Designing Education

In this episode, Robert Balfanz is joined by Susanne Diggs-Wilborn , Vice President for College Success for Achieve Atlanta . Our nation's public education system has always sought to prepare and enable each generation to be ready to succeed in the world. To be on a pathway to adult success requires not only a high school diploma, but some postsecondary schooling or training beyond it. Yet, t...

In this episode, Ashley Seiler , Chief Partnership Officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri , joins Robert Balfanz for a discussion about how BBBS created an ecosystem of over 100 community partners, three school districts, and 18 schools that serves over 10,000 students in a range of critical supports both in and out of school.   We often say it takes a village to raise a child. We...

In this episode, Dr. Richard Lofton , assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education and leader of the Nobody Asked Me Campaign , joins Dr. Balfanz to discuss the Campaign and how it sheds light on the experiences of students and families in Baltimore City.  When we think about designing education to meet the needs of the 21st century and provide everyone a robust pathway to adult su...

Throughout most of the twentieth century, high schools were seen as the end of formal public education. After high school, some students went to college, mainly those interested in the professions—medicine, law, architecture, engineering, and so on—but most went right to work or started a family. There were some vocational courses offered in high school, mainly because there was federal funding an...

Farah Jimenez, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Education Fund, joins Robert Balfanz to explore the function of local education intermediaries and examine the roles they play in designing the education systems we need to enable all students to succeed.  One of the unique features of education in the United States is how decentralized and localized the decision-making is. This has the ability...

In this episode, Dr. Jonathan Mathis, Senior VP of Education for Policy and Systems Change at City Year , explains how near-peer success coaches can help make schools more equitable and effective for all.  One reason why many low income and minority students do not have a strong pathway to adult success is that too many attend a subset of middle and high schools where a large number of students co...

In this episode, Dr. Martha Mac Iver , associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Social Organization of Schools ,  joins Dr. Balfanz to discuss her new book, “Continuous Improvement in High Schools.” The book offers practical guidance to high school leaders and teachers on using a continuous improvement approach to enable more students to succeed. Those d...

Nearly two years of pandemic-related disruptions have caused Many young people to miss out on significant amounts of learning and instruction.  In this episode, Dr. Balfanz is joined by Educational Resource Strategies Chief Executive Officer Dr. Karen Hawley Miles and Senior Manager Eddie Branchaud to discuss credit recovery and the challenges that schools face as they help students get back on tr...

This is the second episode in a series of conversations with education thinkers from across the country. In this episode Dr. Balfanz is joined by Joel Vargas , Vice President of Programs at Jobs For the Future (JFF) , a national nonprofit that drives change in the American workforce and education systems to achieve economic advancement for all. It has become a common refrain during the last year a...

Launching April 4, 2022, Designing Education   is a podcast hosted by Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center. In each episode, Dr. Balfanz will talk to education leaders and thinkers with bold new ideas to reshape American education so that it works for all students. Together, we tackle some of education’s most pressing challenges and untapped opportunities.  Whether you’re a re...