This episode of Innovations in Education with David Adams features Josh Thomases, a seasoned educator, leader, and CEO of IPsquared, a leadership consulting firm, discussing his decades of experience at the intersection of education, equity, and innovation.

Why Listen?

Solving Education's Toughest Problems: Josh shares insights from his extensive career, including his time at the Great Oaks Foundation, Bank Street College of Education, and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). He highlights how he helped launch over 350 small schools in New York City, a model proven to significantly improve graduation and college outcomes for underserved students.
Transforming a System: Learn about the challenges faced by the NYCDOE in the early 2000s, such as inconsistent accountability, a favor-based system, and stagnant graduation rates. Thomases explains the "Children First initiative" and the shift towards a system of "great schools" where the school itself was the unit of change.

Key Innovations Discussed:

Fair Student Funding: Discover how shifting funding from a per-teacher basis to a per-student basis incentivized schools to take on more challenging students and promoted equity.
Accountability Systems and Comparison Groups: Understand the development of public report cards and comparison groups that allowed schools to contextualize their performance while still being held accountable for student outcomes and growth.
New School Development: Hear about the strategy of closing large, underperforming schools and opening new, smaller schools to drive innovation and improve outcomes.
Operational Excellence: Thomases emphasizes the importance of central departments adopting a service mentality, ensuring essential functions like timely teacher payments, efficient busing, quality school food, and facility repairs operate smoothly to support educators.

Key Takeaways:

Data-Driven Decision Making: The importance of transparency and utilizing data to understand student needs and drive continuous improvement.
Fostering Innovation: How large school systems can foster innovation without "experimenting on students" by creating opportunities for diverse approaches.
Collective Responsibility: The fundamental idea that a school system must take responsibility for educating every child in its community, regardless of perceived challenges.
Learning from Experience: The need to systematize how schools and systems learn from their successes and failures, moving beyond anecdotal evidence.
Embracing the Political Nature of Schools: Acknowledging that schools are political spaces and fostering dialogue across differences within these community institutions.

This episode offers valuable lessons for current education reform efforts, emphasizing that good policy and a focus on incentives, accountability, and systemic support can drive positive outcomes.

Don't miss future episodes – subscribe to Innovations in Education wherever you get your podcasts today. To learn more, visit us the Urban Assembly.