The Future of Education

From exclusion to IDEA. Six milestones in the history of special education — in order.

Mickey Revenaugh, co-founder of Connections Academy, is out with her debut book titled School’s Out: Why Families Are Choosing Unconventional Education. She joined me—and a surprise cohost, my daughter Kayla!—to talk about what she learned from reporting and writing the book. Together we explored the rise of innovative schooling models and their impact on student learning and traditional education systems, from unschooling models to project-based learning and more.

Constructivism, growth mindset, and more. Five questions on some big concepts and theories that swirl around learning.

Is college still worth it? That’s the question a lot of families are asking. My answer? Yes on average, but not always. This was the backdrop to my conversation with Brad Baldridge, whom I joined on his podcast, “Taming the High Cost of College.” Here are some of the points I made in the episode titled “Rethinking College Value and Fit”: The biggest risk is not simply paying too much. It is paying a lot for a program you are unlikely to complete. Students should also widen the aperture.

Rachael Nemeth, co-founder and CEO of Opus Training, joined me to share how Opus leverages real operational data to deliver personalized, actionable training in over 130 languages through mobile devices to bridge the learning gap for the 110 million Americans who aren’t desk-based.

Froebel's kindergarten to universal pre-K. Six milestones in early childhood education — in order.

As high schoolers whittle their college lists, decide where to apply and work on their applications, the popular advice is to ignore the rankings and instead focus on “fit.” The idea behind the advice is understandable. One-size-fits-all rankings don’t capture what matters to an individual student, so students should instead choose a college based on their priorities. But for most teenagers, that advice isn’t just unhelpful—it’s impossible to act on.

Brown v. Board. A Nation at Risk. Five questions on the laws and reports that reshaped American education.

Thomas Arnett from the Clayton Christensen Institute joined me to once again explore why families and students seem to be quite willing to try innovative microschools in the K–8 grades, but considerably more resistant when it comes to high school.

Freedmen's schools to Brown and beyond. Six events in the history of Black American education — in order.