The Education Insider Podcast

"It’s not the sky falling—it’s the ground shifting."

Federal restructuring. State budget cuts. A surge in school choice and local control. The education landscape is undergoing a seismic shift—and companies that cling to national-only strategies risk being left behind.

In this episode of The Education Insider, host Jacob Hanson is joined by Michael Campbell, President of Advancing Global EDU, to break down why localization ...

As universities move toward test-optional admissions, the standardized testing industry is at a crossroads. While critics argue that the SAT and ACT perpetuate inequality, others question how colleges can fairly evaluate students without a common metric. If standardized tests disappear, what replaces them?

Host Jacob Hanson sits down with Adil Husain, founder of Emerging Strategy, and PR expert Kristen Plemon to explore the uncertai...

The Value (and Necessity) of a District’s Strong Brand Identity 

In an era of declining enrollment, school choice expansion, and crisis management, a strong brand identity is more crucial than ever for school districts. In this episode of The Education Insider, host Jacob Hanson sits down with Dr. Kecia Ray, former superintendent and founder of K20 Connect, to discuss why school districts must take control of their narrative.

From br...

In our first episode since we became PRP Group, a Hawke Media Company, Jacob Hanson interviews Hawke’s CEO Erik Huberman, who has built Hawke into a marketing powerhouse that includes a venture capital arm and a proprietary AI platform for marketers. Erik (who also stars opposite Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer on the reality show “Kings of BBQ”) shares his insights into how marketing does and doesn’t affect revenue, wh...

Join PRP’s CEO Jacob Hanson for the second part of his wide-ranging conversation with Ulster BOCES Superintendent Dr. Jonah Schenker. As Dr. Schenker shares Ulster’s journey toward a Deeper Learning mindset, the discussion takes a deep dive into the pivotal role of innovative leadership in transforming education. Hear Dr. Schenker’s thoughts on how budget allocations reflect districts’ values, the responsibility of the private sect...

As a student, Dr. Jonah Schenker thrived outside the conventional classroom. As Superintendent at Ulster BOCES, he’s creating a productive, inclusive learning environment where everyone's uniqueness is celebrated. 

In November 2023, Ulster earned the Deeper Learning Designation and will be hosting the first ever Leading for Deeper Learning conference in July. This is the first Deeper Learning conference to focus on how leadersh...

After the twists and turns of the COVID years, 2023 was a stabilizing period in the education sector, even with fewer deals and tightened valuations. 2024 is now looking brighter, as capital markets show signs of recovery, making this an opportune moment for companies that have been biding their time—especially if they’re attending the ASU+GSV Summit on April 14-17.

Whether you’re an educator, an investor or an entrepreneur, you’ll...

In this episode of The Education Insider Podcast Shorts, host Jacob Hanson riffs on a recent article featuring an administrator’s perspective on vendors in the education sector. He wholeheartedly agrees with Dr. Tracy Daniel-Hardy, a district-level director of technology, who says vendors need to “know what we do, how we do it, what we need to simplify our work, our pain points, and the parameters that guide our work.” Jacob explai...

In a can’t-miss conversation with host Jacob Hanson, Julia Fallon, the executive director at SETDA, delves into the evolving landscape of educational technology, offering valuable insights and actionable advice. She shares thoughts on:

• Cybersecurity's growing importance in K-12 education;

• Crisis communications for education companies;

• SETDA’s role in edtech partnerships; and

• Market research and building community ...

Collin Earnst is the founder and managing partner of The EdTech Leadership Collective, which helps K-12 edtech companies build leadership capacity in their middle management. He joined Alison Deutsch, VP of curriculum assessment and data at Lexia Learning, at the T&L Ed Exec Summit. In today’s The Education Insider Podcast Short, Jacob Hanson chats with Collin about the summit and key takeaways from Collin’s presentation.

Watch...

On this Education Insider Podcast Short, Jacob interviews Chuck Amos, CEO of The Amos Group, about his panels at the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit, which focused on funding and government affairs. The Amos Group is the parent company of SchoolBondFinder & SchoolNetwork.

SchoolBondFinder is the first comprehensive online database tracking K12 funding projects in the U.S., and SchoolNetwork is a networking platform for K12 Di...

“I've ​been ​fortunate ​enough ​to ​speak ​at ​conferences ​around ​the ​world, and ​one ​of ​the ​things ​that ​I ​come ​away ​with ​is ​educators ​around ​the ​world ​are ​all ​trying ​to ​solve ​the ​same ​problems,” says Dr. Charles Khoury, who recently retired after a 49-year career in which he served as classroom teacher, assistant principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent.

On this epi...

Are you ready for the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit? I'm super excited to come and see all of you!

FYI that there is a ride sharing opportunity from the airport. Reach out to me or Christine Weiser to learn more. It's a bit of a jump from the airport to this wonderful venue, so I encourage you to reach out: info@christineweiser.com. So drop her line and she will get you hooked up with Joyce Whitby who is helping to coor...

Welcome to the first episode of The Education Insider Podcast Shorts from PRP Group. Our podcast shorts are a new series of 2-minute videos with timely info about what's happening in education, best practices for understanding your customers, and answers to listener questions about our episodes.

In this episode, PRP Group co-founder and CEO Jacob Hanson introduces our podcast shorts and gives a sneak peek into what you’ll get o...

If you've worked with PRP before, you might know Benjamin Bachman. Benjamin is the former Director of Marketing at PRP and is now the founder and CEO of Identify.Solutions, where he helps companies bring ideas to life with no-code platforms like Airtable, SmartSuite, Zapier, etc. In addition to his expertise in creating user-friendly webapps, advanced prototypes, and more, Benjamin is a wizard with one of our favorite digital p...