The OpenEd Podcast

Julie Young started Florida Virtual School as a grant-funded experiment with 77 students and dial-up internet. At her first meeting with staff, she put a piece of paper in the middle of the table with one word on it, "student," and asked: if we put the student at the center of every decision we make, what would change? The answer was almost everything.

In this conversation with Ela Bass, Julie explains why a 70% on a test means a student is missing 30% of what they need for the next lesson, why FLVS let students keep working until they mastered a course instead of failing them at the end of a semester, and how families can pair digital courses with real-world learning and in-person guides.

Books by Julie Young:

• Say Yes! How Virtual Became Reality
• Virtual Schools, Actual Learning: Digital Education in America (co-edited)

Chapters:

00:00 Why a 70% sets students up to fail (Cold Open)
00:26 Welcome Julie Young: From elementary teacher to founding CEO of Florida Virtual School
05:50 The $200,000 'Break the Mold' grant and two-page concept paper (1996)
09:31 The IBM 'Writing to Read' lab: Teaching each child vs. teaching a class
13:54 Only 80 physics teachers in Georgia: The crisis that birthed virtual school
19:12 'We didn't own our kids, we borrowed them': How supplemental online learning works
24:06 The 1996 BellSouth corporate pilot before the internet
27:39 Putting 'student' in the center of the table
30:28 Any time, any place, any path, any pace: Why 70% is a 30% missing gap
33:04 Performance-based funding: What happens when schools only get paid upon mastery
46:40 Learning about volcanoes on Mount Etna in Sicily without a textbook
47:43 ASU Prep Digital+ and the rise of university-campus microschools
52:41 On-demand testing in July and using AI to teach physics through baseball

When Colleen Dippel was a fifth-grade public school teacher in Houston, she got called into the principal's office and told never to tell parents about two higher-performing charter schools down the street. In this episode, Colleen pulls back the curtain on how schools quietly pass kids along with good grades while hiding basic skill gaps, why her own son's public school kept paid-for textbooks locked in a back room, and how parents can tell in 15 minutes whether their child is actually learning.

Read the show notes: https://opened.co/podcast/colleen-dippel

About Colleen Dippel:

Colleen Dippel is the founder and CEO of Families Empowered, a Texas-based nonprofit that has helped more than 116,000 mostly low-income families choose and access K–12 schools that fit their children.

- Families Empowered: https://familiesempowered.org/

Ashley Partridge homeschools two second-grade boys near Nashville with a 24-month-old and a 12-month-old at home. Her school day used to start at nine and end by lunch. Then the babies came, and the schedule had to bend around naps, snacks, and a baby who doesn't sleep.In this conversation with Ela Bass, Ashley explains how she tailors school to her family's life instead of the other way around. GUEST: Ashley Partridge, stay-at-home mom of four and homeschooler in Tennessee since 2023. Instagram: @happy.hearts.homeschool · TikTok: @apartridge232CHAPTERS00:00 Intro01:11 The gut feeling she couldn't shake before kindergarten03:03 He didn't talk until almost four. Then what?07:02 Close the books and start again tomorrow08:22 Done in an hour or two: is that enough?10:33 Two boys, one grade, and the meltdowns that forced a reset12:55 The homeschool struggle nobody talks about13:47 The baby who hasn't slept, and the floor that can wait17:01 Her real schedule with two babies at home22:14 A week of co-ops, tutorials and à la carte classes25:05 Reverse planning: write down only what got done29:50 "Why am I on lesson 14 and he's on 29?"33:39 The socialization question, flipped40:26 The curriculum she almost switched45:46 Instagram homeschool vs. real life49:01 Her best advice when nothing is working50:09 Think you're not made for this?

Anita Scott was homeschooled before Texas settled that it was legal, then became a principal in South Dallas. Her method, in classrooms and at the kitchen table: build the culture first, let kids write the rules, and keep them yourself. Now policy director at the Texas Homeschool Coalition, she tells Ela Bass how it works.

00:00 Preview

00:26 Meet Anita Scott

01:34 Homeschooled when it was still illegal in Texas

03:06 From homeschool kid to public school principal

04:24 What makes an education "good"? Parent involvement

08:03 Turning around a class that lost three teachers

15:55 Who supports the homeschool mom?

19:09 What she loved about being homeschooled

22:59 Policy wins for homeschoolers in Texas

27:19 Why she got into policy: laws written by people who never taught

34:08 How should we measure teachers and students?

45:51 Homeschooling's honest strengths and weaknesses

51:15 Why culture comes before curriculum

53:03 How to build culture in your homeschool

01:01:19 Structure vs. flexibility: let your kids show you the pace

01:05:00 Setting classroom norms that kids help make

01:16:56 Where to find Anita

Andrea Fife spent 10 years teaching fifth grade. Then she joined OpenEd as a homeroom teacher, reading the learning logs families sent in every week, and within a couple of months those logs had upended what she thought she believed.

Now OpenEd's Chief Academic Officer, she tells Ela Bass what families should do first and what they can stop worrying about: why OpenEd is not a school, the question to answer before you buy any curriculum, what turns a good learning log into a great one, and what she tells parents about testing and special education.

Read the show notes: https://opened.co/podcast/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-opened

ABOUT ANDREA

Andrea Fife is the Chief Academic Officer at OpenEd, where she leads the learning department. She taught fifth grade for 10 years and found out at 36 that she had ADHD. Her earlier conversation on homeschooling a child with ADHD: https://opened.co/blog/homeschooling-a-child-with-adhd

Chapters

• 00:00 The one episode to send every new OpenEd family
• 01:20 The three words every OpenEd parent needs to hear
• 02:01 OpenEd is not a school. So what is it?
• 05:10 Before you buy any curriculum, answer this
• 08:09 When your kid breaks your own rules about screens
• 09:51 Overwhelmed? Point at the screen and pick one
• 12:10 "Baking is math": what parents taught a 10-year teacher
• 14:49 The teacher in the passenger seat
• 17:24 The learning log that gets a great reply
• 21:24 Testing: what it's for and what to do with the results
• 33:09 Special education, IEPs and getting help sooner
• 43:33 "Should I be worried?" Reversed b's and d's
• 46:04 Two grades behind in math: where to start
• 47:54 "They don't care. You do."
• 50:11 Several kids, several ages, and no burnout
• 52:19 Why she brought a piano into her classroom

Why do we keep expecting kids to learn the same things, the same way, at the same time? This chapter takes aim at the myth of the “average” student, challenges the obsession with test scores, and shows how our children’s unique potential gets lost in a factory model built for conformity—not creativity.

Tired of rigid school routines that don’t fit your family? Meet the five essential building blocks of open education: flexible, practical principles you can apply right now. Through a fictional family’s journey, you'll see how small shifts in mindset lead to big breakthroughs in how your kids learn.

Every child is different—but our schools still pretend they’re not. This chapter dives into how even twins and triplets learn differently, and why recognizing your child’s uniqueness is the first—and most crucial—step to designing an education that actually works.

Worried your child will fall behind if you step off the traditional education path? You’re not alone. In this opening episode, we unpack the most common fears parents face—socialization, academics, college, discipline—and offer a radical invitation: what if learning could actually work better outside the box? This is your permission slip to rethink everything.

Education is being torn from its packaging—and that’s a good thing. From LEGO bricks to Education Savings Accounts, this chapter shows how families are mixing and matching tools to design custom learning experiences that rival elite schools at a fraction of the cost.