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What if the future of assessment is not simply about creating better tests, but about measuring what truly matters? In Episode 92, Todd Zipper speaks with Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS, about the organization’s evolution from the Educational Testing Service into a global measurement and talent-solutions organization. Amit explains why ETS acquired ACT, how WorkKeys can strengthen pathways from high school to employment, and why the education-to-workforce pipeline remains far too fragmented. Todd and Amit examine what traditional assessments capture and what they miss. They discuss falling math and reading performance, lessons from the latest international PISA results, and how AI could make communication, collaboration, curiosity, and other historically difficult-to-measure human skills more visible. Amit also makes the case for connecting formative and summative assessment into balanced systems and for using exit measures to hold colleges accountable for learning and employment outcomes. The conversation then turns to AI literacy and workforce adaptability. Amit offers a practical framework for understanding, applying, evaluating, and ethically navigating AI. Drawing on the ETS Human Progress Report, he explains the “adaptability paradox”: workers know they must continually adapt, but many do not know which skills to pursue or how to begin. He asks whether adaptability itself should become the next essential skill that educators and employers define, teach, and measure.

When Dan Elsener became president of Marian University in 2001, the institution had roughly 1,100 students, significant financial challenges, and what he calls “one foot in the financial grave and the other on a banana peel.” More than 25 years later, Marian has become a growing, ambitious university built around a simple conviction: universities should not exist merely to survive. They should take on big problems and advance human flourishing. In this episode, Dan explains how Marian built a championship football program, launched Indiana’s first new medical school in more than a century, and developed a broader healthcare ecosystem spanning medicine, nursing, engineering, research, and workforce development. He also shares how Marian is working with neighborhood schools to improve childhood literacy, creating earn-and-learn pathways for students who cannot afford to stop working, and expanding college access through prison education. Dan and Todd also discuss the future of higher education, including the promise and risks of artificial intelligence. Dan believes AI can enable individualized learning, improve student retention, and make universities more responsive and human. But he warns that it can also become a shortcut around the discipline required for genuine learning. This conversation offers a powerful model for how universities can combine ambitious leadership, long-term thinking, and service to the common good.

What if instead of funding schools, we funded students and families—and gave them the power to build an education around what each child actually needs? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Adam Peshek, Vice President of Education at Stand Together, to explore that idea and why the traditional one-size-fits-all model of education is increasingly being challenged by families, educators, and entrepreneurs. Adam explains the rapid expansion of school choice and Education Savings Accounts, the rise of microschools and other alternative models, and why funding families could create a more dynamic education marketplace with greater personalization and lower costs. They also discuss troubling signs from the current system, including declining student engagement and academic performance, and why simply giving families choice isn't enough—we also need great new education options for them to choose from. The conversation also gets personal. Adam discusses raising a son with autism and how that experience reinforced his belief that educational outcomes should look different for different children. Todd and Adam explore what it would mean to "de-risk high school," give teenagers more exposure to careers and real-world learning, and ultimately create an education system where families have the resources and agency to assemble the learning experiences their children need to thrive.

What if the biggest problem with the way we manage people is that we're measuring the wrong thing? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Fouad ElNaggar, co-founder and CEO of Array, to explore his provocative argument that the workforce needs to move from hours to outcomes. Rather than treating workers as interchangeable units of labor, Fouad believes employers should understand the value individuals actually create, reward high performers accordingly, and use technology, training, and better management to unlock dramatically greater productivity. Fouad brings a remarkable perspective to the conversation. He has been an entrepreneur, venture capitalist at Redpoint Ventures, Chief Strategy Officer of CBS Interactive, co-founder of Sapho, which was acquired by Citrix for $220 million, and a board member at Yahoo. At Array, he's applying lessons from technology, investing, and company building to what he sees as one of the world's largest broken marketplaces: labor. Fouad explains Array's model of combining software, staffing, and services and its framework of identify, amplify, and coordinate to find motivated workers, help them become more productive, and connect individual performance directly to business results. Todd and Fouad also dig into the disconnect between education and employment, workforce churn, the importance of grit and persistence, and what AI will actually mean for American workers. Fouad offers a fascinating distinction between the knowledge economy and the "essential economy," arguing that AI could disrupt white-collar work much faster than jobs requiring people to interact with the physical world. Ultimately, the conversation comes back to the American dream and a powerful question: What if greater productivity could simultaneously create better businesses, higher wages, and more opportunity for workers?

