Learning Can’t Wait

In Season 11 Episode 9, Hayley Spira‑Bauer welcomes Frances Messano, CEO of New Schools Venture Fund, for a wide‑ranging and deeply personal conversation about equity, choice, and courage in education. Frances reflects on growing up in a working‑class immigrant family in Coney Island, how access and luck shaped her own trajectory, and why she has dedicated her career to making opportunity less dependent on chance. She explains New Schools’ venture‑philanthropy approach—investing in early‑stage innovators across schools, learning solutions, and people—and discusses how the organization is navigating constrained funding, shifting policy, and the urgent need to measure real impact. Throughout the episode, Frances emphasizes that choice is freedom, that quality must lead ed tech adoption, and that redesigning the teaching profession is essential to creating sustainable, student‑centered systems.

In Season 11 Episode 7 of Learning Can’t Wait, Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, CEO and founder of Medley Learning, shares his journey from multilingual learner to educator, school leader, and edtech founder. He describes how early classroom experiences and the impact of a teacher who provided personalized language scaffolds shaped his commitment to equity and access. Brandon discusses the persistent gaps facing multilingual learners, the challenge of providing real-time, differentiated language supports, and how Medley leverages technology to bridge the research-to-reality gap—empowering teachers and students without lowering rigor. He emphasizes that belonging, high expectations, and intentional scaffolding are essential for student success, and urges educators not to use AI as a shortcut for reducing rigor, but as a tool for advancing achievement and inclusion.

In Season 11, Episode 6 of Learning Can’t Wait, Hayley Spira-Bauer speaks with Shane Purdy, an Assistant Superintendent in rural Georgia, about leadership, innovation, and what it takes to sustain strong learning opportunities in small communities facing major staffing headwinds. Shane shares how growing up as a minister’s kid who moved frequently shaped his people-first leadership, and how his career evolved from AP English teacher and coach into school and district leadership across academics, HR, operations, and accountability. The episode highlights practical strategies for building relationships and student belonging—like daily advisement with structured scripts, individual learning plans, and weekly “club day” enrichment experiences—plus a powerful international partnership between rural Georgia and Bavaria, Germany centered on agriculture. Shane also speaks candidly about rural teacher shortages, looming retirement waves, and why districts must find creative solutions (including virtual instruction) rather than removing courses. He closes with a leadership reminder to “never forget where you came from,” keeping student experience and those “lightbulb moments” at the center of every decision.

In this Learning Can’t Wait episode, Hayley Spira-Bauer speaks with Dr. Mark Covelle, Administrative Director of Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, about why Career & Technical Education (CTE) is not a “second choice,” but a high-impact pathway that expands opportunity for students. Dr. Covell shares how he moved from traditional K–12 into CTE expecting it to be a temporary stop—only to experience a career-defining “epiphany” about what education should do: connect students to their futures. He addresses misconceptions fueled by “college for all” narratives and media stereotypes, argues that “college for all” unintentionally became “trades for none,” and offers a reframing: “All education is career education.” He highlights why students thrive in CTE environments—authentic practice, growth-based assessment, student agency, real-world accountability, and stronger persistence—while urging educators, families, and industry partners to stop treating “college or career” as a binary and instead embrace college and career pathways that open doors.

In Season 11, Episode 4 of Learning Can’t Wait, Hayley Spira-Bauer sits down with Chris Bennett, an “engagement architect” whose career began in video games before expanding into education and behavior design. Chris explains why engagement is not the same as learning, and why motivation is not an on/off switch—it’s a continuum that requires different supports for different learners. Drawing on self-determination theory and lessons from game design, he critiques how schools often rely on time-based progression and outdated structures that don’t connect to students’ real lives. He highlights bright spots like AI Quests (a collaboration between Google Research and Stanford) as an example of tech that can enhance pedagogy and spark curiosity. The conversation closes with a call to “AI-proof” students by building durable skills—judgment, agency, empathy, probabilistic thinking—and by using AI to automate peripheral tasks while protecting the core human relationships and decisions that matter most in teaching and learning.

In Season 11, Episode 3 of Learning Can’t Wait, Hayley Spira-Bauer speaks with Julia Bialeski—educator, author, speaker, former principal, and current district leader overseeing recruitment and hiring in a large Maryland district serving 57,000 students across 78 schools. Julia shares how her wide-ranging experiences (teacher → instructional specialist/curriculum writer → assistant principal → principal → district recruitment leader) shaped her people-first approach to education. The episode centers on her leadership mantra, “Be brave and care about people,” born from a six-word story exercise as staff returned after COVID closures—highlighting the need to pair courageous decision-making with deep care in education. Julia also offers practical insight into hiring and retaining educators: prioritize genuine care for children, build belonging from the interview experience onward, and protect teacher time, autonomy, and flexibility to support sustainability and reduce burnout.

Fleur Johnston—Founder and CEO of PeopleBench—opens by sharing her personal and professional journey, rooted in Australia and shaped by early exposure to educators “doing more with less.” She describes how studying psychology and working in early childhood environments led to a lasting fascination with adult behavior, organizational psychology, and how workplace conditions shape community impact.

In this New Season 11, first Episode of Learning Can’t Wait, John Branam and Steve Colón share the story behind the merger of Bottom Line and Get Schooled, two education nonprofits united by a shared mission to put students first. Drawing from their personal journeys as first-generation college graduates, they discuss how trust, values alignment, and a commitment to impact over ego made the merger possible. Together, they outline a new model that combines proven outcomes with national scale—supporting students from 9th grade through six months post-college—while reaffirming the long-term value of higher education as a pathway to choice-filled lives and economic mobility.