KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Amanda Ripley, Author of The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way, a New York Times Bestseller

How do other countries create “smarter” kids, and what’s it like to be a child in places like Finland, South Korea, and Poland? To find answers for our own children, Ripley followed three American students embedded in these countries for a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into what works worldwide, revealed that none of these places had many “smart” kids a few decades ago—but their schools, teachers, parents, and kids had made a collective effort to change. Join Ripley for a discussion on what she’s learned from these education superpowers and what it takes to create an education system of equity and rigor.

Amanda Ripley is an author and journalist who’s made a career out of exploring the gap between public policy and human behavior. She has visited schools on four continents and interviewed hundreds of students, teachers, and parents along the way. She writes feature stories for the Atlantic, Time Magazine, and other outlets.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING THEMES 

Partners and timing for our Symposium sessions are still being finalized, but here’s an overview of the content we have planned for the day:  

• THEME 1: Take a closer look at education systems from around the world and how they’re preparing students for global citizenship through panels and discussions with educators from high-performing nations.
• THEME 2: Hear from domestic education and nonprofit organizations about their efforts to work with school districts and teachers in the U.S. to reimagine learning—putting global competence and 21st century skills at the forefront of what we need to teach.  
• THEME 3: With lessons and learnings from our domestic and international partners top of mind, discover how to put forward-thinking educational theory into practice in your own classroom or school