In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Justin Draeger, Senior Vice President of Affordability at the Strada Education Foundation and former President & CEO of NASFAA. Drawing on decades of experience at the center of federal financial aid policy, Justin offers a nuanced, insider perspective on the real drivers behind the $1.7 trillion national student debt burden, the erosion of public trust in higher education, and why fixing affordability requires looking far beyond top-line sticker prices. Together, Todd and Justin explore how postsecondary institutions can restore confidence by focusing on true value and workforce alignment. They dive deep into Strada's research on what makes a credential "worth having," the hidden costs associated with time to completion, the transformative impact of paid work-based learning, and how innovative models like Direct Admissions are removing traditional friction points for first-generation and low-income students. Finally, Justin shares his perspective on the future of federal policy, state-level governance, and non-degree credentials in a rapidly changing economy. Despite current headwinds and skepticism, Justin outlines a compelling vision for how higher education can fulfill its promise as the primary engine of social mobility and the American Dream.

How can higher education scale its reach without sacrificing academic rigor or student outcomes? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Dr. Vijay Kumar, Dean of Penn Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss the changing landscape of engineering, robotics, and academic leadership. Drawing on nearly 40 years of experience as a researcher and administrator, Dean Kumar shares his vision for expanding educational access and explains why measuring higher education excellence through selectivity alone misses the broader purpose of institutional impact. The conversation dives deep into Penn’s pioneering efforts in modern learning, including expanding their online graduate programs to reach thousands of non-traditional learners worldwide. Dean Kumar unpacks Penn’s decision to launch the Ivy League’s first undergraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence—emphasizing "Intelligence Augmentation" and systems engineering over simple software generation. He also shares how AI is reshaping classroom assessment, driving faculty toward Socratic oral exams, team-based problem solving, and higher-order critical thinking. Finally, the discussion explores the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration and university commercialization. From developing an AI-driven mRNA Biofoundry alongside Penn Medicine to building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that takes robotics startups from university labs to the Nasdaq, Dean Kumar offers a hopeful, forward-looking playbook for the future of higher education. Tune in for a masterclass on technology, pedagogy, and institutional leadership.

What happens when our modern schooling system reaches its logical conclusion—one optimized for a thin slice of intellectual testing that the computer in our pocket can now ace in seconds? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Abby Falik, the founder of Global Citizen Year and the creator of the flight school, an innovative global community without a physical campus designed to provide an education higher than higher ed. Abby shares how her early experiences as a Backroads trip guide and her two decades of dedicated Vipassana meditation practice converged to form a living laboratory aimed at moving learning entirely beyond traditional schooling. The conversation dives deep into the concept of human agency, exploring how the hyper-distractions of 2026 threaten our innate ability to choose our responses to the world around us. Abby explains why the flight school completely upends the classic "gap year" narrative, choosing instead to view this transitional life stage as a structured "launch year." By guiding ambitious young seekers from dozens of countries through specialized modules on rethinking success, time, attention, and money, the program serves as a secure base for daring global explorations that reshape identity from the inside out. Ultimately, Todd and Abby unpack the exhilarating inflection point currently facing higher education as the traditional credential economy faces unprecedented disruption. Moving past rigid metrics and AP-course arms races, they discuss what it truly means to build learning pathways centered around the "immeasurables"—qualities like equanimity, attention, and vitality. Whether you are an institutional leader looking to navigate the era of AI, a parent trying to foster resilience in your children, or a seeker trying to align your livelihood with genuine aliveness, this episode serves as a beautiful invitation to make the leap from fear to freedom.

What happens when an entrepreneur builds a business not out of a tech epiphany, but simply to survive? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Tal Frankfurt, Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, to trace the company's remarkable evolution from a one-bedroom apartment to a premier Salesforce implementation partner spanning three continents. Tal shares his candid journey from managing giant, un-scalable spreadsheets for a small youth nonprofit to building an organization that now powers the data infrastructure for 75% of R1 higher education institutions and massive humanitarian networks like Feeding America. The heart of the conversation dives into how Cloud for Good is actively solving the tech industry's "experience gap" through its pioneering Talent for Good apprenticeship program. Strikingly more selective than elite universities, the program completely upends the classic tuition-heavy coding bootcamp model by paying career-changing individuals from day one to learn, get certified, and deploy directly into high-impact client systems. Tal discusses the incredible social impact of this pipeline—which brings massive demographic diversity into tech—without ever compromising on the rigorous quality demands of the modern enterprise workforce. Beyond workforce development, Todd and Tal unpack what it truly takes to scale a healthy company culture in a fully remote environment. From the dangers of "mistake hoarding" to the strategic shift toward becoming an IP-backed services company in the age of AI commodity, this episode is a masterclass in operational intentionality. Whether you are an educational leader navigating digital transformation, an entrepreneur scaling a remote team, or a professional looking to understand how AI will genuinely multiply human capability rather than replace it, this conversation offers invaluable, real-world blueprints.

