Getting Smart Podcast

In today's episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Corey Mahn and Shameka Montgomery to discuss next-gen career education.   Corey Mohn is the Executive Director of the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (or CAPS for short). This next-generation career center supports five suburban Kansas city high schools with, what they call professions-based learning,...

This week on the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is welcoming back a return guest — Ryan Craig! Ryan is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures and Achieve Partners. As Managing Director of University Ventures, Ryan was the most important investor in higher education — or, more specifically, last-mile training alternatives to higher education.   In his 2018 book, A New U:...

In this special episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Kaleb Rashad, a leading voice in education and the Director of Creative Leadership at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.   Over the past 10 years, Kaleb has worked with diverse communities to co-create equity-driven, liberatory school cultures characterized by student-centered pedagogy, trust-rich relationships, and creative le...

Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode on the innovation opportunity ahead. As we all try to make sense of the health, economic, and education crisis we're all experiencing, the Getting Smart team has been participating in dialogues with educators from around the world about how to make the best of a bad situation. And now that the end of the school year is here, the team is shif...

This week on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark interviews Dr. Jason Glass, the Superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools!   Serving 84,000 students, Jefferson County is the largest district in Colorado. It encompasses 800 square miles and serves urban, suburban, and rural communities west of Denver. Before Jeffco, Dr. Glass served as Superintendent at Eagle County School and District for four years. And p...

In this episode, you are welcome to join Tom Vander Ark and Greg Shaw for a discussion around reprogramming the American dream.   Greg Shaw is a writer from Bellevue, Washington. He has supported the policy and communication needs of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation for more than 25 years. Three years ago, Greg worked with Satya Nadella on Hit Refresh, a book on the remaking of Microsoft as a le...

In today's discussion, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Dr. Eric Tucker, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School. Brooklyn Labs is a next-generation college-preparatory 6–12 public charter school that prepares scholars with the academic foundation, digital literacy, and leadership skills necessary to succeed in college and professional life. Recently, Eric cr...

In this episode, the team is diving into artificial intelligence and the future of work and learning. Today's guest, Flynn Coleman, is an international human rights attorney, a professor, and a social entrepreneur. She's also a former competitive athlete, she speaks five languages, and she has lived and learned in a dozen different countries! Flynn has spoken and written extensively on issues of w...

This week on the podcast, Tony Wagner is joining Tom Vander Ark to speak about his most recent book and all that he has learned throughout his career in education.   Tony Wagner is a former high school teacher, principal, teacher educator, and school coach. For three decades, he's been an advocate for deeper learning for all students. His books, Change Leadership, The Global Achievement Gap, Creat...

Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode focused on project-based learning featuring special guest, Jenny Pieratt. Jenny is the founder and President of CraftED Curriculum, an incredible PBL resource that offers educators and administrators a wide range of training and tools to help them achieve the PBL goals they have set for their organizations. Jenny is also the author of the Ke...

Today, the Getting Smart team is speaking with Byron Sanders about the opportunity gap in Dallas, Texas.   Byron grew up in Dallas, observing differences in opportunity. He remembers his mother scrambling to find enriching activities for him. Now, he's doing the same thing for the youth of Dallas County on a much larger scale! As the CEO of the 30-year-old nonprofit, Big Thought, Byron and his tea...

In this episode, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Daniel Gohl. Dan is the Chief Academic Officer at Broward County Public Schools. The district serves the greater Fort Lauderdale area of South Florida and has nearly 270,000 students on 241 campuses. It's the sixth-largest district in the country. Dan has been a learning leader in Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Houston, Texas. In his fifth yea...

Join the Getting Smart team today as they explore community development with community expert, Lia McIntosh!   Lia McIntosh is a marketer, organizer, pastor, and most recently, a grant-maker. She leads the Education Fellows Program at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. The program's goal is cultivating community leaders who are advocates for education. It's a nine-month...

This week, Getting Smart is bringing you another bonus episode as a part of their Getting Through series. Getting Smart launched this series to support educators, leaders, and families during this uncertain time and extended school closures. They have curated and created resources and inspiration around new learning environments, and are addressing equity and access from a new lens.   Today, the t...

In today's special bonus episode, the Getting Smart team is sharing two school districts' success stories that are currently shifting to remote learning after the outbreak of the coronavirus. In these schools, the buildings may have closed but the learning has never stopped! Both of these Superintendents have built great teams and great systems and they are confident that education in their distri...

Today on the podcast, Tom Vander Ark is speaking with Anant Agarwal, the founder and CEO of edX. In 2012, Anant founded edX, which was created in partnership between MIT and Harvard to extend open access to the courses taught by the best professors in the world. On top of this, Anant is also a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He has also served as the Director of CS...

With schools in a majority of states closes, more than  36 million  of about 50 million American students are learning remotely. The pandemic is posing a huge challenge for students and parents. Some parents are trying to figure out how to stay at home with the kids. Others are trying to figure out how to work at home with the kids there. Some are scrambling for child care.  Stress and uncertainty...

This week on the podcast, join Tom Vander Ark, Dr. Emily Liebtag, and Nate McClennen as they discuss their newly published book, The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education ! They speak about the main themes they cover, the experiences and examples they share throughout it, and the defining principles of place-based education.   As a refresher, Emily Liebtag is the recentl...

In today's episode, Tom Vander Ark is continuing the conversation about starting career education early with Ed Hidalgo and Dr. David Bluestein! If you haven't already, be sure to tune into that conversation first and then come back here to listen to Part Two!   After almost two decades of leadership and high tech human resource staffing, Ed Hidalgo led the development of the career education prog...

In this week's episode, Tom Vander Ark is talking with Dr. David Blustein, a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Boston College. Dr. Blustein's 2006 book, The Psychology of Working, made him a leader in the emerging field of vocational psychology. His newest book, The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty, discusses the eroding work experience in America and how to prepare young people to...

Today, the Getting Smart team is going to learn about a school that is taking student-centered learning global! Rebecca Amis is the co-founder of MUSE School in Calabasas, California. MUSE is a small student-centered P-12 school with a robust sustainability agenda, a great Seed-to-Table program, a vegan kitchen, and climate action integrated across the curriculum. Rebecca and her team are also lau...

Today the team is talking with Patricia DeKlotz. Dr. DeKlotz has been Superintendent in the Kettle Moraine School District since 2006. And for the last 10 years, she has been recognized as a national leader in personalized and competency-based learning for students and teachers. In 2016, Dr. DeKlotz was named Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year. It's also interesting to note that Dr. DeKlotz, lik...

This week on the podcast, the Getting Smart team is talking about the past and future of EdTech with Larry Berger!   After his Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, Larry Berger served as a Whitehouse Fellow working on educational technology at NASA. In 2000, he co-founded Wireless Generation, an early leader in reading assessment. After being acquired in 2010, the company then became Amplify....

In today's episode, Emily is speaking with Beth Anderson. Beth leads the Hill Learning Center, a K–12 non-profit based in Durham, North Carolina, that has an innovative approach to meeting the needs of students with learner differences. Their mission is to transform students who have learning differences through a variety of programs that are research-based and distinguished by being highly differ...

Whether you're a parent, an educator, or someone who has worked alongside youth, you probably understand the confusion that comes up for learners and their parents when it comes time for college. They're trying to figure out where to go, what to major in, and how to pay for it. But that's why American Student Assistance, the non-profit also known as ASA, provides advice and support starting in mid...