Podcasts about public charter schools

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike and David to discuss the religious charter schools case currently before the U. S. Supreme Court. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber shares a study out of Dallas on whether an automatic Algebra enrollment policy boosted participation among underserved students.Recommended content: “SCOTUS should mandate state support for religious education, but not via charter schools”—Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute“Supreme Court Case Could Reshape Landscape for Charter and Religious Schools”—Mark Walsh, Education Week“The religious charter schools case is a bigger deal than you think”—Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute“Why SCOTUS should—and will—approve faith-based charter schools”—Andy Smarick, Thomas B. Fordham Institute“Closing the Gaps: An Examination of Early Impacts of Dallas ISD's Opt-out Policy on Advanced Course Enrollment”—Daniel Vargas Castaño, Dareem K. Antoine, and Trey Miller, EdWorkingPapers (May 2025)Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.  

Dermoth Mattison, founder and Executive Director of South Shore Charter School, and Mark Crusante, founder and Executive Director, Diamond Charter School, join the podcast to discuss how they are working together to overcome challenges and share insights and best practices to create a strong foundation for future success for both of their Long Island public charter schools.  Support the show

A state education board gave the go-ahead to five more public charter schools set to open their doors to Montana students this fall.

Cordell Carter, Esq. Convenor | Leaders, Ideas, and Experiences Cordell Carter, Esq. is a dynamic leader, speaker, and advisor known for his relentless pursuit of a world where everyone belongs and has opportunities to thrive. As the long-term executive director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program (2017-2024) and founding director of the Project on Belonging, Cordell curates transformative, off-the-record leadership seminars in capital cities across the globe, shaping the perspectives of over 1,500 leaders annually.   Cordell's passion for creating inclusive spaces led him to establish the Festival of the Diaspora in Medellín, Colombia—a powerful summit (deemed the secular tent revival) uniting diasporic communities across the Americas. As the founder of Expectant Advisory, LLC, he helps leaders and boards navigate their inclusion and belonging journeys with thoughtful strategy and foresight. His leadership journey spans prestigious roles at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IBM, Seattle Public Schools, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. He is a sought-after speaker and facilitator on belonging, inclusion, post-secondary success, and the democratic ideals that hold our society together. Cordell is also the author of the groundbreaking keynote series, "Becoming an Inclusive Republic," a forthcoming book of the same name, and the producer of the documentary “The Road Trip to Belonging." In recognition of his expertise and leadership, Cordell was appointed by President Biden to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships and has received numerous accolades, including being named a 2023 Minority Executive Making Moves, a 2021 Champion of Change for Computer Science Education, and a distinguished Eisenhower Fellow to China. Cordell also serves as a Board Director for Concordia, Orbit Capital, Oasis Fresh Markets, Redemption Holdings, and the International Advisory Committee of Danubius University (Galatz, Romania). Finally, he is a limited partner with the Fvlcrum Fund and Mendoza Ventures. His influence stretches far and wide. He has spoken in 15 countries and 20 U.S. states on topics such as liberal democracy, belonging, and civic faith. Cordell's leadership extends to corporate boardrooms, advising companies like SkillStorm in their mission to upskill underserved communities. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Washington, and his thought leadership continues to shape the national and global conversation around equity, inclusion, and the future of democracy. https://CordellCarter.com  

Some Montana parents sending their students back to school this fall had new options to pick from. The state's first batch of 17 public charter schools opened their doors less than a year after they first got the green light.

What if the key to transforming education lies in the innovative approaches of charter schools? Our special guest, Dr. Justin Blasko, principal of Vista School in Southern Utah, takes us on a journey through his 29 years in education, spanning Northern Utah, Alaska, and Washington. From his early influences shaped by an athletic background to hands-on classroom experiences, Dr. Blasko reveals the pivotal moments and mentors that guided his path toward elementary education. Together, we navigate the complexities of school choice and the unique challenge of fostering community within Vista's diverse student body.Dr. Blasko unpacks the operational world of charter schools, highlighting their efficiency, agility, and the crucial role of innovation in enhancing student outcomes. He explains how Vista School, supported by organizations like the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools and the Utah State Charter Association, embodies the flexible and dynamic spirit of charter education. We explore the strategic aspects of budgeting, staff management, and the empowerment of educators through professional development, all while maintaining a focus on student success and community engagement.Finally, we delve into Vista School's forward-thinking initiatives, such as the K-9 math program and the integration of AI in the curriculum. Dr. Blasko underscores the importance of aligning educational standards with real-world demands, preparing students for a future economy. We celebrate the collective passion of Vista's educators and the heartwarming moments that define the school's vibrant community, exemplified by the beloved "Orange Chicken Day." Join us for a deep dive into the impactful world of charter education and the inspirational leadership driving it.Find Vista School here: https://www.vistautah.com/Find admission to HAC 3rd Annual Attainable Housing Forum here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hac-3rd-annual-attainable-housing-forum-tickets-1000526360277Looking for a Real Estate expert? Find us here!https://realestate435.kw.com/Below are our wonderful sponsors! Find FS Coffee here:https://fscoffeecompany.com/Find Tuacahn here:https://www.tuacahn.org/#CharterSchools #EducationReform #Education  #InnovationInEducation  #435podcast[00:00:00] Intro. [00:12:09] Charter School Model and Efficiency.[00:25:25]  Educational Leadership and Curriculum Development.[00:31:03] Education.[00:37:20]Focus on Student-Centered Education. [00:48:59] Choosing a School. [00:58:30] Lunchtime Excitement. 

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, newly named President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike and David to discuss how the charter sector can find success with a Trump or Harris presidency. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber reports on a study of how nearby charter schools impact Catholic school enrollment.Recommended content: “How Kamala Harris can move to the center on education”— Michael J. Petrilli “What could a Vice President Vance do to advance rural and small town education?”—Aaron Churchill“Will next month's Harris-Trump debate even mention education?”— Dale ChuShaun M. Dougherty, Andrew Miller, and Yerin Yoon, “Charter School Expansion, Catholic School Enrollment, & the Equity Implications of School Choice,” EdWorkingPaper 24-1027, Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2024)Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

Naomi Shelton is nationally known and respected as a vocal advocate for quality choice options for Black and Brown students and families. She currently serves as CEO of the National Charter Collaborative. Do you know what distinguishes a charter school from other public schools? Do you have questions about whether charter schools are public schools? Tap into this episode to grapple with these questions and more.

This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Meredith Coolidge of DFER – MA interview President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Starlee Coleman. Ms. Coleman discusses her role as CEO of the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, highlighting the growth of charter schools in Texas, as […]

This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Meredith Coolidge of DFER - MA interview President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Starlee Coleman. Ms. Coleman discusses her role as CEO of the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, highlighting the growth of charter schools in Texas, as well as the broader efforts to expand school choice. She addresses the complexities of charter school politics, the right-left coalition, and the need to bridge political divisions. Coleman also explores the challenges of maintaining academic quality amid the rapid expansion of charter schools, the role of authorizers, and the impact of federal K-12 spending on education outcomes. She concludes by discussing the political dynamics within the Democratic Party and the future of charter schools in states with strong teachers' unions.

