June 24, 2022 • 19 mins
Jennifer Cole discusses her career spanning more than two decades in educational publishing. Jennifer shares how her knowledge and experience help her lead her team of literacy and humanities content development professionals to create high-quality educational materials for Westchester's clients.
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Nicole Tomassi (00:07):
Welcome to Westchester words, education ed
tech and publishing.
I'm Nicole Tomassi and in thisepisode, I'll be speaking with
Jennifer Cole who recentlyjoined Westchester Education
Services as Content Director forLiteracy, Humanities, and
Languages.
We'll be talking aboutJennifer's experiences in
education and how that willinform her role here at
(00:28):
Westchester.
Jennifer, welcome to WestchesterWords.
Jennifer Cole (00:32):
Hi Nicole.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is really exciting,
Nicole Tomassi (00:35):
Jennifer.
It's great to have you here.
How about we begin with havingyou share with listeners a bit
about your background and whatattracted you to the field of
education publishing?
Jennifer Cole (00:45):
Oh, what a great way to start.
Thank you so much for asking.
So I started in educationalpublishing, uh, more than 20
years ago when I was a studentin Boston.
I was getting my masters degreeand I was looking to see what
kinds of industries would reallyalign with what I was interested
in studying, which is children'sliterature.
And one of the alums in mygraduate program had a position
(01:08):
available as an editorialassistant at Houghton Mifflin,
which at the time was justHoughton, Mifflin, not yet
Houghon Mifflin Harcourt in thereading department.
And so I had this uniqueopportunity to see where this
intersection of children'sliterature and, um, language
acquisition and readingacquisition really started to
happen.
And as an editorial assistant Igot this, you know, ground up
(01:33):
view of educational publishingand just immediately fell in
love with it.
I fell in love with the, um, the, the words themselves, but also
just with the excitement ofcreating something from scratch.
Nicole Tomassi (01:48):
So is that one of the things that appeals to
you about developing learningmaterials in the areas of
literacy and also by extensionhumanities?
Jennifer Cole (01:58):
Absolutely, Nicole.
I think that knowing that thecontent that we are putting out
into the world helps studentsnot only learn about whatever
the skills and strategies are,but also in some ways I hope
that they're learning aboutthemselves and to see kids, and
for me, especially young kidsreally acquire language when
(02:19):
they can make those connectionsbetween, you know, sounds and
spellings between letters andwords.
Um, the first time either seeinga, a student in a classroom or a
kid that I know, um, just makethat connection and, and their
eyes light up and they, they getit.
I love it, which is also a niceway of saying I really love
(02:40):
phonics.
And so phonics is, isanother one of the things that
has, um, attracted me to thisindustry and then kept me in the
field of, of literacy for sure.
Nicole Tomassi (02:50):
And I know what you mean about when a child
makes that connection betweenwhat's I guess on the page, cuz
I'm old school, you know, andthey make that between an object
or a person and the printed wordon the page and you see that
light bulb go off and it just,it seems like it opens up this
entire doorway for them.
And I've always thought ofliteracy as being a gateway
(03:12):
through which all other areas oflearning can be entered into
mm-hmm cause if youdon't have the ability to read
or understand the content, it'shard to explore other subject
areas.
How do you feel literacy contenthas evolved during your time in
education publishing?
Jennifer Cole (03:29):
You know what, Nicole, in exactly that way.
I've seen so many, um, increasesin cross curricular and cross
content literacy on theimportance of, of reading across
the subject areas where when Istarted it, it seemed like it
was a little bit more focused onjust kind of some rote
repetition, some phonics, somewhole language, some balanced
(03:51):
literacy, and during, during mytime in this industry, things
have really progressed so thatwhen we're talking about
literacy, we're not just talkingabout our ABCs.
We're also sometimes talkingabout our one, two, threes.
We're also talking about maybephysics, maybe we're talking
about rocket science, maybewe're talking about, um,
historical events and all ofthose things get wrapped up and
(04:15):
in the literacy umbrella,because you're absolutely right.
