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Edtech Insiders
Special Episode: Postcards from Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families (Part 1)
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Edtech Insiders joined the first Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families hosted by Common Sense Media at Pier 27 in San Francisco on January 28–30.
The conference brought together advocates, researchers, youth leaders, policymakers, and other experts to take stock of America's kids and families and explore solutions to the most pressing issues across four core topic areas: kids and technology, youth mental health, early childhood education, and K–12 education.
In this special episode, Alex and Ben interviews:
- Nicholas Kristof, Author and New York Times columnist
- Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop
- Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta
- John Deasy, President of the Bezos Family Foundation
- Carla Small, CEO at EarlyBird Education
Special Episode: Postcards from Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families (Part 2) here:
Welcome to Season Eight of Edtech Insiders where we speak to educators, founders, investors, thought leaders and the industry experts who are shaping the global education technology industry. Every week we bring you the week in edtech. important updates from the Edtech field, including news about core technologies and issues we know will influence the sector like artificial intelligence, extended reality, education, politics, and more. We also conduct in depth interviews with a wide variety of Edtech thought leaders, and bring you insights and conversations from ed tech conferences all around the world. Remember to subscribe, follow and tell your ed tech friends about the podcast and to check out the Edtech Insiders substack newsletter. Thanks for being part of the Edtech Insiders community enjoy the show.
Ben Kornell:Hello, Edtech Insiders listeners. It's Ben and Alex here and we've got a special episode coming straight from the Common Sense Summit in San Francisco. It really was an incredible gathering of advocates and allies for kids, families, education and edtech. And we're gonna bring some voices in our postcards from the common sense summit episode.
Alexander Sarlin:We talk to incredible leaders in the field, people who care about kids privacy, who care about kids mental health who care about education from all sorts of lenses. So this episode is a montage of some of the highlights in the postcards from everybody. We're also put out some single episodes with extended conversations with some of our most illustrative guests. Enjoy.
Ben Kornell:Just a quick note to listeners, we record this live and in person at the common sense Summit. So you will hear some background noise here. Our apologies. But we were really there in the middle of it all meaning with everyone. Please go to Edtech Insider substack, where we will include all of our transcripts from the conversations with each guest.
Alexander Sarlin:We talked to Nicholas Kristof, editorial writer for the New York Times advocate for equality and education around the world. He's also the author of four books, including the upcoming chasing hope, which is his memoir, fascinating conversation with Nicholas Kristof.
Ben Kornell:Hi, Nick. So you're here at the common sense summit for kids and families in America? What's making you most optimistic and what's making you most concerned?
Nicholas Kristof:So I think what really makes me optimistic is that compared to 20 years ago, we have so much more understanding of what is holding kids back and of how to address the problem was we essentially know, we really do know how to fix many of the problems with today's kids. And we have the resources, the knowledge we could solve is a big word. But we could sure make a real dent in these problems, when I find much more troubling is that even though we have the knowledge and the resources we don't? And, you know, boy, child poverty, I think of is maybe the foremost American scandal, how do we, the richest country arguably in history of the world, tolerate levels of child poverty at this level, and then we introduced the refundable Child Tax Credit, we slashed child poverty almost half. And such were fingers extended and little child poverty story. And that just, you know that to me, underscored how difficult it is to build the political will, in this country, to cut child poverty to get nationwide, universal or late childhood programs to address mental health concerns to address the whole range of problems that we have.
Ben Kornell:So we know what works, and yet we still don't do it. I think that's a theme of our podcast.
Alexander Sarlin:Yes. So throughout human history, technology has always been a really disruptive force. And we talk about that a lot on the podcast, for good or bad. Technology's rate is changing very quickly right now, especially with artificial intelligence. How do you think about AI and how it's shaping American society? And what should we be doing to make this wave of technology more positive and have more impact than others?
Nicholas Kristof:So there are a lot of folks who I think particularly visit the AI thing, this is either going to be the end of the world, or this is going to be the great hope for the world. And I guess I'm a little more jaundiced. You know, when I was a correspondent based in China, many years ago, then there were views that the information revolution was going to transform China, or alternatively that it was going to enable the Communist Party to control everything. And, you know, it turned out to inevitably be be more complicated and be more mixed and work in both directions. And I think ever since Gutenberg that, likewise, new technological platforms proved a capacity for ill, and also a capacity for good. And so I tend to think that AI will probably be the same, and there will be incredible new learning platforms, particularly excited in the developing world where education, frankly, you know, is often not very good. There are a lot of kids in school, but they don't learn anything. And I think that AI can really help there. On the other hand, you know, I've written a lot about sexual exploitation of children. And I think that AI and technology have been quite damaging there. When Facebook first came along, I've got to say that I thought this was going to help address social isolation and bring people together and do all kinds of good things. And then I went to I was out in Denmark, covering the genocide against the Rohingya, and went to a village where this genocide take place. And I talked to some of the perpetrators about how they organized this, and they explained how on Facebook they had, and that was dispiriting. And so it's complicated. Technology has always been complicated. And I suspect that AI and every new technology down the road will also be complicated, and just needs to make us very vigilant about exploiting the good and controlling the bad.