It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode, #925, YOUR guest is Nina Rees, Former President & CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools YOUR host is ⁠⁠⁠Douglas A.J. Carlson⁠⁠⁠, Head of Partnerships - Americas, ⁠⁠⁠LeadSquared How are charter schools adapting to prepare students for jobs that may not exist yet in the age of AI? What innovative models like project-based learning are charter schools implementing to foster student curiosity & creativity? How are charter schools partnering with higher education institutions to create pipelines for diverse student recruitment? What challenges are charter schools facing in terms of funding, politics, & talent pipeline? How can charter schools expand their reach beyond urban areas to more communities? What role can education play in addressing broader societal challenges like polarization & climate change? How might the upcoming election impact education policy & funding at the federal & state levels? Listen in to #EdUp! Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elvin Freytes⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠ ● Join YOUR EdUp community at ⁠⁠⁠⁠The EdUp Experience⁠⁠⁠⁠! We make education YOUR business!

Public charter schools currently serve more than 3.7 million students. In fact, according to a report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment in public charter schools grew by more than 300,000 students between 2019 and 2023.   What are charter schools? What are the benefits of the charter school model? And how can charter schools create opportunities for our students?  In this episode, Cheryl Stahle joins Kevin to discuss how charter schools can create opportunities for students.   Meet Cheryl Cheryl Stahle is the academic advisor at West Virginia Virtual Academy. She is the recipient of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools annual Changemaker Award. The award honors individuals who are advocates for public education and creating more high-quality public education options for families.  This is, What I Want to Know.  

Christy Wolfe, the senior vice president for policy, research, and planning for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins the Education Exchange to discuss what the budget cuts proposed by the Biden Administration could spell for charter schools.

In this episode of On Record PR, Gina Rubel goes on record with Patricia Hennessy, Partner at Barton Gilman, to discuss the wide range of legal tools education lawyers employ to serve the needs of children. Learn More Pat serves as the co-chair of Barton Gilman's Education Law Group. She is an education reform advocate and activist, serving on the National Litigation Council for the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools and as a long-term member of the Alliance of Public Charter School Attorneys. She also works with private schools and boarding schools and was a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools.  Pat is also active with issues related to education reform and school choice in Maryland.

A state education panel Friday approved Montana's first public charter schools.

In the first episode in 2024, Cordell Carter and I discuss: The definition of belonging Diversity as being a given in organizations due to the changing demographics in the country  Belonging being the destination and DEI, the strategy to work towards that destination Framing DEIB in terms of profit-and-loss (P&L) Ways to get involved in the community to spark change ================================================= Full Bio: Cordell Carter brings more than 20 years to his pursuit of a society and organizational cultures where everyone belongs and has equitable opportunities to thrive. He is currently the executive director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, a global education forum and the founding director of the Aspen Institute's Project on Belonging. Finally, Cordell founded the Festival of the Diaspora, a Medellin, Colombia-based convener of diasporic communities across the Americas. Before his current roles, Cordell held leadership roles with the TechTown Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, Business Roundtable, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the IBM Corporation. To connect with Cordell: X: https://twitter.com/cordellcarterii Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cordell_speaks/ ================================================= Dr. Wong's book, Cancel the Filter, explores mental health x intersectionality. It includes sections on representation and why she started the podcast! Pick up your copy TODAY!

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Debbie Veney, a senior vice president at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike to discuss the growth in the charter sector since 2019. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber reviews a new study investigating the effects of mock instruction and coaching on pre-service teacher performance.Recommended content:“Believing in public education: A demographic and state-level analysis of public charter school and district public school enrollment trends” —Drew Jacobs and Debbie Veney, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools“Which large school districts provide fertile terrain for charter growth?” —Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute Julie Cohen, Anandita Krishnamachari, Vivian C. Wong, and Steffen Erickson, “Experimental Evidence on the Robustness of Coaching Supports in Teacher Education,” Educational Researcher (December 2023).Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at dbuck@fordhaminstitute.org.

Ray interviews Nina Rees, the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, about the importance and future of charter schools. Nina shares her journey and passion for charter schools, emphasizing that most parents want access to better schools for their children and that charter schools provide that opportunity. She also addresses the opposition and misconceptions surrounding charter schools, highlighting their accountability and that parents actively choose to enroll their children in these schools. Nina believes that collaboration between charter and traditional public schools is essential and emphasizes the need for flexible school schedules, leveraging technology, and focusing on critical thinking skills to prepare students for the future. She acknowledges the challenges the charter school sector faces but expresses optimism, citing the growing momentum, legislative support, and demand for charter schools. Nina also invites viewers to attend the upcoming National Charter Schools Conference and shares her thoughts on the state's most ripe for charter school expansion. She encourages people to follow her on Twitter and engage in advocacy work through the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Charlie Chieppo, interview the National Alliance's Nina Rees. Rees discusses her 11-year tenure at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, highlighting policy gains, the growth of charter school enrollment, and the challenges of charter school politics. She […]

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Charlie Chieppo, interview the National Alliance's Nina Rees. Rees discusses her 11-year tenure at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, highlighting policy gains, the growth of charter school enrollment, and the challenges of charter school politics. She explores debates on growth, quality, and authorizing of charters, and addresses the impact of federal K-12 spending and the evolving relationship between charter schools and private school choice. She concludes with insights on a new report ranking states' charter school performance on NAEP and recommendations for improving academic outcomes in K-12 education.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of the University of Arkansas and Charlie Chieppo, interview the National Alliance’s Nina Rees. Rees discusses her 11-year tenure at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, highlighting policy gains, the growth of charter school enrollment, and the challenges of charter school politics. She explores debates on growth... Source

Nina Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the continued growth of the charter school sector in 2023, led by state-level legislation.

Doug turner and Matt Paul of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico comment on how Charter schools are changing education in NM on News Radio KKOBSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jamison White is the director of data and research for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Before joining the National Alliance, Jamison worked as a data analyst and freelance consultant in Boston and the greater New York area. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

In this episode, Aspen Institute's Cordell Carter discussed talent engagement strategies in his keynote speech at TechPoint's Talent Community of Practice event. Cordell brings more than 20 years to his pursuit of a society and organizational cultures where everyone belongs and has equitable opportunities to thrive. He is currently executive director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, a global education forum and the founding director of the Aspen Institute's Project on Belonging. Finally, Cordell founded the Festival of the Diaspora, a Colombia-based convener of diasporic communities across the Americas. Before his current roles, Cordell held leadership roles with the TechTown Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, Business Roundtable, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the IBM Corporation.

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Nina Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike to discuss the state of charters as she plans to step down after eleven years at the helm. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a new study on the power of teacher union endorsements in school board elections.Recommended content:“Gratitude for Nina Rees, our lead CharterFolk who overcame immense challenge to elevate us all” —Jed Wallace“Our next chapter” —Nina ReesMichael Hartney and Vladimir Kogan, “The politics of teachers' union endorsements,” Annenberg Institute (September 2023).Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at dbuck@fordhaminstitute.org.

Charter Schools - What are they? Where are they? Why would you want to consider one for your child's education?  Join us for this very helpful episode that can help you find a charter school for your child, and if not, how to possibly get one started. Also, find out the difference between a magnet school and a charter school and what rights you have as a parent in your child's education.  Nina Rees is the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the leading organization committed to advancing the charter school movement.  Nina has over 20 years of experience in Washington, D.C., most recently as Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives for Knowledge Universe, a leading global education company with investments in early childhood education, before- and after-school programs, and online instruction. Prior to that, Nina was the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, overseeing the administration of 28 grant programs and programs and policies advancing school choice, charter schools, alternative routes to teacher certification, and school leadership. Prior to joining the Education Department, Nina served as Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy to the Vice President at the White House. Nina has appeared on various news outlets including CNN, MSNBC's Morning Joe and PBS's NewsHour and her articles and opinions have been published in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Nina is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Find Nina Here:  Website: Publiccharters.org Twitter & Instagram: @CharterAlliance and @NinaCharters   Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you! Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com  For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler  To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

A Helena judge Wednesday temporarily blocked state education officials from approving new public charter schools in Montana.