If you can't read, you are notgonna be able to have a
successful career as a student,as an adult.
And really it's gonna be hard insociety in general.
So the, the literacy content nowis so rich and so meaningful and
really does artfully encompassall of the content areas, um,
(04:41):
with which we work.
And so that's exciting.
Nicole Tomassi (04:44):
So do you feel that now that there's this more,
I guess, holistic approach, um,to literacy and the other
subject areas that are taught inK-12 that it is improving
academic outcomes across allsubject areas?
Jennifer Cole (04:58):
That is a great question.
And while I have not done awide-scale study of that, um, I
would like to think, yes, atleast with the products that I
have worked on over the years,you know, the results are
measurable that when a studentcan succeed in, in the basics of
(05:20):
reading and comprehension, theycan succeed more in all of the
content areas
Nicole Tomassi (05:29):
Makes sense to me, although somehow I just
never grasped those higher mathfunctions.
Jennifer Cole (05:33):
but maybe
cause
Nicole Tomassi (05:35):
I didn't have them in early literacy
Jennifer Cole (05:37):
I can actually decode them quite well though.
So,
Nicole Tomassi (05:41):
So Jennifer, you've been with Westchester for
a few months now and I'mwondering, how has the
experience been in getting toknow, um, the team that you're
working with internally as wellas the clients that you're
working with on their projects?
Jennifer Cole (05:55):
Oh, it's been a wonderful experience.
Uh, to be honest, Westchesterhas been such a welcoming place.
Uh, I really appreciate the, thehuman-centered workplace that
Westchester seeks to achieve andis constantly trying to improve
upon.
Uh, the relationships with myteam members are not only
(06:15):
meaningful, but alsointeresting.
You know, we work with such adiverse group of people and it's
wonderful to be able to have thespace and time to get to know
folks, to get to know differentworking styles, um, to, to have
relationships with clients, someof whom are new, some of whom
I've worked with before at othercompanies.
And it's, it's really been awonderful experience and, and it
(06:39):
, the months have flown by,
Nicole Tomassi (06:41):
Well, that's great.
I'm really happy to hear that.
Um, to take this in a bit of adifferent direction, um, as you
and I both know, there can bemany reasons why companies may
be hesitant about working withthe content development house,
such as Westchester, includingconcerns around the ability to
capture their particular voicein the content that's being
(07:02):
created or, you know, somethingas, as granular as the cost of
outsourcing, uh, developmentservices.
And I'm wondering if there's anykind of advice you would wanna
share with people who arethinking about those kind of
aspects?
Jennifer Cole (07:16):
Absolutely.
I think that if you're a clientlistening and you're hesitant
about working with a, a contentdevelopment house like
Westchester or specificallyWestchester, please come talk to
us and let's have a conversationabout what we can do for you and
how we can best represent yourinterests.
Um, especially about voiceNicole, that's so important that
we really on every singleproject and with every single
(07:38):
client strive to achieve theclient's voice as a vendor, the
materials that we're producingare our clients' materials.
And so we not only try toachieve that voice, uh, through
guidelines, through samples, butalso through conversations with
our clients, making sure that weunderstand the, the purpose.
Um, how the materials are gonnabe used in the classroom, how
(08:01):
these materials are gonna bedelivered, if there is a
specific tone and even somethings such as making sure that
we are using the samedictionary, the same copyediting
guidelines, um, making sure thatour, our style guides are what
our clients like and the waythat they use them.
And I'm really glad that youasked this question because it
(08:21):
is always a conversationactually that we have a lot with
, with new clients is how areyou going to make sure that this
is our product and not yourproduct?
And so that's something that asvendors, um, in an editorial
space that we really work hardto achieve.
And then in terms of the cost tooutsource services, we like to
(08:43):
work with our clients to makesure that the costs match our
clients' budgets as much aspossible.
When we put together bids andestimates, we make sure that we
are charging what we feel arefair market rates for the
services that we're providing.
But we also have discussionsabout what are we really
providing?
