EDU Café

As educational opportunities continue to expand beyond traditional classrooms, an important question remains: Are students' rights following them into these new learning environments?

In the latest episode of EDU Café Podcast, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Kelsey R. Ortiz, a friend and longtime advocate and researcher whose work has focused on ensuring that students with disabilities retain their rights in online, virtual, and alternative educational settings.

Kelsey and I first met more than a decade ago through the Center for Online Learning and Students with Disabilities, where we shared a passion for understanding how policy can support equitable access for all learners. In this conversation, we explore:

 🔹 The evolution of special education policy in digital learning environments

 🔹 Why constitutional and educational rights must remain at the center of innovation

 🔹 The growing gap between educational practice and policy

 🔹 Challenges districts and states face in protecting students in alternative settings

 🔹 Reasons for hope, including emerging advocates and new research on technology's impact on learning

This episode also launches a new EDU Café series focused on the intersection of policy, practice, and student rights. As education continues to evolve, these conversations are more important than ever.

A huge thank you to Kelsey for sharing her expertise and helping us frame this critical discussion.

#EDUCafe #SpecialEducation #EducationalEquity #StudentRights #DigitalLearning #OnlineLearning #EducationPolicy #Accessibility #InclusiveEducation #LeadershipInEducation

I’m excited to share the latest episode of the EDU Café Podcast, where I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Ellen Mandinach and Dr. Ed Dieterle for an incredibly thoughtful conversation about data literacy, data ethics, AI, and the future of education.

As schools increasingly rely on data and technology to guide instruction and decision-making, this discussion explored an essential question: How do we use data responsibly while still keeping relationships, critical thinking, and the whole child at the center of learning?

Some powerful themes from this episode:

• Why data literacy is about much more than test scores
• The importance of culturally responsive and ethical data use
• How AI can both support and disrupt teaching and learning
• The risks of over-automation and “de-skilling” educators
• Why teachers must remain critical thinkers—not just consumers of technology
• The importance of understanding students’ lived experiences and contexts

Dr. Mandinach shared from the conversation: “A child is not a single data point.”

Thank you both for joining EDU Café and for continuing to push the field forward in such meaningful ways.

#Education #DataLiteracy #DataEthics #AIinEducation #EdTech #EducationalLeadership #TeachingAndLearning #EDUCafePodcast

What if data isn’t neutral but, instead, actively shaping who students become?

In the latest episode of EDU Café, I sit down with Dr. Ezekiel Dixon-Román and Dr. Ed Dieterle to unpack one of the most urgent conversations in education today: how data, algorithms, and AI are influencing not just how we measure learning but how we define it.

We explore:
🔹 Why data is socially produced and interpreted, not objective
🔹 How AI is shaping learning and behavior
🔹 The hidden risks of “efficient” technologies in classrooms
🔹 What fairness, ethics, and human-centered design should look like in practice

A key takeaway from this conversation: Before adopting any new technology, we should ask not just, “Does it work?” but “Do we actually need it to do things better, to do better things, or both?”

Also check out: 

• Upcoming book with contributions from Ed and Ezekiel: Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517920050/learning-under-algorithmic-conditions/
• Upcoming University of Minnesota Press documentary directed by Valerie Veatch - Ghost in the Machine - that Ezekiel is featured in: https://kinema.com/films/ghost-in-the-machine-pvxg4p

#Education #EdTech #AIinEducation #DataEthics #EquityInEducation #LearningDesign 

🎙️ New EDU Cafe Podcast Episode: Understanding Dyscalculia in Today’s Classrooms

What if up to 8% of students in your classroom struggle with math, not because they aren’t trying but because of a neurological difference?

In my conversation with Dr. Sandra Elliott, we unpack the often-overlooked learning difference: dyscalculia.

💡 Key takeaways:

• Dyscalculia impacts number sense, calculation, and mathematical reasoning
• It’s as prevalent as dyslexia but far less understood
• Many students go undiagnosed, often labeled as “just not good at math”
• Early screening and explicit, systematic instruction can make a life-changing difference

Perhaps the most important reminder:

👉 Every classroom likely includes students with dyscalculia, whether we recognize it or not.

As educators, leaders, and advocates, we have an opportunity to shift the narrative around math learning and provide the support students truly need.

🎧 Tune in to learn the signs, support students effectively, and rethink math instruction.

#Education #Dyscalculia #SpecialEducation #MathEducation #MTSS #LearningDifferences #EdLeadership

Excited to share a new episode of EDU Café Podcast!

In this conversation, Liza Garonzik (founder of R.E.A.L. Discussion) sits down with Nora Landon of William Penn Charter School to explore a question many of us are grappling with:

In an AI-driven world, what matters more, not less, about being human?

A few ideas that really stayed with me:

💡 The growing need to explicitly teach human skills, such as listening, disagreement, and thoughtful dialogue

💡 Why discussion isn’t just an academic tool, but a pathway to confidence, connection, and agency

💡 How humanities classrooms can (and should) be humanity-first spaces, even as schools become more AI-forward

💡 The power of “authentic interaction” as the other AI schools should be focusing on. 