What happens when a high school student decides to skip his Harvard admission to launch a healthcare technology company? You get the four-decade entrepreneurial odyssey of Doug Becker, the founder and CEO of Cintana Education. In this episode of An Educated Guest, we sit down with Doug to deconstruct his legendary career building, running, and investing in some of the largest educational ecosystems on the planet. We trace Doug's journey from his early days co-founding Sterling Partners to taking the reins of Sylvan Learning Systems, where he scaled K-12 supplemental tutoring across North America. Doug shares the lightbulb moment that led to the creation of Sylvan Prometric—pioneering the global infrastructure for modern computer-based testing—and how that international footprint laid the groundwork for Laureate Education, a global university network that scaled to over one million students. We also dive into his historic move to embed a public good mandate into a publicly traded company by turning Laureate into the world's largest Certified B Corp. Finally, Doug gives us an inside look at the architecture of his latest venture, Cintana Education. Operating in an asset-light, alliance-based model alongside Arizona State University and Dr. Michael Crow, Cintana is rapidly expanding high-quality higher education across 30 countries without the need to buy or build physical campuses. Whether you are an educator, a builder, or an investor, this episode offers a masterclass in the realities of balancing academic quality with massive global scale.

What if the future of American education didn’t involve multi-million dollar buildings, century-old factory models, or teaching to the "mythical center" of a 30-student classroom? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Don Soifer, co-founder and CEO of the National Microschooling Center, to pull back the curtain on the fastest-growing narrative in K-12 education. From an accidental public-private partnership during the pandemic to a national movement spanning over a million and a half children, Soifer breaks down what microschools actually look like and why they are exploding in popularity across red, blue, and purple states alike. We dive deep into the unique economics and demographics of the modern microschool. Operating at a fraction of the cost of traditional public schooling—averaging $8,000 per child compared to upwards of $20,000—microschools are challenging long-held assumptions about educational productivity. Far from a playground for the privileged, data reveals a beautifully diversified landscape where 40% of pre-launch founders are Black or African American, and the vast majority of schools are intentionally designed to serve neurodivergent children, students with special needs, and those lagging behind state grade levels. Finally, Soifer explains how these nimble learning environments are preparing kids for the modern gig economy. By utilizing mastery transcripts, project-based learning, and cutting-edge AI tools, microschools are turning passive students into active learners. Tune in to discover the bureaucratic hurdles these micro-innovators face—from archaic fire codes to zoning laws—and why the micro-schooling movement might just be the most sustainable disruption to American education in a generation.

What happens when the traditional promises of higher education, standardized testing, and steady middle-class milestones no longer align with reality? In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with acclaimed author and journalist Anya Kamenetz for a wide-ranging conversation on high-stakes tests, debt, generational justice, screen-time, and more. The conversation begins with a fifteen-year retrospective on Anya’s landmark book, DIY U, exploring how the concept of "unbundling" higher education has evolved in an age dominated by mobile technology and alternative credentials. Together, Todd and Anya tackle the structural flaws of high-stakes testing in K-12 public schools, the long-tail impacts of the pandemic on student mental health, and why a "learning recession" has persisted despite decades of standardized metric optimization. Finally, Anya shares insights from her latest efforts regarding youth climate anxiety, outlining her guiding philosophy of "generational justice"—the fundamental responsibility we hold to leave a better, more stable world for those who come after us. Whether you are a parent navigating screen time limits, an edtech innovator, or an observer of cultural trends, this episode offers a profound look at how we can rebuild human flourishing into the DNA of modern education.

For decades, colleges and universities have treated the financial aid office as a dense, back-office administrative function—a labyrinth of tax-code-like regulations to be managed out of sight. But as higher education faces a stark demographic cliff and intense competition for shrinking student cohorts, this legacy mindset is proving fatal. In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Robert Heil, CEO of Financial Aid Services (FAS), to discuss why financial aid is actually the chief influencer of student yield and freshman retention. Robert breaks down the hidden risks threatening institutional survival today, highlighting a critical staffing crisis where more than half of all financial aid offices across the United States are operating at 75% capacity or less. He shares sobering data from the field, noting that under-resourced schools that fell out of Title IV compliance in 2025 faced an average of $750,000 in fines, fees, and penalties. Beyond compliance, Robert reveals the exact statistical timeline of student behavior, explaining why delaying a financial aid package past a two-week window drastically slashes a university's enrollment success. The conversation also goes macro, tackling the incoming July 1st aggregate loan limits for graduate programs and the potential of Workforce Pell to fund short-term job readiness. Finally, Robert shares his "Secretary of Education" wish list, explaining how dismantling the 120-year-old Carnegie unit framework could finally spark a wave of modern, affordable, competency-based innovation across higher education. Tune in to learn how forward-thinking institutions are leveraging financial aid as a service to drive net tuition revenue and secure operational stability.

