Education Evolution

Many of us go into our fields because we're inspired by someone who supported us as youth or we see something that we want to fix. For Vanessa Castañeda Gill, this week's guest, it was something else. She wanted to fix herself.

After a neurodivergent diagnosis at 14, then hiding that diagnosis from everyone but her family for more than six years, Vanessa was looking for a way to be successful. She had heard so many stories about those with a similar diagnosis that she tried to fit that mold. Through studying neuroscience, Vanessa hoped to fix herself. What she discovered instead was that she wasn't broken at all but rather could have used some additional resources and support as a teen so she wouldn't feel so alone.

That's where Social Cipher came from. And this week on the podcast, Vanessa is sharing more about how her platform supports neurodivergent youth and their parents and community.

The structure of Vanessa's team is incredibly unique and it's just what an organization that supports differently wired kids needs to be successful.

Listen in this week and learn more about how to step up and support those with neurodivergence.

It's Vanessa Castañeda Gill's mission to unite her passions for art and stories in innovative ways that help people. Learning from her experiences growing up on the autism spectrum, she founded Social Cipher: a game-based social-emotional learning platform for neurodiverse youth and the professionals who work with them. Her 50% neurodivergent team recently released their game series, Ava: a space-pirate adventure that explores social challenges through the eyes of an autistic protagonist. Vanessa and her team have earned recognition as Forbes 30 Under 30s, AT&T Aspire Fellows, and Facebook Global Gaming Citizens.

• [1:50] - Why Vanessa is interested in neurodiverse youth
• [5:26] - Social Cipher Platform
• [7:15] - Parents can use the system too
• [8:08] - Collaboration with big organizations
• [9:22] - A neurodivergent team
• [10:43] - Adding to the platform
• [12:24] - How to support neurodivergent kids to the fullest
• [15:12] - Turbo Time
• [18:17] - What people need to know about neurodivergence
• [21:13] - How to be an activist in supporting neurodivergence in schools
• [23:23] - Vanessa's Magic Wand
• [24:37] - Maureen's Takeaways

• Social Cipher
• Learn Play Thrive podcast episode
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

This week on the podcast, I'm sharing some of my own biggest takeaways from the summit and giving you access to all the presentations, even if you didn't sign up ahead of time.

If we want to change the face of education, we have to keep talking about it and we need to take what we've learned and take action. I hope this episode is the catalyst for such action on your part.

• [1:14] - Commitment to learner-centered models
• [1:53] - EdActive Collective to pull together educational trailblazers
• [3:44] - Shift in collective from activism to having inspirational speakers keep hopes and dreams alive
• [4:21] - Highlights of our summit
• [6:47] - Models that tap into resources in the community and business world
• [8:21] -We don't have an updated school system that can apply neuroscience to learning
• [9:42] - We need more youth empowerment and youth activism
• [11:02] - Relational learning models
• [12:15] - Our school leaders need more support and less isolation
• [14:16] - We need to look to others to help us unpack diversity
• [16:06] - Access the summit presentations for everyone

• EdActive Collective
• Access the summit presentations here
• Access the past episodes of the podcast
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

We know that kids learn best when they're interested in the curriculum. But our traditional model leaves a lot to be desired. Prescribed curriculum regurgitated in front of a classroom full of quietly sitting children is not the way to interest those children.

Instead, we need kids to be involved. We need them to forge their own paths and learn through inquiry. That's exactly how School Lane Charter School in Bensalem, Pennsylvania operates. And the school is on the cutting edge of finding new ways for teaching and learning with inclusion in mind.

This week, I'm talking to Karen Schade, leader of that school for the last 20+ years. She shares my beliefs that not every child is destined for a four-year university, and yet we can still support them to academic excellence. That achievement looks different for every child and we must educate our communities that yesterday's style isn't what today should look like.

Listen in to how School Lane Charter School is making waves with its teaching model, grading system, and inclusion opportunities for all students, no matter their path.

