Phil Poekert
Professor/Director | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Phil Poekert leads the Lastinger Center for Learning to educational innovations through partnerships, research, development, and advocacy.
Biography
Phil Poekert is a clinical professor and director of the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning. Since being appointed in 2018, Phil has led the Lastinger Center through exponential growth in products, projects and staff while streamlining the Center’s focus on impacting achievement across three educational milestones: kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, and algebra.
Phil joined the Lastinger Center in 2006 as a graduate assistant and has climbed through the ranks of the organization. Previously serving as faculty and assistant director, he has led the development and expansion of local, state, and national initiatives. Beginning his career with Teach For America in the South Bronx, then teaching in secondary schools in California, Phil moved back to Florida to teach at his hometown middle school in West Palm Beach before working for UF in Miami for 10 years and then moving to Gainesville in 2017.
Phil has presented at numerous state, national and international research conferences, has published in national and international journals, and serves on the executive editorial board of the Professional Development in Education journal. In collaboration with the journal and other partner institutions, Phil co-hosts the recurring Leadership for Professional Learning international symposium and has co-edited the resulting special issues.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Policy Advocacy
Educational Innovations
Teacher Education
Professional Learning and Development
Teacher Leadership
University Partnerships
Media Appearances (5)
Destacado experto internacional entregó herramientas para enfrentar desafíos en materia de educación
G5 Noticias online
2024-07-21
La educación siempre ha sido un tema relevante a nivel mundial. Por eso, dialogar y reflexionar en torno a su desarrollo y a los desafíos que enfrenta, es una práctica necesaria para los educadores, que permanentemente buscan adquirir nuevos conocimientos para mejorar la calidad de la educación y traspasar al aula las más modernas prácticas docentes.
Newly signed bill creates UF Lastinger Center for Learning statute and tutoring program
UF News online
2024-05-10
School districts, educators and students will receive extra support from the University of Florida to improve student outcomes in early learning, literacy and math thanks to House Bill 1361, which was signed into law Thursday. Funded by the Legislature and approved by the Governor, the statute entrusts the UF Lastinger Center for Learning with a new statewide tutoring program and will support services to boost early learning and K-12 achievement throughout the state.
UF Lastinger Center’s New Worlds Reading Initiative distributes 5 million books
UF News online
2024-03-08
In just over two years, New Worlds Reading has shipped more than 5 million books to eligible students throughout the state. The initiative has served more than 320,000 children and, as of July 2023, has expanded to serve eligible children enrolled in Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) programs.
UF launches listening tour to boost K-12 math achievement
Florida Politics online
2023-09-14
The University of Florida (UF) Lastinger Center for Learning has launched its 2023 Listening Tour aimed at gathering stakeholder input on education needs and identifying ways to substantially improve K-12 mathematics education and achievement in Florida. “At the Lastinger Center, we always strive to serve communities, educators, students and their families in the ways that work best and make the biggest difference in their future,” Center Director Phil Poekert said.
Florida will begin delivering free books to students reading below grade level
WPTV tv
2021-11-19
Florida is aiming to improve childhood literacy among students who are struggling to read. This December, the state will start delivering free, high-quality books to the homes of K-5 students who are below their expected reading level. Known officially as the "New Worlds Reading Initiative," the book deliveries will start before Dec. 31 for the 2021/22 academic year.
Articles (3)
Leadership for Professional Learning Perspectives, Constructs and Connections
RoutledgeSue Swaffield & Philip E. Poekert
2024-08-26
This book brings together a collection of inquiries into the connections between educational leadership, understood as an activity that can be performed by both educators and students, and professional learning, understood as an activity undertaken by educators to improve teaching and learning within educational settings.
A pragmatic meta-model to navigate complexity in teachers’ professional Learning
Professional Development in EducationFiona King, et. al
2023-08-21
The voluminous literature on teacher professional learning and development presents varied definitions and perspectives on what constitutes professional learning and development. Several terms have been used in the literature in recent decades to describe teachers’ learning, most notably, in-service, continuing professional development, professional development, and more recently professional learning. These are often used interchangeably without critique.
‘The Cookie’: a recipe for effective collaboration through communities of practice
Contemporary Issues in Practitioner EducationRaquel M. Diaz
2021-03-14
Communities of Practice (CoP) have the potential to transform the workplace into learning organisations that prioritise each and every child’s learning and foster collective responsibility, encouraging teachers to see themselves as change agents beyond their classrooms. Previous manifestations of collaborative teaming approaches have met with mixed success for reasons explored within this article. Still, these kinds of work spaces, when sustained over time, can transform the organisational culture of a school.
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