Today’s episode features a fascinating interview with Connie Yowell and Paul LeBlanc. In the most interesting deal of 2018, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), the leading online university, and LRNG, the leading out-of-school learning platform, merged. Connie Yowell, CEO of LRNG and EVP of SNHU, saw the merger as an opportunity to establish meaningful pathways to the middle class for youth that needs them most. And as the SNHU President, Paul LeBlanc saw LRNG as an opportunity to extend a...
Aug 09, 2019•43 min•Ep. 115
Today the team is talking with Peter Janzow, the current Vice President of Business Development for Credly, and the co-founder of Winterlake Press. Peter started his education career as a textbook salesman, 35 years ago. When it looked like the digital revolution would bring print to an end, Peter built an auto-grading platform and licensed it to publishers. He sold the company and then got laid off. He found himself with a lot of skills and great experiences but no credentials. That fueled a pa...
Aug 07, 2019•32 min•Ep. 114
Today, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP and Chairman of the Board at Braven. Prior to these roles, he also worked with Teach for America from 1989-1996, was President of District Partnerships for Edison Schools for seven years, and served as a Member of the Board at General Assembly. After helping Teach for America get off to a good start, Richard Barth married the founder and CEO, Wendy Kopp. Richard went to work for a school developer and in 2005, he joined a foundati...
Jul 31, 2019•41 min•Ep. 113
Today the Getting Smart team is speaking with Elisa Villanueva Beard, Teach for America’s CEO since 2015. Imagine following one of the most recognizable CEOs in the world and taking on an organization that was shrinking and was facing financial and political pressure. Elisa did just that in 2013, following Wendy Kopp as CEO of Teach for America. She cut 40% from the central budget and rejuvenated the organization, ensuring that all 51 TFA programs are connected to their local community. Today, m...
Jul 26, 2019•34 min•Ep. 112
Today on the Getting Smart Podcast, the team is speaking with Paul Johnson, the 17th President of the Colorado School of Mines. Paul is also a global leader in education and research in engineering and science. He’s set out to solve the world’s challenges related to earth, energy, and the environment! Johnson began his career at Shell Development Company in Houston, working as a Senior Research Engineer on environmental projects over six years. After that (and prior to Mines) he taught and serve...
Jul 24, 2019•36 min•Ep. 211
In this week’s episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Greg Smith, a former Professor of Teacher Education at Lewis & Clark for 28 years. Greg’s background with teaching in a Quaker school in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains gave him a powerful sense of place — both in meaning and community. It drew students into mutual responsibility, social justice, peace, and environmental responsibility. He took that spirit into his Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin and then into ...
Jul 19, 2019•34 min•Ep. 210
Today, the Getting Smart team is speaking with Dr. Scott McLeod, an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver. Scott has been in the ed-tech space and an advocate for many years and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on technology in learning. Most of his work with schools and leaders across the globe have been focused on transformation for the demands of the 2000s and beyond, as well as how to adapt traditional schooling systems ...
Jul 17, 2019•34 min•Ep. 209
In this week’s episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Esther Wojcicki, an internationally-known educator, consultant, and speaker with a demonstrated history of working in the e-learning industry. She is the Chief Learning Officer at Planet3, the Founder of the Journalistic Learning Initiative in collaboration with the University of Oregon, an Advisory Board member at THNK, The Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership, a Plenary Speaker at UNESCO, and a teacher at Palo Alto High School since 19...
Jul 12, 2019•46 min•Ep. 208
This week, your host Caroline Vander Ark is speaking with Dr. Robert Dillon about learning space design. Robert is an author, speaker, consultant, educator, and a lifelong learner. He has served as an educational leader throughout the Saint Louis area over the last twenty years as a teacher, principal, and Director of Innovation. Currently, he serves the students and community of the School District of University City as Director of Innovation Learning. Robert Dillon has a passion to change the ...
Jul 10, 2019•32 min•Ep. 207
Today the team is talking with Vince Bertram, the President and CEO of Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a nonprofit organization that provides transformative learning experiences for PK–12 students and teachers across the U.S. Vince grew up in a small town east of Indianapolis, where his teachers inspired him to study education. After serving as a Principal in several schools, Bertram served as Superintendent in a southern Indiana district. Eight years ago, Bertram took on the leadership of Project ...
