The Learning Curve

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Gerald Early , Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis, and author of Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America . He shares how his background and education fueled a passion to study...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Center for Strong Public Schools’  Alisha Searcy speak with  Stephen Greenblatt , Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and one of the world’s foremost scholars of Renaissance literature. Greenblatt discusses his acclaimed book, Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous T...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and American Federation for Children’s Walter Blanks speak with Dr. Keri Ingraham , Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. Dr. Ingraham reflects on her academic and athletic journey, including being an Academic All-American, and how it shaped her belief in discipline, opportunity, and high e...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Jim Blew , founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, and Katie Everett , executive director of the Lynch Foundation. They explore the newly established federal education tax credit program and its national implications. Blew trac...

In this week’s special Easter episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts  Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas  and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Dutch art historian Gijs van Hensbergen , author of Gaudí: A Biography and The Sagrada Familia: Gaudí's Heaven on Earth . They discuss the life, faith, and enduring legacy of Antoni Gaudí and his masterpiece, the Sa...

In this Passover episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools and Eos Foundation’s Andrea Silbert speak with Aaron Lansky , founder of the Yiddish Book Center and author of Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books . Lansky delves into his personal relationship to Yiddish literature and the formative ed...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Sarah Cohodes , Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, about her extensive research on charter public schools and education reform. Cohodes reflects on her academic journey and how it shaped her focus on school accountability,...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and former MN Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson speak with Prof. Willard Sterne Randall , American historian and author of Alexander Hamilton: A Life and The Founders' Fortunes: How Money Shaped the Birth of America . Prof. Randall delves into the turbulent childhood of Alexander Hamilton, describing pivotal experi...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and C enter for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with with Neal McCluskey and James Shuls , co-editors of Fighting for the Freedom to Learn: Examining the Nation’s Centuries-Old School Choice Movement , about the historical roots and modern evolution of educational freedom in America. They discuss the inspir...

In celebration of Women’s History Month , this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and MassPotential’s Mary Tamer speak with Roxana Robinson to honor the extraordinary life and legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe, the pioneering artist often called the “Mother of American Modernism.” Drawing from Robinson’s 1989 biography Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life , she traces O’Keeffe’s...

In this special American Revolution 250 episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Kelley Brown , Massachusetts state champion U.S. history and civics teacher, sit down with renowned Brown University historian Gordon Wood to explore the life and legacy of Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution. Drawing on his book, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin , Prof....

In this episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with Ron Matus , Director of Research and Special Projects at Step Up For Students in Florida and former longtime education reporter for The Tampa Bay Times. Mr. Matus reflects on his career from journalism to helping lead the nation’s largest portfolio of K–12...

On this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools and Mary Tame r of MassPotential speak with Dr. Richard Phelps , the author of Pioneer Institute's recent paper, Post-MCAS Assessments and Accountability in Massachusetts , to unpack the past, present, and future of K-12 accountability in the Commonwealth. Looking back at the 1993 Massachu...

On this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with David Hodges , a school choice attorney with the Institute for Justice, and Ariella Hellman , director of government affairs for Agudath Israel of New England. Together, they discuss the U.S. First Circuit case Hellman v. Massachusetts Department of...

In this episode of The Learning Curve , we celebrate Black History Mont h as co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with A’Lelia Bundles , an accomplished journalist, television producer, and biographer of Madam C. J. Walker, about the life, legacy, and enduring significance of her remarkable great-great-grandmother. Ms. Bundles traces Wal...

On this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Great Hearts Academies’  Dr. Helen Baxendale speak with Jay Tolson , editor of The Hedgehog Review and author of  Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy . Tolson delves into the literary legacy of Walker Percy, the celebrated 20th-century Southern Catholic novelist. He explores how Percy’s many personal hard...

To commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, The Learning Curve guest host Andrea Silbert, President of the Eos Foundation, speaks with Ruth Franklin, former editor of The New Republic and author of The Many Lives of Anne Frank . Ms. Franklin reflects on the enduring literary significance of Anne Frank’s diary while providing an overview of her life and the wider historical context of World War II an...

In this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Public Schools speak with Dr. Lerone Martin , Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor at Stanford University, and Dr. Jason Miller, Distinguished Professor of English at North Carolina State University. They explore the religious, literary, and historical f...

In this week's episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy and Great Hearts Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale interview award-winning author and biographer Dr. Jung Chang , whose international bestsellers have illuminated three generations of her family's experiences across 20th- and 21st-century China. Dr. Chang reflects on the powerful lessons drawn from...

In this week's episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy discuss state and national K-12 education reform with Katherine Haley , Founder and Partner of the Oak Rose Group and President of the Arizona State Board of Education. Haley shares her remarkable career journey from Capitol Hill—where she served as chief policy...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Public Schools speak with Julie Young , Julie Petersen , and Kay Johnson , co-editors of Pioneer Institute’s new book, Virtual Schools, Actual Learning: Digital Education in America . They explore the evolution of online education in the U.S., from the founding of Florida Virtual Sc...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark. Professor Albert Cheng and American Federation for Children’s Shaka Mitchell speak with Erika Donalds , America First Policy Institute’s Chair of Education Opportunity and Chair of the AFPI-Florida State Chapter. A nationally recognized education policy expert, Ms. Donalds shares the formative educational experiences that shaped her pa...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark. Professor Albert Cheng and  Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy  speak with Sean Geraghty & Mike Goldstein , authors of I’ll Do It Later: Surviving School (and Renewing the Love) with Your ADHD Son . Geraghty and Goldstein reflected on the academic and personal experiences that fueled their passion to research ADHD and...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts  U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and  Dr. Helen Baxendale of Great Hearts Academies  speak with Paul Andrew Hutton , Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of New Mexico and author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West . Prof. Hutton discusses the cen...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Great Heart Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale and American Federation for Children’s Shaka Mitchell speak with Mike Miles , superintendent of the Houston Independent School District. Miles has devoted his life to public service, starting as a soldier, then as a diplomat in Poland and Russia during the Cold War before moving into K-12 education r...