3 Wishes for 2022

Plus, what's next for student debt

Does it feel a tad early for wishes for the new year? Does 2020 still feel like yesterday? Or are you more than ready to turn the page on 2021?

The answer for me is a resounding “yes”—to all three questions.

That ball of seeming contradictions didn’t stop me and Diane Tavenner from finishing up our 2021 Class Disrupted podcasts with a brief episode that focused on three wishes we have for the new year.

What were they?

1)    Personalization.

2)    Grace.

3)    And a renewal of the Every Student Succeeds Act—also known as the Elementary Secondary Education Act (formerly known as No Child Left Behind).

If the third feels early to you or out of the blue, recall that it’s been six years since the law was last reauthorized. Given COVID and the time span, we believe it’s time for a refresh. After you listen to the episode, let us know what you think.

Student debt

Speaking of the new year, we've had an almost two-year pause on federal student loan payments because of the pandemic, but with that ending on January 31st, it's time to talk again about the state of student debt.

What should change in this country around student debt? How is the federal government like a predatory lender? And is student debt really a crisis?

Jeff Selingo and I addressed this and much more on our latest episode of Future U, “The Continuing Debate Over Student Debt.” In it, we welcomed Josh Mitchell from the Wall Street Journal and Beth Akers from the American Enterprise Institute to talk about the issue and their recent books on the topic titled The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe and Making College Pay: An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education.

Check out the episode here.

Active learning

Finally, over the past several weeks, I’ve broadcasted four conversations and commentaries on different active learning solutions in the education market. Active learning is far more effective than passive learning environments like lectures. For example, in a meta-analysis of 225 studies of how well students learn from lectures versus active-learning seminars, the authors found that active learning would raise average grades by a half a letter and that failure rates under lecturing increase by 55% over the rates observed under active learning.

I’ll have more to say on the topic and more to feature, but I’d encourage you to check out the videos that feature the Quantic School of Business and Technology, InSpace, and Engageli—along with this brief commentary that seeks to shed light on scaling these solutions. Also, in an exclusive free trial for subscribers to The Future of Education, InSpace is offering a free 1-month trial, which gets users access to all of the InSpace premium features that are available. You can request your 1-month free trial here: https://hubs.la/Q010lMrG0.

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As always, thanks for reading, listening, and writing.