How the Metacognitive Cycle Creates Equity and Strengthens Democracy
Mimi & Todd Press is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Metacognitive Clarity: Think Rigorously. Advance Democracy. (Fall 2025), a powerful new book by Paul J. Bloomberg, Isaac Wells, and St. Claire Adriaan, with a foreword by Jeneca Parker-Tongue, Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Collaborative for Social Emotional Learning & Leading (C-SELL) at Hunter College. Together, these voices redefine what schools must do to prepare students for a democratic future.
The authors argue that the survival of democracy depends on cultivating metacognitive equity—ensuring every learner has the tools to think about their thinking. This includes access to the metacognitive cycle: monitoring progress, evaluating evidence, reflecting on strategies, self-assessing against clear criteria, and setting purposeful goals. These practices are the sparks of democratic life, the daily flickers of reflection that ignite rigorous thought, meaningful connection, and collective action.
St. Claire Adriaan, co-author, recent Harvard graduate, and principal at PUC CALS Middle and High School in Los Angeles, explains the urgency:
“As a high school principal, I witness daily the profound effects of modern technology and digital consumption on our students’ capacity for rigorous thinking. The screen-dominated landscape has eroded their ability to engage in critical analysis, while simultaneously fostering increased narcissism, loneliness, and social anxiety. These challenges have convinced me that developing metacognitive clarity, the ability to think about thinking itself, is not merely an academic exercise but an urgent democratic imperative.”
Metacognitive Clarity provides educators, leaders, and families with concrete strategies to:
- Build metacognitive equity and clarity by ensuring every learner and every family has the strategies and supports to reflect, self-assess, and set goals together. Families bring essential knowledge of their children’s strengths, cultural identities, and learning dispositions.
- Harness the metacognitive cycle as the engine of learning and equity. Families and schools co-create opportunities for learners to plan, monitor, and evaluate their growth, making thinking visible across home and school contexts.
- Interrupt inequities that deny students and families the cognitive tools needed for full participation in society. Invite families to participate in the work of naming barriers, co-designing solutions, and ensuring every learner has access to powerful metacognitive strategies.
- Anchor classrooms in democratic practices such as shared inquiry, evidence-informed decisions, and collective responsibility. Extend these practices beyond the classroom by engaging families in dialogue, listening sessions, and collaborative decision-making that shape the learning community.
About the Authors
Paul J. Bloomberg, Ed.D., is a national school improvement coach, former principal, district leader, and coach. He is the best-selling co-author of Leading Impact Teams (now in its second edition) and has co-authored multiple books on learner-centered assessment. Paul is the founder and CEO at The Core Collaborative, a professional learning network dedicated to advancing learner agency through democracy-driven approaches and collaborative leadership.
Isaac Wells, NBCT, is the Director of Impact at The Core Collaborative and the Director of Mimi & Todd Press. He has co-authored multiple books on formative assessment and is a national expert in early learning and instructional coaching. Isaac partners with schools across the country to embed the metacognitive cycle into daily practice, ensuring that even the youngest learners develop the habits of reflection and goal-setting that fuel equity and democracy.
St. Claire Adriaan, Ed.M., is a lifelong educator, Harvard graduate, and high school principal at PUC CALS in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Apartheid South Africa, he learned early that education was his most powerful weapon against systemic oppression. Nationally recognized for his expertise in family-school partnerships and equity-centered leadership, he emphasizes whole-child development, democratic participation, and student ownership—creating schools where young people are inspired, empowered, and prepared to lead with clarity and purpose.
Jeneca Parker-Tongue, Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Collaborative for Social Emotional Learning & Leading (C-SELL) at Hunter College and a Distinguished Principal of the Year for Manhattan, contributes the foreword. She brings her expertise in transformational SEL (tSEL), leadership, and equity to frame Metacognitive Clarity within the urgent national dialogue about democracy, well-being, and belonging.
Publication Information
Metacognitive Clarity: Think Rigorously. Advance Democracy.
By Paul J. Bloomberg, Isaac Wells, and St. Claire Adriaan
Foreword by Jeneca Parker-Tongue
Publisher: Mimi & Todd Press
Publication Date: Fall 2025
For review copies, interviews, or more information, please contact:
Isaac Wells
Executive Director of Publishing
isaac@mimitoddpress.com
(619) 631-85MT (68)