We don't want to overestimate.
(09:04):
We really don't want tounderestimate.
We want to give an accuratefinancial representation of the
services, and we want to makesure that it's clearly
understood what the deliverablesare, um, what the schedule looks
like, and really that we'regonna produce what our clients
are expecting on time on budgetand in their voice.
Nicole Tomassi (09:24):
Are you finding that clients are, are pleased in
the sense of the costs that theydon't always necessarily account
for in their budgets, includingfor project management or
multiple passes on the editorialcontent, those sorts of things,
it's, it's kind of taken offtheir plate and it frees up
their in-house staff to work onother key parts of that project
(09:47):
or another project.
Do you find that's this hiddenbenefit that surfaces from
working with a group likeWestchester?
Jennifer Cole (09:53):
Absolutely.
Um, I think that actually that'sone of the most important
benefits of working with a grouplike Westchester, is that we
have the resources to be able tocompliment our clients in house
staff.
And we might have resources thata client might not see a benefit
in keeping on full time or onstaff that we have access to.
(10:16):
Um, and especially we are ableto scale up for larger projects.
We're able to scale down forsmaller projects.
We work with hundreds andhundreds of freelancers who have
all different skill sets, and weare able to customize teams to
our clients' specific projectsand to the specific needs.
I think another benefit thatmaybe doesn't get talked enough
(10:39):
about is that because we are avendor and because we do work
with multiple clients over time,we internalize a large
understanding of differentproducts and different
educational approaches.
So one of the benefits that webring to our clients is being
able to say, this is a trendthat we're seeing in the market,
(10:59):
or, oh, what an interestingidea.
We have a suggestion about, youknow, this, this type of, um,
teacher feedback, or yes, we arefluent in the assessment
platform that you use becausewe've used it numerous times.
So we have the benefit ofworking on a lot of projects for
(11:23):
a number of different clients,and then generating additional
skills with every project thatwe work on.
Nicole Tomassi (11:31):
It's like getting the boutique experience,
all this collective wealth ofknowledge from across our client
base.
And we focus it to the specificneeds of that particular
client's project.
Jennifer Cole (11:43):
Yes, exactly.
So we offer a myriad of servicesin all the different content
areas and not just foreditorial, also for design, for
composition and for projectmanagement.
But the benefit of working withWestchester is that we really
personalize the experience toour clients.
We want to ensure that we areproducing the programs, the
(12:05):
components, the assessment, theteachers guides, the student
editions, the leveled readers,the decodable passages, the
scope and sequences, whatever itis that our clients are looking
for, that we are producing it ina way that not only informs our
clients, but informs the waythat we do our work.
So yes, I think you're right,Nicole.
(12:27):
I think that it is a trulyboutique experience with the
benefit of a larger vendor.
Nicole Tomassi (12:33):
So not to put you too much on the spot,
Jennifer, but especially overthe last couple of years with
things, including the pandemicand, um, the rising spotlight on
diversity, equity, andinclusion, how has that found
its way into how learningmaterials are created and the
way that they're delivered sothat they're in alignment with
(12:53):
state standards and whatpublishers want to be creating,
uh, to meet those guidelines?
Jennifer Cole (13:00):
Hmm, excellent question.
Uh, in my experience, the waythat materials are being created
and delivered, it has changed.
I mean, it's changedsignificantly over time and not
just because of the pandemic,but over the past 20 years, I've
gone from working on, they werecalled ectos.
They're big, huge pages withgrease pencils, um, and
the proverbial red pen to doingmost things digitally.
(13:23):
Um, at this point, I, I can'tbelieve it myself, but I don't
even have a printer in myoffice.
Um, so the materials though arestill being created by folks who
have a deep understanding of theeducational practices, because
either they've been trained inthem through classroom
experiences, or because theyhave had the experience of
working on, uh, materials forclassrooms for a number of
(13:45):
years.
We do so much now throughout thecountry.
And that's one of the greatthings actually that I think has
been an improvement.
Um, in publishing.
