Stand Together

Parents and educators alike know that at the height of COVID-19, many young learners were falling behind. ✍️ But Jessica Ramsay found a way to use that period as an opportunity to make local students stronger and more confident than ever, even long after the pandemic had ended. Ramsay, an educational entrepreneur and the founder of Farmhouse Phonics, had spent nearly 20 years in the Wichita public school system by 2021. When the pandemic hit, she happened to be renovating a farmhouse on her property, and suddenly had an epiphany: this could be a place for kids to come and address any gaps. “Sometimes kids can be casualties of curriculum,” she described. “Even though they're in a classroom all day, they aren't learning and absorbing and taking it all in as some of their peers are. So oftentimes, that means they need more.” Ramsay decided to quit her role in the public school system and instead use her farmhouse to create a space where students could access individualized instruction, one-on-one sessions, and a warm, welcoming physical space. Farmhouse Phonics is a literacy-focused extracurricular learning service that works with students after their main school day, allowing families to complement whatever education style they feel best serves their child. In doing so, Ramsay is showing that it’s not about individualized vs. group instruction, or public vs. private — instead, Farmhouse Phonics is demonstrating how all manner of education styles can work together to complement and strengthen the other, while empowering students and educators alike. Catch the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gYq9YdrS

What does success mean to you, in 3 words?

After losing his logistics job, Moja Chatman turned a setback into a tech sector opportunity through Per Scholas. By embracing continuous upskilling, he landed a data analyst role at Barclays, proving that adaptable workplace policies can unlock potential and drive success.

If traditional testing leaves students ill-equipped for life, what do alternative methods look like? Meet One Stone School: no tests, no grades, just a 100% graduation rate. Is this the future of education?

When Ayana Verdi’s son hated public pre-K, she knew something had to change. She co-founded Verdi EcoSchool in Florida, where kids thrive through student-directed projects, social-emotional learning, and hands-on experiences. “We’re empowering young people to build healthy communities.”

Standardized testing is a 150-year practice under growing scrutiny. But how do we move away from it? Stand Together Investigates took a deep dive into testing, and the pioneering schools that have ditched it in favor of learning:

Have you ever experienced burnout? How did you overcome it?

Congratulations to the Institute for Global Affairs and Pepper and Bones on their Emmy nomination for Outstanding Soft Feature Story: Long Form for "The Army We Had." This powerful video serves as a crucial reminder that our nation's foreign policy decisions have profound, lasting human costs. These choices deeply affect the lives of our service members, their families, and friends, not only during deployment but for decades afterward. https://lnkd.in/eyW6wY6M

At rock bottom, he found himself living in his car, hooked on meth, and estranged from his family. Today, he’s a beacon of hope, helping others overcome addiction.

The Abundance Institute asks us a big question: will we embrace a future of innovation and prosperity, or will we let fear of change stifle progress?    As Christopher Koopman lays out, there are times when we’ve taken both tracks — light-touch regulation of the internet that led to rapid innovations and heavy rule-making that suffocated industries like nuclear energy from emerging. It’s amazing to think that we had “near-misses” on things like the telephone, electricity, automobiles, and so many other innovations because it was easier to stoke fears associated with the disruptions than it was to understand what’s possible when we lean into the future.    Right now, everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence. It’s not just coming — it’s here. Over 70 percent of U.S. companies are using AI in some aspect of their business! As the Abundance Institute suggests, this technology could help us cure diseases, increase our productivity, and accomplish things we can’t even imagine right now. Watch the video and get as excited as I am about the Abundance Institute’s dedication to advocating for future technologies! https://lnkd.in/gHvNEUmW.