• [1:46] - Creating a learner-centered school
• [3:32] - Find a place where your values can come to fruition
• [4:42] - Using a co-teaching model
• [6:09] - It wasn't just inclusion; it was about figuring out what they wanted to do in future
• [7:18] - Pick the best when you start a school
• [9:01] - Other key features to School Lane
• [11:09] - Unique grading system
• [13:40] - Unique school day and school year
• [15:22] - Biggest struggles to creating a new model for community
• [18:00] - Every student is an individual
• [18:48] - Creating opportunities based on something different from others
• [20:22] - Kids don't have to go off to 4-year college
• [22:19] - Limiting gatekeepers
• [23:43] - Rigor isn't a bar that everyone reaches; they all have their own bar
• [25:31] - What leaders and parents can do to create a school like this
• [28:07] - Turbo Time
• [29:25] - What you need to know about student-driven learning
• [32:09] - Karen's Magic Wand
• [34:02] - Maureen's takeaways

• School Lane Charter School
• International Baccalaureate
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• Three Rules to Spark Learning - TED Talk with Ramsey Musallum
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

We've all learned so much from the pandemic, and school leaders and superintendents are no exception. In addition, things that we knew from being inside the schools have been spotlighted to the public, thanks to social media and the news media.

While that might be good for conversations around change, there's still a lot to unpack and many hurdles and red tape to get around.

This week on the podcast, I'm talking with Doug Roberts, an educational consultant who works with education entrepreneurs and district superintendents. He's recognized the importance of connecting leaders across state lines to help bridge the gaps that are all too evident now.

We're talking about changes on the horizon thanks to 1:1 models that were realized during the pandemic, why leaders are hitting their limit of what they can give, and the hardest part of being an educational leader.

We need to continue having conversations like this as we strive to give leaders the tools and support they need to continue the impact they desire.

Doug has worked with leading ed-tech entrepreneurs and district administrators for almost 20 years, developing partnerships that improve outcomes for students and help nascent organizations get their "sea legs."

As Founder and President of Educational Solutions Consulting, Doug found that there was a piece of the puzzle missing, a barrier between those who run school districts and those who start companies to help school districts. He partnered with some of the nation's most innovative educational leaders to form IEI to bridge that gap.

A Princeton graduate, Doug is a former public high school social studies teacher and ed-tech business development executive who earned his Ed.M. in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

• [1:48] - What if there were a different way for district leaders to interact and grow as leaders
• [4:07] - We have to have time together to percolate
• [4:28] - Biggest roadblocks for district leaders
• [6:07] - The hardest part of the job is the importance of it
• [7:59] - Our most important capital for educators
• [9:21] - Key lessons superintendents are learning
• [12:01] - We don't all have to have a traditional school schedule
• [12:35] - Leaders are hitting the limit of their ability to give
• [13:45] - Great resignation in schools
• [14:50] - People aren't leaving the profession; they're leaving the traditional public system
• [17:07] - Superintendents are thinking about educational competition
• [19:06] - Finland's educational model
• [21:50] - We're asking schools to take whole child approach but we haven't added to the funding
• [24:11] - Create learning that works for all
• [27:30] - Doug's Magic Wand
• [30:16] - Maureen's Takeaways

• Institution for Education Innovation
• Education Thought Leaders podcast
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

Being a parent is hard. Being a parent of a child who will one day graduate from high school and have to make decisions about what to do next is even more difficult. And they're one and the same.

In the United States, we live in a tragedy of student loan debt. According to Investopedia, Americans hold about $1.75 trillion in student loan debt. And while the government debates on whether to forgive some of that debt or continue to defer it, our youth continue to apply for student loans.

It's time for a real conversation about the support that's available to students, what parents' responsibility should be, and why the school a child attends (if any) is no reflection on the parent. And shouldn't be.

This week on the podcast, Ken Ruggiero, chairman and CEO of Ascent Funding shares what might be some unpopular (but very realistic) thoughts on higher education. He gets real about why students exit college without a degree or with loans they can't pay back. It's an equation, and Ken is sharing his organization's (free) tool to determine whether the school a teen is choosing is a good investment or if they should look elsewhere.