State officials have moved forward with appointing a board to review applications for new public charter schools, although some hope a judge will block its work before it begins.

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the number of charter schools and campuses has more than doubled over the last decade, and charter school enrollment has more than tripled, now serving more than 3.5 million students across the U.S.   What is motivating parents to seek new learning options for their students? What are some obstacles parents face when trying to find the right school for their children, and what resources are available? How can we empower parents to find the right education opportunities for their children, regardless of where they live?   In this episode, Shree Recasner joins Kevin to discuss how we can empower parents to find the best education option for their children.     

Is California doing a better job of getting resources that turn into opportunities and access for students into the right places? Are major investments in new initiatives helping to move the needle for those furthest from opportunity? How are schools navigating the current climate of rising divisiveness? For this first episode of our new season, we wanted to gain the perspective of someone who has had her finger on the pulse of school business and resource equity for a long time, both from a local and a statewide perspective – and that led us to none other than Nina Boyd. Nina is a school business official, administrator and statewide leader who has seen a lot transpire during her nearly 40 years in public education – and she is still on the frontlines impacting change. Nina shares insight and perspectives related to:How she sees us having gone both forward and backward with regard to advancing equity, including recent pushback about what is taught in schools;The importance of educational administrators and leaders continuing to be authentic in the spaces they serve and using their voices to correct misinformation;   The evolving role of Chief Business Officers in inviting more diverse perspectives into the dialogue about school issues; and more. About our guestNina Boyd currently serves as Deputy Superintendent for Operations, Government and Community Partnerships, for the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE),  which supports supports 28 Public School Districts and 23 board-approved Public Charter Schools. Orange County public schools serve nearly 200,000 students; about 80 percent of whom are students of color.Nina began her career in education as a temporary account clerk in Santa Ana Unified School District. She had planned to become a school psychologist but instead went on to a distinguished career serving in multiple administrative leadership roles at the OCDE, including as Administrator, Purchasing Contracts & Operations;  Executive Director of Facilities and Operations;  Assistant Superintendent Human Resources and Support Services; and Associate Superintendent Alternative Education. At the statewide level, Nina has been a key advocate and leader, including serving for many years on the CASBO Board of Directors and as CASBO President in 2017-18. She also served an eight-year term on the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) state board and held a variety of positions to support facility and maintenance issues primarily in the areas of regulatory, advocacy, and legislation. Nina has facilitated and provided trainings and workshops at both the local and state level, including a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion when she was a leader at CASBO.  She also teaches in CASBO's Business Executive Leadership program.About our hostJason Willis serves as  Director of Strategic Resource Planning and Implementation for WestEd, and he is a former chief business official in several California school districtsAbout our seriesBudgeting for Educational Equity is presented by the California Association of School Business Official (CASBO) and WestEd. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for additional support. Our series is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Original music, mixing and sound by Tommy Dunbar. Alyssa Perez at WestEd provides research and develops the written briefs that go along with each episode.

  On this episode, senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Nina Rees, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Founded in 2005, the alliance's stated mission is to ensure all children have access to a high-quality public education regardless of their ZIP code. Rees discusses the recent study by... Read more » The post podcastED: National charter school movement leader talks about charter performance and Oklahoma's approval of a religious charter school appeared first on NextSteps: Step Up For Students.

In June, a state board voted 3-to-2 to approve plans for St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School. It's named after the seventh-century patron saint of the internet. And it would be the first publicly-funded religious charter school in the country. The school is slated to go online in the fall of 2024 but is already facing legal challenges. On July 31, the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee filed a lawsuit to block the school from receiving taxpayer funds.We discuss the separation of church and state in public education, and what St. Isidore's approval could mean for other schools around the country.Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find out how to connect with us by visiting our website.

There is a teacher shortage across the country and Kevin Boston-Hill speaks with Debbie Veney, Senior Vice-President of Communication and Marketing at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, to find out why. In discussing a Harris Poll, they uncover some eye opening data.

