Education & Public Policy
The Leader’s Checklist
An interview with Michael Useem
World-renowned leadership expert and bestselling author Michael Useem joins us to provide his insights into the most important qualities of good leaders and to explain how school leaders can develop their ability to make good and timely decisions in the … Continue
Educating Students in Poverty: Effective Practices for Leadership
An interview with Mark Lineburg
More than 22% of American children live in poverty and well over a million are homeless. Virtually all attend public schools. Mark Lineburg, co-author of the book, Educating Students in Poverty: Effective Practices for Leadership, joins us to talk about the special needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and what schools can and should do to meet the needs of these kids. Continue
Rebirth of the Great American School System
David Kirp, author of the new book, Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools, joins us to talk about the remarkable success of the public school system in Union City, NJ and how that success can serve as a model for every school district to improve schools and close achievement gaps. Continue
The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools
An interview with Liz Wiseman and Elise Foster
Why are some school leaders able to double their team’s effectiveness, while others seem to drain the energy right out of the room? To explore that question, and talk about how to bring out the best in your colleagues and staff, we’re joined this month by Liz Wiseman and Elise Foster, co-authors of the new book, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. Continue
Cage-Busting Leadership
An interview with Frederick Hess
Frederick Hess, author of the new book, Cage-Busting Leadership, joins us this month to talk about how counterproductive rules and red tape act to constrain school leaders and why the traditional schoolhouse culture can "cage" leaders and hinder school reform efforts. Hess believes school leaders at all levels have a lot more leeway to make transformational changes than they may think, and in this interview he explains how leaders can take on the status quo to great effect. Continue
What We Know About Growing Minds
How children’s brains develop and how children think are two of the most enduring mysteries for both educators and parents, but neuroscience is beginning to provide answers to many of these puzzles. Sam Wang, one of this country’s leading neuroscientists and the co-author of the books, Welcome To Your Brain and, Welcome To Your Child's Brain, joins us to provide insights into questions that many educators may wonder about, including: does building self- esteem increase a child’s achievement? What are the best ways for students to actually learn? And why is stress important for all children to experience as they grow up? Continue
Great Teaching
with Jim Knight
The most important influence on student achievement is the teacher, but as Jim Knight, our guest for this month's main interview points out, “the key to improving student achievement isn't more teacher time—it's more teacher impact.” Teacher impact, of course, really means great teaching. As teacher evaluation sweeps across the country, the question remains, of course, what is great teaching and how do we get more of our teachers to become great teachers? Jim Knight joins us to talk about the topic of teaching and what it takes to get great at it. Continue
The Blind Advantage
An interview with Bill Henderson
“You should get out of education.” That's the advice Bill Henderson, a young teacher, received when he first learned he was going blind. Instead, Henderson persevered and became the principal of an inclusive elementary school. In this interview, Henderson describes how his blindness helped him to become a stronger school leader, and how the process of including children with disabilities helped his school to become a more effective learning community. Continue
The Quest for Educational Excellence
An interview with Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley
Internationally recognized education experts Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley join us to take a fresh look at what's working in the best school systems around the world and how those strategies can serve as a model for American educators. Continue
Envisioning Mass Customized Learning
An interview with Chuck Schwahn
Look around you outside of school and you will see a world that is already mass customized. When Amazon recommends products to you or Google provides you with search results, those are examples of mass customization. What if we could take these idea and apply them to our schools? That is the vision of Chuck Schwahn, who joins us to talk about why schools must eventually adopt a Mass Customized Learning model. Continue
Moving Education From Time to Competency
An interview with Fred Bramante
Fred Bramante, co-author of the new book, Off the Clock: Moving Education from Time to Competency, joins us this month. Fred is a past chairman and a long standing member of the New Hampshire State Board of Education, where he has led a full-scale redesign of public education. In this system, student achievement is based on mastering competencies not “seat time," and learning is not restricted to a school building or the traditional school calendar. Continue
Best Practices Are Stupid
An interview with Stephen Shapiro
School leaders face many challenges, of course, and responding to them with innovative solutions is essential to keeping our schools moving forward. But what if most conventional ideas about innovation are misguided or simply don’t work? That is the contention … Continue
What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation & Mastery
An interview with Kathleen Cushman
Every young person has activities that get him or her excited. Not just excited, but motivated to achieve real mastery and excellence. Kids excel at all sorts of things, especially outside of school. But what does it take for kids … Continue
Raising High School Graduation Rates
Ben Levin, former Deputy Minister for Education in Ontario and author of the new book, More High School Graduates, joins us to talk about what it will take to raise our extremely low high school graduation rates and save more kids from dropping out. Only 72% of American students who enter high school currently graduate — a huge problem for the kids and for our economy. But the problem is not limited to the so-called dropout factories. Even in the best schools in the U.S. there are kids who should graduate, but don't. During Ben Levin's tenure as Deputy Minister for Education over the last decade, high schools in Ontario raised their graduation rate from 68% to 81%. It can be done in the U.S. as well and Ben Levin talks about what it will take in this fascinating interview. Continue
Surpassing Shanghai
Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington, DC and the editor of the new book, Surpassing Shanghai, joins us to talk about what the world's best education systems look like and how they compare with the U.S. The top education systems in the world – Shanghai in China, Singapore, Japan, Finland and Ontario, Canada – don't use any of the methods that are widespread in the U.S. such as high-stakes testing, charter schools, or evaluating teachers based on test scores, yet they consistently score at the top of the international exams. What can we learn from these countries and can their methods work here? Continue
Finding and Scaling Excellence in Schools
Alan Blankstein, the award-winning and bestselling author of Failure is Not An Option, joins us to talk about finding and scaling excellent practice in all schools and why he believes we are wasting valuable time and resources in education focusing on the negative, rather than finding the positives and building upon those ideas and practices. Continue
21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age
An interview with Lee Crockett
Lee Crockett joins us this month to talk about digital learning and what schools must do to change their approach to instruction. The traditional school classroom is still locked in the past and we’re teaching as if it were fifty … Continue
Change Leader: Understanding the Core Practices of Effective Leadership
An interview with Michael Fullan
In his previous best-selling books, Michael Fullan, the internationally acclaimed expert on organizational change, has examined the concepts and processes of change. This month, Fullan joins us to talk about the core practices of leadership that are so critical in … Continue
Why Don’t Students Like School?
with Daniel Willingham
Dr. Daniel Willingham, author of the bestseller Why Don’t Students Like School? and a cognitive scientist at the University of Virgina, joins us to explain the universal roots of effective teaching and learning. Did you know that our brains are … Continue
The Manufactured Crisis Revisited
An interview with David Berliner
David Berliner, Regents Professor of Education at Arizona State University and author of the bestseller, The Manufactured Crisis, joins us this month for a provocative interview in which he reviews the latest test score data and challenges the common beliefs that student test scores are falling, American students do very poorly in international comparisons, charter schools are the answer to improving academic achievement, and high stakes testing is necessary for accountability. Continue