Ben Kornell:So this conference is focused on American children and families. But it's also connected to the global possibility and challenges of poverty and youth and families. You write a lot about this? What is the path out of global poverty, what gives you optimism that we could achieve that path? So
Nicholas Kristof:well, you know, at a global level, I'm actually pretty optimistic. And that's because I've seen this transformation in my lifetime, when I graduated from college in 1981. So 41%, of the world's population was living in extreme poverty. Now we're below 10%, when I was a kid, a majority of human beings throughout human history had always been illiterate. Now we're approaching 90%, adult literacy. I mean, especially in education, it really has been this transformation in elementary schools around the world, there's essentially now no gender gap, a girl is as likely to go to primary school worldwide, as well as, which is a stunning achievement. And I think that much of the developing world really is on a path toward more education, better economic outcomes, more empowerment. I'm a little less optimistic, frankly, about the developed world and the US. And maybe particularly, I think the US has some real challenges, partly because we've had such difficulty developing a safety net and investing in people left behind. And, you know, I say this, partly because I'm living in rural Oregon, in a quite poor area with a lot of educational failure. And, you know, at this point, more than a third of the kids were on my old high school bus have died from drugs, alcohol and suicide. They suffered greatly. And they also inflicted great suffering. And at this point, you had a couple of generations that have gone through this. And you have kids, in some cases, you are largely growing up almost sterile, without support. And I don't think astonishes me that while the rest of the world figured out early childhood programs and child care and wrestled with so many and shown forward, that we in the US, even liberal states, have not managed to move forward adequately. And there is this great gulf in America, including and blue states, between our values and our outcomes, especially with
Alexander Sarlin:regard to children. We were mentioning the deaths of despair, and this incredible, you know, issue in America. And we have this educational divide in that space as well. And, you know, I wanted to mention some incredible work that you've been doing with Christoph impact, raising sounds like over $6 million already for three charities, a couple of which are specifically about us outcomes. So if this is cam fed, which is campaign for female education, rural Africa, one goal, which is for low income students supporting them going into post secondary, and per school S, which is preparing people with high school diplomas for tech careers, really important organizations. I'd love to hear how you think about these organizations and how they're addressing the kinds of problems you just mentioned with the last answer.
Nicholas Kristof:You know, this started many years ago, 15 years ago, I think, when people around the end of the year around the holiday season would say, you know, look, you hang out with a lot of nonprofits who should I donate to you should read a column about out there, I thought, well, this seems a kind of a strange idea for a column. But eventually I was persuaded to do it, and chose some organizations that I had seen on the ground or was impressed by. And then I began doing it every year, and there was this real reader response, they turned to the New York Times to have that politicians and he's telling the truth, they turned to us now one wire cutter that, you know, see what color television we recommend. And so likewise, we can do a reader service in recommending nonprofits that work effectively. And there's this great market failure, there's so many Americans who would like to help they have more money than they frankly, know what to do with don't really know how to help. And so you know, if I can help liberate them of some of their excess money in a way that will make them happy way that can really make an effective difference. That's good. And so I look for organizations that have a really proven evidence base, they don't just talk a good game, but have either randomized control trial or some other evidence of bang for the buck. And that is often gravitated toward children, because I tend to think that's where you do get a high return on your investment. And this year, one goal is a terrific organization that gets at risk kids through high school, and then firmly positions ably in college for solace. Likewise, in the US, does a really important job taking marginalized young people, and giving them job training that will make them more secure for the rest of their careers, and their children, etc. And then internationally, this fantastic job with getting girls to school and the trade off is often internationally. It's a lot cheaper to have an interview. But it's a lot of work. And in the US it works. But it's you know, it's close to home. And so I tried to have both give yours a chance wherever they want to investigate. It's kind of thrilling to see the response.
Ben Kornell:Well, such a pleasure to have Nicholas Kristof. Here, Alex and I have read all of your opinion columns as we were thoughts in, look forward to your articles in the New York Times. You're also a philanthropist, and then you have a new book coming out. Tell us about your new book. It's
Nicholas Kristof:a memoir. It's coming out in May. And it's called Chasing hope. And boy, these days, we all need some hope.
Ben Kornell:We are so hopeful after talking to you. Thanks so much for joining us today at Tech insight.
Nicholas Kristof:Great to be with you.
Ben Kornell:We tried to get an interview with Elmo, but we had to settle for the CEO of Sesame Workshop, Steve Youngwood enjoy our conversation here. Hi, everyone. I am so excited to have a friend of commonsense friend of the pod Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop here at the Common Sense Summit. Thanks for joining us, Steve.
