Job Moves: Live in Boston and with Katie Couric
Hi everyone —
Just 4 days till the publication date for Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career! My coauthors, Ethan Bernstein and Bob Moesta, and I are beyond excited that you’ll soon be able to have the book in your hands (or ears—more on that below).
You can order the book itself here. As a reminder: All preorder sales are incredibly helpful, as those early numbers help the media know that we’ve got something special here worth sharing with others. So don’t delay! And thank you!
We recently had our first in-person engagement around the book. It was a blast. Ethan and I joined Larry Gennari on stage in Boston at the Authors & Innovators Conference.
For those not in the room, they fortunately captured our conversation on video here:
And if you don’t want to see my mug on camera talking about Job Moves, good news! You can check out my voice in the Introduction. I checked off a bucket-list item when Ethan and I recorded the Introduction for the audio version of the book, which also publishes on Nov. 19th alongside the hardcover and ebook editions.
Our publisher, HarperCollins, kindly provided an excerpt of our audio recording to share with all of you:
Katie Couric and More Job Moves Previews
I was also thrilled to see my coauthors, Ethan and Bob Moesta, featured in Katie Couric’s newsletter talking about Job Moves! Check it out in “Your Next Adventure.”
My friend and colleague
also interviewed me about the book for her Substack newsletter, which you can view here. Good news: Michelle pulled out some fun, short video clips from our conversation. Enjoy!Career and Technical Education for All
On the topic of jobs,
and I penned a piece in Education Next in which we argued that it’s time for a Career and Technical Education for All movement in K–12 education.Read why we think Career and Technical Education for All would solve some of the key supply and demand problems that have plagued past “for all” efforts—such as “Computer Science for All” and “College for All.” And why CTE for All shouldn’t represent a return to the problems that plagued vocational education a couple generations earlier. We also grapple with some of the big philosophical questions that might confront the movement and wrote about some of today’s school exemplars. Check it all out at “Career and Technical Education for All.”
Future U.: Live with WGU & the New Student-Ready College
Jeff Selingo and I recently spent time with two of my absolute favorite higher education innovators for two new Future U. episodes.
First, we journeyed down to Orlando to interview leaders from Western Governors University to talk about innovations around the university, with special attention paid to those at their fast-growing School of Education. Some stats that should grab your attention:
WGU today is serving roughly 175,000 learners at any given point in time
Pre-pandemic, roughly 5% of WGU’s students were under 24; today it’s closer to 18%. That’s more than 30,000 students—nearly the size of the University of Michigan’s undergraduate population!
According to my calculations, WGU educates roughly 2% of new teachers nationwide each year—and according to its dean, Stacey Ludwig-Johnson, while bricks-and-mortar schools of education have been shrinking by at least 20%, WGU’s School of Education ended its “last fiscal year with about 12% growth, and [are] actually seeing greater growth this year.”
A couple more highlights from the conversation included:
President Scott Pulsipher and Provost Courtney Hills McBeth explaining how WGU’s expansion of apprenticeships will further the school’s skills-first approach to learning,
And Madelyn Hurst, a student at the School of Education, talking about how WGU’s competency-based approach to learning shapes her own teaching.
Here’s the audio from the episode, “Visiting Western Governors University: Growing and Evolving Pathways for Educating Teachers.”
And here’s the full video from our conversation:
After the WGU episode, we then featured Duet, the Boston-based non-profit that’s partnered with Southern New Hampshire University’s competency-based online program to offer what’s called a “hybrid college”—but Jeff and I thought of it as a “student-ready” college by the end of our conversation. I love Duet, because as I shared in the below clip, it checks basically all the boxes for me:
Disruptive innovation? Check, as it’s more affordable and accessible and serves nonconsumers.
A commitment to outcomes—economic growth for the students they serve through a No Excuses mindset that is born from their roots in the Match Charter Public School network in Boston.
Competency-based learning.
Blended learning. Students learn online as they master projects, and in-person coaches help support them and hold them accountable.
Listen to the full episode here at “The New Student-Ready College.”
Three More Before You Go
Finally, I was featured in a few other podcasts and articles.
Outschool launched a new podcast called Outspoken. I was honored to be their second guest. I spoke with hosts Amir Nathoo, CEO of Outschool, and Justin Dent, Executive Director of Outschool.org, about how to disrupt education for the knowledge economy. We covered personalizing learning, microschools, Education Savings Accounts, and whether traditional public schools can adapt. And, although we recorded this well before the recent election, I’d be curious your thoughts after you listen to my hot take on how if Democrats don’t support educational choice, they may be repeating the mistakes of the Republicans in the 1960s when they lost the support of the majority of Black Americans. Listen here.
I’ve made no secret of my support for continuing to make the MCAS exams a graduation requirement in Massachusetts. But now that voters rejected that requirement, what’s next? The Lexington Observer interviewed me and others for our thoughts here in, “The MCAS ballot question passed. What’s next for students?”
Lastly, I joined the CEO of EngageRocket on their Engaging Leadership podcast to talk “Education Reimagined: Michael Horn’s Blueprint for Success.” This was a fun, wide-ranging conversation on the future of human capital in schools.
As always, thanks for reading, writing, and listening.
Great idea to have CTE for all. Unfortunately those are the lowest paid teaching jobs in high school no auto technician is leaving a $100k+ job to teach. In addition, many auto techs don’t have the personality to be a teacher. Therefore, most auto tech classes are run like a hobby class (I’ve been recruiting automotive technicians in high school auto classes for several years). Until we can truly teach CTE with professionals in the field who have had basic classroom management training, many of the actually classrooms will be ineffective except for creating an interest in the subject. One more thought, if the class is run by a teacher without classroom management skills, slackers flock to the class making it even more difficult for a student truly interested in learning about a career option. I’ve definitely seen a well run automotive classroom and the result is night and day more positive but there are big challenges here.