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Cara Candal

Cara Candal is an education researcher and writer who serves as Senior Fellow with Pioneer Institute, a leading research organization promoting school reform.

Series

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Recent Episodes

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Cara and Gerard’s Final Show as Cohosts

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson close out their time as long-time cohosts of the podcast by sharing highlights and memories from over the last several years. They reflect upon the state of education reform, the growth of school choice, parental empowerment, the impact of the Great Books, and the wisdom of many well-known and influential guests. We thank Cara and Gerard for their long and faithful service to the podcast and wish them well.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Becket Fund’s Eric Rassbach on Religious Liberty & American Schooling

This week on The Learning Curve, Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty discusses school choice and religious freedom. He talks about competing legal philosophies and views of the U.S. Constitution as they impact education, school choice, and religion liberty, and why issues pertaining to religion and schools remain so divisive at the K-12 level. Mr. Rassbach examines the long-term implications of recent, landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings in favor of families choosing religious schools for their children, as well as key points at issue in Loffman v. California Department of Education, in which a group of parents are suing for their right to use special education funding at Orthodox Jewish schools.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

PRI’s Lance Izumi on Charter Schools & School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute discussed the state of K-12 education reform, including declining test scores, COVID-related learning loss, and the growth of education bureaucracies and non-instructional staffing. He reflected on charter schools, school choice, and how knowledge of U.S. history and civics should be taught. Lance talked about efforts to rebuild coalitions to promote charter schools, and the impact of two recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings on expanding private and religious school choice for families.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

McGill Prof. Marc Raboy on Marconi & Global Communications

This week on The Learning Curve, McGill University Professor Marc Raboy, author of Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, explores how twentieth-century Italian communications pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made his world-changing discoveries. Prof. Raboy explores the global significance of Marconi’s first transoceanic signal transmission in 1901, and how today’s world of smartphones, Wi-Fi, satellite TV, GPS navigation, and wireless computer networking derives from Marconi’s historic work. Prof. Raboy closes the interview with a reading from his Marconi biography.
Organization
Pioneer Institute

May 2023

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Donald Graham on The Washington Post, Media, and Educating Immigrants

This week on The Learning Curve, cohosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson spoke with Donald Graham, Chairman of Graham Holdings Company, previously The Washington Post Company. Mr. Graham discussed his family’s ownership of The Washington Post, their efforts to bring the paper to prominence and financial stability. He talked about his mother, Katharine Graham’s, history-changing achievements, including the Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal. Graham reflects upon how his military and police career informed his work as a journalist, his views on social media, and his work in higher education reform and philanthropy on behalf of immigrant youth.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Columbia Law’s Philip Hamburger on Church, State, & School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, cohost Cara Candal and guest cohost Michael Bindas, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, speak with noted constitutional law professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School. They discuss the legal basis for private and religious school choice, and how American constitutionalism supports parental choice in education. Prof. Hamburger explores the implications of recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin for the future of private and religious school litigation in America. Prof. Hamburger closes with a reading from his book Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Morehouse’s Prof. Marisela Martinez-Cola on Pre-Brown Cases for Educational Equality

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard speak with Morehouse College's Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola, JD, about her book The Bricks before Brown: The Chinese American, Native American, and Mexican Americans' Struggle for Educational Equality, about the long struggle for equal opportunity in American education. She discussed the many cases that preceded Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 decision that overturned the doctrine of "separate but equal" established in the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Dr. Martinez-Cola reviews the important, lesser-known legal challenges brought by Chinese American, Native American, and Mexican American plaintiffs, and how their efforts set the stage for Brown and continue to shape Americans' understanding of civil rights and equality of educational opportunity.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Marquette’s Dr. Howard Fuller on School Choice, Charter Schools, and Race

This week on The Learning Curve, Gerard and guest cohost Alisha Searcy speak with Dr. Howard Fuller, Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning (ITL) at Marquette University, about the state of education reform and the ongoing push to expand school choice and charter schools. Dr. Fuller discusses educational options available to minority students today, the role of charter schools in overall reform of urban education, and how the nation’s political, civic, and religious leaders can address racial divisions. He also shares with listeners highlights and frustrations from his long and remarkable career in education.
Organization
Pioneer Institute

April 2023

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Columbia’s Pulitzer Winner Prof. Eric Foner on Lincoln, Slavery, & Reconstruction

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy speak with Dr. Eric Foner, Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author on Lincoln, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. They discuss what educators and students today need to know about the post-Civil War era, Reconstruction, and the legacy of slavery. Professor Foner talks about emancipated slaves' quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and the importance of studying and understanding the Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. He closes the interview with a reading from his book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Dr. Carey Wright on Mississippi’s K-12 NAEP Gains

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and guest cohost Charlie Chieppo speak with Dr. Carey Wright, former Mississippi state superintendent of education. They discuss the lessons she’s learned about education policymaking across her career, and the state leadership that was necessary to achieve dramatic improvements in fourth graders' reading scores in Mississippi during her time there. Dr. Wright also talks about the role Mississippi’s great literature and blues music should play in the curriculum of K-12 schooling. She discusses the importance of early children education and literacy programs, as well as the lessons educators can draw from Mississippi's heroes in the Civil Rights Movement, including Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

U-Texas Prof. Lorraine Pangle on the Founding Fathers, Education, and Civics

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and guest cohost Jonathan Greenberg discuss the legacy of the Founding Fathers and the future of civics education with Lorraine Pangle, professor of political philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. They discuss how Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others were steeped in the classics and how ancient authors and thinkers, along with figures from the Enlightenment, helped shape America's Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our nation's understanding of the role of public education as a wellspring of republican self-government. Prof. Pangle concludes with a reading from her book, The Learning of Liberty: The Educational Ideas of the American Founders. Stories of the Week: Cara discussed a story from Newschannel 6 in Wichita Falls, Texas, about Texas lawmakers pushing to expand school choice through an Education Savings Account program and the pushback from some Wichita Falls education officials who believe it amounts to taking taxpayer public funds for use by private schools.
Organization
Pioneer Institute