In this new series on applying Deming to education, Andrew talks with John Dues, Chief Learning Officer at United Schools Network and long-time Deming practitioner. This is the first in a series of 12 episodes using John's school system as a case study for applying Deming in education. 0:00:02.3 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm here with featured guest, John Dues. John, are you ready to share your Deming journey? 0:00:17.7 John Dues: Yeah, Andrew I'm really glad to be here and looking forward to speaking with you today. 0:00:22.6 AS: Yeah, we've been talking about this for a while, and so it's exciting to kick it off. So let me introduce you to the audience. Ladies and gentlemen, John A. Dues is an accomplished education systems leader and Improvement Science scholar practitioner with more than two decades of experience. He is the Chief Learning Officer of the United Schools Network, where he directs the network's continual improvement fellowship and serves as an Improvement Advisor. He draws heavily on the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his System of Profound Knowledge. He's currently continuing his education through the Improvement Advisor program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts. John, can you take a little bit and tell us about the story about how you first learned about the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and what hooked you? 0:01:21.8 JD: Yeah, happy to do that. I sort of, I'm about 20 years into my career as an educator, and I sort of think about my career across four stages or so. Stage zero, I was a teacher, I didn't really know anything about classroom management or how to lead a class, it was a lot of trial and error type learning, and then I start to figure stuff out over time and stage one, I transitioned into now working at a series of Public Charter Schools is on the founding team of seven schools or non-profits sort of than this next stage. And I think a lot of my learning was sort of what I would call subject matter learning, so cognitive science, curriculum and lesson planning, how to use data to drive instruction, those types of things, and then about 2016 or so, I started learning about improvement science. I got an e-mail, it mentioned a book called Learning to Improve, and that got me sort of started on this path to learning the tools of improvement science, and I did that for four or five years, and then in about a couple of years ago, I stumbled across the W. Edwards Deming Institute website. 0:02:53.0 JD: And I had previously come to the website a couple of years earlier, and truth be told, I went to the System of Profound Knowledge page, it didn't make a lot of sense to me, and so I sort of let it lay for a year or two, and I came back to it in 2020, and not that all of a sudden it made sense. But there was something there that sparked this interest that's been going on for three years now, where I've devoured books, listened to interviews, and really gone on this journey to learn exactly what Dr. Deming was talking about with the System of Profound Knowledge. 0:03:36.5 AS: And when you think about the improvements that you're trying to do, or the problems that you were trying to solve, and then you started to see, let's say the System of Profound Knowledge, what was it that stood out as, Oh, that explains why this is happening, that explains why... What were some of those revelations and things that you could then bring back to your work... I'm just curious. How did that unfold? 0:04:06.2 JD: Yeah, it took some time. I mentioned sort of discovering the Institute website in about 2018 or so, and it not initially making a lot of sense, there's probably two things. One, candidly, I saw a System of Profound Knowledge, and I was like, Well, who talks like that? What is that... Like who calls their stuff profound knowledge? And then the second thing was when I looked over the four components, systems theory and the theory of variation and the theory of knowledge and psychology, frankly, most of it was incomprehensive to me, and a couple of years later, I come back, I'm a little further in this learning journey, and I go back to it, not that I had any type of instant revelation or anything like that, it has taken a lot of deep study, it did start to slowly make sense and what I realized... In one of the books I was reading is sort of this idea that there's these two complementary types of knowledge, one is subject matter knowledge, so in my case, it's those things I mentioned, knowing how to plan lessons, knowing how to do classroom management, the things that an educator that needs to know how to do. 0:05:28.3 JD: And then there was this whole other bucket of knowledge, which I realized when Deming said System of Profound Knowledge he meant the components interact, that's the system part. And then the profound part is just that you have a deep knowledge about your organization across those four components, and I realize there's this whole other sort of bucket of knowledge that we're not attending to, that tells us some of the most important information we need to know about our organizations, and it's only when you bring those two things together, the subject matter knowledge with the profound knowledge that you actually then can transform your organizations. And so that realization along the way was a big part of me sort of latching on to Dr. Deming's philosophy. And I'd say the second thing that I did very early on, besides reading the books and listening to a lot of the Deming Institute's podcast interviews was I started talking to people that appeared on those interviews, and so I reached out to Kelly Allan and then he turned me on to David Langford, who's probably the guy doing Deming in Education and started relationships with both of them, and they were very, very generous with their time and expertise, and that really allowed me to clarify my thinking now because I have this expert in Deming philosophy helping to guide me answer questions, and sort of that rounded out some of the knowledge I was doing in my self-study. 0:07:02.4 AS: Which I guess accelerates things. In my age when I was young, I sat into two seminars with Dr. Deming teaching and yeah. Okay, that answers a lot of questions, but we don't have that luxury anymore, so it's gotta be number one, reading the materials, watching the videos and all that, but also checking our understanding. And I know both Kelly and David are great resources. Kelly helped me when I was writing my book, Transform Your Business with Dr. Deming's 14 Points to help me think about things, and I know there's even more, so much more to learn, and I think that's where... What I think about the profound knowledge aspect, and I think what you said was, there's kind of... You have to have these two components. And its subject matter aspect, that's just a given when you're teaching and understanding how to teach, but then this whole other thing about the system aspect of it, the psychology aspect of that. 0:08:09.0 AS: And I have a question for you about education, let's say I graduated from high school, from a pretty good public high school in Ohio, and I'm just curious, if we went back to that school today, and I spent... I don't know what it was, seven hours a day at school, arrive at 8:00 and leave at 3:00 or whatever that was. I spent X amount of time at school and I accumulated X amount of knowledge during that time, and my question to you is, if we go now from 1983 when I graduated to here we are 50 years later, or so or 40... 50 years later, so now we're... Here we are in the future with so much knowledge, so much experience, our students are attending high school for either the same time and accumulating much more knowledge, or are they attending school for a much shorter time and accumulating the same amount of knowledge, or are we doing the same thing? 0:09:28.3 JD: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think there's sort of a relevant Deming quote that's something to the effect of "experience teaches nothing" and it's, basically it was saying, you have to have an underlying theory and then you build the knowledge and testing that theory and see how it works in the real world. So in a lot of respects, I think in the 40 years or so since you were in high school, probably a lot of schools haven't changed much, they do the same thing year in and year out, they're not really learning, they're... Like I said, across that 40-year time period, it's just sort of a repetition. Now, of course, if you went into that high school, there would be differences like the type of technology you'd see in classrooms. I think by and large, when you're talking about school, effectiveness people will argue about this, I think depending on how you're measuring that outcome, I think that schools are, generally speaking, better maybe than they were 40 years ago. Now, the problem is that better typically means that test scores are better, and of course, there's variation in this in both time and place and the variation, I don't think it's linear. 0:10:58.1 JD: I think there are ups and downs in different places based on a whole host of factors like the pandemic or even... There's less spending in schools out of the 2008 hiring crisis... Oh sorry, housing crisis, and those had an impact on things like test scores, but I think with Deming, and he was very interested obviously in education, he was a professor for 50 years, as you know at New York University. The subtitle of his last book had education in the subtitle. What he was really talking about when he was thinking about talking about education was transformation, and that was a complete change in state. And so when I hear your question, that's what I think of... I think of have schools, if they know the Deming philosophy, have they undergone a transformation following Deming's teachings, and I would say by and large, the answer to that question, not withstanding the sort of test score question, the answer to the transformation question is no. I think by and large, that's not what I've seen across my career. 