When it comes to the path from education to financial security, the "golden ticket" narrative we grew up with is showing significant cracks. Today, students who work hard and play by the rules find themselves facing a steep experiential paradox: entry-level job listings frequently require multiple years of prior work history, yet securing a competitive, paid internship during college has become arguably more selective than gaining admission to an Ivy League university. This structural failure leaves massive pools of early career talent stranded, widening inequalities across the socioeconomic spectrum. In this episode, we sit down with Jane Swift, CEO of Education at Work and former Governor of Massachusetts, to dissect the friction points spanning K-12, higher education, and the workforce. Drawing from her historical role in crafting Massachusetts' legendary 1993 Education Reform Act and her current appointment to the National Assessment Governing Board, Jane brings unmatched policy expertise to the table. We discuss why state education metrics were sliding long before the pandemic hit, the hidden societal headwinds impacting the adolescent brain, and why wealthy families find alternative academic safety valves while low-income and first-generation students are left behind. Finally, we turn our attention toward actionable solutions for the future of work-based learning. Jane shares how Education at Work is successfully building an instructional workflow layer that partners with Fortune 500 giants to scale paid corporate roles for thousands of students. She also lays out a provocative blueprint for the future: reimagining rigid public funding models and forcing higher education institutions to leverage their massive institutional procurement power to mandate paid career opportunities for the very students they serve. Tune in for an honest, deeply experienced look at what it takes to rebuild the system from the ground up.

What does the future of the American workforce look like when you bypass the traditional four-year college track entirely? In this episode of An Educated Guest, we sit down with Kermit Cook, the CEO of Penn Foster, to explore how a distance-learning model founded in 1890 to train coal miners has evolved into a hyper-modern platform educating hundreds of thousands of middle-skill workers. Kermit shares his unique personal trajectory from management consulting and Teach for America to the helm of a massive EdTech ecosystem, explaining the passion for equitable career pathways that drives his work. We dive deep into the booming market of online high schools. Kermit breaks down why an online diploma provides far more robust workforce pathways than a traditional GED, and how a student profile that is largely 37-year-old working women is leveraging asynchronous learning to achieve economic mobility. He pulls back the curtain on the real-world economics of their model, contrasting Penn Foster's $1,600 total tuition against the skyrocketing per-pupil costs of traditional public education. Finally, we tackle the highly anticipated role of artificial intelligence in education. Kermit moves past the San Francisco tech hype to discuss practical, continuous-improvement pedagogy. He reveals how Penn Foster is using AI to analyze exactly where students get stuck in difficult courses, boosting completion rates from 20% to 70%, and how automated outreach allows their human coaches to step in exactly when a struggling adult learner needs a lifeline.

As the 2026 labor market faces an enrollment cliff and a massive influx of AI automation hollowing out traditional white-collar entry-level work, the "what is college for" debate has reached a fever pitch. Students are increasingly wary of high-debt, four-year degree conveyor belts that fail to guarantee day-one productivity. In this episode of An Educated Guest, we sit down with John Colborn, the co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, to explore how "learn-and-earn" models can reshape American workforce development. John walks us through his career journey and unpacks the current state of apprenticeships, grading the bipartisan political efforts—including a look at how the Trump administration is performing on its milestone goal of reaching 1 million active apprentices. We break down the structural differences between the US market and European "powerhouses," exploring why the UK's policy levers might offer a more realistic blueprint for the US than the classic Swiss or German models. From the role of trusted intermediaries to implementing a systematic "pay-for-apprenticeship" funding mechanism, John shares the major solutions needed to scale the system. Finally, we look at the strategic intersection of higher education and the workforce. John explains how colleges and universities can embrace apprenticeship degrees as a risk-mitigation tool against declining enrollments, and how small-to-medium enterprises can band together to leverage these programs. Tune in to discover the 10-year best-case scenario for the learn-and-earn movement and find out why the ultimate career path of the future might just start with a job, not a degree.