In this week's episode we focus on how topic modeling, another machine learning technique, can be used to identify motifs in a school's mission that leads to inequity in private and charter schools. We then transition the conversation to our educational philosophies. I hope you enjoy!

I spent the last week in Sienna, Italy in a missionary surrounded by trees, animals, and silence, with a 100 people from around the world to discuss consciousness and the largest issues facing humanity. Is this a dream or what? I was blessed with this once in a lifetime experience and I had to share some of the lessons I gleaned from this conference. I hope to recreate such an event like this for people passionate about policy reform in the States. I hope you enjoy!

Link: https://cortonafriends.org/

The U.S News College ranking system helps millions of students make their college decision, but how are these rankings actually calculated? Francie Diep joins me on today's episode to discuss some of the issues that arise with having a dominant ranking system for colleges.

Today's big question: When it comes to the Internet what are some of the most pressing issues our society face? Using Frank McCourt's input I suggest a few ideas that can be embedded into our curriculums to improve our student's technical literacy. 

The big question for today's episode: how can we be better active listeners and why is this critical in today's political climate? 

In today's conversation we discuss the role uncertainty should play in our policy decision making process. Brianne Bilsky is the residential dean at the Berkeley College at Yale as well as a lecturer in the humanities department. If you have any question for Brianne feel free to reach out to her at [email protected].

Kyle Wagner is a learning experience designer and a project based learning consultant who travels throughout the world implementing the PBL model in schools. The primary questions we discuss are why is the PBL model an improvement to the current forms of teaching, what are its impacts, and how can we go about implementing these practices in schools and in policy? This was an insightful conversation and I hope you enjoy! I am attaching Kyle's information below!

Kyle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwagssd3

Resources in Podcast

12 Shifts for Learner-Centered Environments Webinar: Kyle is hosting a free webinar around designing learner-centered environments through project-based experiences.

Our guest today is Martin Vanderwerf, the Associate Director at the Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). Today we talk about the implications of the ROI metric when evaluating the efficacy of higher education institutions. If you have any questions for Martin Vanderwerf here is his contact information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-vanderwerf-6979509/. 

You can also email him at [email protected]. 

I hope you enjoy!

How can we use the process data collected in standardized testing to improve upon our tests?

In this week's episode we analyze the key concepts of a conservative take on the issues with higher education by John M. Ellis.