About The Education Equation
Welcome to The Education Equation, a new podcast that goes beyond big promises to explore research, results, and real world strategies that help students succeed. I'm Jeremy Singer, President of the College Board. I am also the seventh thousandth Brooklynite who is starting their own podcast. So why this podcast and why now? Well, I've spent most of my career at the intersection of education and technology wrestling with two of the biggest challenges in the field: persistent inequities and stagnant learning outcomes. Despite some meaningful progress, we're still far from where we need to be.
The problems are complex, deeply-rooted, and resistant to easy fixes. Inequity shows up in so many ways: by income, by race, geography, to name just a few. And some of this has nothing to do with education itself. The issue is more systemic. Before kids even start kindergarten, low income children hear millions fewer words than their higher income peers.
And access to quality preschool favors higher income families. At the same time, the way we teach has evolved little in over a century. Walk into most classrooms today, and you'd see something similar to what your great grandparents experienced. It's hard to think of another profession or industry that has changed so little.
We’ve heard of promises of revolutionary new ideas from clickers to smart boards, to iPads to MOOCs, but few have had meaningful scalable impact. Why? Because changing how humans learn is incredibly hard. Context matters. Scale is elusive and controlled experiments are nearly impossible to do in live classrooms. At the same time, there's an incredible thirst by so many educators on figuring out approaches that actually work, but they struggle to ferret out what is hype versus fact as far as improving student outcomes.
And here's the thing, we can't stop trying. This is all too important. We just can't quit. That's where this podcast comes in. I'll be sitting down with practitioners, researchers, and innovators to unpack what's working, what's not, and why. Together we'll explore how to focus our efforts and investments on what truly moves the needle. A little bit about me. I've spent the past 25 years working in this space from nonprofits to for-profits; startups to Fortune 500 companies. I'm analytical, data-driven, and not a big fan of fluff. Some may call it a strength. My partner, well, finds it a little less charming. But I promise to bring that same clear-eyed approach in discussing every idea in every episode. We'll look at lessons from a variety of companies and research groups with a goal to surface ideas with real potential. If you're in this space or just care about improving education, I hope this podcast sparks insights, debate, and ideally, action. Got an idea or a guest I should feature.
Reach out.
And if you like what you hear, please listen to The Education Equation wherever you get your podcasts. Now, let's get to work.