When I first started, of course,you're sitting in one place with
the people who are directlyaround you today, I work with
editors from, you know, theNortheast to the Southwest
everywhere in between and onmultiple continents.
(14:07):
Uh, and that includes writers,copy editors, freelancers, folks
who are great at decode abilityand readability and all of the
different services that weprovide within our editorial
groups.
Uh, so we are creating whenwe're creating national
programs, we're really workingwith folks who are in all these
various locations and arebringing their own experiences
to what they're doing.
(14:27):
You know, needless to say, wealso use a lot of different
platforms, but that we can talkabout that on another podcast.
In terms of the way thatmaterials are delivered.
We've seen a change in that too.
The rise of, uh, digitaldelivery, of course, with the
pandemic, having this, this kindof sudden shift to a lot of
digital first and digitalforward, um, product was kind of
(14:49):
jarring.
And so we are seeing most of ourcompanies that we work with, uh,
will either have a simultaneousrelease of a print and a digital
product, or a lot of folks aredoing a digital only product.
Uh, for us as editors that haschanged the delivery mechanism.
But the intent that we put intothe pages, the educational
(15:09):
experience that we're stilltrying to achieve, that hasn't
changed overly much because theultimate goal is educate kids in
the best way that we know how.
And I'm also really glad thatyou asked about DEI because this
is a great opportunity tomention.
I am so glad to be atWestchester because of our focus
on DEI and on CRE, we are reallytrying to be intentional about
(15:29):
the way that we creatematerials.
Um, this is something that ifyou're a current client of ours,
you hopefully will have alreadyknown this.
Um, but DEI and specifically CREreviews are something that we do
with almost every single productto make sure that students can
actually see themselves in thecontent.
You know, I think, um, recentlythere was an article I was
(15:50):
reading about standardizedtesting, and I'm sure that if
you've kept up with thingsyou've heard, you know,
standardized testing isn'tnecessarily fair.
It's not necessarily fairbecause there isn't this
representational lens instandardized testing.
Not all students can seethemselves in that.
Not all students are able toconnect.
And one of the things that wewant to do, like I said earlier,
(16:10):
is we really wanna make surethat the materials that we're
putting out into the educationalsphere are not only effective
educationally, but also reallygive students the opportunity to
connect with educationalmaterials in a meaningful way.
Nicole Tomassi (16:25):
That is such a well considered response.
Thank you for sharing that.
Jennifer, I just have one finalquestion to ask today and it's
something I really enjoy askingfirst time guests of the
podcast, because I've withoutfail, received very thoughtful
responses from them.
So the question is, is there onepiece of advice that you wish
someone had given you when youfirst started out in your
(16:48):
professional career?
Or is there something that youwould wanna share with others
that you've learned on yourjourney so far?
Jennifer Cole (16:54):
Mm, my advice to folks just starting out in their
professional career, and I don'tthink that this is specific to
educational publishing isadvocate for yourself.
When you see something thatinterests you in your career
path, go for it becauseultimately it might be fantastic
and you might end up, I don'tknow, becoming the director of
(17:17):
literacy humanities, andlanguages at some place
interesting like Westchester.
But really advocate for yourselfand go after what you want.
Nicole Tomassi (17:26):
Well, I'm glad you advocated for yourself and
that you are now here with therest of the team at Westchester
and bringing in all of yourexperience and knowledge along
with the rest of the team, intothe content that you're creating
for our clients.
I want to thank you so much forjoining me today on Westchester
Words.
Jennifer Cole (17:43):
Thank you so much for having me.
This has been really fun.
Nicole Tomassi (17:46):
We'll have to do it again sometime
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Tomassi (17:53):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Westchester words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites.
Westchester publishingservices.com and Westchester
education services.com for aninternational perspective, check
out our sister podcast,Westchester words, UK and
(18:13):
international available on theWestchester education, UK
website, Westchestereducation.co.uk or wherever you
stream podcasts.
We'd love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
emails a t Westchester w ords at Westchester ed SV, c s.com.
