Editorial Staff

Julie Young, Virtual Schooling Pioneer

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

This week on “The Learning Curve,” guest co-hosts Alisha Thomas Cromartie & Kerry McDonald talk with Julie Young, Deputy Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services for Arizona State University and CEO of ASU Prep Digital High School. In 2019, 2.7 million K-12 students had an online schooling experience, an 80 percent increase since 2009, with 32 states offering fully online schools. Julie explains the wide appeal of online education for students of all kinds, especially those with learning differences, who are seeking a positive academic experience and more flexibility. They also discuss which states are leading the way and lagging behind, the variety and growth of digital learning programs, and how they enable students to accelerate their learning and contain the costs of higher education.

Stories of the Week: In his State of the Union Address this week, President Trump called on Congress to pass a tax credit scholarship program for low-income students to attend private and religious schools. But is this the proper role of the federal government? Where are the administration’s other proposals for improving public education, and is the rhetoric around school choice becoming politicized? A new report finds that 21 states have made it a high school graduation requirement that students pass a financial literacy course. Is this a welcome opportunity to help young people develop responsible budgeting skills and habits, or is it a form of state-mandated intrusion into subject matter that should be covered at home?

The next episode will air on February 14th, with guest Neal McCluskey, Director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom.

Interview Guest:

Julie Young is the Deputy Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services for Arizona State University, and the CEO of ASU Prep Digital High School. She is the leading voice for revolutionizing K-12 online education on the global stage. As the founding President and CEO of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), Young and her team grew FLVS into a diversified, worldwide organization creatively serving over 2 million students in 50 states and 68 countries worldwide. Julie graduated with a MEd from the University of South Florida following her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky.

https://www.asuprepdigital.org/leadership/julie-young/

Commentary of the Week:

Frederick Hess in EducationNext: “Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools”

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

US News: Trump Calls on Congress to Pass Federal Tax Credit Scholarship

https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-02-04/trump-calls-on-congress-to-pass-federal-tax-credit-scholarship

CNBC: Teaching financial education in schools finally catches on

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/teaching-financial-education-in-schools-finally-catches-on.html

Next episode’s guest: Neal McCluskey, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, February 14, 2020.

Guest Co-Hosts:

Alisha Thomas Cromartie is a former six-term state legislator in Georgia. She was co-author of the state’s constitutional amendment to create a state charter authorizer, and author of the state’s intra-district transfer law. She is former Superintendent of Ivy Prep Schools in Atlanta. She is currently a speaker, author, CEO and host of “Fearless Chic,” a podcast for women. She tweets at @AlishaCromartie.

 

 

 

Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019). She is also an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute and a regular Forbes contributor. Kerry’s research interests include homeschooling and alternatives to school, self-directed learning, education entrepreneurship, parent empowerment, school choice, and family and child policy. Her articles have appeared at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NPR, Education Next, Reason Magazine, City Journal, and Entrepreneur, among others. She has a master’s degree in education policy from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College. Kerry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. Kerry tweets at: @kerry_edu.

Receive Our Updates!

Related Posts

Lead Plaintiff Kendra Espinoza & IJ’s Attorney Erica Smith on Landmark SCOTUS School Choice Decision

0 Comments
/
This week, in a special segment of “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are honored to be joined by Kendra Espinoza, lead plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, just decided yesterday, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Erica Smith, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented the plaintiffs.

U-Arkansas Prof. Patrick Wolf on School Choice, Espinoza, & Students’ Civic Prep

0 Comments
/
U-Arkansas Prof. Patrick Wolf joins The Learning Curve to discuss school choice, the Supreme Court's Espinoza case, & students’ civic preparation.

Pulitzer Winner Diane McWhorter on Civil Rights History & Race in America

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard mark the Juneteenth commemoration of the end of slavery with an episode devoted to Civil Rights history. They are joined by Diane McWhorter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.

NYT Best-Selling Children’s Author Carole Boston Weatherford on Fannie Lou Hamer & Race in America

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Prof. Carole Boston Weatherford, a New York Times best-selling children’s book author, and Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award winning biographer of Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer.

MA Commissioner Jeff Riley on Remote Learning, Voc-Techs, & Reforming Boston’s Schools

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard open with commentary on the George Floyd tragedy and K-12 education’s role in addressing racial injustice. Then, they are joined by Jeffrey Riley, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, to talk about the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19.

Acclaimed Poet & Former NEA Chairman Dana Gioia on Poetry & Arts Education

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dana Gioia, a poet, writer, and the former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, to talk about why the arts are so pivotal to the intellectual and civic development of America’s K-12 schoolchildren.

Homeschooling Expert Kerry McDonald on Harvard Law Professor Controversy & COVID

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kerry McDonald, a homeschooling expert and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, on the major lessons we all should be learning from this educational moment, now that COVID has turned most of America’s 50 million schoolchildren and their families into "homeschoolers."

Kaya Henderson, Former Chancellor, D.C. Public Schools, on Leading Urban District Reform

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kaya Henderson, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. They discuss the historic reforms Henderson oversaw, including increasing enrollment and improved test scores in an urban district that had been one of the lowest performing in the country.

UVA Law Professor Kimberly Robinson On Legal Debate About Education As Federal Right

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Kimberly Robinson, Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Curry School of Education, about her new book, "A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy," and the need for states to establish a “floor of opportunity” to ensure educational equity.

New York Times #1 best-selling author John M. Barry on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic & lessons for COVID-19

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by John M. Barry, author of the #1 New York Times best seller, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.

Ashley Berner of Johns Hopkins on Academic Quality, Educational Pluralism, & the Providence Public Schools

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Ashley Berner, Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. 

Christensen Institute Co-founder Michael Horn on Digital Learning & COVID-19

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.