Be sure to tune in!

Ken, Chairman and CEO of Ascent Funding, is a veteran and innovator in higher education finance with more than 25 years spent managing start-up through Fortune 1000 companies, helping them create meaningful change and improvement in their delivery of financial services. Throughout his career Ken has worked tirelessly to improve access to higher education and he continues to be a passionate advocate for expanded financial literacy and transparency in the space.

During his tenure at Goal Financial, from 2003-2007, the company originated more than $8 billion in student loans and became a top 10 student-loan provider. After the company's exit from the lending space in 2008, Ken spearheaded the reinvention of Goal Financial into Goal Solutions, a leading provider of asset management in the education finance industry. Under his leadership, Goal Solutions has significantly grown their service and product offerings, eventually reentering the origination space in 2017 with the creation of Ascent Funding.

• [1:40] - The student loan debt tragedy
• [3:50] - What support is out there for students
• [4:47] - Education spending is an investment
• [6:38] - Revolutionizing how students plan, pay for, and succeed in school
• [9:08] - The difference between student loans and home loans
• [12:30] - There's almost too much data available to help you determine your future college
• [16:15] - The system is designed to get you into debt and get you into school
• [17:28] - Maureen's personal scenario as a mom
• [18:40] - Where to start with not relying on a parents' money for law school
• [24:38] - What to pay attention to with young children and kids close to college
• [32:59] - Dual enrollment and changing financial trajectory
• [35:30] - What parents need to do to be more financially savvy about paying for higher [42:18] - Encourage kids to bring you adult problems
• [46:45] - Know your parameters, even if you don't like them
• [49:40] - Combine capital and learning and support for the best results
• [51:00] - Ken's Magic Wand - How Ken would recreate the higher ed funding landscape
• 40% are first time learners
• [58:04] - Maureen's takeaways

• Ascent Funding
• Bright Futures Tool
• Ascent Connect Success Platform
• Episode 39: Creating Human-Centered Learning
• Edgecombe County Public Schools Graduate Aims
• View the April 2022 EdActive summit presentations
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

Too many educational systems determine the success or failure of students based on just a few assessments. Assessments that don't have a clear goal or purpose, aside from measuring what children can memorize and regurgitate back.

This week on the podcast, we're talking about going beyond those assessments and looking at the purpose of assessments and creating a system that's relevant, equitable, and student-driven.

Kristine Hadeed of Beyond Multiple Choice is sharing her personal perspective as well as that of her organization. And she digs into the value of not only assessing students in a different way but also looking at how we're assessing teaching and teacher training.

This is an important conversation as we head into the final weeks of the school year, but it's also one we should be having as we're planning out next school year. I hope you'll tune in!

Kristine Hadeed is a Marketing and Communications Strategist for Perigean Technologies, a research and design company that helps organizations improve cognitive performance through engineering and learning.

At Perigean, Kristine helps organize Beyond Multiple Choice, a free virtual event series that explores one overarching question:

"How can we move beyond multiple-choice to better assess the effectiveness of learning, teaching, and training?"

A former classroom educator and Teach for America alumna, Kristine frequently engages in discussions and community organizing around education reform. She is passionate about helping to share ideas surrounding important social issues in ways that are digestible and actionable for the general public. Beyond Multiple Choice seeks to do just that by involving diverse education stakeholders in public discussions on how we can reimagine assessment to transform learning outcomes.