Steve Youngwood:Thanks for having me. It's been a great last couple of days. And it's such a pleasure to be here and have this conversation right now. Great.
Ben Kornell:Well, all of us had Elmo in our bedrooms, or maybe it was Big Bird journey. We all have what a relationship with sesame. But can you tell us a little bit about Sesame Workshop and what you all do? Yeah, sure.
Steve Youngwood:So Sesame Workshop at the core, we're an educational media organization. And we're not for profit that sits at that intersection of education, media and technologies. As we try to expand minds, right rich hearts. And we started in 1969. With to a couple of observations in the US that wouldn't teach were getting to kindergarten, they weren't inconsistency, who was ready to, at the same time, check, merge, merging, and was taking over and taking audiences. The founders had the observation, learning gap, new technology that is engaging, learning from what they were learning was the word. So it was a simple thing. Early Learning is critically important sort of lifelong, sort of education, brain development happens. You have a new engaging technology that is there to scale, harness that power to teach the ABCs and threes, eventually sort of social emotional rules, supposed to hear the word severe impact and set them on a different and that trusens basically stayed and just in time, technology. It is TV to internet, and it's bringing media into schools and the direct services. As much as the US it's global. It's not just the cognitive skills, research and social emotional skills, building blocks and enablers. And it's, it's here and around the world that we've evolved educational organizations, leveraging technology folks, using entertainment comes to an end. Just like teachers are captivating in order to educate and we do it around the world. I want to make sure the kids are the
Ben Kornell:One thing that sets me has always represented as an optimistic view of what kids can do and what kids can be. And that optimism, in stark contrast to some of the challenges we see, in our space, what's giving you the most optimism for kids, families and youth in America today, and what's giving you the most concern?
Steve Youngwood:Yeah, sure, with a concern part, because there is a lot going on in this world. And there's no ambiguity. You know, I'm a parent of three kids, I run an organization, you know, life's work on what's going on, and kids and families lives. And it's hard, and they're going through a lot, you know, whether it's the simple sort of divisiveness in this country, the unsettling and the violence around the world. They're more migrant families around the world right now than any time and maybe it's even surpassed World War One with some of the increasing challenges happen, you've got the threat of climate change, which is not just a threat in your life, but it creates anxiety, also, that the kids, so there's a lot going on, let alone the disruption that COVID did, which was to disrupt that kind of awakened certain challenges. aware of some of the challenges, whether it's learning loss, learning gaps, or a lot of the emotional well being, so those are the heart. And I particularly we are is like no ambiguity, those are adult issues. I think there's a lot of attention, teenage and college student issues, what often gets a lot, which is always ironic, is the impact on the children. And it's ironic to us, because we know that's where the brain development happens. So if Miss meeting them at that, then you're in portrait mode, your whole life. And we know that their children are in a positive place, that they're more open to learning. And we know that they're in a negative place and have emotional challenges. Those are blockers that are hard to overcome. So that's the the positive picture is, which is illustrated by this conference, but also is the dialogue people are recognizing. And that's in some ways, the first thing, in particular issue around emotional well being and mental health. That's a now in a way that hasn't, as I mentioned, that's a big blocker to learning. And the fact that people recognize it's a real issue, that's a real issue for kids, is a huge first step, the fact that we saw the impact, even during COVID of the support that families got positive income, that impact that had, I know their challenges now where that would go, but people saw Wow, you give the Trump tax tax and tax credits for that big difference. So my optimism, for naming the issue that people are elevating the issue, people are seeing proof on what works and what doesn't. And that's hopefully we don't forget that and we can sort of power forward and make a difference collectively in doing what needs to be done.
