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As of March 2025, Knowledge to Power Catalysts has become the publisher of Youth Today. Please visit youthtoday.org for not only our latest writing, but great content from across the allied youth fields.
Change The Odds Remix Archives
Learning happens everywhere. • Relationships and experiences drive development. • All young people have potential . • Opportunities are inequitable. • Schools cannot do this alone.
Commissioned Papers
The Knowledge to Power Catalysts team is sometimes commissioned to write papers that share and uplift many of the ideas we talk and write about here on Changing the Odds Remix. We are pleased to share these papers with you here.
The XQ Competencies provide a logical, coherent, and actionable framework for student learning that has the potential to transform the way we design learning experiences, assess student progress, and certify students’ successful acquisition of essential skills and knowledge.
“Equity-Centered Thriving” opens a door to new thinking, research, and practices that will challenge how thriving and equity can be expanded by goals and standards that are interdependent, cumulative, and culturally influenced.
“Too Essential to Fail” brings together a preponderance of evidence from disparate sources that combined gives us the confidence we need to create “a new education architecture” that leverages the full complement of community resources needed to empower and support learners for life, work, and civic engagement.”
Publications
Check out our latest blogs and articles in Remix Commentaries, short excerpts from recent conversations we’ve had in On the Record Interviews, and new additions to our field archives – Remix Classics.
Episodes from the Remix Podcast
The Power of Purpose in Youth Work
Karen Pittman is back in the interviewer’s chair for the final episode of season 2. Karen sits down with co-host Margarida Celestino to reflect back on the powerful messages from this season’s guests - Erin Giwer from the Boyse & Girls Club of Southern Maine,
Guiding & Inspiring Teens to Create Their Own Future
Co-host Margarida Celestino graduated from Casco Bay with a full-ride Questbridge Scholarship. She credits her guidance counselor, Stephanie Doyle, with connecting her to this prestigious opportunity. In this episode, Stephanie, Margarida, and Katherine Plog Martinez explore Stephanie’s role at Casco Bay as a member of the Student Support Team, crew advisor, and counselor.
Building Relationship Through Visibility
All adults play an important role in a school building. Becky Bell, the nurse at Casco Bay High School, knows all about this. In this episode, we return to Margarida Celestino’s high school in Portland, ME. Together, Nurse Bell, Margarida, and Katherine Plog Martinez explore how the Casco Bay Student Support Team identifies student needs, meets them, and further builds relationships. We’ll also explore how Nurse Bell connects with the broader Portland community.
Advocating for the Space Teens Deserve
Let’s continue our journey through Portland, ME with co-host Margarida Celestino. In this episode’s conversation, Teen Librarian Kelley Blue, Margarida and our Executive Producer Katherine Plog Martinez explore the role of the Portland Public Library's Teen Library in helping local teens to thrive.
Understanding, Reflecting, & Building Community at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine
In this episode, Margarida and our Executive Producer Katherine Plog Martinez talk to Erin Giwer, Senior Program Director at the Portland Clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maine...
Through Margarida’s Eyes: The Power of Connected Community
Margarida Celestino, who you may remember from Episode 2 in Season 1, has joined us as the co-host for the second season of the podcast. In this episode, Margarida kicks things off by taking us on a journey to her hometown of Portland, Maine.
Unlocking Community Through Collective Visibility & Voice
To begin transitioning from Season One’s focus on schools to Season Two’s focus on community-based settings, host Karen Pittman is joined by her KP Catalysts & Changing the Odds Remix partner and collaborator Katherine Plog Martinez.
Making Change Through Local Campaigns
In this Episode, host Karen Pittman talks with Ralph Smith about his work and lessons learned during his tenure at the Campaign for Grade Level Reading.
Remixing in Real Time
In our final episode of the season host Karen Pittman goes from interviewer to interviewee. Karen is joined by her Changing the Odds Remix teammate Katherine Plog Martinez to remix themes and ideas from the first four episodes – the role of all adults, the power of community, the diversity of learning settings, and more.
What Makes Up Equitable, Learner-Centered Ecosystems
In this Episode, host Karen Pittman talks with two members of the Education Reimagined team – Alin Bennet, Vice President of Practice and Field Advancement, and Olivia Christensen, a member of the Board and a student at Morningside University.
Why It’s Time to Humanize Teaching
In this Episode, Atyani Howard, Chief Program Officer for New Teacher Center, and Carlo Ramirez-Truse, the chair of the organization's youth advisory board, join host Karen Pittman for a dynamic conversation about New Teacher Center's push for educational equity.
Making Learning & Development a Team Sport
In this Episode, host Karen Pittman talks with Ron Berger, Senior Advisor, Teaching & Learning for EL Education, and Margarida Celestino, a freshman at Colgate University and alumnus of Casco Bay High School (an EL school).
Empowering Students Beyond the Classroom
In this Episode, host Karen Pittman continues her ongoing conversation with David Adams, CEO of Urban Assembly, bringing in Gizzelle Gonzales, a senior at the Urban Assembly School for Collaborative Health Care. Together, they explore the importance of providing students with multiple avenues for meaning making, highlight the importance of training and activating all of the adults in school and community placement settings, and identify whether or not it is possible to fully integrate academic, social, and emotional development and career readiness.
Introducing Changing the Odds Remix
Changing the Odds Remix elevates new ways of thinking, seeing, and acting on truths parents know and research confirms: Learning happens everywhere. Relationships and experiences drive development. All young people have potential. Opportunities are inequitable. Schools cannot do this alone. Changing the Odds Remix (including this new podcast) is Karen Pittman’s newest contribution to the thriving youth field.
Youth Today Q&A: Proposing an education overhaul that links kids to museums, libraries, parks, other community spaces of deep learning