Education Upgrade with Jake Schulke

What if professional development wasn't something teachers had to squeeze in after work, but was actually built into the job?

Dr. Derek Riddle and I discuss the time teachers need to learn, collaborate, create curriculum, and continually improve their practice. We compare professional learning in education with other fields, examine the limitations of traditional collaboration and in-service models, and consider what schools might l...

What are movies and television teaching young people?

In this episode of Reel Talk, Jake Schulke and Brett Barker discuss how films and television influence the development of values, ethics, and role models during adolescence.

Beginning with the enduring appeal of the rebel archetype and ending with a discussion of modern shows like Euphoria and Breaking Bad, they explore whether entertainment simply mirrors society or actively shap...

What happens when schools trust teachers?

In this featured segment, Jake Schulke and Brett Barker discuss why trust may be one of the most important ingredients of effective school leadership. Drawing on lessons from education and Jocko Willink's Leadership Strategy and Tactics, they explore how empowering professionals, rather than micromanaging them, builds stronger schools and better outcomes.

This featured segment is part of Educ...

Why do certain movies become part of who we are?

In this episode of Reel Talk, Jake Schulke and Brett Barker discuss why films like Superbad, Mean Girls, Dead Poets Society, and other coming-of-age classics continue to resonate across generations.

Together they explore how memorable stories shape our understanding of identity, friendship, authority, purpose, and growing up. Rather than simply reviewing movies, they examine why certai...

Why do we learn to write?

Most people would answer, "So we can communicate." But this conversation explores a much deeper idea: we learn to write so we can learn to think.

Inspired by a lecture from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Jake Schulke and Brett Barker discuss the relationship between writing, reasoning, mathematics, and critical thinking, and why writing instruction may be one of the most important parts of a student's education.

Thi...

What makes teacher professional development actually effective—and why does so much mandatory PD fail to meet teachers’ needs?

In this episode of Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke talks with educator and researcher Dr. Derek Riddle about teacher professional development, professional learning, and his research on self-directed professional development. They explore why even well-designed PD can fail when it overlooks one c...

What can teen movies teach us about the generations that created them?

In this episode of Reel Talk, Jake Schulke and Brett Barker trace the evolution of teen films from the 1950s to today, exploring how each era's movies reflected changing cultural values and ideas about adolescence.

From Grease and The Breakfast Club to Mean Girls and Superbad, they discuss why certain films became defining stories for their generation, how portray...

Are missed deadlines always a choice?

When students miss deadlines, is it always because they made a poor choice—or is the reality much more complicated?

In this episode of Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry examine the purpose of deadlines in education, how they compare to deadlines in the professional world, and whether academic grades should measure learning, responsibility, or compliance. Th...

Should cheating mean an automatic zero?

When a student cheats, should the consequence always be a zero—or should a grade continue to measure what the student actually knows?

In this Essential Question, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore academic integrity, cheating, and grading through the lens of Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. They discuss whether cheating should be treated as a disciplinary issue, an...

What makes a teacher truly effective?

In this conversation, Jake Schulke sits down with educator and Navy veteran Brett Barker to explore classroom leadership, student relationships, and what movies can teach us about education, adolescence, and growing up.

Drawing from experiences in the military, continuation high schools, and middle school classrooms, Brett and Jake discuss why relationships matter more than authority, how healthy...

What should grades actually measure?

Should a student's grade reflect what they know—or how well they comply with deadlines, homework, participation, and extra credit?

In this Essential Question, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore one of the most fundamental questions in education: What is a grade actually supposed to measure?

The discussion examines mastery-based grading, formative versus summative assessm...

Many grading systems treat meeting deadlines as part of academic achievement... but should they? In this discussion from Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore the purpose of deadlines, homework, late work, and grading through the lens of Grading for Equity. They compare school expectations with the real world and ask whether grades should measure learning or compliance.

Watch the full Episode 18...

This video is a focused clip from Education Upgrade Episode 17.

Why do some students believe they're "just bad at math" or "just not good writers"? Jake and Morgan explore the idea that many long-term academic struggles begin with missed foundational skills in elementary school.

From multiplication and division to paragraph writing and essay structure, they discuss why third grade may be one of the most important years in a student's...

In this episode of Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry continue their Grading for Equity book study with an in-depth discussion of Chapters 9 and 10, the core of Joe Feldman's framework for equitable grading.

The conversation examines fundamental assumptions about grading, including what grades are intended to measure, the role of homework and deadlines, mastery learning, reassessment, cheating, class...

This clip is an excerpt from Education Upgrade Episode 17.

In this conversation, Jake and Morgan explore a deceptively simple question: What is a teacher's most important job? Drawing on experiences in traditional and continuation high schools, they discuss relationships, mentorship, student engagement, and why helping students feel seen may matter as much as the curriculum itself.

For the full conversation and additional context, wa...

This Reel Talk episode is an edited segment from Education Upgrade Podcast Episode 17 featuring Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry.

In this conversation, Jake and Morgan discuss Mean Girls and explore a larger question: What role did movies once play in adolescent development?

Drawing on themes from the Education Upgrade essay Reel Talk: The Role of Teen Movies in Adolescent Development, they examine why films like Mean Girls, The Break...

Police in schools: safety measure or deeper problem? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Sebastián Sclofsky about random drug searches, school resource officers, and why some policies and practices might do more harm than good.

We discuss:

-Why random searches are often ineffective and what the data really shows

-How carceral logic-surveillance, discipline, and punishment-undermines student trust

-The unintended consequences of “zer...