ABOUT
Hi there. I’m a K-12 researcher and entrepreneur.
1) As a Researcher…
I’ve launched dozens of new ideas, wondering “what works.”
Sometimes they are “whole schools”; sometimes they are “interventions” (like 1-1 Teacher Coaching or a particular form of Teacher-to-Parent communication or a particular type of Math Lesson Plan); sometimes they are integrated systems (like installing curriculum, technology, and training).
My process is:
First, try something “imperfectly” to see what kids and teachers think – and observe. Many ideas fail at this early stage, and that’s great!
Second, if promising, I try to measure it myself, subject to logistical considerations.
Third if something really seems to be working, I reach out to economists or other scholars to measure impact, often as a randomized trial. Their work has been amazing – they’re both experts at measurement and they bring a helpful externality (they can avoid confirmation bias that I might have, though I try to be self aware and limit that heuristic).
2) As an Entrepreneur…
I founded or co-founded Match, Match Tutoring Corps, Sposato Graduate School of Education, 1Up, the Learning Lab at Bridge International Academies (now NewGlobe), Hoop Brains summer camp, and the Cuemath Learning Lab.
1Up is little. Cuemath is big, with 3300 tutors.
Match is little. Bridge is biggest school network in the world.
Scale is a thorny problem in K-12. Many seemingly “proven” models fail at scale. Why? People matter. This work isn’t drug discovery, when chemicals get things done, fairly consistently. You need outlier talent, with small and big.
I appreciate humbler research claims, a la: “X is something that has been rigorous measured and is succeeding – BUT in this specific context, with these particular people doing the hard work. MAYBE it will work for you, maybe not.
3) How to discover What Works (in your context)
I’ve adopted the “Cheerful Fail Fast” mentality. Embrace the mindset that many well-intentioned interventions fail at first contact - they don’t do harm but don’t improve things for kids or teachers. The “fast” in “fail fast” means iterate quickly. Those ideas which seem to have merit – where kids, teachers, neutral observers say “This is working!” - you then test more empirically. Importantly, wherever possible, get neutral outside people to do that testing….it’s a hack against your own (healthy) bias to want to claim success!
4) My limited talent stack: 2 things
My colleague Geordie wrote:
"Thanks for putting this together in a clear and compelling way. Your #1 super power might be the well-crafted, insanely detailed email plan. The #2 might be tuna melts.”
My tuna melts are actually normal; Geordie was just really hungry that day.
My #2 superpower is mostly good fortune/serendipity: finding truly amazing collaborators and partners."
Research Partners:
OMG, I’ve been fortunate that guys I got lucky enough to work with in some way have (later) won Nobel Prizes for economics; and 2 other economist partners are considered strong Nobel candidates down the road. See here.
Start-Up Partners:
Manan of Cuemath, and Jay + Shannon of Bridge – these are truly world-class entrepreneurs. The Match crew (Charlie, Alan, Ann, Stig, Orin among them), Roland in Houston, Erica in New Orleans, Geordie in Philly, Scott in Boston, Sean everywhere, and many more have been great colleagues and partners - the successes are mostly theirs; the failures are mostly mine.
