Editorial Staff

Kelly Smith, Prenda CEO, on Microschooling & the Future of K-12 Learning

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Kelly Smith, founder and CEO of Prenda, a company that helps create flexible learning environments known as microschools. Often described as the “reinvention of the one-room school house,” microschools combine homeschooling, online education, smaller class sizes, mixed age-level groupings, flipped classrooms, and personalized learning. Kelly shares what inspired him to launch Prenda in 2018, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted microschools to fame. They discuss how Prenda ensures teacher preparation in core academic areas, holds teachers accountable for student outcomes, and works to bridge achievement gaps.

Stories of the Week: A new report from Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann projects that school closures could cost the U.S. economy over $14.2 trillion by the end of the century. Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced $150 million in funding to public schools and parents for COVID-19 relief, including direct payments to families for educational materials, devices, and services. In The Atlantic, scholars discuss the pros and cons of families’ increasing propensity to consider alternatives to public schools, as a result of COVID.

Interview Guest

Kelly Smith is the Founder and CEO of Prenda (prendaschool.com), an education company that helps people run microschools out of their homes. He has been obsessed with learning and building since childhood – from a neighborhood baseball card business to a rap album to a line of cleaning products to high energy laser physics. After earning a master’s degree in nuclear fusion from MIT, Kelly served in engineering and marketing roles at various technology companies, before selling a small software business in clean energy. He started volunteering with an after-school code club at the local public library, helping kids learn computer programming, and he was so excited about the power of self-learning that he started a micro-school around his kitchen table in January 2018. Kelly lives in Mesa, Arizona, with his wife and four children.

*NEW DAY, NEW TIME!*
Season Two of “The Learning Curve” airs on Wednesdays at 12 pm ET each week.
The next episode will air on Wednesday, September 23nd, 2020 at 12 pm ET with guest Jung Chang, author of the best-selling books Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and Mao: The Unknown Story.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

New Report Estimates School Closures’ Long-Term Impact on the U.S. Economy at More Than $14 Trillion

https://www.the74million.org/new-report-estimates-school-closures-long-term-impact-on-the-u-s-economy-at-more-than-14-trillion/

Gov. Little announces nearly $150 million to be directed to Idaho schools, students and families

https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/education/gov-little-discusses-education-funding-with-idaho-educators-parents/277-1118b5e6-c7d3-4db7-a94c-b0b0cd215d84

The Atlantic: The Pandemic Has Parents Fleeing From Schools—Maybe Forever

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/homschooling-boom-pandemic/616303/

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Posts

Colossal Academy’s Shiren Rattigan on Microschools and School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Kendra Espinoza interview Shiren Rattigan of Colossal Academy, a microschool in Florida. They discuss how Shiren became interested in K-12 education and how and why the COVID-19 pandemic led to her founding a microschool.

U.K. Cambridge’s Prof. David Abulafia on Oceans, Seas, & Global Trade

This week on The Learning Curve, Professor David Abulafia from Cambridge University discusses the many roles of the world’s oceans in human history and trade. He focuses on how the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea, have spurred the rise of civilizations. He concludes with a reading from his book The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans.

Dr. Peter Wood on Diversity and Anger in America

This week on The Learning Curve, Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, discusses the invention of the modern concept of diversity, the history of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the concepts of diversity and race in college admissions, and how a culture of anger seems to pervade American life.

UConn’s Prof. Manisha Sinha on The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

This week on The Learning Curve, UConn Professor Manisha Sinha discusses the influential figures and seminal events that created the abolitionist movement. She describes the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and other key moments in the fight to end slavery.

Pulitzer Winner Tamara Payne on the Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Alisha Searcy and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview Tamara Payne, award-winning biographer, about Malcolm X. They delve into his early life, rise in the Nation of Islam, civil rights movement involvement, pilgrimage, assassination, and ongoing legacy debate. Ms. Payne concludes with a reading from her book.

Johns Hopkins’ Dr. David Steiner on Teaching Wisdom in Schools

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy join Dr. David Steiner for a wide-ranging discussion about the importance of education as a means of transmitting enduring wisdom to young people.

Pulitzer Winner Stacy Schiff on Samuel Adams & American Independence

This week for the Fourth of July, the Learning Curve interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff, who explores the American revolutionary Samuel Adams. She discusses Adams’ background, religion, and formative intellectual development, including the influences that Greco-Roman history, the Bible, and Enlightenment thinkers had upon his life and political thought.

Cara and Gerard on Their Time with The Learning Curve

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson close out their time as long-time cohosts of the podcast by sharing highlights and memories from over the last several years. They reflect upon the state of education reform, the growth of school choice, parental empowerment, the impact of the Great Books, and the wisdom of many well-known and influential guests.

Becket Fund’s Eric Rassbach on Religious Liberty & American Schooling

Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty discusses school choice and religious freedom, competing legal philosophies and views of the U.S. Constitution, and why issues pertaining to religion and schools remain so divisive at the K-12 level.

PRI’s Lance Izumi on Charter Schools & School Choice

Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute discusses K-12 education reform, declining test scores, COVID-related learning loss, and the growth of education bureaucracy. He reflects on charter schools, school choice, and how U.S. history and civics should be taught.

McGill Prof. Marc Raboy on Guglielmo Marconi & Global Communications

This week on The Learning Curve, McGill University Professor Marc Raboy, author of Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, explores how twentieth-century Italian communications pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made his world-changing discoveries.

Donald Graham on The Washington Post, Media, and Educating Immigrants

This week on The Learning Curve, Donald Graham, Chairman of Graham Holdings Company, discusses the history of The Washington Post, his views on changing media in America, and his work in higher education reform and philanthropy on behalf of immigrant youth.

Columbia Law’s Philip Hamburger on Church, State, & School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, noted constitutional law professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School discusses the legal basis for private and religious school choice, and how American constitutionalism supports parental choice in education.

AEI’s Dr. Diana Schaub on the Founders, Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, & Civics

This week on The Learning Curve, Loyola University Maryland professor and AEI senior fellow Dr. Diana Schaub explores the legacies, speeches, and writings of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, and how knowledge of U.S. history and primary sources can debunk revisionist approaches to teaching history and civics.

Morehouse’s Prof. Marisela Martinez-Cola on Pre-Brown Cases for Educational Equality

This week on The Learning Curve, Morehouse College's Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola, JD, discusses her book The Bricks before Brown: The Chinese American, Native American, and Mexican Americans' Struggle for Educational Equality, and the long struggle for equal opportunity in American education.