(18:34):
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
that we can cover in futureepisodes.
Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester w ords, when we'll
be having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education, edtech and publishing communities
until then stay s afe, be welland s tay tuned.
Welcome to Westchester words, education ed
tech and publishing.
I'm Nicole Tomassi and in thisepisode, I'll be speaking with
Jennifer Cole who recentlyjoined Westchester Education
Services as Content Director forLiteracy, Humanities, and
Languages.
We'll be talking aboutJennifer's experiences in
education and how that willinform her role here at
(00:28):
Westchester.
Jennifer, welcome to WestchesterWords.
Jennifer Cole (00:32):
Hi Nicole.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is really exciting,
Nicole Tomassi (00:35):
Jennifer.
It's great to have you here.
How about we begin with havingyou share with listeners a bit
about your background and whatattracted you to the field of
education publishing?
Jennifer Cole (00:45):
Oh, what a great way to start.
Thank you so much for asking.
So I started in educationalpublishing, uh, more than 20
years ago when I was a studentin Boston.
I was getting my masters degreeand I was looking to see what
kinds of industries would reallyalign with what I was interested
in studying, which is children'sliterature.
And one of the alums in mygraduate program had a position
(01:08):
available as an editorialassistant at Houghton Mifflin,
which at the time was justHoughton, Mifflin, not yet
Houghon Mifflin Harcourt in thereading department.
And so I had this uniqueopportunity to see where this
intersection of children'sliterature and, um, language
acquisition and readingacquisition really started to
happen.
And as an editorial assistant Igot this, you know, ground up
(01:33):
view of educational publishingand just immediately fell in
love with it.
I fell in love with the, um, the, the words themselves, but also
just with the excitement ofcreating something from scratch.
Nicole Tomassi (01:48):
So is that one of the things that appeals to
you about developing learningmaterials in the areas of
literacy and also by extensionhumanities?
Jennifer Cole (01:58):
Absolutely, Nicole.
I think that knowing that thecontent that we are putting out
into the world helps studentsnot only learn about whatever
the skills and strategies are,but also in some ways I hope
that they're learning aboutthemselves and to see kids, and
for me, especially young kidsreally acquire language when
(02:19):
they can make those connectionsbetween, you know, sounds and
spellings between letters andwords.
Um, the first time either seeinga, a student in a classroom or a
kid that I know, um, just makethat connection and, and their
eyes light up and they, they getit.
I love it, which is also a niceway of saying I really love
(02:40):
phonics.
And so
has, um, attracted me to thisindustry and then kept me in the
field of, of literacy for sure.
Nicole Tomassi (02:50):
And I know what you mean about when a child
makes that connection betweenwhat's I guess on the page, cuz
I'm old school, you know, andthey make that between an object
or a person and the printed wordon the page and you see that
light bulb go off and it just,it seems like it opens up this
entire doorway for them.
And I've always thought ofliteracy as being a gateway
(03:12):
through which all other areas oflearning can be entered into
mm-hmm
or understand the content, it'shard to explore other subject
areas.
How do you feel literacy contenthas evolved during your time in
education publishing?
Jennifer Cole (03:29):
You know what, Nicole, in exactly that way.
I've seen so many, um, increasesin cross curricular and cross
content literacy on theimportance of, of reading across
the subject areas where when Istarted it, it seemed like it
was a little bit more focused onjust kind of some rote
repetition, some phonics, somewhole language, some balanced
(03:51):
literacy, and during, during mytime in this industry, things
have really progressed so thatwhen we're talking about
literacy, we're not just talkingabout our ABCs.
We're also sometimes talkingabout our one, two, threes.
We're also talking about maybephysics, maybe we're talking
about rocket science, maybewe're talking about, um,
historical events and all ofthose things get wrapped up and
(04:15):
in the literacy umbrella,because you're absolutely right.
If you can't read, you are notgonna be able to have a
successful career as a student,as an adult.
And really it's gonna be hard insociety in general.
