It has become popular to sneer at our education system’s factory model. We call for the death of schools in favor of Airbnb-like learning communities. Our SAT/ACT testing culture, our boring direct-instruction content-dumping, our mental health issues - these are easy targets.But schools can thrive, and many are doing so. Only the job of the school, and the teacher, needs to change.To accompany our recent interview, I wanted to write a short book review of Thrive: How Schools Will Win th...

Our guest today is Trevor McKendrick, Chief of Staff at Lambda School, where students graduate and get the job because they got the skills - and it’s free until they get a job paying over $50K. In this podcast, Trevor goes to the heart of “the customer experience” and details how everything they do is framed in light of reducing the risk and elevating the satisfaction of the customer - their students.Education is transforming, whether we are ready or not. With a steady eye on mastery-based pr...

In education, the obvious place to cut your teeth is as a teacher. Joel Rose knows the classroom well. He began as a 5th-grade teacher in Houston before moving into a variety of leadership roles in education. Joel is a respected commentator on education through his published articles and as a speaker at conferences. He is currently spearheading the nonprofit “New Classrooms,” which reimagines classrooms through the creation of new and different learning models. In our interview, Joel Ros...

From where do contemporary, resilient changes begin - from a top-down mandate, or from a bottom-up, tech-driven evolution? Today’s guest, Matt Greenfield, is an investor in entrepreneurial companies that drive transformative social outcomes through the power of using technology in education. He sifts through fascinating trends and prophetic scenarios as we discuss everything from the Common Core to cloud-based platforms, bullying to virtual reality, and pedagogy to washing machines. If y...

If you had to pick your moniker, being called a 'guru' by Fortune Magazine and a 'maverick' by CNN would not be a bad place to start. Our guest today, Clark Aldrich, is on the frontline of the learning revolution. He is the author of five books and is known for award-winning projects building custom “Short Sims” using a methodology he has pioneered. Clark’s work pedigree uniquely positions him to take on the role of education technology thought leader, and it is from this position that he joi...

Summary:Having connected her clients to over $200 million in grants through the work done by her company - EnvisionEdPlus, Michele Timmons is the right person to go to for an in-depth look at the funding panorama. She is passionate about helping schools support young people to thrive in school and beyond. Today, she walks us through the “Three Buckets of Money” available, the trends in funding, how to think strategically about approaching funders, how to build partnerships in the communi...

AVI CHAI has invested over $300 million to benefit Jewish education through a wide variety of programs. As Executive Director of the North Ameria branch of AVI CHAI, Yossi Prager brings to the table a wealth of insight into philanthropy and wide-ranging experience with education. A graduate of Yeshiva College and Yale Law School, Yossi serves on the boards of communal and public policy organizations. He is a noted speaker, writer, and editor.Sharing with us how foundations view their role in ...

“All of that student-directed theory is great, but how does it play out in real life?” you might ask. What if we told you that a 12-year-old boy decided that his school needed a playground upgrade, polled the students and the community to determine needs, gathered support for his project, wrote a grant proposal, and scored a $180K grant from Great Outdoors Colorado? This is the story that Sohne Van Selus, principal at North Arvada Middle School, shares with us as we explore the reality o...

Did you ever sit at your desk, engaged in a daytime fantasy in which all of the stakeholders in your school were cheering you on, passing along their positive experience to others, and looking for ways to more deeply engage with the education community centered around your school? It doesn’t have to be a dream…Jethro Jones, a school principal for nine years, and host of the Transformative Principal Podcasts intends to impact 100 million kids by 2027 by improving their educational experiences....

Outschool is a community marketplace of live online classes for K-12. Today, we have the great pleasure of hearing from Amir Nathoo - one of the founding partners of Outschool. As an innovative learning platform that is social, interactive, and online, Outschool is uniquely positioned to meet the exploding need for learner-directed education. In fact, Outschool has currently reached nearly 40,000 families and 57,000 learners with 10,000 classes.The endless possibilities for new partnerships i...