In the latest installment of our Future Of series, senior director of communications Lina Eroh sat down with Rick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, to talk about the future of school.
Lina and Rick explore what it will take to create schools where students feel challenged, engaged, and motivated to learn. Their conversation examines the role of technology, the importance of human connection, and lessons from decades of education reform.
“What we’re dealing with is an environment where we have made it incredibly difficult for kids to focus, to form relationships, to kind of plant their feet in the world around them.”
Rick emphasizes the importance of schools and families working together to help students navigate screen time and build meaningful relationships. At the same time, he points to opportunities for technology and AI to strengthen coaching, teaching, and learning when used intentionally.
“One of my favorite examples of where tech gets used right in schools is in the high school locker room of a really well-coached varsity team…This is a case where the technology is being used in real time to provide clarity, specificity, and feedback. That is hardly ever the way you see it used in the instructional core of K-12.”
Looking ahead, Rick challenges schools to create learning environments that combine rigorous academic expectations with the motivation and engagement often found in sports, music, and the arts.
“I think the real question is going to be, when we’ve got kids who are more disconnected, report that they’re more alienated, more depressed…can we make schools and classrooms places where kids feel both challenged and that they want to be there?”
Reflecting on decades of efforts to improve education, Rick also emphasizes that meaningful change depends not just on adopting new policies or innovations, but on how effectively they’re put into practice. “Policy can make people do things, but it can’t make them do them well,” he said.
Watch the full conversation and stay up-to-date on the Future Of series by subscribing to the Foundation’s newsletter, following us on LinkedIn, or subscribing to our YouTube channel.
Discover more Future Of conversations, including our conversation with Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution, about the future of student engagement.