So the, the literacy content nowis so rich and so meaningful and
really does artfully encompassall of the content areas, um,
(04:41):
with which we work.
And so that's exciting.
Nicole Tomassi (04:44):
So do you feel that now that there's this more,
I guess, holistic approach, um,to literacy and the other
subject areas that are taught inK-12 that it is improving
academic outcomes across allsubject areas?
Jennifer Cole (04:58):
That is a great question.
And while I have not done awide-scale study of that, um, I
would like to think, yes, atleast with the products that I
have worked on over the years,you know, the results are
measurable that when a studentcan succeed in, in the basics of
(05:20):
reading and comprehension, theycan succeed more in all of the
content areas
Nicole Tomassi (05:29):
Makes sense to me, although somehow I just
never grasped those higher mathfunctions.
Jennifer Cole (05:33):
Nicole Tomassi (05:35):
I didn't have them in early literacy
Jennifer Cole (05:37):
I can actually decode them quite well though.
So,
Nicole Tomassi (05:41):
So Jennifer, you've been with Westchester for
a few months now and I'mwondering, how has the
experience been in getting toknow, um, the team that you're
working with internally as wellas the clients that you're
working with on their projects?
Jennifer Cole (05:55):
Oh, it's been a wonderful experience.
Uh, to be honest, Westchesterhas been such a welcoming place.
Uh, I really appreciate the, thehuman-centered workplace that
Westchester seeks to achieve andis constantly trying to improve
upon.
Uh, the relationships with myteam members are not only
(06:15):
meaningful, but alsointeresting.
You know, we work with such adiverse group of people and it's
wonderful to be able to have thespace and time to get to know
folks, to get to know differentworking styles, um, to, to have
relationships with clients, someof whom are new, some of whom
I've worked with before at othercompanies.
And it's, it's really been awonderful experience and, and it
(06:39):
, the months have flown by,
Nicole Tomassi (06:41):
Well, that's great.
I'm really happy to hear that.
Um, to take this in a bit of adifferent direction, um, as you
and I both know, there can bemany reasons why companies may
be hesitant about working withthe content development house,
such as Westchester, includingconcerns around the ability to
capture their particular voicein the content that's being
(07:02):
created or, you know, somethingas, as granular as the cost of
outsourcing, uh, developmentservices.
And I'm wondering if there's anykind of advice you would wanna
share with people who arethinking about those kind of
aspects?
Jennifer Cole (07:16):
Absolutely.
I think that if you're a clientlistening and you're hesitant
about working with a, a contentdevelopment house like
Westchester or specificallyWestchester, please come talk to
us and let's have a conversationabout what we can do for you and
how we can best represent yourinterests.
Um, especially about voiceNicole, that's so important that
we really on every singleproject and with every single
(07:38):
client strive to achieve theclient's voice as a vendor, the
materials that we're producingare our clients' materials.
And so we not only try toachieve that voice, uh, through
guidelines, through samples, butalso through conversations with
our clients, making sure that weunderstand the, the purpose.
Um, how the materials are gonnabe used in the classroom, how
(08:01):
these materials are gonna bedelivered, if there is a
specific tone and even somethings such as making sure that
we are using the samedictionary, the same copyediting
guidelines, um, making sure thatour, our style guides are what
our clients like and the waythat they use them.
And I'm really glad that youasked this question because it
(08:21):
is always a conversationactually that we have a lot with
, with new clients is how areyou going to make sure that this
is our product and not yourproduct?
And so that's something that asvendors, um, in an editorial
space that we really work hardto achieve.
And then in terms of the cost tooutsource services, we like to
(08:43):
work with our clients to makesure that the costs match our
clients' budgets as much aspossible.
When we put together bids andestimates, we make sure that we
are charging what we feel arefair market rates for the
services that we're providing.
But we also have discussionsabout what are we really
providing?
We don't want to overestimate.
(09:04):
We really don't want tounderestimate.
We want to give an accuratefinancial representation of the
services, and we want to makesure that it's clearly
understood what the deliverablesare, um, what the schedule looks
like, and really that we'regonna produce what our clients
are expecting on time on budgetand in their voice.