0:12:11.6 AS: And if we think about a person listening into this conversation who's an educator and they're looking for new answers to maybe old problems. [chuckle] And they come across this podcast, they come across the material like you did, what's the hope that you can provide to them about how they could benefit either individually by thinking about and learning about Dr. Deming's teachings for their performance as a... Maybe as a teacher or as an administrator, and what hope or excitement can you provide them if they're an administrator of a school thinking, "Hmm, this is interesting, maybe this could provide me some things that I need to start to think differently about it." Tell me a little bit about the journey of you then learning about Deming and then start to... Bringing it into your institution. 0:13:11.2 JD: Yeah, there's a few things that I think of. So one thing is, if I've discovered the Deming philosophy and I'm an educator, how do I bring that to my school, or how do I bring that to my classroom or if I"m a systems leader, how do I bring that to my school district? And I think one of the things that I learned from David is you preach to the masses and work with the willing, and so thinking about intrinsic motivation, which I know David has talked about on your podcast, is you want people to opt in to going on this sort of learning journey with you, so that's one thing I think of. 0:13:50.8 JD: The second thing I think of is, and this was from David as well, when he started doing the Deming philosophy in his classroom and using the System of Profound Knowledge, he was a classroom teacher. And so everybody has this circle of influence, this circle that they have control over, and in his case, he didn't have control over the school building, the high school where he was... He didn't have control over the school district at the time, but he did have control over his classroom, and it was basically through applying the Deming ideas in his classroom that people started coming and saying, "Hey, what are you doing in here? There's something very different that's going on here," and then the principal got so interested in it, he said, "I'd like you to sort of teach people how to do this building-wide," and he became the director of continuous improvement there at his high school in Alaska. 0:14:42.6 JD: And then ultimately, he was encouraged by Deming to go off and consult across the world to bring these ideas to schools all over the world. So I think that's another thing that I think of. I also think that in some sort of ways, you can learn aspects of the Deming philosophy and start to apply them tomorrow. So when I think about something like knowledge about variation, I may know nothing about the technical aspects of a control chart, for example, but what I can do is I can take any data that I have that occurs across time and just plot those dots on a simple line chart and start to understand what that data looks like versus having those numbers in a spreadsheet, and then there's other aspects that do take time. 0:15:34.1 JD: I think one thing that Deming said in one of his books was, there's no instant pudding, and basically he meant that when it comes to organizational transformation, you're talking about a four or five or even 10-year journey and beyond to get this to take root in an organization. At the same time, it doesn't take 1000 people. And I heard David talk about this, and I heard Deming talk about this idea of you need to capture and educate and bring along about the square root of the number of people in your organization that really have a strong grasp of the System of Profound Knowledge and so if you're in a roughly 100-person organization, like mine I need 10 people that have learned these ideas and are interested in spreading them to their classroom or to their school, or in our case, into the network as a whole. 0:16:32.2 AS: And how did it go finding those people, and as you say, it's voluntary, you want those people to come, you wanna attract them, attraction rather than promotion. How did that journey go for you internally? 0:16:43.9 JD: Well, it's definitely ongoing. It's definitely ongoing, and I think it's going really well, it's a process, we're probably about two years into that process, and so in some ways it's now a core part of who we are. So a good example of that is going back to this idea of knowledge about variation two years ago, none of us had any knowledge of what a control chart or a process behavior chart was, and now we have dashboards that are shared system-wide on all kinds of measures that are important to us, where we're now looking at data over time and realizing that until we sort of understand the patterns that we see in that data, we don't really know anything about whatever that area is. So that's something that's taken hold and we've spread it pretty quickly across the network. Before we would say we overreact to maybe like a single test score or attendance is down this month. Now we step back and say, "Okay, what does that look like over 12 months, for 15 or 20 months? What are the patterns? Is it sort of a common cause, is it just a part of our system, or is there a signal here that we need to pay attention to." 0:18:01.4 JD: So in many aspects like that it's taken hold and in other aspects, it does take longer to implement and that... A good example there is, Deming said abolish grades, and he was pretty unequivocal about that he didn't good grades in his graduate statistical courses at NYU. That's a much harder thing to change, it's a much harder thing to get people to understand why he said that, even for myself to learn sort of... Why did he say that? Is it feasible? What's the replacement? Those all have... There's practical considerations when you're in a school system, you have to give grades, you have to have report cards, or you think you do anyway, and so things like that take time, and we're not there yet on some of Deming's ideas, like abolishing grades or changing our grading practices. 0:19:01.4 AS: It's interesting, one of the beautiful things about having a private company is that you can implement these things without kind of... I don't know, kind of regulatory oversight or that type of stuff. You just can implement it, and so there's an enormous constraint in that field. Now, let me ask you about the charts that you talk about. I wanna ask two questions. First question is, from your experience of having, looking at different charts related to education, if someone's listening to this, that it is working in a school or a classroom or whatever, they're looking at it, what would be one chart that you think that they could start on today and implement? And that's the first question I have, and the second one is about how do you prevent people from obsessing about the data in a chart and help them understand that this is about understanding a system, it's not obsessing about some KPI type of thing. So, curious what you would say to that. What would be a chart that someone could start with? 0:20:13.8 JD: That's a really good question. I have a lot of different ideas. One thing because it's so prevalent in our education system it's pretty much across the United States, is state test scores. Now in some of the aspects or... Yeah, I mean in some aspects, it's not the best thing to put in a chart because they typically only happen one time a year towards the end of the year. So it's hard to gather enough data to sort of use in practice on a day-to-day basis. On the flip side, I do think it's helpful to put something like state test scores, even though they only happen on an annual basis in a control chart or a process behavior chart, because I think people forget, frankly, they forget what happened just a couple of years ago in their system when it comes to state test scores. And so you see all these documents created all the way from State Departments of Education to individual schools that are marketing to parents in their area that basically are writing fiction about their test scores. "We improved from last year." Well, yeah, technically, maybe it went up 2%, but then it's down 5% from two years ago. And so I think plotting the dots to your test score data over 12 or 15 years gives a sense of how the data is bouncing around in average probably. 0:21:41.8 AS: Okay. 0:21:43.0 JD: And not in a meaningful way. I think in most circumstances. And I think allowing them to see those patterns is really important. And I think another sort of helpful layer to that is annotate that chart with things that have happened in either your school, your district, or even at a state policy level. Label when the test format changed. Label when the state standards change. Label the year that what kids needed to do to be you considered proficient, the cut score for the proficiency, label when that changed, 'cause these are all things that have happened in the last five or six years in most states, including Ohio where I am. And when you start to label those things and then you see the ups and downs that are associated with those labels, you start to say, "Oh, this picture of what's been happening in my system makes a lot more sense." And most of that is completely sort of out of the picture for most people. We don't really remember what happened three or four years ago, even if we have a general idea, we don't have it pinpointed to a specific year. When do we start testing on computers instead of paper and pencil? That's another example. Those all have impacts on tests scores. 0:23:01.2 AS: Okay. That's a great one for the administrators, but if you were in a classroom and you say, "I don't really have control over what goes on in my school so much, but I do enjoy this Deming journey, and I want to start to bring some of that into my classroom," what would be one chart that you would make? 0:23:23.1 JD: A couple of ideas that come to mind, maybe two, I'd share with you. One would be something like homework completion. What percent of the kids are doing either in class or it doesn't have to be homework, it would be in-class assignments? And I think the key here is, one, you have to operationally define what completion means. And that can vary by a classroom as long as everybody's on the same page. And then with that, put it up on the wall, on a piece of chart paper, because so often the things that we want kids to improve are hidden from them. They don't... Oh, I didn't know that 35% of the kids in this class didn't do the assignment from the day before right, but if they start to see that, and then we start to talk about it, and then we start to say, "Well, what are the barriers or obstacles to completion?" 