As we enter a third year of schools being hugely impacted by COVID 19, Diane Tavenner and Michael Horn launch a third season of the Class Disrupted podcast, and for the first time record in person! In their unique twist on the tradition of back-to-school shopping they explore the top five wants, and realize they might not be able to find everything they need.

Diane and Michael welcome listeners back for a third season of Class Disrupted and reflect on how urgent it is to rethink the fundamental structures undergirding schools—and how this year might afford more opportunities for communities to implement some significant changes.

In the final episode of Season 2 of Class Disrupted, Diane and Michael talk through four recurrent themes on the podcast—and how each conversation would benefit from more nuance. The topics? Politics, testing, location of learning, and doing something with versus doing something to your community.

Students, parents and educators are all exhausted from the past year—and here comes summer! How should the time be used and how will it be used? Diane and Michael offer some takes—and dig into some new research around accelerating students versus offering them remediation.

Joel Rose, cofounder of Teach to One, joins Michael and Diane to talk about why now is the moment to lean into innovation—not back away from it—and how we need new learning models to advance the possibilities for all students, not just the third who get by in the current education system.

With an unprecedented cash infusion going to public schools from the federal government, Michael and Diane interview noted school finance expert Marguerite Roza to understand the contours of the new funding landscape and what are the opportunities – and risks – for schools and districts.

Since very early in the pandemic, education policy expert John Bailey has been in front of collecting key data and research about COVID and its impact on education and disseminating that research to leaders in education. Diane and Michael caught up with John to talk about the learnings from the pandemic thus far.

Diane and Michael dig deep into the importance of an inclusive design process to rethink schooling with the co-CEOs of Transcend Education, Aylon Samouha and Jeff Wetzler.

As the CDC once again revised its guidance around school reopening and the Department of Education drums up conversation around summer school, Diane and Michael dig into who is driving the narrative around the future of schooling and why that matters.

Diane and Michael plan with the end in mind and backward map the top 5 things schools must have in place before students start the school year in the fall.