Every classroom is filled with learner variability, yet many educational systems are still designed around the idea of an "average" student. What if we approached learning differently? What if accessibility wasn't something we added after students struggled, but something we designed for from the very beginning?

In this episode, David sits down with Christine Fox, Chief Growth & Innovation Officer at CAST, and Niel Albero, Professional Learning Specialist at CAST, to explore Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—a framework that encourages educators to proactively design learning environments that embrace learner variability, reduce barriers, and build student agency.

Christine and Niel also share details about UDL-Con Live Online, taking place July 21–22, where educators, leaders, researchers, and innovators from around the world will come together to explore Universal Design for Learning in practice.

🎟️ Education Talk Radio listeners can save 10% on registration using promo code: PL10

Learn more and register at udlcon.cast.org.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Artificial intelligence is changing how we think about teaching, learning, and the future of work. As schools begin introducing AI literacy and new technologies, a deeper question is emerging: What human qualities become even more valuable in an AI-enabled world?

In this conversation, Mike Miles, Superintendent of Houston ISD, shares the thinking behind Future 2—an initiative that responds to AI not by centering technology, but by intentionally building the human competencies students will need to thrive alongside it.

Rather than focusing solely on AI tools, Future2 expands opportunities for critical thinking, communication, collaboration, design thinking, emotional intelligence, and real-world experiences, while continuing to strengthen core academics. Mike explains why these competencies are becoming central to the curriculum, how Houston is embedding them into the school day, and why he believes schools must prepare students not simply to use AI, but to work, create, and lead in a world where AI is everywhere.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, Dr. Carol Birks, Superintendent of the Allentown School District, and Rebecca Bodnar, Principal of Central Elementary STREAM Academy, share how a partnership with the Da Vinci Science Center has transformed the learning experience for elementary students. By making the Science Center an official secondary campus, students regularly move beyond the classroom to apply their learning through hands-on investigations, engineering challenges, media production, and real-world exploration.

The conversation explores how interdisciplinary learning can help more students see themselves in science, why authentic application deepens understanding, and what happens when schools intentionally connect learning to careers, community, and student interests.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, Tom McDermott, K–12 Safety and Security Coach for CEIA USA, discusses why student vaping has evolved from a discipline issue into a broader leadership challenge for schools. Rather than focusing solely on detection technologies, the conversation explores how school leaders can shift from reacting to incidents toward building a comprehensive prevention strategy grounded in school culture, behavioral health, and student well-being.

Together, they examine the hidden operational costs of vaping, why understanding the root causes matters more than simply catching students, and how schools can balance prevention, intervention, and detection to create safer, healthier learning environments.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, Dr. Chris Dede, Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, challenges one of the most common assumptions schools make when evaluating educational technology. Rather than starting with AI or the latest product, he argues that leaders should first identify the learning experiences they want students to have—and only then determine whether technology has a meaningful role to play.

The conversation explores why so many edtech implementations fall short, how learning science should guide technology decisions, what it means to use technology to "do better things" rather than simply do existing things more efficiently, and how school leaders can build a more thoughtful framework for choosing and implementing educational technology.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, Eric Rowe and Locha Brooks explore why many of the challenges schools attribute to students, teachers, or leaders may actually originate within the systems that shape their experiences. Rather than focusing on fixing people, the conversation examines how assumptions, structures, and processes influence behavior, decision-making, and organizational outcomes.

Together, they discuss why meaningful improvement begins by understanding the system behind a problem, how leaders can become better listeners before becoming problem solvers, and why asking better questions may be the most important step toward lasting change.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Technology promises to make learning faster, easier, and more personalized. But what happens when convenience begins to replace the experiences students need to grow?

David Cicero talks with Jonathan Strecker, Head of School at Valley School of Ligonier and author of Emergence, about the difference between achievement and development, why struggle and even boredom matter, and how AI can support learning without doing the learning for students. The conversation explores Strecker’s five dimensions of human development—intellectual, social, emotional, ethical, and physical—and what schools should consider as technology becomes increasingly capable of removing friction from students’ lives.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Dr. Eric Wearne, Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University and Director of the National Hybrid Schools Project, joins Education Talk Radio to explore why he believes education is having a “Napster moment”—a period of experimentation and disruption as families mix traditional schools, hybrid models, homeschooling, online learning, and other options.

We discuss what hybrid schools are teaching us about the future of education, why smaller and more local models are growing, what may be lost as schooling becomes more individualized, and what traditional schools should double down on when they no longer have to do everything themselves.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.