The 180

Karen Pittman: Learning Happens Everywhere

If as the saying goes, learning happens everywhere, how can our community based programs – the ones outside the classroom that serve and engage our children and youth – use the Science of Learning and Development to rethink and redesign what kids do after the end of school bell rings?

Karen Pittman just might be the perfect person to ask. Pittman is co-founder, President, and CEO at the Forum for Youth Investment whose mission is simple and daunting: To change the odds that all children and youth are ready for college, work, and life. 

Pittman is a globally recognized leader in youth development, launching new organizations and initiatives at virtually every stop. Those stops include the Urban Institute, Children's Defense Fund, and Clinton administration, as well as a stint with retired General Colin Powell to create America's Promise, an umbrella group that connects hundreds of national nonprofits, businesses, community leaders, and more, focused on helping young people succeed. Pittman has won numerous honors, written three books, and was named one of the 25 most influential leaders in after school by the National Afterschool Association. 

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast/

Linda Darling-Hammond: Out of the Lab and into the Classroom

As the Science of Learning and Development becomes better understood – the discoveries that connect how children develop and learn and how their environments can make or break their progress – a next challenge becomes clear: Turning that research into practice. So what exactly will it take from schools in communities and through public policy to make education work for every child in America? Linda Darling-Hammond, to put it mildly, has some ideas.

Linda is president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and President of the California State Board of Education. She also is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University. With many other leadership roles, award-winning books, more than 500 publications and education experience from preschool through higher ed, Darling-Hammond is simply one of this country's leading thinkers and doers in the field. In fact, in 2006 she was named one of the nation's 10 most influential people affecting educational policy, and in 2008 she headed President Obama's education policy transition team.

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast/

Todd Rose: Talent is Everywhere

Today we have much scientific knowledge that didn't exist when many of the systems that serve children, in and out of school, were designed.

For example, today we know that talent is not distributed along a bell curve. What if we were to apply this new knowledge in new ways? What untapped potential might we see and unleash? As the global workforce undergoes a once in a century transformation wouldn't it make sense to also reconsider our inputs into that workforce: The way we recognize talent and help all children grow and learn? 

Our inaugural conversation is with Todd Rose, director of the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also leads the laboratory for the science of the individual. He's also the co-founder of Populace, a non-partisan think tank dedicated to equipping all people to live fulfilling lives in an open, and thriving society. Rose is author of the End of Average, and most recently, Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment.

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast/

Trailer: Dr. Pamela Cantor Introduces The 180

Welcome to The 180, our podcast that explores how to transform 21st century education, how to turn it around using 21st century science.

In these conversations, we’ll talk with some exceptional people rethinking and redesigning K-through-12 education – how our children should learn – in America.

Helping with the introduction: Dr. Pamela Cantor. Pam is Founder and Senior Science Advisor of Turnaround for Children, and she championed this podcast because she sees the promise – the essential opportunities for each child – emerging every day from the science of learning and development.

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast/