Community Highlights: Meet Shauna Stephanchick of STEP Up

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shauna Stephanchick.

Hi Shauna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
In the second grade I told my best friend I would be a teacher.  Fourteen years later, I started my first year teaching in second grade in Grandview, MO, a suburb of Kansas City. While I knew this role was my calling in life, it took work. The first few years of my career were the most challenging and rewarding of my life, and as my passion for teaching steadily grew to teach adults. After ten years of experience in public education as a teacher, instructional coach, district coach, and administrator, I shifted to working as a state education consultant supporting Missouri schools. This role was rewarding and also eye-opening. I discovered common barriers within each school; resulting in systemic problems in the field of education. After the pandemic,I realized these barriers would be magnified as the learning loss of students would increase the need for strong systems and processes in the education system. In May 2020, I took a leap of faith in developing some Missouri-specific curricula and teaching products that could overcome the common barriers impeding school achievement. In the fall of 2021, I started using some of the products with current clients and began to see the systems and products were working. I fine-tuned the products and the approach and have continued to branch out to creating Missouri-specific products for all core contents-ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Science.

I am passionate about the work my company is doing as it is a current reality for many new educators do not have clarity about the standards they should teach students. This is a systemic problem causing large educational inequity in the state of Missouri. One of the biggest reasons this is a recurring issue is that there have not been clear examples and processes given to districts on how to accomplish it. Those districts that try to undertake it spend years in development and burn teachers out. STEP Up has developed a model to combat this systemic issue and help teachers create it in 1-2 days. This provides teachers a roadmap of what they should be teaching students throughout the year and creates a district-wide management tool for school districts—ensuring that no teacher would walk in and not know what to teach to students.

The second biggest educational barrier has been the lack of clarity of proficiency levels for students in Missouri. A common practice is that teachers use textbooks and other resources to try and teach students. Still, the state of Missouri tests students on Missouri-specific standards that only sometimes align with these resources. Therefore, there needs to be more alignment between what students should learn and what teachers teach. The need for teacher clarity is urgent.

To overcome this barrier, STEP Up created Missouri-specific proficiency scales, called Missouri Assessment and Teaching Tools, that show teachers what proficiency looks like at each grade level for each standard. The tools provide explicit examples to teachers of the types of questions, and tasks should be able to master. In addition, the tools also provide instructional strategies and steps teachers can take when students struggle to become proficient—an even more common challenge post-pandemic.

In the past two and half years, STEP Up has gone from 3 schools using these products to over 40 across the state and climbing. This work is disrupting the normalcy of education but working to retain and save the teacher from burnout, providing them with effective systems and tools to help them understand and do their job more effectively. Most importantly, these products specifically support rural and charter schools with less money and resources than others. STEP Up uses a tiered pricing structure, ensuring that all schools and students get the rigorous and quality education they need and deserve.

Shauna’s ultimate goal is for Missouri to become a state where all students have educational opportunities and advantages. Educational equity in Missouri will be achieved by providing teachers with systems and tools that bring clarity and ideas to teaching students more effectively. Our company will continue working and serving schools to make that goal a reality.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The education profession has been a challenging road in general. I entered the field under-prepared (as most educators do) to teach and handle students’ discipline and social-emotional needs. I also needed help with the ineffective practices within the district and building leadership in schools. As a consultant, I continued to see the same ineffective practices and worked to overcome them. I used the barriers I found to create my products because I realized we had to get deep into instructional strategy conversations faster, and that’s what our products do. There was one particular school in Independence, MO-3 Trails that I worked with that had been struggling with lower scores and we were able to improve them substantially in three years. They advanced as a school because teachers were strategically discussing instructional strategies regularly.

One challenge as an educational business that we have faced with these progressive products  is being a disruptor to the system. Many education leaders want to cling to the old way of doing things despite clear data and evidence indicating that it needs to be fixed. They want to continue overworking teachers to create and develop the things that STEP Up offers for a fraction of the cost of in district development. Many districts believe teachers must create something to understand it, but they force teachers to develop it. It is not a quality product because many educators need more writing expertise or time. So year after year, they ask them to return and do it again. This causes frustration and burnout in teachers. Education is at an all-time low with teacher retention, and districts must reconsider their practices, which may include letting go of the traditional method. Our company is working hard to market and communicate that there are more accessible and effective ways, but it is hard to reach schools quickly and convince them of change.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about STEP Up?
STEP Up provides high-quality curriculum products, coaching, and consulting that will systematically impact educator beliefs and instructional practices to advance educational equity for all Missouri students.

Missouri students deserve equitable access to highly effective teaching and instruction. However, our state has fallen short of that promise as many districts may not have:

• The capacity to do the necessary curriculum and assessment work year-round.

• Missouri-aligned resources that provide clarity and rigor of standards.

• Innovative approaches that improve the retention rate and quality of teachers.

This is the only organization providing a specific system and step-by-step process to ensure that all schools organize and communicate to educators what students should learn each year and in each content. We specialize in providing the systems and tools teachers need to ensure they are providing quality education to their students.

We want readers to know that the field of education is systemically broken and that the state Department of Education and universities do not prepare educators with the information they need to be successful in their careers. Therefore, our company has created Missouri tools and resources to expedite the learning of future educators of what they should be teaching to students. Boosting teacher confidence will provide better educational opportunities for the students they serve. We aim to transform education in Missouri and ensure that teachers never enter a school district knowing what they should teach and how to do it. Clarity brings confidence, leading to empowered teachers with the tools they need to help students succeed. We want readers to encourage their school districts to think differently and invest more of their resources in curriculum and teacher learning.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?

• Current Books:
  -Visible Learning by John Hattie
  -High-Reliability Schools by Robert Marzano
  -Professional Communities At Work byRick DuFour

• Literacy Link Podcast

• I attend multiple educational conferences around the country through Solution Tree and ASCD.

Image Credits
Jami Stevens