The Learning Curve

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy and Dr. Helen Baxendale of Great Hearts Academies interview Dr. David Steiner , Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and former New York State Commissioner of Education. Dr. Steiner discusses the importance of an academic content-rich, liberal arts education roo...

As America marks the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, a key question still deserves our attention: how did a loose collection of North American colonies defeat the most powerful empire on earth? In this special episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of Ohio State University and Massachusetts state champion U.S. history and civics teacher Kelley Brown explore that question...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Alisha Searcy of Strong Public Schools for Students and retired Milwaukee County Court Commissioner, Lindsey Draper , speak with Dr. Lerone Martin , Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and author of Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King, Jr . Drawing on his new book, Dr. Marti...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of Ohio State University and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with Doug Tuthill , a longtime Florida K-12 education reform leader whose career in teaching and school choice policy spans nearly five decades. Beginning as a classroom teacher in 1977, Mr. Tuthill has been a college professor, newspap...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of Ohio State University and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with Dr. Suzanne Marrs , Professor Emerita of English at Millsaps College and acclaimed biographer of Eudora Welty, about the life, works, and enduring legacy of one of America’s greatest Southern writers. Prof. Marrs explores how Welty’...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools and Jake Tawney of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education speak with Dr. Snezana Lawrence , an independent scholar affiliated with Middlesex University London, about the origins and development of mathematics across human civilizations. Dr. Lawrence reflects on her work, including he...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with Leslie Hiner , Senior Advisor for Legal Policy at EdChoice, about the constitutional foundations and future of educational freedom in America. Hiner reflects on her distinguished career in law and public policy before examinin...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools speak with Andrew Hadfield , Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Sussex and British Academy Fellow, about the life, works, and legacy of the great poet Edmund Spenser. Prof. Hadfield explains how Edmund Spenser’s uncertain...

On this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Alisha Searcy of the Center for Strong Public Schools and Mary Tamer of MassPotential speak with Rachel Canter , Director of Education Policy for the Progressive Policy Institute’s Reinventing America’s Schools project and founder of Mississippi First, about Mississippi’s remarkable rise in K–12 student achievement and the policy reforms that...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and retired MN Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson speak with Prof. Kevin Gutzman , Professor and former Chairman of the Department of History at Western Connecticut State University, and New York Times best selling author of  The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe . Prof. Gut...

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve , co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and the Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Julie Young , edupreneur, innovator, and author of Say Yes! How Virtual Became Reality . She reflects on the pivotal moment in 1997 when she said “yes” to launching Florida Virtual School, sharing what it meant to build a new mo...

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...