Ben Kornell:So one of the most exciting, common sense summit was your partnership with Hazel, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Steve Youngwood:Yeah, so Hazel Health is a an established startup that does a few things. But one of the main things they do is bring telehealth into schools. And they do physical health, but also increasingly, with mental health and with therapists, because you know, a child spends X percent eight hours a day in school, are the best people to recognize when they're their challenges or issues. Are they the teacher, what they do is they do make it available to all the families and make them aware that a family identifies it. But it's great to also have the fact that a teacher would identified if they see that they're on and they think that for a therapist to see the child, then they reach out to the parent. And that dialogue will happen and hopefully the student will start that this is really too efficient, acute issue, they will pass it on to someone more appropriate to handle that the issue, again have been around for a while and they've been going younger and younger and focusing more on emotional well being. They realized pain point that people didn't know them so they initially referrals would happen and then there'll be a drop off and who signs up and there'd be a drop off on that who shows up that keeps showing up partially given it and stigma partially because of lack of trust. They can possess you know, we always have been in medical trials, and so well beyond the cognitive skills, but always been invested emotionally as an enabler to learning executive function, you know, falling or during code like overreacting, this mental well being an emotional well being of a child is something we have to take on in a more pointed way 73% of parents remain are their top concern. The American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 for the youngest children recognizes the crisis for some of the reasons I mentioned before. So I said let's do a quick show. that, and we do it the way we do it exists, which is let's create the skills, the habits to have a positive mindset and resilience. So even if they're well adjusted, have no issues that they'll have as they get older and have more challenges, but they will be trained to know how to cope with them. The flip side, there are kids having emotional challenges, and let's share the tools for them, but also the tools for parents and caregivers to help sort of talk about the issues with them. And then we also do it the way we do is a capacity of immediate and targeted media. And then we also complete circle of care theory of change that you have to grasp the child for pain, but then there's enough to address the parents, the teachers, the caregivers, and then ideally effectuate change in the broader system. So we are in curriculum, we make content, kinfolk with YouTube special that came out last year. And now we're rolling into our show mindfulness, YouTube stars, we've done some podcasts with parent targeted audiences happiness lab with Santos, or Grover went on and talked about the power to self talk and be the magic of gratitude, and Big Bird getting to big feelings. And then resources for parents and caregivers, teachers, we call it the ABCs of emotions. So some of its talking about feeling, how they can identify how their children are feeling. Mine are focused their pain points in history, we've partnered to bring our and we're doing a pilot right now, which we hope scale up that a you know, if that's me is involved, that gives them trust with 90% awareness and 98% Trust, do you give some, so when they're out, we'll send them you know, whether there's some stuff we've already done, feel safe, where Elmo sort of exhibits out when he's scared and afraid of something, how he comforts himself to get an idea of some of the things is something familiar to a kid. And to now we're purpose built videos, explaining what a feeling, I feel it is, and what is this thing called therapists in a way that a child and adult can understand and feel comfortable. And we've already seen the earlier take away that they give the trust, give this awareness and sort of take down the anxiety. This is making the therapist the schedulers job much easier and successful out in success. We want to do a culture, one curriculum that's dealing with the kids that are going through issues. But ideally, we can train the kids, give them bring into the classroom, some of our curriculum show, they'll have the tools that maybe they won't actually have to see a better position going forward. So it's a really great partnership and illustrates to me what's so important, which is that this is a complicated problem. And people can recognize the problem, but also recognize that no one can solve. So you figured out what you're good, good acting partner to try to make the difference?
Ben Kornell:Yeah, there's so many of us on high school where we've reached crisis points, and it's easy to pinpoint, here's a crisis point. But when we think about what's under the surface, you know, it's an iceberg, where under the surface, many of these issues are manifesting in very, very young children. And so much of that work around D stigmatizing mental health challenges, but also giving kids coping skills actually has a very powerful long term payoff. My sentence, as passionate as eight years old, and through characters through storytelling, there's so much more that he can do rather than an intellectual exercise of some standardized curriculum. It's really wonderful to hear about that. Well, just to wrap up if people want to learn more about your work in mental health, including the curriculum, some of the resources, we have teachers that listen to tech insiders, where can they find that one,
Steve Youngwood:you always go to sesameworkshop.org. Overall, you could see the bodies of work that we do here and around the world, we specifically have a resource section that is built for caregivers, and parents, where you can see all of these resources that we've made available, either targeting parents or childhood to help work through these issues and and explain these issues. And you can always email me, steve.youngwood@sesame.org, or agree if you want and if I don't know the answer, I'll pass it on to the right person, because we are committed to this. Anybody can help us make stories for their kids help us think different ways to help fund us if they were in it for profit. All of it is more than we really appreciate it.
Ben Kornell:Wonderful. Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop. Thanks for joining us today. Rob Bonta is the Attorney General for the state of California. He joined the Common Sense Summit to talk about social justice and legal systems that ultimately create either cycles of opportunity or cycles of oppression. It was an incredible conversation with Attorney General Bonta. Alright, everyone we are with Rob Bonta Attorney General of California. Thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. Many people don't know your origin story. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, and also where youth justice really fits into your journey?
AG Rob Bonta:Sure, you know, I was raised by parents who are activists and advocates and their inspiration to me to serve with somebody that I've carried with me to this day and led me to life in public service. And I was born in another country, in the Philippines at a time when my parents asked themselves, whether they could raise me there and that I had rights and freedom and democracy and the rule of law due process. And the answer was no, because a dictator was rising to power partially was so important. So they brought me to California, seeking opportunity in a better life for me and for our family. And they knew that contribute to the community and society and feature that they wanted. So they started working with the Farmers of America, organizing outside of supermarkets as part of the lettuce boycott, and then move to the headquarters and my dad worked in the phone offices as a child as my mom, that's probably one of the greatest social justice, labor justice, environmental justice, economic justice,
Ben Kornell:I was part of the grapes when I was a kid, and I taught at the Santa Fe and Al Roker Unified School District where, since there Chavez and any associates lived for periods of time, so it's great to have that connection,
AG Rob Bonta:how legacy has inspired so many of us. And so, you know, it taught me to fight for a better world and a better future. And I saw them as activists, everyday folks committed to a common cause, ask elected officials to stand with them. And most of the time those elected officials wouldn't, so I thought maybe I could be sure Monday. Yeah, listen to the people have bought for them, including our young people, for youth justice, and a better future even right now. I'm so inspired by their commitment to address gun violence, their moral clarity, that urgency of now, when it comes to our climate crisis, their commitment to a safe online experiences and moral clarity is completely inspiring. And we owe it to them to do better as adults, when they say, you know, we just want to go to school and give us a school free of gun violence on the planet for tomorrow, or raise our kids, or give us a society is free of racial injustice there, right. And as adults, we need to step up to provide better for them.