• [2:02] - Unpacking accessibility in conferences
• [3:17] - Starting the movement
• [6:50] - More cross-collaboration is needed
• [8:17] - Teachers need the time and support to use the research and tech
• [9:15] - People in ed space know what's best but the problem is more systemic factors, change management, and creating buy-in
• [11:10] - Everyone has a stake in education
• [17:06] - Academics and classroom management is important but there's so much more that goes into cultivating emotional needs of kids
• [19:54] - How do we assess training of teachers
• [27:12] - Upcoming conference
• [30:03] - Turbo Time
• [34:11] - What everyone needs to know about assessment of learning
• [35:32] - How to be an activist
• [37:19] - Kristine's Magic Wand
• [38:54] - Maureen's Takeaways

• Beyond Multiple Choice Summit - Advancing Public Discourse Around Assessment
• Beyond Multiple Choice
• Teach for America
• We Speak for Ourselves by D. Watkins
• Why I, as a Black Man, Attend KKK Rallies - Daryl Davis TEDx Talk
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

We spend so much time worrying about whether students will engage with the curriculum that we forget a really important part of the equation. Yes, students need to be interested. But what about the teachers? If the curriculum isn't easy to navigate and fun to use, teachers aren't likely to utilize all the tools and resources available. And that means the students will miss out too.

At the same time, sometimes the more open and flexible the curriculum is, the more challenging it is for students. Remember Whole Language Schools? Back in the day, we didn't necessarily teach foundational skills the way that students needed to learn it. Instead, a focus on the science of literacy is necessary, just like we teach math–from a research-based perspective.

This week on the podcast, Lisa O'Masta of Learning A through Z is sharing how her organization is leading the way for this new way of thinking about literacy skills.

Tune in now!

As a strategic change agent and leader serving the education market for over 20 years, Lisa brings her passion for education and commitment to effective student outcomes to every organization she serves. As President for Learning A-Z, Lisa is working to energize and evolve the market leading, digital-first organization in service of K-6 students.

Prior to joining Learning A-Z, Lisa drove the disruption of the core curriculum market and set the framework that has become the standard for creation and distribution of high quality open educational resources as CEO for Illustrative Mathematics. She established and nurtured an exceptional team and community while always keeping the voice of the customer as the priority. Additionally, Lisa served as an executive for successful educational organizations including the institutional division of K12, Inc (aka Stride) and the K-12 core, intervention, and supplemental products at McGraw-Hill Education. In these roles, Lisa brought leadership and impactful experiences for students and educators.

Lisa brings her creative approach combined with her analytic thinking to ensure success of students and the organization. From start-up organizations like eInstruction, SchoolNet, and Illustrative Mathematics to established changing organizations like Laureate Education, K12, Inc and McGraw-Hill Education, Lisa brings an intellectual curiosity and pragmatic delivery that has resulted in positive student outcomes in companies that she serves.

Lisa holds a Bachelor degree in Marketing from Towson University and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

• [1:39] - How we used to teach literacy
• [2:45] - Applying math instruction knowledge to literacy
• [3:19] - When you talk about the science of instruction, the real focus is on human being
• [5:04] - Crack the code with foundational skills
• [5:41] - Reading A-Z and other resources
• [6:35] - How Reading A-Z is different
• [9:01] - The importance of formative assessments
• [9:30] - Resources for older kids should be appropriate for the age
• [11:13] - We're usually stuck teaching to the middle
• [11:42] - Times of pulling out students for intervention is no longer
• [12:30] - Supporting through the summer slide
• [13:34] - Applying skills to give back
• [15:43] - Giving access outside the classroom
• [18:09] - What to include in well-rounded literacy support
• [21:05] - Turbo Time
• [26:30] - Lisa's Magic Wand
• [28:15] - Maureen's Takeaways

• Learning A-Z
• EdActive Summit
• Unicef Kid Power
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

The ease with which we can travel and connect with others across the globe is mind-blowing, when you think about how people traveled and communicated just a generation or two ago. But yet, in some of the lower-income communities in the U.S., people often live and work within a 10-block radius. That means the children of these communities have their worlds limited to these confines too.

That's what makes what Dr. Naomi Johnson-Booker even more extraordinary. This week on the podcast, Dr. Booker is sharing how the Global Leadership Academy is growing global citizens, starting in kindergarten.

Travel opens up minds and hearts, and it also opens up incredible opportunities for these students, who travel across their state of Pennsylvania, into Canada, and even as far as China, the Caribbean, and Kenya. As K-8 students!

