Breaking the Score Barrier — Dr. Mark King and Melinda Cook on Redefining Student Success

How do we move beyond the limits of a single test score to truly see the brilliance and potential of every child? In this riveting episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael Conner is joined by two extraordinary education leaders who bring over six decades of combined insight to answer that very question.

Dr. Mark King, Vice President of Education at Arts for Learning Maryland and author of The Middle School Master, joins Melinda Cook, Head of Assessment Strategies at Riverside Insights, to reimagine what it means to educate and evaluate the whole learner. With a fierce devotion to equity, they dismantle outdated models that narrowly define success, instead championing structures that are developmentally responsive, cognitively rich, and rooted in relationships.

From rethinking the master schedule to unlock deeper learning, to providing teachers with purpose-driven professional development, to using multiple measures of data that recognize each student's unique capacity—Dr. King and Ms. Cook offer a framework for systemic transformation. Their stories and strategies illuminate what’s possible when schools value students not just for their output but for their complexity, strengths, and promise.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

1. Why arts integration, engagement, and differentiation are essential to middle school success
2. How multiple measures of data reveal student potential—not just proficiency
3. Why professional development must evolve to align with Generation Alpha & Beta learners
4. How shifting from a deficit lens to an asset-based mindset changes lives
5. Why erroneous placement in special education is an equity issue—and what to do about it
6. How accountability should be redefined as growth-centered and relational, not punitive

Dr. Conner, as ever, guides the discussion with both urgency and humanity, highlighting how leaders must build agile, high-performing systems that honor students’ lived experiences, cultural assets, and future readiness. This episode is a call to see students as whole—as gifted, as creative, and as capable of extraordinary success.

Subscribe and share to continue driving the future of education for all.