Ben Kornell:I love it. So often, the youth voice is swept, and we hear their voices, political processes. This conference is really about voice and elevating voices. It's called the common sense of it on kids and families in America. What would you say? Is the current state of kids and families in America and what should we be doing better?
AG Rob Bonta:Think the current state for America is next. It's full of our young people. And our families are full of passion and pour and potency to change the world to commit to a better future. And they're active, and they're fighting a call out with, you know, sobering clarity. That is that what they've said, they're honest about them, and they're willing to lean in, to put in the work to address them. And so that as far as exciting, but I look at our young people, I feel we're in good hands for the future. But I worry about what adults are providing. And our job is always to hand over to the next generation something better than what we had. And in some ways we're at risk when it comes to gun violence, climate, racial injustice, and also the experiences our young people have, it is not okay. Social media platforms, they are experiencing harm, pain and mental health, physical health challenges, from any item that has it didn't drive was an alcohol gambling should be regulated, social social media platforms, the social media platforms know exactly what they're doing. But they're not changing. And so that's where we stepped in to push for the change for us to change and create an environment where social media forms are places that can be healthy, and people can thrive. And they can continue to fight for a better world and the way that they want without suffering.
Ben Kornell:So two things. One, there's a number of attorney generals that have kind of come together to hold the media, tech platforms accountable. And then second, there's this unique role that California plays where, just like in the auto initiative, we have a new standard, weird way, actually the de facto standard of the country. I know we're in with common sense. There's this bridge between, you know, progressive safe for kids in Europe, and California. There's this policy for edge as an attorney general, how do you carry that mantle forward? And how do you explain to our listeners may live in California or outside you what those priorities are going forward,
AG Rob Bonta:You know, we feel we have a responsibility here in California to be first to be best to be on the front foot, the cutting edge to innovate and to deliver solutions. And they're needed and healthy social media experiences for young people is one of those areas. And we're inspired by some of the important work that Europe has done. Feel no pride of ownership and adopting practices that work to protect kids and bringing them here to impact for the better, more kids lives and more kids health. And in states, we feel we're a leader from a policy perspective that Inessa some of our legislation, including some we announced yesterday, and our enforcement actions, including bipartisan, multi Attorney General, multi state actions to hold a meta and other social media platforms accountable. And rarely these politics, unfortunately, DC, bipartisan efforts, like you're seeing it here. Because the universal agreement that this is a problem that it's that children deserve better, and action must be taken. So we're in connection, and we need to take use all the tools in the toolbox. That's what you do when you're in a state of emergency a state of crisis. It's all hands on deck toolbox. So we're choosing legislation tells you from addiction online to protect their privacy, to put control in the hands of place to help customize their experience, limit duration online limit when alerts and notifications can be sent, including from midnight to 6am. Do do you have a default, organic logical feed as opposed to an algorithmic generated one, all important steps to create a better opportunity for children going forward. So whether it be enforcing policy leading, or learning, best practices that you're, we're all in when it comes to keeping our kids safe.
Ben Kornell:So it's such a fascinating conversation, I feel like we can. And unfortunately, people have to come to the summit next year. If people want to get involved and kind of join the movement that you and the administration are building, what's the best way for them to reach out or find out more,
AG Rob Bonta:Go to our DOJ website where we have information about our enforcement litigation against meta information about our investigation into TikTok. And if you believe that the bills that are innovative and yours that we've introduced yesterday with Senator Nancy Skinner, and it's about the wick wicks are important and help them to ball forward support that you can send in a letter of support or an email of support to help build the movement and build the effort to have legislators vote for them as they move through the legislative process and, and ask the governor when he gets to his desk.
Ben Kornell:Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Thanks for joining Edtech insiders.
AG Rob Bonta:Thanks for having me.
Ben Kornell:Next up, we have John Deasy. John was the superintendent of LA Unified School District among many other stops in his school and educator activist experience. And now he leads the Bezos Family Foundation, which is really aimed at transforming opportunity for kids across the world.
John Deasy:Hi, this is John Deasy and I am setting myself up for a podcast at Edtech Insiders.
Ben Kornell:Hi, everyone. We are so excited to have John Deasy here, leading the Bezos Family Foundation, but also a lifelong educator, leader, impact oriented superintendent, and has worked with Alex and I at Cambiar in the past, so great to have you here today on the pod.