0:24:13.9 JD: And then kids start to say, "Well, how can I help you?" You start to create this completely different mentality in your classroom. One classroom also that we had in our network of schools, it was a fourth grade Science teacher, she started tracking how much joy did you find in today's lesson? And so she would actually... The kids would do a short little survey and assign a number out of 100%. And then they would also have us. There was a spot in the survey to say, "What did you like about it, what didn't go so well? Or whatever, what could I improve?" This is the teacher saying that to fourth graders and they're charting that on a piece of paper. And then she's starting to learn, "Okay. These types of lessons are engaging, these types of lessons are not so engaging. The kids want more of this, enjoyment goes up when we do this as a class." And then they did that over the course of three or four months, and slowly over time, you see the engagement levels, the joy raising, kids are happier. They're more engaged in class. The teacher is having more fun. And so those are just sort of two things that I've seen done in our network of schools that I think had a really positive impact. 0:25:33.9 AS: That's exciting. And I think it goes back to the intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. And ultimately kids wanna be engaged, everybody wants to be engaged in what they're going through. And the reason why they disengage oftentimes, is because we don't involve them. 0:25:55.9 JD: Right. Yeah, I agree, 100%. I think kids are really... Students and schools are the improvement secret weapon. I think a mindset shift for me was when you think about in your system, who is the worker? And a lot of educators think when you ask them that question, they'll say, "Well, teachers." And not that there's a right or wrong answer to this, but I think it's actually the students, because the thing that has to be created, high quality learning has to happen in their minds. So if they're the ones where the work has to happen, they have to be the workers. So I think of students as the workers and I think more of the teachers as the supervisors of that work. 0:26:43.6 AS: That's a great way to think about it, because it also kind of pushes it down for the teachers to think that their objective is really creating that environment for learning. I wonder when you started bringing the Deming philosophy into schools and your operations there, was there one point that was like there was resistance to or what do you think is the hardest to digest for teachers or a school system when they're looking at this? 0:27:21.6 JD: That's a really good question. I think in my own sort of personal opinion, I think that a lot of the Deming philosophy is paradoxical to typical management practices. And I think there's a lot of counterintuitive ideas in the philosophy. So I think you have to sort of be open to that from the start. And so when I first started talking with people about these ideas, I did it, both internally and with some people externally, and I just put together a presentation, I said, "I'm gonna show you this thing and I wanna collect your thoughts." And one of the first things I said is, "Before I say anything, I want you to have in your mind preemptively that you're gonna experience some serious cognitive dissonance with these ideas because they're so different than what you've heard before." So I did that as a primer, so people sort of had that expectation. I think, generally, what I find from folks is openness to the ideas. I think there's a challenge in unpacking, going back to something like I was talking about abolish grades. Unpacking why exactly did he say what he said? Whether it's abolish grades or any number of other points that he made. 0:28:52.4 JD: I think there's this sort of realization for a lot of people that when you say, "Well, what's your philosophy, or what's your educational philosophy, what's your management philosophy?" They don't really have an answer. I didn't have an answer, frankly, before I started studying this stuff. And that's a little bit convicting. And then once you decide to go on the journey, you realize, "Why do we do the things that we do?" You could ask that about a thousand things a day, whether it's a policy, a practice, just something we do, 'cause that's the way we've always done it here. And again, it's a little daunting when you start to think about, "Well, what is the underlying reason that we do this?" And so... 0:29:40.3 AS: It kind of shakes the foundation of your thinking. 0:29:43.1 JD: Yeah. It shakes the foundation, so you have to be open to that. And I think that's where the, "No instant pudding," quote from Deming comes in, is that you really have to be committed to this. And I think about a story I read in a book, Henry Neave's book, The Deming Dimension, where he basically says, "A Board engineer, a quality control guy comes to a Deming seminar one week, a four-day seminar, goes back the following week and he read the 14 Points. And one of them's about inspection and not relying or overlying on inspection. And he went the next week and fired all the inspectors in his plant." I think it was a Ford Plant. 0:30:32.7 JD: And basically, Henry Neave says, "That's not the right approach. You have to understand why you're doing what you're doing first before you do it." And you have to remember that that thing, in this case, it's inspection is a part of your system, so you can't remove it before you understand why you're doing that and what you're gonna replace it with. And that should probably happen deliberately and probably over time and not the next Monday after you've heard this idea. So it's a little of both. It's how do you start moving the needle and then how do you do it thoughtfully with an underlying understanding of the theory under all of these ideas? 0:31:13.7 AS: Another question is, if we think about the... Really, you have to, if you're bringing the Deming philosophy into a school as an example, you have to kind of convince administrators and you have to kind of... Let's say educate administrators, you gotta educate the teachers, and also there's the kids. And I'm curious, what are the things that teachers really get from the Deming like, "Okay, that makes sense." And let's strip away some of the complexity sometimes in the way that it's presented, but let's just take some of the basic principles, what are some of the things that the kids would naturally get like that makes sense to them? I'm just curious what your observations have been there. 0:32:01.8 JD: That's a really good question. How would I answer that? I think I'd start with myself first. I think because Deming talked about an individual transformation has to happen as a precursor to a larger organizational transformation. And so for me, it was starting to take many of the ideas I was reading and then think about the application in my own life, maybe as a student myself. And as I did that and I thought through those things, I never came up against something that didn't make sense to me. I think the trick is, especially for adults, is that I think in a lot of ways, a lot of people would latch on to the ideas for themselves, but this won't work for... Other people need something different. [laughter] 0:33:06.1 JD: I think that's... A good example of it is like performance appraisals. They've never been effective for me. I never have gotten great feedback from them, or I've felt they're unfair, or I got rated on my use of technology in my classroom early in my career, but there were no working computers, but everybody else needs a performance appraisal. So you come across a lot of stuff like that I think what you have to say, "Yep, that works for me in my life." And we have to take that same lesson and apply it to others, that's one thing I think about. It wasn't the exact question you asked, but that's one thing I think about. I actually find... There's things to learn in terms of teachers, but I actually think a lot of teachers sort of have a natural inclination for the general Deming perspective, Deming philosophy. I think things like grading, I think teachers would latch on to Deming's idea of abolishing grading, I think actually much faster than maybe the administrators would in a lot of ways. 0:34:13.3 AS: I think that would be a hard one for them. I remember when I went to my first Deming seminar and I was a young supervisor at a Pepsi factory in the US. And I appreciate that Pepsi put me into those seminars 'cause it really helped me, and I think I brought back stuff to the Pepsi factory in Torrance, California. But the one thing that really struck a cord with me is I didn't realize I was operating within a system. I saw individual efforts of myself and others and everybody running around trying to get things done, but I didn't see that the limitation on the output of our activity was, to a large extent, determined by the system within which we were operating. If we didn't have the resources, if we had an accounting department that was just trying to cut cost, and so we couldn't get the replacement parts for the machinery. I totally understood that once I studied Deming and learned about that. And so that's why I'm kind of thinking about what makes sense to teachers. 0:35:27.8 AS: So let's talk about kids for a moment. I think about joy in work, as Deming says, and just the intrinsic motivation. And I think about kids, they're just full of positive energy and rolling around, and there's just so much positive energy and it's like the world just starts beating them down over time. It's hard enough to overcome some of the challenges you're facing with your family at home, and then you come into a school and you've gotta operate within this framework. And it's like, I suspect that kids would appreciate the idea of bringing joy to the classroom, but what have you seen from kids? 0:36:11.5 JD: Well, I think you're onto something when you say, as kids sort of go on in their educational career, a lot of times are sort of beat down by certain aspects of the educational system. So I think one thing is there's a process to undo some of that. And that's probably what I see most with my own kids or students that I'm working with in our network. So if you ask a student or if you ask your own kids something like, "How was school today? Or how are you doing in science?" What they'll often tell you is a grade. "I got... I got... " "Okay, you had a test today. How was it?" "Well, I got a B." "Well, what did you learn?" And often times it's really hard to pull that out because they've been so trained to think about school as a series of grades or a series of silence, a series of percentages versus what did you learn? What are you taking from that? What does that mean? So I see a lot of that. I also see a lot of... There's a lot of reward and punishment that is a part of a lot of school systems, whether it's treasure boxes or reward systems in the classroom. And I was just as guilty as a teacher and frankly as a principal in that other school of having those systems. 