From Systems Thinking to AURA: The Development of a Framework for Examining Special Education Practice

AURA grew from a much longer effort to understand why educational systems can know inequity exists, possess data demonstrating that it exists, publicly commit to addressing it, and still struggle to change the everyday practices and conditions producing those outcomes. My 2019 graduate school work documents the early systems thinking that would eventually develop into AURA.

Turning Stories Into Proof: How To Make Narrative Count As Data In Schools

Narrative is not the soft side of education. It is evidence. It is the living pulse inside the data we claim to honor. When a student finally asks a peer for help, when a family sees independence taking root at home, when a young person takes a step forward that no scoreboard will ever measure, those moments are the data. The job is not to shrink stories to fit spreadsheets. The job is to structure the story so clearly, so precisely, so truthfully, that no one can deny its weight. Story becomes measurement. Observation becomes evidence. Growth becomes visible.