Jul 03, 2019•27 min•Ep. 206
Today, the Getting Smart team is speaking with Rebecca Midles, the Executive Director of Implementation of Mesa Valley County School District 51. She is an internationally recognized leader in designing systems that work for all learners. She has guided and led schools and districts to a Performance-Based Learning System as well as provided support and coaching to instructional leaders, site leadership, and district leadership. She has launched an innovative school and mobilized two school distr...
Jun 26, 2019•36 min•Ep. 205
Today, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Dr. Francisco Gaujardo! Francisco is a leading voice in bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural education and a noted expert in place-based education. Like Tom, Francisco is also an advisor to the Teton Science Schools. As a Professor of Education at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Dr. Guajardo introduces young people to the history, anthropology, and culture of ‘place.’ With colleagues of his at UTRGV, they built the B3 Institute — a unive...
Jun 19, 2019•19 min•Ep. 204
Today, Tom Vander Ark has a conversation with Dr. Jal Mehta! Dr. Mehta grew up in Baltimore and is the son of a school administrator and a college professor. Now, as an Assistant Professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Mehta is a leading advocate for deeper learning. Dr. Mehta appreciated that his mentor, Richard Elmore, was always a knowledgeable person in the room because he spent time in schools every week. Dr. Mehta followed suit, and visited the best high schools in the country...
Jun 12, 2019•42 min•Ep. 203
Today, Tom is speaking with Jared Cooney Horvath, a cognitive neuroscientist from the University of Melbourne. Jared specializes in human thought, learning, and brain stimulation, and holds the position of Director at both LME Global and The Science of Learning Group. He also has a new book titled, Stop Talking , Start Influencing : 12 Insights from Brain Science to Make Your Message Stick , that was just recently published in March of this year! It’s not only great for a general audience, but f...
Jun 05, 2019•34 min•Ep. 202
This week, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode with Nick Donohue, the CEO and President of Nellie Mae Education Foundation. Nick went from teacher to trainer to Deputy Commissioner, then to Commissioner in New Hampshire. A dozen years ago, Nick took over the Nellie Mae Education Foundation where he developed a strategy focused on student-centered learning. The team’s focus on personalized learning, student agency, progress on mastery, and anywhere-anytime learning was about 10 year...
May 29, 2019•38 min•Ep. 201
Today’s episode is a little extra special — it is Getting Smart’s TWO HUNDREDTH episode of the podcast! This week, the team will be hearing from Tara C. Chklovski, the CEO and founder of Iridescent. Tara grew up in a small town outside Delhi India. Inspired by a tinkering father, Tara wanted to be an aerospace engineer. After a master’s degree at Boston University, Tara launched into a Ph.D. at USC. But the pull to help more girls experience powerful science, engineering, and technology educatio...
May 22, 2019•22 min•Ep. 200
Today the Getting Smart team is bringing you a conversation with Andrew Frishman. From the minute Andrew Frishman met a student from the flagship Big Picture Learning school, he knew he would be involved in crafting education one student at a time. He became a Big Picture advisor at (the now world famous) Met in Providence and then the internship coordinator at Met Sacramento. For the last six years, Andrew has been co-director of Big Picture. One of his initiatives is Imblaze, an internship man...
May 15, 2019•35 min•Ep. 199
Today, the Getting Smart team is talking with Kimberly Mitchell about her new book, Experience Inquiry: 5 Powerful Strategies, 50 Practical Experiences, that explores five strategies any teacher or parent can use to promise inquiry and curiosity. Kimberly Mitchell experienced her first inquiry-based lesson watching a colleague at an international school in Quito Ecuador — and been hooked by the power of inquiry ever since! After working with teachers around the world on developing great inquiry ...
May 08, 2019•40 min•Ep. 198
Today, the Getting Smart team will be exploring the future of work, artificial intelligence, and how all students can be prepared for what’s ahead. Joining the podcast to discuss this is Dr. Christina Gardner-McCune, an Assistant Professor in the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. Christina stresses that the one key to getting students hooked on computer science is to allow them to follow th...
May 01, 2019•55 min•Ep. 197
Today’s episode is all about contribution, featuring Getting Smart’s very own Tom Vander Ark and Dr. Emily Liebtag. High school has always been thought of as preparation for college and careers. But what if it were a time when teenagers actually started making a difference in their community? What if young people had the chance to figure out what they’re interested in, what they’re good at, and how they could start making a contribution? Tom and Emily argue that students contributing to their co...