0:37:49.0 JD: But when you say at the end of the day, "How was your day?" And they sort of tell you back what they were doing in the behavior point system versus what did they learn, and who did they talk to that day, and what did they take from the day. I think you quickly realize that even if the behavior system or the grading system had good intentions behind it, that kids are often experiencing those systems in a very different way. And so I think kids are very open to it, just like adults when you explain it, I think what's... The tough part is that they've been in the system that has all of these different sort of things that are wearing them down. And I think you have to unpack that and untie that and sort of re-educate I guess this, re-train them to think about school and academics and how they're interacting in school in a different way. 0:38:46.0 AS: And it makes you think that students are the secret weapon of the implementation of some of this, because I think there's a lot of... At first, when you come across the Deming material, it doesn't feel intuitive. It feels hard sometimes to understand, it can be confusing, but once you start to realize and understand it, you start to realize that there's a lot of intuitive nature of things. And a kid can observe random outcomes, and then they see adults rewarding random and then they're like, "Well, Johnny just got lucky in that particular thing or whatever." And so they can understand a lot of things, so maybe we can say that there is a little bit of a secret weapon there. 0:39:33.0 JD: Yeah, and kids are very intuitive, and so I think in going back to some of those rewards systems, I think one of the things that happens and we maybe don't pay enough attention to it, is as soon as there is a reward system, there's a game that starts. And so a good example of this is there's a number of reading, online reading programs where kids read a book and then they take a quiz that sort of assesses comprehension. And on the face it seems like a positive thing, oh, kids have read X number of words, I'll hear there's a lot, or X number of books, and they weren't reading before and this program gets him to read. But when you start to unpack that, you go ask a kid, "Well, what do you think of this program?" "Ah it's pretty boring, but I do get prizes." Or something like, "Well, I'm impressed, you've read 10 books this in the past couple of months, and that seems to be because you're doing this program." And he's like, "No, I just pick short books because I know I can read them faster." 0:40:41.9 JD: And so as soon as you start to put those you take sort of intrinsic nature of enjoying a book for the book's sake, for the story, and you instead tie it to some type of point system. There's all types of things, many of which are hidden that are the motivations just under the surface for why kids are doing what they're doing that you're missing because you're not talking to them, and not really listening to how they're responding to that reward system. So like even a positive thing like a reading program, that seems good on the face can often have an underlying darker nature that's going on. 0:41:17.9 AS: Yeah, and I think... I wanna wrap up this section of the discussion, and I think what I would like to wrap that up with is taking on what you were just saying is that when you are measuring anything and you find yourself wanting to add on additional measures, because they're getting... Things are getting disincentivized. So okay, now you say, "Okay, well, we've gotta track it by the length of books or we gotta track their eyeballs, or we gotta... " Every time that you find yourself having to add on some different type of measurement, I think it's a good time to step back and say, "What are we really doing here, and do we really understand the incentives that we're... The activities that we're really incentivizing by this, and are we really getting to our goal of that." And that's a painful discussion because as you say, you're still sometimes, you're gonna have to search for what's the replacement, what's the solution. But when you find yourself trying to add on more things to try to box the kids in, you're probably now caught up in this system of testing and scoring and measuring that is going out of control. 0:42:41.2 JD: Yeah, I think that's right. And the thing that I think of, and I can't remember where I saw it, if it was a Deming thing, or maybe I heard it from David Langford, it was a shift in perspective. In terms of your role as a teacher, or if you're the CEO of a company or the principal school, whatever it is, many of those folks myself included at one point, when you ask them what their job is, many people will tell you it's to motivate my students or motivate the people that work in my company. But probably a better frame is not to motivate them, but rather to remove the obstacles to them finding joy in learning or joy in work, and that's a different mindset, right? And so instead of incentivizing or coming up with different metrics in the case of that reading program, what I would be thinking about is, have I created a comfortable spot for kids to read in the classroom? Is there a good supply of books with lots of different interesting topics? Have I talked to kids about what they're interested in reading? Have I carved out a time in the day where everybody is reading? And so then instead of me pushing, now I'm removing obstacles that would prevent kids from reading in that example, and creating an environment that makes it much more likely that kids are gonna enjoy it and wanna keep doing it in an intrinsic fashion, rather than trying to monitor extrinsically. 0:44:11.0 AS: So let's wrap up by talking about what you've been working on, you've been working, you've been writing and maybe you can share where you're at and what you're producing. And then after that, I think we'll highlight to the audience what we're gonna do in the future episodes. So maybe tell us about what you're working on and kind of where that's at, and then why you're doing it, and what's the value that you think it can bring. 0:44:37.9 JD: Yeah, I'm actually, I'm writing a book on applying Deming's ideas to schools, it's sort of the tentative title is Win-Win, W. Edwards Deming the System of Profound Knowledge in the Science of Improving Schools. So I've actually found a publisher, I've completed a draft and submitted it to them, and so we're working right now on getting the book published. And so I'm hopping by the end of the school year that'll be out and published and available for folks, so that's the big thing I've been working on, I actually started in September of 2020. So it's been quite the project to bring it from just an idea to an almost published project, so hopefully soon that'll be ready. 0:45:25.6 AS: Exciting, and I think that leads us into we're gonna... You and I are gonna have some conversations about that book and about the things that you're learning and teaching throughout that, and we'll have a series that we'll be going through, which I'm excited to learn from you. Ultimately I have businesses, and I apply Deming's thinking in business, but also I'm a teacher so I enjoy everything that I can learn from people like yourself and David, and I know the audience will learn. So let me ask one last question, and that is, why Deming? And why now? Why is it important that it's Deming and why is it important that we are looking at this now? 0:46:14.1 JD: That's a really good question, I would say I consider myself a learner, I read a lot, I watch a lot, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and across my 20 years I've never found anything quite like the Deming philosophy. You search for these magic or silver bullets and they really don't exist, but the Deming philosophy really has been that thing for me, because I think what I didn't realize is the importance of an underlying philosophy for then everything else that you're doing. And that foundation is what the System of Profound Knowledge has really provided to me in my work. And I also mentioned as I thought through the ideas pretty deeply, and wrote about those ideas in the book, every time I had some dissonance initially with the Deming idea and then I put it in my own life, I worked it out and said, "Yep no, that... He was exactly right. Have we thought about how we interact in our organizations, how we interact with each other." And so not that the dissonance has gone away, not that I understand all of the ideas perfectly, but every time I've tested it and tried to falsify the philosophy or the theory I haven't been able to do it. And there's nothing else that I can say that I've worked with that has held up to that scrutiny like this philosophy. 0:47:49.7 AS: Fantastic. Well, John, on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I wanna thank you again for coming on the show, and I wonder, do you have any parting words for our audience? 0:48:00.1 JD: Yeah, I think one of my favorite Deming quotes is really short and to the point, he said, "I make no apologies for learning." And I think that's a really good way to end the conversation, and what he meant by that was, you might have not have been doing it right before, but there's this opportunity to learn this new way. And that's sort of the opportunity that I've taken as I've discovered Deming's work. 0:48:28.4 AS: And that concludes another great story from the worldwide Deming community, remember to go to Deming.org to continue your journey. This is your host Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Dr. Deming, and that is people are entitled to joy in work.

