- By Eden
- Salley
Susan Phelps: Successful Teaching & Learning Through Brain Science
This week, we’re excited to share an interview with Susan Phelps, the Chief Officer of Neuroeducation for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC). With a background in child clinical psychology and school psychology, Susan plays a key role in the GAIN initiative, which integrates brain science into educational practices to enhance student outcomes.
Introduction
Reflection Sciences CEO Isaac D. Van Wesep sat down with Susan to discuss the challenges educators face in implementing these practices, the importance of executive functioning skills in early childhood, and the innovative strategies the EVSC uses to support student growth. Whether you’re an educator or just interested in the future of education, this conversation offers valuable insights into the connection between neuroscience and student success.
Interview
IDVW:
Susan Phelps, thank you very much for doing this interview with us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What inspired you to go down this career path?
SP:
Thank you for having me. I work in the Evansville-Vanderbilt School Corporation (EVSC) in Evansville, Indiana. We’re the third largest school district in the state and have about 22,500 kids across 25 elementary schools (39 schools total). My role is Chief Officer of Neuroeducation. I started in this district in 2010 as a school psychologist. I had been working in Kentucky since 1995 in schools, and also in inpatient and outpatient mental health settings. My training is in child clinical psychology.
In 2013, EVSC had already been investigating executive functioning skills when I had an experience with one of our schools: The staff did an amazing job; the kids were all on board; everybody worked as hard as they could. Yet the end-of-year assessment scores hardly moved. There was this sense of hopelessness. Exhaustion. We put our best efforts forward, we used evidence-based practices, and this is where we are?
We take for granted that our pre-K programs are high quality and develop executive function. We used to incorporate more play and activities that naturally develop executive functioning skills in kindergarten, but those were replaced by more reading and math instruction without considering the learning experiences that young children need to acquire EF skills.
One of the things evident from a developmental standpoint is that aspects of lower brain development weren’t aligned with systems and practices in schools. It was like we jumped straight to development and utilization of knowledge without considering, “How do we get there?” and, “How does that happen?”
We take for granted that our pre-K programs are high quality and are developing executive functioning skills. We used to incorporate more play and activities that naturally develop executive functioning skills in kindergarten, but those were replaced by more reading and math instruction without considering the learning experiences that young children need to acquire EF skills. When we administered the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS™), we found that upwards of 80% of our students had deficits in executive functioning, regardless of age.
We can screen children in kindergarten, we can screen them in eighth grade–it’s the same number. We keep doing the same things over and over, and asking our teachers to teach harder and harder. We already have evidence that it doesn’t move the needle. It’s not closing the gap for our kids. Now that we have the MEFS™ we know where our kids’ EF skills are. We had other assessment measures, they were just not easy to use, they were time demanding, they required additional licensure, all of those other complicating factors that make it difficult for a district our size to screen 1,600 kindergarteners.
And so having the MEFS™, and now implementing a Tier 1 program [Tier 1: an intervention or support provided to all or nearly all students in a school] that we utilize to develop executive functioning, our goal is to make sure our kids do not leave kindergarten with deficits in those skills. Every year that that happens, students fall farther and farther behind academically and have increased risk for school failure and behavioral challenges. That’s the genesis of all of this.
IDVW:
It’s fascinating to learn about the journey that brought you here, and in some ways, it feels quite familiar. There seems to be a high prevalence of executive function deficits, especially among kids who aren’t responding well to other academic interventions. Is this one of the main challenges? I’m also assuming that behavioral issues play a role, not just academic difficulties.
SP:
Yeah, as you know, self-control–impulse control–is a core executive functioning skill. Our students with EF deficits definitely have more challenges in those areas, which manifest as behavioral problems.
IDVW:
You mentioned that now you have a Tier 1. You’re talking about play-based activities, right?
SP:
So in our buildings, we’ve given them the option of adding in recess. Some of our kids, though, are farther behind in executive functioning and need direct training. We’re really trying to tease out this algorithm based upon the severity of the executive functioning deficits, both at an individual and a classroom level, so we have the right dosage and the right treatment for our students, and so they can respond to the high-quality instruction and curriculum that already exists in most of our schools.
IDVW:
You mentioned that in the past, you could measure progress, but you weren’t seeing it. Now, are you seeing any progress?
SP:
Well, yes, we could measure. We used the NIH toolbox and got great scores, but we lost all that data because we didn’t do a post-assessment. The NIH toolbox is just time-consuming. It’s expensive. It’s not an easy process for a whole school And so we waited. It’s that Tier 2 strategy, right? You wait to fail and then you screen for executive functioning for that group of kids, which is problematic because that could be second grade, third grade, or fourth grade, and now you’ve missed all of that opportunity for growth. The MEFS is efficient. We can screen an entire class in one morning. We know where all of the kids are. So play, yes, is a great strategy in pre-K and for some of our Title I buildings, but we use Cognimoves as our Tier 1 strategy across our kindergarten classrooms to develop executive functioning skills. Cognimoves is a movement-based, music-based program. So it’s not “sit in front of a screen and do something”. It’s an activity-based program.