Check out the Humanity & Humanities in an AI World Educator Manifesto (https://realdiscussion.org/humanities-and-humanity-in-an-ai-world-an-educators-manifesto/), a grounded, hopeful framework for navigating this moment, not by resisting change, but by anchoring in purpose: 

I was grateful to support this work behind the scenes and to learn from such thoughtful educators pushing this conversation forward in real ways. 

Episode 2 of Future Plans’ Designing Opportunity mini-series is live, and it might challenge how you think about workforce development.

We often hear about the “talent gap.” But what if the real issue isn’t people…?

In this episode, Future Plans Christa Krohn facilitates a discussion with Betsy Franjola of Hocking Hills Garment Center, Josiah Hannah of Coalfield Development, and Stefano Alva of Vitruvian Building who explored a hidden bottleneck:

👉 Ready people + real opportunities still stall when communities lack the infrastructure to support them.

They talk about:
• Why workforce readiness is a systems design challenge
• The “invisible” barriers, including housing, transportation, childcare, utilities, permitting
• The real timeline (and cost) of building skills that didn’t previously exist in a region
• How policy and funding gaps can unintentionally discourage work
• Why “make-it-possible dollars” are essential to move from pilot to scale

🎧 Ready People, Unready Places: The Bottleneck Nobody Sees

#WorkforceDevelopment #CTE #EconomicDevelopment #FutureOfWork #EducationInnovation #CommunityDevelopment

I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Michelle Riconscente, PhD, CEO & co-founder of Valutare.AI and author of The AI Amplification Effect. 

We explored a powerful idea: AI doesn’t just change how we work; it amplifies who we already are.

We dug into the four work styles framework (analytical, driver, expressive, amiable) and what it means for how we lead, collaborate, and make decisions, especially in moments of stress.

A few takeaways:

💡 There is no “best” style; rather, success comes from flexibility.

💡 AI removes some of the natural guardrails we get from working with others, which can push our strengths into overdrive.

💡 What looks like resistance in teams may actually be someone leaning into their strength under stress.

💡 Staying human-centered in AI adoption isn’t optional; it’s essential.

As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about technology adoption in education, this conversation reinforced something important: implementation isn’t just technical → it’s deeply human.

We often talk about the “talent gap.”

But what if the problem isn’t talent?

What if it’s design?

In the first episode of our Designing Opportunity: From Job Readiness to Future Resilience series, we explored a fundamental question with Letha Pugh, an entrepreneur and workforce development leader, Dan Leffingwell, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Future Plans, and Nick Moore, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education:

Is workforce readiness really a talent problem or a systems problem?

The conversation brought together perspectives from policy, education, and community leadership, and a few powerful themes emerged.

🔹 We are talent rich but exposure poor.
Research shows many students possess the strengths for high-demand careers but simply aren’t exposed to them.

🔹 Systems often work against mobility.
Fragmented programs, benefit cliffs, and siloed policies can trap people in cycles of poverty even when they’re trying to advance.

🔹 Workforce development must address the whole person.
Childcare, transportation, housing stability, and mental health support often determine whether someone can actually stay in a job.

🔹 Opportunity doesn’t happen by accident.
It must be intentionally designed through coordination between education, employers, policy leaders, and communities.

As one panelist put it:

“The talent isn’t missing. Alignment is.”

If we want future resilience, for rural and urban communities alike, we need systems that connect talent, opportunity, and support.

This is just the start of the conversation.

Episode 2 will explore another challenge: “Ready People and Unready Places: The Bottleneck Nobody Sees.”

🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Network of Networks: Innovation to Support All Learners

What does it take to create systemic change for students with disabilities and learning differences?

In the latest episode of EDU Café Podcast, I had the opportunity to host Aurora Dreger of InnovateEDU to discuss the work underway through the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) and how cross-organizational collaboration can help drive meaningful change.

We talked about:

🔹 Why education needs a “network of networks” approach

🔹 How EALA connects over 170 organizations to share insights, resources, and solutions

🔹 The Community of Action model, a 36-hour accelerator that turns ideas into funded initiatives

🔹 What school leaders should prioritize when developing AI policies that protect student safety and privacy

If you're a school leader, educator, policymaker, or edtech leader thinking about inclusion, innovation, and responsible AI in education, I hope you'll take a listen.

Dr. Hruska, who serves as a Senior English Instructor at Stanford Online High School (SOHS), guest hosted with four SOHS students, including Hannah Poplack, Sadie Giessner, Maxwell Palance, and Wanzie Li,  to talk about how real inclusion happens and why student leadership is essential.

They discussed:

💡 Creating advocacy groups like the Neurodivergent Student Alliance and Disability Culture Club

💡 Why accessibility needs to be designed intentionally, not added as an afterthought

💡 The power of sharing lived experiences

💡 How online environments can support neurodivergent students in unexpected ways

💡 What schools can learn by listening to students first

One of the most powerful takeaways:

Accessibility is not a niche issue. It benefits entire communities.

The students also share stories about building community, from advocacy petitions to Minecraft servers to flashlight walks at school events.

Their message is clear: meaningful inclusion requires thought, intentionality, effort, and collaboration.

And when students are part of the process, real change can happen.