I'm in awe of all that Dr. Booker has been able to accomplish since founding this school and I hope our conversation provides inspiration to you!

Dr. Booker is 76 years old and still works with the motivation and strength she had when she first entered education more than 50 years ago. Dr. Booker's claim to fame is that after leaving the School District of Philadelphia where she went from a 3rd-grade teacher to an assistant superintendent, she created the first K-8 public charter school in the United States to send urban scholars on expeditions at every grade level to include international travel.

And this dedicated septuagenarian has more than one job—she is the Founder and CEO of the Global Leadership Academy Charter School West, Founder and Executive Director of Global Academies, and Founder and Administrator of Global Leadership Academy Charter School Southwest. Her scholars come from neighborhoods in which children tend not to travel beyond their 10-block radius. Dr. Booker breaks them out of that radius by taking them to culturally relevant historic sites in Center City such as Mother Bethel AME Church where Richard Allen is buried. With each grade level, the scholars travel further from home on GLA's K-8 designed pathway that includes visiting rural PA in the Amish Country, the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, following the Underground Railroad from the Belmont Mansion to Canada, embarking on a civil rights tour spanning Birmingham, Atlanta, and Memphis where Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered, and in 8th grade, they travel to an international destination based on the school year's studies. These passport-holding young teens and tweens have been to Africa, China, Bahama, Haiti, Jamaica, and will continue to add more nations each year once travel can safely resume. Dr. Booker has received the School District of Philadelphia's prestigious Lindback award, named as a "Woman of Distinction" by the Philadelphia Business Journal, and recognized by the Philadelphia City Council as a "Living Legend." At the time of this writing, Dr. Booker is completing an application to add a high school.

• [1:54] From not wanting to teach to Johnson became transformational leader
• [3:46] Principals can make or break a school & the future of so many youth
• [4:25] Doing things differently, starting in the 90s
• [7:54] Early teaching developed new curriculum to teach about the city
• [10:36] Doing what's right for kids: get them out of 10-block radius, let them see the world
• [11:29] K-8 scholars travel the world
• [16:38] Learning how to give back, community service
• [17:07] Real world experiences stick
• [18:03] Children are not a test score
• [20:46] Pandemic was opportunity to change the way we do things
• [21:31] 50 years in education and still trying to create more
• [26:30] Turbo Time
• [37:16] The great part of traveling with youth
• [38:59] Magic Wand
• [43:23] Maureen's takeaways

• Global Academies
• Learn more about Dr. Booker
• Book: Making It: What Kids Need for Tomorrow's World by Stephanie Malia Kraus
• Cultivating Genius, Dr. Gholdy E. Muhammad
• TED Talk: How to Fix a Broken School? Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard
• GLA YouTube summary
• GLA YouTube of alumni stories
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

We're all fatigued. Even with schools and businesses opening back up, we're still so stuck in our pandemic and pre-pandemic ways. Hopefully everyone has learned a thing or two about what it looks like to educate our youth, because it's clear that things need to change.

That's why a group of dedicated education activists joined me last year in forming the EdActive Collective. We're determined to create a different landscape for our learners and knew that in order to maintain momentum, we needed to commit to action.

Part of that action is getting the word out about the change that needs to happen. And The EdActive Summit is our vehicle.

In this week's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing where the summit began and who will join us in this year's event, which is happening April 28 and 29. Of course, we hope you'll register for your free ticket so you can be part of the change.

• [1:08] - Who Not How - achieving bigger goals with teamwork
• [1:40] - Our impact is smaller in silos
• [3:08] - EdActive Collective Summit 2.0
• [3:36] - "How" restricts us; ask "who"
• [4:35] - Who's in this year's summit
• [9:04] - Be transformed by relationships
• [9:27] - Register now

• Register for the summit
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep

This week on the podcast, Don Soifer and Ashley Campbell of Nevada Action for School Options are sharing how their Action Tank is actually doing the work.

