Why Scale Fails with Mike Goldstein

Two things to know before you listen:

First: in the business world, the notion of “scale” means expanding your operations and profit without sacrificing performance or efficiency. It’s a big deal for companies who get it right. Think Amazon, for example.

Second: our guest says attempts to scale nearly always fail. Which is one reason there aren’t a lot of Amazons.

Mike Goldstein brings years of thinking about scale to today’s Ways We Learn on the complexities and challenges of scaling educational practices. He talks about his own successes and failures and the difficulties of extending even successful initiatives to larger contexts. We cover AI in education, dissecting its impressive capabilities in subject matter assistance alongside the critical human elements that foster motivation and engagement. With an eye on future learning landscapes, the episode also investigates creative solutions for analyzing student attrition.

It’s a rich conversation that, unlike most efforts to scale, actually succeeds!

Contents:

• 01:37 Understanding Scale in Business and Education
• 03:18 Challenges in Scaling Educational Practices
• 06:33 Teacher Autonomy and Buy-In
• 09:18 Improvement Science and Local Contexts
• 19:08 Teacher Evaluation and Accountability
• 29:41 Scaling Vision and Culture in Schools
• 39:14 Real-World Testing and Teacher Feedback
• 52:36 Redistributing Average Teachers for Better Alignment
• 54:51 Hiring Teachers Interested in Improvement
• 59:30 The Talk Meter Experiment
• 01:06:34 Match Tutoring Program Structure
• 01:08:57 Challenges and Successes of Scaling Tutoring Programs
• 01:16:55 AI in Education: Potential and Limitations
• 01:26:19 Addressing Attrition in Schools

Links and further reading:

• Mike’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-a-goldstein/