Justin Shell retweeted
I'm hiring for someone's dream role @theacademysf: student recruitment.
Here's what the person I'm looking for will do and looks like:
This person will oversee our student recruitment funnels. You'll travel the world to give talks in schools and meet applicants, spend your days on the phone building trust with families, and work with our industry partners to reach their communities.
Here's the archetype I see for this person: junior, extraordinarily talented, high energy, golden retriever vibes. Embodies the ethos of the school. Tech savvy enough to keep up with the extremely technical projects our applicants work on.
Young people need to like you, and you need to genuinely like them. Take them seriously, treat them like peers, and be curious about what they're building. You should get excited talking to these people, not because you're trying to recruit them, but because you find them fascinating.
You need to LOVE talking to people, that's 90% of the job. You also need to be comfortable traveling a lot.
This is a role for a junior person (open to mid-level or senior if you're willing to be in the trenches with us!) who is extremely ambitious and capable of owning an extraordinary amount of responsibility. You'll be one of the main intermediaries between the world and our school, and for many people, their first impression of The Academy.
I'm actively interviewing candidates for this. If you're interested, apply through our career page and ping me once you've submitted. If someone I know can vouch for you, you'll get on my radar even faster.
If you know anyone who fits the bill, I would be extremely thankful to hear from you as well!
Justin Shell retweeted
NEW: We visited PS 307, the failing public school that Nikole Hannah-Jones sent her daughter to.
The teachers make an average of over $100,000 a year. The school spends $52,000 per student each year. The student/teacher ratio is 9 to 1.
We went to another school just down the street that spends less than half of what PS 307 does—yet the academic outcomes are significantly better.
Underfunding and racism aren't causing schools to fail. @DanielDiMartino explains what is:
Justin Shell retweeted
The Tragedy of Nikole Hannah-Jones 🔥🔥🔥marginalrevolution.com/margi…
Justin Shell retweeted
This is really silly. If we have learned anything from the learning styles myth, it's that the content determines the form. We make instructional decisions based on the effectiveness of the learning not on some vague notion that "screens are bad m'kay."
There are some excellent short video explainers of scientific concepts like Newton's law that are just way better than trying to recreate it with toy cars.
the74million.org/article/how…
Justin Shell retweeted
Why is it ‘cancelled’ in the U.K. but ‘canceled’ in the U.S.?
Because we gave them that L in 1776.
Justin Shell retweeted
I'm hesitating to shut down Parlay. I've tried almost everything to keep it alive except tweet about it, so here it goes...
Every year, 100k students participate in class discussions on our platform. These are actual back and forth conversations between all students, not just the confident, extroverted ones.
There is no obvious replacement for the class discussion experience we've created.
With AI changing the way we think about learning, the case for discussion-based learning is even stronger than it was when we first started 9 years ago. (Discussion-based learning is a moat against AI generated work).
Cumulatively, Parlay has hosted:
- 200K class discussions in written and verbal formats
- over 7M written ideas contributed
- over 3M live speaking turns
I'm radically open to paths to keep this going.
If you think of an acquirer, strategic partner, or someone who can help carry this forward please DM/share.
Thank you.💙
Justin Shell retweeted
AI really can help education: Randomized controlled experiment on high school students found a GPT-4o powered tutor that personalized problems for students raised final test scores by .15 SD, "equivalent to as much as six to nine months of additional schooling by some estimates"
Justin Shell retweeted
Recess offers exclusive access to the best teachers on the planet.
Jesse has 245k youtube subscribers who turn to him to learn Blender.
Now, your kid can learn directly from Jesse himself. This is not a pre-recorded class; it's a live cohort.
Justin Shell retweeted
Reason & Rationality THE VIDEO has officially dropped. In 3 minutes, this is what happens when Summer = curiosity+conversation+smartest instructors+Biggest Ideas.
youtu.be/XAKb6OES_eI?si=eY6B…
Justin Shell retweeted
Do you want your child to have the license to be a hero?
The Hero License Pod, details below, in the Westlake region of Austin, has openings for a few more students ages 5-6. The founders are considering growing it into a micro school all the way through elementary school. I'm an advisor planning many cool pedagogical elements for the fall.
You may reach out to the number below or me directly at [email protected] if you have a child who may be a candidate.
Justin Shell retweeted
One of the joys of my job is counseling microschool leaders as they change the future of education. I'm frequently asked about the overlay of childcare regulations with microschools. With my @microschooling colleague @donsoifer, we offer a few tips: microschoolingcenter.org/new…
Justin Shell retweeted
High agency education will become increasingly urgent as we move forward into the 21st century. Students trained in passivity will fall behind.
Justin Shell retweeted
Agency will be the one thing you can’t get from intelligence on tap
“You can just do things” is going to be the mantra of our children’s generation
Replying to @NielsHoven
tbh this guys problem is lack of agency. many liberal arts majors just go back to school for cs or bootcamp and speed through the curriculum to demonstrate competence. if you’re not even willing to do that why should anyone hire you
Justin Shell retweeted
Or as Adam Smith would say, there are two ways to be loved: acquire fame, power, money. Or acquire wisdom and virtue. The first path he calls the glittering path. It beckons us. But take the less seductive one.
Justin Shell retweeted
How can we stand out?
Listen to @dwarkesh_sp talking about the art of getting noticed on The Hope Axis podcast episode with @TheAnnaGat.
Their full conversation is here: youtube.com/watch?v=Mfq9Dnlt…
Justin Shell retweeted
“The Tools Competition funds edtech tools and technologies that support learning outcomes and can contribute to learning science research”
$50k for early stage, $150k for growth, $300k for established platforms
tools-competition.org/
Justin Shell retweeted
“The real problem is to hold down government spending.” Great video.
— Milton Friedman
Justin Shell retweeted
Most online courses suck. The core thesis of Maven is: build courses that don’t suck.
That’s why we’re cohort-based, why we recruit instructors who are truly experts in their field, and why most of our courses have live, asynchronous and project-based components.
We are hella focused on creating an experience students love and I’m pretty excited about the feedback we’ve been getting lately…



































