Can public school districts turn this ship around?

I must admit that when it comes to a public school district’s ability to provide tailored educational solutions for students, I am usually bearish, if not a downright skeptic. My conversation with school founder and author Matt Bowman highlights bright spots (15,000 of them if you measure by the number of students served) of personalization in the public school context.

Matt didn’t set out to build an education company. He set out to help his five children, each one wired differently, get an education that fit them. Nearly 20 years later, the company he founded operates a tuition-free, district-partnered personalized learning network serving thousands of students. In this episode of Quality Matters, recorded live at the Harvard Emerging School Models Conference, Matt explains how he’s managed to work with public school districts rather than around them — and why declining enrollment is finally giving superintendents the push they need to innovate.

In this episode:

• What “personalized learning” looks like in practice

• The superintendent characteristics that predict a successful partnership

• Why chronic absenteeism post-COVID is reshaping district incentives

• Entrepreneurship as a real-world, interdisciplinary learning engine

• How to think about student interests, family needs, and available resources

The Bowman family of seven has wildly different learners so they started customizing the experience: mixing public school, online coursework, charter programs, and community-based learning to fit each child’s needs. That experiment, launched with heavy doses of faith and parental experience, became the foundation for OpenEd, which currently operates private schools, supports homeschool families, and partners with conventional public schools.

I won’t give away the whole episode but Matt’s educational philosophy and practical approach to working with any willing school strikes me as a way to tackle currently intractable problems like the reading crisis that exists across the country. I think Matt would say that instead of forcing school upon families, schools should invest time in better understanding a family’s goals, constraints, and resources. Once a school has a more complete picture of a student’s life and goals, the school can tailor the curriculum in a way that engages.

Thanks again to Matt for joining me and Caitlin for this conversation. I think you’ll enjoy it.