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IdeaSpark: Big Ideas in Education: Daily Summaries Delivered
by ISTE
IdeaSpark pulls back the curtain on the future of learning, pairing the International Society for Transforming Education’s CEO, Richard Culatta, and guest co-hosts with education’s boldest risk-takers for candid conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and where we go next.
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- Today28 min
Jason Grissom: How Principals Learn on the Job
Where do principals learn to lead and improve their practice? The answer is rarely a training session, so what should districts and states do about it?In this new episode, Dr. Carmelita Seitz sits down with Dr. Jason Grissom, the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and faculty director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance.Jason and his co-authors interviewed 63 principals in three states and surveyed nearly 1,000 more for a Wallace Foundation report, Understanding the Landscape of Professional Learning for School Principals. They found that principals learn more from conversations, podcasts, and learning by doing than from formal training, and that they find those moments more useful. They also found that experienced principals get less mentoring and coaching than new ones.In this conversation, Carmelita and Jason explore the difference between "professional learning" and "professional development," how principals can protect learning time when the fires never stop, and what district and state leaders can do to support learning they didn't plan. They also dig into why coaching shouldn't end after the first year or two, and which topics principals say they need more time to explore.Carmelita and Jason discuss:Why professional learning and professional development are two different thingsHow principals learn from text threads, peer networks, and podcastsWhy making time to learn is just as essential as putting out firesHow district leaders can curate quality resources and ask principals what they needWhat makes a principal network worth the timeFollow Jason:Vanderbilt Peabody College Faculty PageBluesky (@JasonAGrissom)Tennessee Education Research AllianceThe Wallace Foundation ReportFollow Carmalita:LinkedIn Stay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:ISTE+ASCD WebsiteXFacebookLinkedInYouTubeInstagram
- 2 weeks ago32 min
Projects with a Purpose: Diana Cornejo-Sanchez on Learning That Reaches Beyond the Classroom
What happens when a middle school class decides to help keep a baseball league for visually impaired athletes in the game? And how can any teacher, even one bound to a strict scope and sequence, bring that kind of purpose into a 45-minute class period?In this new episode, Richard Culatta sits down with Dr. Diana Cornejo-Sanchez, CEO of High Tech High.Diana grew up in San Diego’s Barrio Logan and rode a bus every day to a magnet program across town, where she slowly noticed that her neighborhood friends were being steered into different classes than she was. That early experience shaped a career that took her from high school humanities teacher to CEO of High Tech High, a network of 16 public charter schools recognized around the world for project-based learning. In this conversation, Richard and Diana explore Projects with a Purpose, a new effort to define what makes a project truly transformational for students, teachers, families, and community partners. They also dig into how High Tech High balances required standards with deep learning, why every junior completes a real internship, how students are bringing a critical eye to AI, and what educators in any school can start doing tomorrow.Richard and Diana discuss:How High Tech High is designing transformational projects with students, educators, and community partnersHow Diana’s own experience with tracking as a student shapes her focus on access and family engagementHow High Tech High balances required standards, depth over breadth, and interdisciplinary learningWhy High Tech High protects adult learning time, with teachers collaborating at least three times a weekWhat visitors notice first inside a High Tech High school, from student work hanging from the ceilings to student-led toursHow students are pushing back on AI output and learning to value their own critical thinkingWhat any school can borrow from High Tech High, starting with schedules and student voiceFollow Diana:LinkedInFollow Richard:LinkedInXStay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:ISTE+ASCD WebsiteXFacebookLinkedInYouTubeInstagram
- 4 weeks ago29 min
What a Game Designer Learned About Making Assessment Fun Again
What if learning is not boring at all, and somebody simply engineered the fun out of it? In this new episode, Richard Culatta sits down with Joseph Baird, Senior Lecturer at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.Before he became a professor, Joseph ran a mobile game studio whose learning apps topped the App Store education charts, won design awards, and earned him an invitation to a game jam at the White House.Recorded at ISTELive26 in Orlando, this conversation explores how Joseph brought that game designer's instinct into the business school classroom, where his students build fake sheep to fool their classmates, chase him across campus with GPS data, and learn Excel by solving the strangest problems he can invent. Joseph and Richard dig into why our obsession with measurement has drained the joy from assessment, how educators working inside rigid systems can still find room to experiment, and why the best defense against cheating is an assignment worth doing.Richard and Joseph discuss:Why learning is intrinsically fun, and how assessment design accidentally strips the joy out of itHow over-optimizing for numbers leads to tests that neglect why we measure learning in the first placeWhy college students should spend class time going places AI can't go, using human judgment and contextHow to find wiggle room to innovate inside standardized coursesWhy constraints fuel creativity, whether at hackathons or in course designHow relevance, not AI restriction, is the most effective way to reduce cheatingWhy the best path to innovation is to experiment, fail forward, and iterateFollow Joseph:Kelley School of Business faculty profileFollow Richard:XLinkedInStay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:WebsiteXFacebookLinkedInYouTubeInstagram
- Sep 29, 202621 min
Belonging Isn't Just Warm and Fuzzy. It's How Students Learn.