John Deasy:Thrilled to be here. Thank you very much.
Ben Kornell:So the conference is the commonsense summit on kids and families in America. What is the state of kids and family in America? What gives you optimism and what gives you concern?
John Deasy:First of all, it's been an absolute privilege for the Bezos Family Foundation to be a supporter of this, I couldn't think of a more important issue, I think, in America today. And that was actually borne out in the very opening session on the data that we received in the survey in the deep dive across the country. So examining a couple of the sessions I saw, I want to start with what gives me optimism. And that was absolutely the session of the three Aspen challenge youth who are now young adults, and the story of what they are doing in their communities. And the demand that having a voice is not enough. It's being heard and listened to and being part of the solution and young people taking, in their opinion, the necessary steps for climate justice, for loving communities where young people recognize youth is not the problem with the solution. And young people activating their whole selves in nonviolent protest. And the consequences of all of that were amazing and gives me great hope that they are coming into leadership. What did not give me hope would gave me tremendous pause and I would actually honestly say in a bit of discouragement was some of the data that kicked off this entire conference. And I think the one in particular was how people saw the state of the future. You know, historically, this country, the American dream, whatever that actually means to folks has generally been, the next generation will do my work really hard as a dad, which I've tried, my own kids will have experience in this country that is better than my own, who's absolutely not the data that the majority of adults who have kids thought it would be the same or worse. What was stunning was that a majority of adults who do not have kids thought it was going to be worse. And that, to me, was really sobering. Up against that optimism. And I think the other part of it was just the conditions that young people are in hunger, serious mental health crisis and mental health issues, the failure of schooling, to support students as they feel they needed to not seeing a viable economic path forward, all of those things were actually really, really worrisome. And then, of course, political context, all of this, I actually thought feeding kids was a good thing like hope could be not bogged down, making sure a child is not hungry, can even the base that we're, he's part of the social contract. That is we take our young, afraid.
Alexander Sarlin:They're really sobering statistics. And there, there's a Times article reporting some of the stuff about kids opinions about school itself, which are really shocking, I think, you are at the Bezos Family Foundation, that's obviously a very famous name. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing and how you're thinking about improving some of these really dire problems?
John Deasy:Thank you. And it's an incredible privilege to be the president of the foundation, and to bring experience to bear so we can invest in the betterment of young people. So four major planks of work. One is research. So the ability to fund strategic research of various topics such as the development of early childhood, prenatal, prenatal, early childhood development of the adolescent mind, research that brings information about transition to parenthood, and now that needs to be successful, and what's needed to support that and trying to bring that into action. So there's a lot of opportunities that we support and fund research and dissemination of that, and its translation into policy actionable opportunities to leaders. Another area was early childhood. So what are the conditions transitioning to parenthood? What are the conditions within scholars, you know, the two or three years old, because their mind is growing so rapidly, that we'll give that young person the absolute best step forward, when they enter formal education. We deeply believe that the first and most important teacher anybody has his parents and supporting the family, young person, a lot of opportunity and supporting adolescent leadership development, adolescent peacemaking, and that provides us an opportunity to invest globally, which we do. And we're phenomenal investments in Africa and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, West Africa, supporting young people here in this country. In many ways, I still can't get out of my mind this session that we saw with these three, now, young adults, and the transformation of a single experience where they chose the, you know, seemingly intractable problem in their community. They were given the plan to change that. And they did, I think, is very, very powerful. And then we have invested, underserved and under resourced, whether deliberately or not in communities in this country that continues. We have real dedicated, since in indigenous First Nations. So growing number of strategic investments for those communities, especially the young people across communities, and then I think the last thing I might say is, like the word AI is everywhere. And what is it to be intelligent about this opportunity, discern what can be good for young people and what can be not so typically intensive learning mode, and out of that will come as building a play field about where we should go. And we shouldn't be in our investment IVR plan, rolls off the tongue.
Ben Kornell:You've had an incredible career starting as an educator and we have so many educators that are trying to scale impact that listen to Ed Tech insiders. What kind of advice would you have for up and coming social impact game changers like yourself? How should they be navigating this uncertain time and thinking about career Are moves that are for the betterment of kids and communities?
