AI expert and Minerva University senior Irhum Shafkat joins Michael and Diane to discuss where AI has been, where it’s going, and the rate at which it’s moving. We also discuss the many forms the technology takes, its implications for humanity, and, of course, its applications in education – as told by a student.

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Todd Rose returns to share compelling findings about what Americans do and don’t want from their schools, institutions and lives. Spoiler alert! They are rejecting fame, fortune and higher ed as markers of success, and instead want community and financial security. Michael and Diane explore what this might mean for schools.

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Back for Season 5, Michael and Diane catch up on their summers and book reading, Diane’s new entrepreneurial venture, PointB, the season ahead—and then offer some hot takes on the reading wars and Lucy Caulkins, four-year college-for-all, and education jargon.

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In their last episode of the season, Diane and Michael delve into the role fear and anxiety may be playing behind the community outbursts that have bedeviled so many school leaders. And they suggest a path forward that doesn’t seek to show why one side is wrong, but instead starts with deep listening and empathy.

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Michael and Diane grapple with a concept that pushes their understandings of the test-and-learn approach in education innovation and see the beauty of embracing a child-like approach to learning and exploring boundaries to understand where new ideas work—and maybe more importantly, where they break.

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Michael and Diane talk about one of the biggest things to come out of the pandemic: the groundswell movement from parents and others to finally teach children how to read in line with the best evidence from the science of reading. And they express misgivings of whether a legislative approach that bans certain teaching approaches will ultimately help each and every student learn—and ponder the downsides of such an approach.

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In the aftermath of horrific school shootings across the country, schools have instituted a range of security measures. Diane and Michael argue that these steps likely have a cost in eroding mental health, which may further contribute to violence in schools and society. The point isn’t that schools shouldn’t “harden” per se, but that these steps are design decisions—and that schools must be more intentional about the ones they make, and why.

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With declining enrollment becoming a staple in American higher education and more students and families souring on the expense of a college education, Diane points out that this can an opportunity—and then puts Michael to the entrepreneurial test in designing what a college alternative might look like.

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As Diane Tavenner prepares to step down from 20 years of founding and leading Summit Public Schools, she shares some of her lessons from which educators, policymakers, and parents can all learn. Hint: It’s all about the students.

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All too often money is a taboo subject in schools—or at least any discussion that doesn’t talk about how schools need more of it. In this episode, Diane and Michael think through how that limits innovation on behalf of students and what could change the culture and actions of schools around this subject.

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