The Education Equation with Jeremy Singer

🎧 The Education Equation: Dr. Janice Jackson on Scaling Solutions

On this episode of The Education Equation, host Jeremy Singer speaks with Dr. Janice Jackson, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Executive Director of the Aspen Institute's Education and Society Program.

Dr. Jackson, a CPS alumna, discusses her journey leading one of the nation’s largest school districts. She notes that her time as a principal provided the best preparation for the superintendency. Under her leadership, CPS boosted its graduation rate from 55.8% in 2010 to 82.5% in 2020. This dramatic turnaround was driven by intentional work, including makin...

In this special live episode, Jeremy Singer interviews Liz Cohen, author and VP of Policy at 50Can, as part of the College Board Forum 2025. Cohen, an expert in K-12 education, discusses her new book, The Future of Tutoring: Lessons from 10.000 School District Tutoring Initiative. She argues convincingly that tutoring is one of the few interventions with clear evidence of improving educational outcomes.

The conversation explores how the COVID-19 pandemic and federal ESSER funds created a unique opportunity for the research and scaling of tutoring, which Cohen refers to as an "accidental experiment". By May 2023, 80% of U.S...

A Reimagined Internship with Dan Gonzalez

Welcome to the Education Equation, a new podcast focused on what the evidence says actually moves the needle in education. In this episode,Jeremy Singer talks with Dan Gonzalez, co-founder and co-CEO of District C, a national nonprofit reimagining the internship experience. Dan's career spans engineering, the classroom, and corporate leadership,

In 2016, Dan and his wife, Ann Jones, launched District C to address a crucial gap between academic learning and the collaborative skills students need for the modern workforce. Their solution, called Teamship, offers a new internship model where...

Jeremy Singer shares why we're starting The Education Equation and what you can expect in upcoming episodes as we kick things off!

Be sure to like and Follow The Education Equation with Jeremy Singer wherever you get your podcasts.

Education Innovations and The Charter School Impact

In this episode, Jeremy talks with Jim Manly, Chief Schools Officer at the KIPP Foundation, about his over 30-year career in education, his insights on charter schools, and his vision for the future of learning. 

Jim's career spans more than 30 years and includes roles as a teacher, school leader, and system leader at innovative organizations like Teach for America and Success Academy. Jim shares his journey from a struggling teacher to a founding principal of Success Academy Harlem Two, where the school became the top-performing school in its d...

Transforming Education: AI in the Classroom with Dacia Toll

In this episode of The Education Equation, host Jeremy Singer talks with Dacia Toll, the co-founder and co-CEO of Coursemojo, an AI-powered teaching assistant platform. Dacia is also the co-founder of Achievement First, a prominent charter school network with around 40 schools across the Northeast. The discussion focuses on how Coursemojo addresses two critical challenges in education: reading achievement and teacher retention.

Toll explains that the reading data for eighth graders is at a 30-year low, which she describes as a "national emergency." She also emphasizes the...

The People Systems Behind Educational Change

In this episode, host Jeremy Singer speaks with Sari Factor, Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer at ⁠Imagine Learning⁠, a company dedicated to providing high-quality educational experiences. Factor, who began her career as a math teacher, has over 40 years of experience in the education sector and has held leadership positions at major companies such as Kaplan, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin.

Sari and Jeremy discuss the significant challenges of implementing change in K–12 education, which Factor describes as "people systems" that are inherently difficult to change. The conversation also touche...