Nicole Tomassi (09:24):
Are you finding that clients are, are pleased in
the sense of the costs that theydon't always necessarily account
for in their budgets, includingfor project management or
multiple passes on the editorialcontent, those sorts of things,
it's, it's kind of taken offtheir plate and it frees up
their in-house staff to work onother key parts of that project
(09:47):
or another project.
Do you find that's this hiddenbenefit that surfaces from
working with a group likeWestchester?
Jennifer Cole (09:53):
Absolutely.
Um, I think that actually that'sone of the most important
benefits of working with a grouplike Westchester, is that we
have the resources to be able tocompliment our clients in house
staff.
And we might have resources thata client might not see a benefit
in keeping on full time or onstaff that we have access to.
(10:16):
Um, and especially we are ableto scale up for larger projects.
We're able to scale down forsmaller projects.
We work with hundreds andhundreds of freelancers who have
all different skill sets, and weare able to customize teams to
our clients' specific projectsand to the specific needs.
I think another benefit thatmaybe doesn't get talked enough
(10:39):
about is that because we are avendor and because we do work
with multiple clients over time,we internalize a large
understanding of differentproducts and different
educational approaches.
So one of the benefits that webring to our clients is being
able to say, this is a trendthat we're seeing in the market,
(10:59):
or, oh, what an interestingidea.
We have a suggestion about, youknow, this, this type of, um,
teacher feedback, or yes, we arefluent in the assessment
platform that you use becausewe've used it numerous times.
So we have the benefit ofworking on a lot of projects for
(11:23):
a number of different clients,and then generating additional
skills with every project thatwe work on.
Nicole Tomassi (11:31):
It's like getting the boutique experience,
all this collective wealth ofknowledge from across our client
base.
And we focus it to the specificneeds of that particular
client's project.
Jennifer Cole (11:43):
Yes, exactly.
So we offer a myriad of servicesin all the different content
areas and not just foreditorial, also for design, for
composition and for projectmanagement.
But the benefit of working withWestchester is that we really
personalize the experience toour clients.
We want to ensure that we areproducing the programs, the
(12:05):
components, the assessment, theteachers guides, the student
editions, the leveled readers,the decodable passages, the
scope and sequences, whatever itis that our clients are looking
for, that we are producing it ina way that not only informs our
clients, but informs the waythat we do our work.
So yes, I think you're right,Nicole.
(12:27):
I think that it is a trulyboutique experience with the
benefit of a larger vendor.
Nicole Tomassi (12:33):
So not to put you too much on the spot,
Jennifer, but especially overthe last couple of years with
things, including the pandemicand, um, the rising spotlight on
diversity, equity, andinclusion, how has that found
its way into how learningmaterials are created and the
way that they're delivered sothat they're in alignment with
(12:53):
state standards and whatpublishers want to be creating,
uh, to meet those guidelines?
Jennifer Cole (13:00):
Hmm, excellent question.
Uh, in my experience, the waythat materials are being created
and delivered, it has changed.
I mean, it's changedsignificantly over time and not
just because of the pandemic,but over the past 20 years, I've
gone from working on, they werecalled ectos.
They're big, huge pages withgrease pencils
the proverbial red pen to doingmost things digitally.
(13:23):
Um, at this point, I, I can'tbelieve it myself, but I don't
even have a printer in myoffice.
Um, so the materials though arestill being created by folks who
have a deep understanding of theeducational practices, because
either they've been trained inthem through classroom
experiences, or because theyhave had the experience of
working on, uh, materials forclassrooms for a number of
(13:45):
years.
We do so much now throughout thecountry.
And that's one of the greatthings actually that I think has
been an improvement.
Um, in publishing.
When I first started, of course,you're sitting in one place with
the people who are directlyaround you today, I work with
editors from, you know, theNortheast to the Southwest
everywhere in between and onmultiple continents.