What if we focused on meeting each individual students' needs, instead of trying to fit kids into a prescribed system? Building partnerships is the way to do this affordably and Nevada Action has figured out how to do just that.

Everyone is working so hard to support families and kids, and it shouldn't have to cost families financially to give their kids what they need. Listen in to hear how one organization is doing it right and finding ways to impact even more families.

Don Soifer is President of Nevada Action for School Options, a nonpartisan "action tank" he founded in 2017 to support the growth of diverse choices of rich, high-quality and personalized educational opportunities for all students.

Prior to moving to Nevada, he served as Executive Vice President of the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Arlington, VA that he cofounded in 1998. Soifer directed the institute's education and other domestic-policy research programs. He also created and ran the Lexington Education Leadership Award Fellowship, the nation's first national fellowship for school district leaders supporting personalized learning with technical partners Education Elements.

Soifer has built a record as one of the nation's most accomplished charter school authorizers. He served an unprecedented three mayor-appointed, Council-confirmed terms on the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board beginning in 2008. He was widely regarded as a driving force transforming one of the nation's most successful charter authorizers as it instituted systems for prioritizing quality for the 120+ schools overseen, via a new national model accountability framework, equity, transparency and responsible authorizing. He subsequently served as a board member on the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority, appointed by the State Board of Education, from 2019-2021, during which time he played an instrumental role driving the agency's focus on quality schools and equitable opportunity.

He has been a fellow with the Aspen-Pahara Institute Education Fellowship since 2018.

Soifer has also served as a strategy consultant for companies, including Fortune 100 companies, across multiple economic sectors.

Soifer's research has been published and discussed in many of the nation's most influential news publications and policy journals, and cited by policy decisionmakers at all levels of government, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions, in official hearings of various federal and state agencies and legislatures, and has appeared regularly on television and radio programs around the country.

Ashley Campbell is Chief of Staff at Nevada Action for School Options. Before coming to Nevada Action for School Options, Ashley was the Assistant Director for The Pinecrest Foundation and the Community Coordinator for Pinecrest Academy, Horizon Campus. Ashley oversaw many initiatives, including teacher initiatives geared towards teacher retention and addressing the teacher shortage. In addition, Ashley worked in project development, raising funds for underserved students and student scholarships. As Community Coordinator, Ashley was responsible for implementing many programs at Pinecrest Horizon, such as annual block parties and family nights. She was instrumental in increasing enrollment by 7% in 2019.

Before joining Pinecrest, Ashley worked in the independent film market as both an actress and producer. Producing films gave Ashley experience in leading multiple teams, as well as overseeing projects with a variety of budgets. Working as an actress provided Ashley the opportunity to learn from industry professionals, such as Matt Damon and Elijah Wood.

Ashley is committed to improving education in Nevada, and firmly believes that the best way to do that is to ensure that educational opportunities not only exist, but thrive.

• [1:36] - Being an action tank
• [3:08] - Making partnership micro-schooling work
• [6:26] - How it compares to public schools - how it looked different
• [9:16] - Goal of building strong ecosystems of independent micro-schools
• [11:10] - How funding works
• [12:48] - The role of Nevada Action
• [14:38] - Relationships between technical partner and host partner are important
• [15:30] - Be creative about getting dollars into education
• [17:57] - Employers can improve system - employer-sponsored partnership
• [18:31] - Teachers crave family buy-in and involvement
• [20:01] - Kids have given up on school - able to deal with sit?
• [20:57] - Fundamental shift families were working so hard and struggling that they started rethinking relationships with institution
• [22:36] - There are people who want to help you
• [23:35] - Fundamental relationships really matter
• [25:15] - Turbo Time
• [28:29] - Biggest thing people need to know about student-driven learning
• [32:58] - Ashley's Magic Wand
• [33:37] - Don's Magic Wand
• [33:14] - Maureen's Takeaways

• Nevada Action for Schools
• Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning by John Spencer and AJ Juliani
• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin
• EdActive Summit
• Email Maureen

• Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids

• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep