What happens when an entire education system hits a moment of collision — new leadership, new laws, and old habits all colliding at once? On this episode, we sit down with Cathy Hopkins, chair of the Kansas State Board of Education, to find out. From accreditation reform to the fight over cell phones in classrooms, Cathy pulls back the curtain on what’s really happening inside Kansas schools right now — and why she believes the state is at a genuine turning point. We talk through the science of reading, why cursive handwriting is making a comeback, how one small district’s cell phone policy quietly cut discipline problems in half, and what it actually takes for a rural community to rally around its school. Cathy also opens up about her own path — six kids, a stint away from Kansas that only confirmed it was home, and a run for the local school board she lost by just five votes before landing on the state board altogether.

Highlights

• Cathy represents District 5 — 44 counties across western and northern Kansas — and breaks down how Kansas’s 10 board districts are drawn around student population, not geography.
• Kansas has nearly 500,000 K-12 students, with wildly different district sizes — from under 100 students in some rural four-day-school districts to 45,000+ in Wichita’s District 8.
• The “science of reading” and the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy, including a new state requirement that elementary teachers and reading specialists be trained in structured literacy by July 2028.
• What the State Board of Education actually does: accreditation, teacher licensure, curriculum standards, and high school graduation requirements — while emphasizing local control.
• KESA (Kansas Education System of Accreditation) has shifted from a compliance-driven model to a support-driven school improvement model built around four fundamentals: structured literacy, standards alignment, balanced assessments, and quality instruction.
• The new “bell to bell” cell phone ban law, and Cathy’s on-the-ground findings from talking to districts that banned phones early — including a near 50% drop in behavior issues and a surprise uptick in library book checkouts.
• A “Blue Ribbon Task Force” on screens met for over a year, gathering input from legislators, teachers, parents, and students before issuing recommendations.
• Cursive handwriting is officially coming back into Kansas standards, tied to research on how handwriting supports reading comprehension and brain development.
• Community involvement stories, including the Farm to Plate initiative connecting local farmers/ranchers with school lunch programs, and a district that saw a wave of community support after clips of a board meeting went viral on social media.
• Cathy’s call for a “better narrative” around education amid a wave of upcoming leadership changes: a new state commissioner, a new KBOR director, a new governor, and a new speaker of the house.

Chapters

0:00 – 1982 Wichita Time Capsule

4:25 – Meet Cathy Hopkins

5:10 – District 5 Explained

6:27 – Kansas School Sizes

8:37 – Cathy’s Kansas Roots

11:42 – Leaving and Returning Home

13:27 – Joining the State Board

16:43 – Science of Reading Shift

23:35 – Board Role and KESA

26:59 – Cell Phone Ban Debate

31:35 – Screens Task Force and Local Control

35:53 – Law Enforcement and Certification

37:21 – Four Improvement Fundamentals

38:45 – Quality Instruction vs Tech

39:15 – Handwriting and Cursive Return

41:07 – Collaboration and Action Plans

44:23 – Community Involvement Examples

49:25 – Parents as First Teachers

51:59 – Host Reflection on Education

53:22 – Kansas History: School Gossip

55:54 – 1939 Classes and Film Reels

58:59 – 1900 Gossip Column Highlights

1:03:42 – 1920 Basketball and Saturday School

1:06:27 – Best Bits and Wrap-Up

Resources Mentioned

• Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE)
• Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB)
• Newspapers.com

Learn more about the podcast at askakansan.com!

This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net