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Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert, and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss Michigan's underperforming public schools require state-mandated ‘comprehensive support'. Democratic majorities in Lansing will target public charter schools. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michigan-in-focus/support

This week, Ryan sits with Stefanny Andujar, a licensed clinical social worker and the manager of student support systems for the Ascend Public Charter Schools network in Brooklyn, New York. On this episode, Stefanny talks about Ascend Public Charter Schools in Brooklyn and what makes it so special. Stefanny also talks about her day-to-day work and provides advice for charter schools in organizing effective DEI and anti-racism initiatives on their campus. Tune in! You can find out more about our guest's work by visiting www.ascendlearning.org Host: Ryan Kairalla (@ryankair)Producer: Ross Ulysse

A Senior Advisor at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, George Parker, and the CEO of 7 Ventures, Michelle Rhee, join Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Parker, as president of the Washington Teachers' Union, and Rhee, as Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, were able to implement a performance pay plan for teachers in the district.

Nina Rees, President & CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and Kaya Henderson, CEO of Reconstruction US, co-host of Crooked Media's “Pod Save the People”, and former Chancellor of DC Public Schools, join Governors Bredesen and Haslam to discuss improving student outcomes and the role of public charter schools. 

Continuing our KSL in the classroom coverage brought to you this week by Utah Association for Public Charter SchoolsWe have been touring around to different school over the past few weeks.. hearing from students in the Davis, Alpine, Nebo, and Canyon's district and going inside the hallways. Today D2 takes a look at Public Charter Schools and how they differ from "regular" schools. Royce Van Tassell, Executive Director, Utah Association for Public Charter Schools joins the show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Legacy of Queen Elizabeth II As the world says goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II today, Boyd Matheson Host of Inside Sources joins the show to discuss the queen's legacy and the decades of planning that led up to her funeral.  Governors react to the Migrant Crisis New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday called for more "coordination" with the federal government and Govs. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who are busing and flying newly arrived migrants to blue states across the country. His comments come as Abbott has sent some 11,000 migrants from Texas to Chicago, New York and Washington in protest, Abbott has said, of Democrats' southern border policies. Jay O'Brien ABC News Correspondent joins the show to explain more. Followed by listener calls.  KSL in the Classroom: A look inside charter schools  Continuing our KSL in the classroom coverage brought to you this week by Utah Association for Public Charter SchoolsWe have been touring around to different school over the past few weeks.. hearing from students in the Davis, Alpine, Nebo, and Canyon's district and going inside the hallways. Today D2 takes a look at Public Charter Schools and how they differ from "regular" schools. Royce Van Tassell, Executive Director, Utah Association for Public Charter Schools joins the show.  What we learned from President Biden's interview on 60 minutes Three things we learned from President Biden's In-depth interview on 60 minutes. First, he declared COVID-19 pandemic over a dull, unexcited tone. Boyd Matheson Host of Inside Sources joins the show to discuss more.  Embracing Grief Hundreds of Thousands of people have gathered in London and around the world to celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth II. The royal family is showing a strength in their moment of grief.. D2 dives into a discussion about grief with Amy Donaldson, Host of The Letter Podcast. Amy has taken a deep dive into this topic through the bonus content, she shares what she has learned about embracing grief. Queen Elizabeth on the World Stage (push) As the world makes their final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, D2 takes a look at how Queen Elizabeth was viewed on the world stage and what happens to the monarchy following her death. Janicke Stramer-Smith, expert on international relations and Assistant Professor of Political Science joins the discussion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kyle Denman's work at New Village Girls Academy in Los Angeles is changing the lives of "at-promise" students, many of whom have have experienced trauma and challenges such as trafficking, homelessness, gang violence, domestic violence, and substance abuse. Through the lenses of fashion, art, and design, Denman  teaches social-emotional skills. Learn how a robust internship and career-readiness program positions his students for success. Some of his many accolades include: - 2022 MUSE Design Award Winner - 2021 International Design Awards Fashion Design of the Year - 2021 30 Under 30 Changemaker in Education - 2018 Young Fashion Designer of the Year - 2016 Project Runway Remake It Work Grand Prize Winner   Resources: ImBlaze New Village Girls Academy  New Village Girls Academy on instagram Follow thekyledenman on instagram. You won't regret it! email Kyle at k.denman@newvillagegirlsacademy.org  EdCuration's Certified EdTrustees Micro Professional Learning ExPLorations EdCuration's Blog: Learning in Action EdCuration's upcoming Online Events EdCuration's Certified EdTrustees Micro Professional Learning ExPLorations EdCuration's Blog: Learning in Action EdCuration's upcoming Online Events Read about the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, 30 under 30 Changemakers. So inspiring! Big Picture Learning's Big Bang Conference.  I will be there!   EdCuration's Certified EdTrustees Micro Professional Learning ExPLorations EdCuration's Blog: Learning in Action EdCuration's upcoming Online Events  

John A. Dues is an accomplished education systems leader and improvement science scholar-practitioner with more than two decades of experience in the sector. He is the Chief Learning Officer of the United Schools Network (USN) where he directs the network's Continual Improvement Fellowship and serves as an improvement advisor. In this role, he provides education, coaching, and mentoring on continual improvement methods, data collection and analysis methods, and project management and change management techniques with the purpose of enabling teams across the organization to become experts at guiding their own improvement. He draws heavily on the work of W. Edwards Deming and his System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) to equip him with the theory and statistical tools by which to perform this role.   Previously, he served as a school director and dean of academics at USN as well as in school leadership and teaching positions in Atlanta, Denver, and Cleveland. Under John's leadership, USN schools have regularly been among the state and nation's highest performing urban schools. In 2013, John was recognized as the Ohio School Leader of the Year by the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools.   Over the course of his career, John has served on the start-up teams of seven school and nonprofit organizations. He has been engaged as a consultant to a variety of education organizations including public charter, private, and traditional public schools and is a regular presenter at conferences and workshops. His internal and external improvement work is focused on developing organizational capability and long-term constancy of purpose through the application of Deming's methods, principles, and theories.   John graduated with Honors from Miami (OH) University, holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Cincinnati, and is an alumnus of Teach For America. He is currently continuing his education through the Improvement Advisor program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts. Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3 (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3) CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release date Contact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Nina Rees, head of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joined WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" radio program on Wednesday about her upcoming rally in front of the White House and discussed how the Biden administration is hurting school choice. Website: https://www.publiccharters.org/ WSJ: Backlash Against Biden's Limits on Charter Schools For more coverage on the issues that matter to you, visit www.WMAL.com, download the WMAL app or tune in live on WMAL-FM 105.9 FM from 5-9 AM ET. To join the conversation, check us out on Twitter: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor, @Jgunlock,and @patrickpinkfile. Show website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Katzman is the founder and CEO of Noodle. Prior to getting it right, he founded and ran 2U, which is also involved in online learning, and The Princeton Review, which helps students find, get into, and pay for higher ed. Katzman is the co-author of five books, and has served as a director of several for- and non-profits, including Carnegie Learning, Renaissance Learning, the National Association of Independent Schools, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, and the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.This episode is brought to you by N2N's Illuminate App, The iPaaS for Higher Education. Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/Subscribe and listen to more episodes at IlluminateHigherEducation.comLearn more about Noodle Inc: https://partners.noodle.com/Get in contact with John Katzman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkatzmanTo watch this keynote, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk9W9Se11Z8&t=106s

On this episode, we are joined by Hawai'i State Public Charter School Commission Interim Deputy Director, PJ Foehr. We discuss his journey in education. Then, we move into the history of public charter schools in Hawai'i and take a look at what separates public charter schools from those on the continent. Our literature circle is focused on Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty. Finally, PJ shares advice to educators that you don't want to miss. Check us out, review, and rate us! Leave a comment; we truly value your feedback. Aloha

In episode 12, we talk with the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. We discuss the latest happenings inside the charter community on the national and state levels. We talk about the importance of school choice, and the opportunities charter schools provide for families and students. Nina shares her passion for education and how she became an advocate for charter schools all over the country. Plus, she updates us on current legislation that could affect charter schools in South Carolina and how all supporters can champion schools in their communities.Nina Rees is the president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Since joining the National Alliance in 2013, Nina has enhanced the organization's stature in Washington, D.C., deepening relationships with members of both parties in Congress, multiple presidential administrations, and across the nonprofit and advocacy spaces. Over the course of her tenure, annual funding for the federal Charter Schools Program has grown from $254 million to $440 million. Connect with Nina & the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:Nina Charters on TwitterNational Alliance on Twitterhttps://www.publiccharters.org/2022 National Charter Schools ConferenceConnect With SC Charter Chatter:Follow the SC Charter Chatter Podcast for free.Email the show at podcast@sccharterchatter.orgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SCCharterSchoolsTwitter: https://twitter.com/SCCharterSchool

Nina Rees and her family immigrated to the United States from Iran in large part because of the American education system.  Now the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Nina discusses charter schools and the power of choice for parents in determining their children's educational path.RelatedNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsGeorge W. Bush Institute Education Reform Initiative