(14:07):
Uh, and that includes writers,copy editors, freelancers, folks
who are great at decode abilityand readability and all of the
different services that weprovide within our editorial
groups.
Uh, so we are creating whenwe're creating national
programs, we're really workingwith folks who are in all these
various locations and arebringing their own experiences
to what they're doing.
(14:27):
You know, needless to say, wealso use a lot of different
platforms, but that we can talkabout that on another podcast.
In terms of the way thatmaterials are delivered.
We've seen a change in that too.
The rise of, uh, digitaldelivery, of course, with the
pandemic, having this, this kindof sudden shift to a lot of
digital first and digitalforward, um, product was kind of
(14:49):
jarring.
And so we are seeing most of ourcompanies that we work with, uh,
will either have a simultaneousrelease of a print and a digital
product, or a lot of folks aredoing a digital only product.
Uh, for us as editors that haschanged the delivery mechanism.
But the intent that we put intothe pages, the educational
(15:09):
experience that we're stilltrying to achieve, that hasn't
changed overly much because theultimate goal is educate kids in
the best way that we know how.
And I'm also really glad thatyou asked about DEI because this
is a great opportunity tomention.
I am so glad to be atWestchester because of our focus
on DEI and on CRE, we are reallytrying to be intentional about
(15:29):
the way that we creatematerials.
Um, this is something that ifyou're a current client of ours,
you hopefully will have alreadyknown this.
Um, but DEI and specifically CREreviews are something that we do
with almost every single productto make sure that students can
actually see themselves in thecontent.
You know, I think, um, recentlythere was an article I was
(15:50):
reading about standardizedtesting, and I'm sure that if
you've kept up with thingsyou've heard, you know,
standardized testing isn'tnecessarily fair.
It's not necessarily fairbecause there isn't this
representational lens instandardized testing.
Not all students can seethemselves in that.
Not all students are able toconnect.
And one of the things that wewant to do, like I said earlier,
(16:10):
is we really wanna make surethat the materials that we're
putting out into the educationalsphere are not only effective
educationally, but also reallygive students the opportunity to
connect with educationalmaterials in a meaningful way.
Nicole Tomassi (16:25):
That is such a well considered response.
Thank you for sharing that.
Jennifer, I just have one finalquestion to ask today and it's
something I really enjoy askingfirst time guests of the
podcast, because I've withoutfail, received very thoughtful
responses from them.
So the question is, is there onepiece of advice that you wish
someone had given you when youfirst started out in your
(16:48):
professional career?
Or is there something that youwould wanna share with others
that you've learned on yourjourney so far?
Jennifer Cole (16:54):
Mm, my advice to folks just starting out in their
professional career, and I don'tthink that this is specific to
educational publishing isadvocate for yourself.
When you see something thatinterests you in your career
path, go for it becauseultimately it might be fantastic
and you might end up, I don'tknow, becoming the director of
(17:17):
literacy humanities, andlanguages at some place
interesting like Westchester.
But really advocate for yourselfand go after what you want.
Nicole Tomassi (17:26):
Well, I'm glad you advocated for yourself and
that you are now here with therest of the team at Westchester
and bringing in all of yourexperience and knowledge along
with the rest of the team, intothe content that you're creating
for our clients.
I want to thank you so much forjoining me today on Westchester
Words.
Jennifer Cole (17:43):
Thank you so much for having me.
This has been really fun.
Nicole Tomassi (17:46):
We'll have to do it again sometime
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Mm-hmm
Nicole Tomassi (17:53):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Westchester words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites.
Westchester publishingservices.com and Westchester
education services.com for aninternational perspective, check
out our sister podcast,Westchester words, UK and
(18:13):
international available on theWestchester education, UK
website, Westchestereducation.co.uk or wherever you
stream podcasts.
We'd love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
emails a t Westchester w ords at Westchester ed SV, c s.com.
(18:34):
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
that we can cover in futureepisodes.
Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester w ords, when we'll
be having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education, edtech and publishing communities
until then stay s afe, be welland s tay tuned.
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