John Deasy:Well, first and obviously continue to listen to Edtech Insiders. Because you bring an array of individuals minds that I can actually be pretty proximate to electronic. And that's really helpful because we can always get to conferences. So the point of the question for me, it's really two things, and they're not easy to do. But I would say that they are really important to put on the table. The first is, be bold and courageous. For the other. The only reason I had those jobs was that I was there to serve young people and their families, first and foremost. And in many places, the state of the world conspires not to want to serve those people in the way that they need. And that require is a courage quotient that's high, and can oftentimes lead scar tissue on the leader. Last time I checked, I have healthcare, my kids work, I had housing surety, every single kid wants, they want to be us. And they look at us every day to see if they can get. And the second piece is they are very challenging times, I might argue some of the most challenging kinds of public education as we had to be set compulsory education. And you mean, raising current generation of leaders need also be what you need to sustain this work. Because one or two years, never served a community as well. So they need nice, a we must know that we are providing the supports for the leaders say the long haul on the table. And those are some of the obvious all the items about how are we in colorful in this? How are we putting language diverse leaders in this field? How do we support also not lots of opportunity to build their leadership, working with boards or with elected officials. And so giving poor judgment is part of the mentoring that I think we need and are obliged to do. I don't know if that makes sense. But it was pretty much from behind.
Ben Kornell:Totally resonates. It's an honor as always, John Deasy, the man the myth the legend sees here on Edtech Insiders. He's also leading the Bezos Family Foundation. Thanks for talking to us today.
John Deasy:I was honored. Thank you very much. Thanks for what y'all do.
Ben Kornell:At the Common Sense Summit, we also had the opportunity to connect with many entrepreneurs, one of which was Carla Small, the CEO of EarlyBird Education. EarlyBird is a dyslexia diagnostic tool. And it also supports kids under aged five to get support to treat their dyslexia. And it was developed at Boston Children's Hospital. Our interview with Carla was super insightful. Enjoy.
Alexander Sarlin:We're here at the common sense summit with Carla Small, the CEO and co founder of EarlyBird Education. Welcome to the podcast.
Carla Small:Yeah, it's great to be here.
Alexander Sarlin:It's great to talk to you. So the constant Summit is really all about the state of kids and families in America. From your particular perspective at EarlyBird, what do you think of the current state of kids and families in America? What gives you optimism? And what gives you concern?
Carla Small:Yeah, great question. Well, like a lot of people here, I'm concerned about the mental health crisis, I think that's a very real thing. I'm concerned about the reading crisis. Two thirds of our fourth graders are not reading on grade level, what gives me hope that's preventable. Children should be reading, they can be reading, and would have what it takes to make that happen. So now it's just a matter of making that work. So I'm being very optimistic, especially in a room full of these amazing people, all of them convening with a really smart plan of how to improve things and very clear vision. And I think we can contribute to that.
Alexander Sarlin:So speaking of contributing, maybe you can give us a little bit of an overview of what you're doing at early bird education is really interesting company.
Carla Small:Thank you. So early bird is preventing dyslexia through game play, children play a game. And then from that, we learn all sorts of information about their strengths and weaknesses, and what needs to be done to make them better readers. Interesting thing is dyslexia is actually preventable. Wow, I didn't know that yet. To identify children when they're very young, and you pick them the right instruction, they will read 95% of children, even with a severe diagnosis of dyslexia can move to reading. So the issue is to find them early. Really, evidence based on thorough assessment, and we do it in a game format. So it's fun. Kids don't even know they're being assessed. They enjoy it. And then you give the teachers and educators what they need. So we have on our plate Find out the resources, the next steps, tools, action plans, lesson plans, they need to do that. And it's all about putting it early. So we're starting in preschool, or pre K through third grade, to really kind of kids in that window when we can rewire the brain for reading success.
Alexander Sarlin:So EarlyBird is early identification. Do you work with schools entirely, or with families or both?
Carla Small:So we are in 20 states, this point districts across the country. But we did just launch this making this available to families. I, myself am the mother of a child with dyslexia. And I went on that journey. So my son was diagnosed at eight, but I could have told him when he was three or five years, and this is a story that's repeated time and time again, parents are guessing what's going on, they have a hunch, something's up, but they don't have any place to turn to identify, is it really a real issue. So now families can have this assessment at home. And then we can give them we're actually we have a program, a software game that they can play for the intervention as well. So we're really an end to end dyslexia solution for schools, and for families. That's fascinating.
Alexander Sarlin:So we're asking everybody about AI. Because the theme of the year, I know that I play some role in what you're doing at early bird and tell us a little bit about your take on AI and how it can help children.
Carla Small:Yes, AI is built in in multiple ways in EarlyBird. So we use voice technology, this is really important, because oral understanding oral comprehension, oral testing is a very key part of knowing whether a child is going to be adept at reading. So we've built that voice technology, that voice AI into early bird, it also enables for our teachers, it enabled automatic scoring. So the teachers don't have to spend time spend time intervention and this important of the child, it's very important to us, we also have predictive algorithms that are built into the early bird program. And those also are leveraging AI resources. So AI is really important, we're hearing a lot today about AI being used for good AI is not for good. This is an example of a
Alexander Sarlin:Definitely in that use case of helping teachers sort of reclaim time for things that they are spending a lot of time doing may not be, you know what they want to do, or the best use is a theme we've seen with a lot of different AI companies. Tell us a little bit about, you know, what you've seen at the summit so far, and what are sort of some of the themes that have jumped out to you.
