

School Safety Today podcast, presented by Raptor Technologies. In this episode of Principals of Change, host Dr. Amy Grosso sits down with D’Jon Pitchford, Assistant Principal at Kelly Lane Middle School in Pflugerville ISD, to explore what school safety really means. Pitchford reframes safety as more than physical security—emphasizing trust, restorative practices, campus culture,…

School systems across the country are under mounting pressure to improve student outcomes while navigating shifting standards, staffing shortages, and rising expectations around accountability. Yet many reform efforts fall short because they are fragmented and short-term. According to Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning, sustained and job-embedded professional learning is linked to improved educator…