Kathy Mears sits down with Molly Sheahan, Associate Director for Respect Life Advocacy for the Maryland Catholic Conference. Molly shares her experience representing Catholic values in the political arena. In light of the upcoming March for Life, this week's episode focuses on the importance of defending the right to life and the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.

After months of projections and educated guesses, Dr. Julie Vogel and Dr. Gene Kerns from Renaissance Learning unpack COVID-19's impact on our students with real data from all around the country. What expectations were on the mark? Which ones were proven wrong? What are the next steps? Dr. Vogel is the Vice President of Catholic and Private Schools and Dr Kerns is the Chief Academic Officer. Go to https://www.renaissance.com to learn more.

NCEA’s Executive Director of Academic Excellence Jill Annable discusses design thinking with Elementary School Educators Amy Zakrajsek and Elizabeth D’Aurora. Learn how design thinking — which involves taking a leap of faith, releasing control, and putting it in the hands of the students — can shape someone’s life.

Bob Siemens, Director of the School of Spiritual Direction at Franciscan University of Steubenville, joins Dr. Kevin Baxter on the podcast this week to talk about what spiritual direction is and how it can help us grow both personally and professionally. Their conversation on prayer, discernment, and spiritual accompaniment is especially relevant as a tumultuous year nears its close and the Advent season approaches the celebration of Christmas.

Dr. Beth Tarasawa, Executive VP of Research at NWEA, joins Dr. Kevin Baxter this week to discuss how we can use historical learning trends as well as real-time data to better understand the status of student performance. Learn more at https://www.nwea.org/.

Dr. Michael Hartney, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College, joins the podcast this week to discuss the state of private and public education in light of the current political environment. He is currently a National Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. His recent paper is Politics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education’s Response to COVID-19. You can find his paper at https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-304.

In celebration of our recent Catholic Principal Appreciation Day, Dr. Kevin Baxter sits down with two amazing principals, Domenic Franconi of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic School in Belmont, MI and Simon McFall of Saint Olaf Catholic School in Bountiful, UT. They explore the joys and struggles of today's principalship.

John Schoenig from the ACE Program at Notre Dame joins the podcast this week for Part 2. He discusses the history of the school choice movement in the U.S. and the impact of this past summer's US Supreme Court decision in Espinoza v Montana for Catholic schools.

John Schoenig from the ACE Program at Notre Dame joins the podcast this week. He discusses the history of the school choice movement in the U.S. and the impact of this past summer's US Supreme Court decision in Espinoza v Montana for Catholic schools.

Two Catholic high school teachers, Darrell Burris from Bishop Lynch in Dallas, Texas and Vin Bradley from Catholic Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts, join the podcast to talk about the 2020 election, the run up to it, and how they have addressed the issues in their classrooms.