Why do so many students feel invisible in their own classrooms, and what does belonging actually have to do with how much they learn? Two of the most widely read voices in education answer both questions with research, real school stories, and simple moves any educator can start tomorrow.In this new episode Richard Culatta, joined by cohost Winston Roberts, sits down with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, professors of educational leadership at San Diego State University and co-founders of Health Sciences High and Middle College.Doug and Nancy have written hundreds of books and articles on literacy, instructional design, and school leadership, many of them as longtime ASCD authors. What sets them apart is that they still do the work, teaching and leading at the San Diego charter school they helped build. Recorded on-site at ISTELive26 in Orlando, this conversation unpacks the cycle that links belonging, engagement, and learning. Doug and Nancy explain why belonging for students depends on whether belonging for the adults around them feel a sense of belonging, why it slips away once the school year gets busy, and how real experiences of success keep students coming back.In this conversation the team covers topics, such as:The self-reinforcing cycle of belonging, engagement, and learningWhy student belonging depends on a feeling of belonging amongfor teachers, principals, and familiesHow schools can make families feel needed, not just invited to the bake saleThe study where 52% of students said their teacher doesn't know their nameWhy belonging fades once the school year gets busy, and how shared classroom ownership helpsHow experiences of success and failure shape whether students choose to engageKeeping belonging authentic instead of turning it into a checklistWhat daily life looks like at Health Sciences High and Middle CollegeOne piece of homework every educator can start on todayFollow Doug:Fisher and Frey websiteX (@DFISHERSDSU)LinkedInInstagram (@dougfisher.educator)Follow Nancy:LinkedInX (@NancyFrey)Follow Health Sciences High & Middle College:HSHMC websiteFacebookX (@HSHMC)Instagram (@HSHMC)Follow Richard:X (@rculatta)LinkedInBook: Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online WorldFollow Winston:Teacher in a Suit websiteLinkedInX (@teacherinasuit_)Instagram (@teacherinasuit)Stay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:WebsiteX</a
- Sep 8, 202616 min
NAEYC’s Michelle Kang on Keeping Learners at the Center
Early childhood educators have the responsibility of helping shape a child's brain during its most rapid developmental window. How can we give them the respect and support they deserve, and what would it take to fix the broken economics behind early childhood education?In this new episode Richard sits down with Michelle Kang, CEO of NAEYC, joined by cohost Joseph South, Chief Innovation Officer at ISTE+ASCD, live from ISTELive in Orlando.Michelle Kang leads the nation's largest professional organization for early childhood educators, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Before taking the helm at NAEYC, Michelle spent more than 16 years at Bright Horizons building employer child care partnerships. In addition to discussing how the early childhood market actually works and where it is failing, Michelle walks Richard and Joseph through the broken economics behind child care tuition and educator pay, and the many different pathways into the profession of early childhood teaching. She also addresses how screens and digital noise crowd out the human connection young children need most.Listen in as Richard, Joseph, and Michelle discuss:What NAEYC's 100 years of advocacy reveal about the progress still neededWhy the profession requires more than just loving childrenHow CDA credential, Power to the Profession, and other frameworks define the professionHow technology can support, but never replace, human connection with young childrenWhat gives Michelle hope for the field's futureFollow Michelle Kang:NAEYC: naeyc.orgLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michellejkangFollow Richard:X: x.com/rculattaLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rculattaBook: Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online WorldFollow Joseph:ISTE+ASCD Staff Page: iste-ascd.org/staff/joseph-southLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/southjosephStay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:Website: iste-ascd.orgX: x.com/ISTE_ASCDFacebook: facebook.com/ISTEofficialLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/isteofficialYouTube: youtube.com/@isteInstagram: instagram.com/isteconnects
- Sep 8, 202622 min
Ted Dintersmith on the Math Schools Never Taught You
Why do fewer than 5% of adults use the math they learned in high school, and what would happen if a state legislator, school board member, or governor had to take the same standardized math tests they use to judge our schools? In this episode, Ted Dintersmith, an education advocate, venture capitalist, filmmaker, and author of Aftermath: The Life-Changing Math That Schools Won't Teach You, joins Richard Culatta to make the case for rethinking what, and why, we teach.Ted Dintersmith was once ranked the top-performing venture capitalist in the country. He spent two decades at Charles River Ventures before President Obama appointed him to represent the United States at the United Nations General Assembly. He then turned his attention to schools, producing the documentary Most Likely to Succeed. For his more recent documentary, Multiple Choice, he spent an entire school year visiting all 50 states to see what was actually happening in classrooms.In this conversation, Ted and Richard dig into why standardized math testing rewards what is easy to grade rather than what is useful; why accountability measures built for a pre-computer world are still driving what happens in classrooms today; and why the math that actually shapes people's lives, from reading a jobs report to understanding a school’s ranking, is almost never taught. They also talk about what it looks like when kids are given real, relevant problems to solve, and what Ted believes the rise of AI means for education.Richard and Ted discuss:Why the math and reading scores used to judge schools do not reflect the quality of learning happening inside themWhat standardized math tests actually cover, and why so much of it is leftover from a pre-computer eraWhy fewer than 5% of adults use the math they studied in high school and what that means for how we spend classroom timeWhat kinds of math genuinely shape people's lives, from jobs reports to school rankings to personal financeWhy Ted wants legislators, school board members, and governors to take the same standardized tests their policies are built aroundWhat a real story from The Wire reveals about making math relevant to studentsWhy Ted sees the rise of AI as an urgent, “code red” moment for rethinking what school is forFollow Ted:Ted Dintersmith's WebsiteTed Dintersmith on LinkedInFollow Richard:Richard Culatta on LinkedInRichard Culatta on XStay in touch with ISTE+ASCD:WebsiteXFacebookLinkedInYouTubeInstagram
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About IdeaSpark: Big Ideas in Education
IdeaSpark pulls back the curtain on the future of learning, pairing the International Society for Transforming Education’s CEO, Richard Culatta, and guest co-hosts with education’s boldest risk-takers for candid conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and where we go next.
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