Mac and cheese, bourbon, and student agency! In this episode our hosts reflect on their time at a recent Deeper Learning Dozen community of practice convening in Lexington, KY, where they had the chance to sit down with members of the United We Learn Coalition. In lieu of a traditional guest interview, Rod and Jal will play sound bites from the trip and react to what they learned along the way.
During their trip to Kentucky, our hosts sat down with Lu Young, Jason Glass, Justin Bathon and Caleb Bates, of Kentucky's United We Learn Coalition. This group is building a vision for the future of public education in Kentucky, with the goal of everyone in the commonwealth – educators, families, students, community members and business leaders – working together to support public schools in bringing about deep and authentic learning experiences for all students. As Rod and Jal spoke with the team, the following themes emerged: the importance of who is at the table when building a coalition around education reform; connecting past and present policies through grassroots initiatives; building common ground among all stakeholders to overcome the political polarity; the incredible value of the student perspective being deeply involved in the process; how the expectations of colleges and universities have driven education design; and whether designing K-12 education to get students to elite universities is even the best approach. No lightning round, but a small tangent focused on the Kentucky delicacies of mac and cheese and bourbon is sure to entertain.
Check out the full United We Learn report.
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