IDVW:
Right. So how do you know whether or not improving their executive function skills is resulting in the other outcomes that you are trying to achieve?
SP:
We need a control group. We actually had three control schools this past school year. And the problem–which we didn’t know at the beginning because last year was the first year we used the MEFS across all of our 25 schools–is that going into their baseline assessments, we found those three control schools had MEFS scores the same as those in the Tier 1 schools. The Tier 1 schools started with lower MEFS scores and finished higher, but the control schools also made a year’s growth without having direct training in executive functioning. We think they also improved their MEFS scores because we had awareness training going on in the district, and it changed the way the teachers taught.
We use Activate, which is developed by C8 Sciences, for all of our kids who don’t respond to Cognimoves because it’s more robust. It has many micro levels of complexity to activate more areas of the brain and really grow those deficit skills. I think about the need to activate and strengthen those pathways for struggling students because they haven’t been strengthened or activated prior in a way that helps them emotionally, academically, or cognitively.
IDVW:
So it’s easier to improve these abilities when kids are younger, but it gets more difficult as they get older.
SP:
Yes. Providing kids the opportunity to develop these skills is a precursor to their decision-making, whether academic or behavioral. We’ve had a harder time getting older kids to engage in the work. The challenge is getting them to understand the importance of engagement over the entire school year, and persisting on challenging tasks. Part of the exercise is focusing on something uninteresting, which is a core issue in ADHD. The ability to direct attention is an executive function skill that requires practice. If there’s not enough adult support, the exercise won’t happen.
IDVW:
You mentioned that your district has used evidence-based practices that weren’t working. Can you speak to what it means to have evidence-based practices in education and why they sometimes don’t work?
SP:
Educational research often generalizes results across different contexts, but each classroom is different. Even evidence-based practices that went through rigorous testing don’t work in every situation. We’ve noticed that while some practices work for some kids, they don’t for others. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and saying that if a Tier 1 curriculum doesn’t work, you move to Tier 2 is the wrong approach. We need to consider the specific needs of each building. Executive function is not widely measured across the U.S., yet it tells us a lot about a child’s readiness for learning. The focus has often been on academic skills without directly measuring EF, which is critical.
IDVW:
Maybe executive function skills aren’t being built in pre-K or kindergarten because the focus is on numeracy and literacy.
SP:
Exactly. The Perry Preschool Project showed that 60% of the student’s success was due to self-regulation skills, or executive functioning, which predicted their life success. These skills are crucial for planning, problem-solving, and critical thinking, which are foundational to school success.
IDVW:
What is GAIN, and where are you in the process?
SP:
GAIN, which stands for Growth in Academics through Innovation and Neuroeducation, aligns systems and practices to how the brain develops. We’ve been working on it for more than a decade and are launching a website with resources soon. GAIN isn’t just about recycling solutions like getting a better curriculum or being a better teacher. It’s about understanding how the brain develops and applying that to education. We have a whole phase of adult-to-adult learning, starting with our leaders and educators. The framework includes modules on neuroscience that are beneficial to educators, focusing on how the brain works and how it applies to students.
We created an acronym called R.E.S.T. to guide teachers: Relationships, Environment, Systems, and Teacher instructional practices. This framework helps create a calm, comfortable, safe, inclusive classroom. We’ve developed procedures like group plans, where students help define what it looks like to have a productive learning environment. We use pictures to prompt students to reflect on their behavior and make corrections themselves.
We’ve implemented GAIN across all grade spans, K-12. Districts already do much of this work, but GAIN connects the pieces to ensure optimal development for all students, closing achievement and opportunity gaps.
IDVW:
The focus on executive functioning is interesting. It makes me think about how our actions build these skills, which are crucial for engaging with the world and handling complex tasks.
SP:
Exactly. EF skills are foundational, and the ability to access them, especially under stress, is crucial. Developing these skills strengthens persistence, motivation, and complex thinking.
IDVW:
It’s great to hear that teachers find this helpful and that it’s making their jobs easier and students more responsive. That’s a strong indicator of success. Susan, this has been an illuminating conversation. I’m very thankful for your time and excited for the website and resources to become available to other educators. Any final words?
SP:
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this. I love talking about the possibilities it represents and the hope it brings to those working to improve outcomes for our kids. Thank you for developing MEFS and continuing to make it better—it’s truly a game-changer for us. I appreciate all your support.
IDVW:
We’re really proud to be a part of what you’re doing and want to support you in any way we can.
SP:
And you have, so thank you.