Apr 24, 2019•32 min•Ep. 196
In today’s episode, the Getting Smart team is exploring why environment matters — more specifically, why your learning environment matters. Joining the podcast today is Randy Fielding, the founding Chairman of Fielding Nair International — a global leader in designing learning communities. He is also the founder of DesignShare, a facilitator of ideas and resources about best practices and innovation in schools from early childhood through the university level. Recently, Randy and Tom found a qui...
Apr 17, 2019•30 min•Ep. 195
This week, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Hanna Skandera, the former Secretary of Education for the state of New Mexico. Prior to moving to New Mexico, Hanna served as the Deputy Education Commissioner for Florida as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Education. Hanna learned a lot about agency and initiative from an early age. She began homeschooling at the sixth grade, continuing on through grade twelve. Hanna also began taking courses at her local community college a...
Apr 10, 2019•35 min•Ep. 194
Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you a conversation with David Platt and a group of students on tech tips, podcasting, and computer science — live, from Covina High School. So who is David Platt? David started out as a German teacher at Covina High School in Southern California. After a few sections of German were canceled, Platt scrambled to reinvent his teaching career. David started teaching keyboarding and then moved on to computer applications in the early 2000s. The rising prevale...
Apr 03, 2019•23 min•Ep. 193
On today’s podcast, Tom speaks with Hank Stratton and Ted Kraus from the University of Arizona. Hank teaches acting and Ted Kraus is the Technical Director at the School of Theatre, Film, and Television. Together, they represent performance and production. Tom and Hank both see the theater as a place for problem-based learning, where students learn soft skills that translate into every profession. They believe that theatre teaches self-awareness and empathy, as well as project management skills,...
Mar 27, 2019•34 min•Ep. 192
For more than 120 years, Boston-based Northeastern University has been known for experiential education. A third of the 26,000 enrollments are graduate students served by a network of campuses around the country and a thriving online program. Building on this tradition and footprint, The Northeastern Graduate School of Education has been rethinking educator preparation. In this week’s episode, Tom speaks with two STEM graduates that became teacher educators and — with the backing of Northeastern...
Mar 20, 2019•45 min•Ep. 191
In this week’s episode, Tom joins Dr. Amon Millner at the Olin College of Engineering campus to discuss the importance of accessibility relating to computing. Dr. Millner is an Assistant Professor of Computing and Innovation at the Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA (which was recently recognized as the most well-regarded school of engineering in the world.) He also has earned his Ph.D. at the famous MIT Media Lab, studied and taught Computer Science at USC, and earned a Master in Human-...
Mar 13, 2019•34 min•Ep. 190
Today, the Getting Smart team explores tips on talent development with Iveta Brigis. Iveta is a Commissioner for California’s Little Hoover Commission, but previous to that, she worked nearly a dozen years for Google as their lead Human Resources business partner. In this episode, Tom chats with Iveta and learns more about talent development and Google’s efforts to share lessons learned with educators. She also talks about what talent development looks like at Google, the important skills that a...
Mar 06, 2019•35 min•Ep. 189
In today’s episode, the Getting Smart team takes a look at Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning to learn more about the up-and-coming competency-based academy. The mission of the academy is to reinvent American teacher preparation. Formed in 2015 at MIT, the Academy offers a competency-based Master’s in education in secondary-school STEM. Other programs will be added later, as well. In today’s episode, Tom will be interviewing James Tracy, the President of the new teacher preparation ...
Feb 27, 2019•40 min•Ep. 188
In today’s episode, Emily sits down with Jemar Lee, a former student from the Iowa BIG School in Cedar Rapids. Iowa BIG is a place-based school in Cedar Rapids that is very learner-centered. It is a Next-Generation Learning Challenge and XQ Super School winner. The power of hearing student stories of transformation is just incredible. If you don’t believe students can, meeting young men like Jemar can change that. Learner-centered education at Iowa BIG helped Jemar craft his own path and provide...
Feb 20, 2019•24 min•Ep. 187
In today’s episode, the conversation is all about being fearless. Recently, the Getting Smart team has had the opportunity to interview Jean Case about her new book, Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose. Jean’s book weaves together stories about ordinary people who set out to change the world. While reading her book and speaking with her today, Caroline learned that fearlessness is not just about quitting your job and taking a massive leap of faith; there are many wa...
Feb 13, 2019•21 min•Ep. 186
