It’s Not WHAT You Know with Julia Freeland Fisher
In our race to cover state content standards and prepare students for high-stakes tests, many educators are overlooking a powerful strategy for transforming students’ futures and making serious strides toward equity. Policy analyst and author Julia Freeland Fisher preaches the game-changing impact of expanding students’ social networks.
Julia Freeland Fisher is the director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute. Her team educates policymakers and community leaders on the power of disruptive innovation, aiming to transform monolithic, factory-model education systems into student-centered designs that enable each student to realize his or her fullest potential. Julia is also the author of Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students’ Networks, along with a great collection of blog posts and this AMAZING PLAYBOOK for implementing the ideas we discuss in the episode.
We cover a lot of territory including:
2:54 How Bear McCreary became one of the top composers of our time
5:20 Young Julia’s 1st-hand experience with “opportunity gaps”
6:53 Two types of social capital: getting by vs. getting ahead
9:01 WHAT you know vs. WHO you know
10:25 Breaking out of the school’s embryonic community
11:28 The inequity of inherited social networks
13:13 How “enrichment spending” exacerbates inequity
14:18 Research on the link between social capital and economic mobility
15:25 How schools can tap into community capital
18:23 Existing models for schools to engage networks
21:32 Overcoming “Byzantine” school schedules
24:54 How schools can track and systemize social capital
26:15 What gets measured gets done
27:38 A challenge to affluent people who care about equity
29:30 Whose job is this?
30:44 A simple first step for school leaders
31:52 The “low-hanging fruit”- Internship programs
33:20 Models/programs for school-wide implementation
34:51 Connecting with our WHY and overcoming teacher burnout
Here are some programs and tools Julia discusses in the interview:
About Experience Matters
Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro invites guests to reflect on the most profound learning experiences of their youth and to consider how we can reform American schools. Each episode provides clues about how parents and educators alike can engage young people in powerful, sometimes transformational experiential learning. Education can take many forms, but whatever form it takes- experience matters.