Carla Small:It's been amazing. It's just the morning, but it's already been amazing. There was a panel that I just stepped out of that was about the mental health crisis. And there were three physicians on that panel talking about what's happening, and how it's being addressed and the severity of the issue. One thing really resonated with me, there was a discussion about how the fact that mental health is being seen as a health issue. It's really, almost like I'm talking about with dyslexia, it's actually preventable, if one focuses on the social determinants of health. And the example that was given was, it's if you take a child who's in school, and a counselor spends time talking to them about their stresses, it's not as effective as if you go into that school setting and say, How can I alleviate those stressors? Or change about your day? What resources can I bring to bear? This really resonated with me, because it's the same story with dyslexia. Dyslexia is often called the wealthy person's disease, it's what happens is if you have resources, you might walk into that school, you might say, I think my child has an issue, same thing I did, I think my child has an issue, I think we need to get them tested. And then test them, you say, well, they need me sources like tutoring and other things like that. So in fact, if you do that, and you do that early, you'll change the outcome for children, sadly, schools, families, without resources, those children go undetected. For those schools that have early birth, and they're doing screening in the pre K, K, first grade window, we've seen that data 72% of teachers are identifying children that otherwise would have gone on detect. That's really powerful. That's what we're all about.
Alexander Sarlin:Yeah. And I'm sure there's a relationship between learning disorders and mental health for people's entire lives. I remember reading once about the jail population is a hugely high percentage of functionally illiterate
Carla Small:percent by some measures. So and I can tell you, you know, in my, my small world of my child, at the young age of five, children's can feel low self esteem. They know they're not learning the way that appears or they're not acting in light looking like their peers, and so very early on, and it's hard to believe it, but starting in kindergarten, children can lose self esteem. And that's tragic because low self esteem leads to anxiety leads to long term mental health. We completely avoid them.
Alexander Sarlin:Yeah, it seems like the theme of a lot of what you're saying is how preventable these things are, which is very helpful, especially if you everything early. I know early I was also a theme of this conference, people are speaking a lot about that. Is there anything you're looking forward to or that you already seen about that early childhood? Those early childhood years that sort of gets you optimistic about the future?
Carla Small:Yeah, I mean, we saw early bird started as a kindergarten offering. And we've done younger, interested in. So now we're seeing districts buying early bird for pre K. So your spring children as young as four, it's really important because they enter compared with the skills they need that you can catch them young.
Alexander Sarlin:Yeah, that's really very powerful. And it's super interesting. We talked to a lot of people in the tech industry from lots of different areas. We talked to Martyn Farrows from Soapbox Labs, I know there's been a partnership there. I'm curious about how you see yourself, the EdTech ecosystem at large, do you see yourself as a diagnostic platform as an intervention platform as early childhood? You know, how do you think about the entire field as sort of swirls around what EarlyBird does?
Carla Small:That's a great question. So first of all, Early Bird was created and tested at Boston Children's Hospital, by a leading neuroscientist, Dr. Nitin, and my other co founder, Dr. Yeah, yeah, that's sure we're a lot about bringing research to practice. And evidence based work in the education field is incredibly important, but also very hard. We're very careful to make sure we're doing thorough validation studies before we launch anything. So I think where we sit in the field is we're bringing a truly science based product into schools. And that's very important to all three of us.
Alexander Sarlin:And I'm sure important to your as well, when you're doing something as important as as diagnosing and intervening with dyslexia. It's really powerful. If you have any stories of particular families, or particular schools that stand out to you and your journey that sort of always resonate with you and exciting and inspiring studies.
Carla Small:Yeah, you know, there's a school actually out here in California, I think, a very typical assessment process involves often like a paper pencil assessment, one on one with the teacher, teachers can often wait until later in the school year to do because they don't want to intimidate the child right out of the gate. Early Bird is a fun game. So you can do in the first or second week of school, kids are having fun, you're getting data and you start the school year teachers tell us they want is to know right at the beginning of the school year, the profile of that child. And the benefit of being again, is that the children play from beginning. So we do have a wonderful case study of a teacher talking about how they had assessed everyone in the classroom, or the second one state school and identified in that she could tell from the data that we were giving her needed some intervention, she did not proceed that from the top. And based on that it started intervention. And literally 12 weeks later might have been when they would have originally done that first assessment his child had already made progress.
Alexander Sarlin:It's fantastic that early intervention, early diagnosis is so important. Thank you so much for being here with us at the common sense conference. Carla Small CEO and co founder of EarlyBird Education doing really exciting work for children.
Carla Small:And we're so thrilled to be part of the Common Sense Media Network. It's really an honor and the whole team there is amazing and thrilled to be here.
Alexander Sarlin:Thanks for listening to this episode of edtech insiders. If you liked the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the edtech community. For those who want even more Edtech Insider subscribe to the free Edtech Insiders newsletter on substack.
