In the first episode of the Open Conversations on Learning Matters Podcast Brian Hack and Alec Ostrom set the stage on the current state of the US educational system and where it is  falling short. The two biggest offenders? Standardized Testing and Common Core. Brian and Alec dig in to the infrastructure of the education system to provide context of how our system has become obsessed with "test scores" and "teaching to the standard" rather than developing a curriculum that is designed to prepare students for the real world.