March 2023

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Ashley Soifer and Microschooling

This week on The Learning Curve, cohosts Cara and Gerard speak with Ashley Soifer, Chief Innovation Officer of the National Microschooling Center. They discuss the rapid growth of these innovative schooling options, in which families and innovators are using a wide array of education choices that offer parents flexibility and greater control over how, where, what, and when their children learn. Soifer discusses how microschools predate the pandemic, saw rapid expansion during COVID-19, and are here to stay. She also touches on the role of technology in homeschooling, microschooling, and pod models, and how families, including many parents of color, are taking advantage of these exciting new approaches to K-12 education.
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

UVA Prof. Dan Willingham on Learning Science & K-12 Schooling

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard speak with University of Virginia Professor Dan Willingham about cognitive psychology and K-12 education. Professor Willingham discusses the psychology of learning and the research that shaped his thinking and writing, including his advocacy of using scientific knowledge in classroom teaching and education policy and his critique of the “learning styles theory” of education. They explore what elements appear to be missing from American K-12 schooling and schools of education; his support of E.D. Hirsch, Jr.’s Core Knowledge curricular work; and what must be done to improve students’ enjoyment of and performance in primary and secondary education. Stories of the Week Cara discussed a story in Chalkbeat New York reporting that at the end of last school year, just 36 percent of children entitled to "bilingual special education services received the correct amount of instruction from a certified bilingual teacher and in a classroom with the proper ratio of students and staff."
Guest:
DWDan Willingham
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Lauren Redniss on Marie Curie, STEM, & Women’s History

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard mark Women's History Month with Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, the first work of visual nonfiction to be named a finalist for the National Book Award. They explore how Redniss wove together artistic images, writing, reporting, science, and history to create a book that tells a story, while educating readers about the remarkable life of Marie Sklodowska Curie, who was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. Redniss discusses her own education and experiences in STEM, how Curie overcame her era's limitations on women, and what it is like for an author to see her work made into a major motion picture, Radioactive, starring Rosamund Pike. Ms. Redniss concludes the interview reading a passage from her book.
Guest:
LRLauren Redniss
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

A Daughter’s Memoir of B.U.‘s Dr. John Silber

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Rachel Silber Devlin about her memoir, Snapshots of My Father, John Silber, which captures the wide-ranging and remarkable life of the late philosopher, teacher, and president of Boston University. Devlin discusses how her father became known as a vigorous proponent of a traditional liberal arts education, improved the prestige and endowment at B.U., and became a national leader in K-12 education reform. She offers listeners a unique, personal look at a man and an educational leader who had a deep commitment to academic quality, music, and the arts, and capped his career by authoring books on the absurdity of modern architectural fads and the ethics of Immanuel Kant. Stories of the Week Cara discussed a New Yorker article that chronicles the decline of the English major and the study of humanities in general. In a society that seems increasingly focused on STEM careers, she wonders what we may be losing when we have so few students studying the humanities.
Guest:
RSRachel Silber Devlin
Organization
Pioneer Institute

February 2023

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

India Unbound: Gurcharan Das on the Rise of India

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard interview Gurcharan Das, author, public intellectual, and former CEO of Procter & Gamble India. Mr. Das gives a short history of the rise of India since independence in 1947 to become a thriving, incredibly diverse nation of 1.4 billion people—the world's largest free-market democracy. He explains how the economic reforms of 1991 removed the restraints of a centralized, bureaucratic state, helping drive the economic dynamism of an IT and knowledge economy that has helped 415 million people escape poverty over the last 20 years. India's remarkable story, Mr. Das notes, is showing the world an alternative to the Chinese model of autocratic, centralized control. Stories of the Week Cara cited an article in The Guardian, "Quarter of a million children enter secondary school without basic maths and English," that illustrates how the COVID-19 pandemic has led to learning losses in the U.K., underscoring the need for parental involvement and an emphasis on proven practices to address learning deficits.
Guest:
GDGurcharan Das
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

George Weigel Discusses Pope St. John Paul II for National Catholic Schools Week

This week on The Learning Curve, cohosts Cara and Gerard and guest host Patrick Wolf, distinguished professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas, mark National Catholic Schools Week with George Weigel, author of the international bestselling, two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II. They explore how Karol Wojtyła's education, deep faith, and experiences during World War II shaped his life as a spiritual leader and led him to play a pivotal role in the fall of Communism in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe. Pope John Paul II's popularity among the world's youth, Weigel explains, was grounded in a spirituality that defied contemporary culture and challenged young people to seek the "greatness that the grace of God makes possible in your life." The interview concludes with Mr. Weigel reading from his biography of Pope St. John Paul II. Stories of the Week Cara and Gerard continue to explore the impact on education of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Guest:
GWGeorge Weigel
Organization
Pioneer Institute

January 2023

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Award-Winning UK Author and Filmmaker Laurence Rees on the Holocaust, Auschwitz, and Remembrance

This week The Learning Curve podcast marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day with guest host Dr. Jay Greene of the Heritage Foundation and Laurence Rees, a former head of BBC TV History Programmes; founder, writer, and producer of the award-winning WW2History.com; and author of The Holocaust: A New History. Mr. Rees sheds light on the historical context of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, including the rise of the cultural and political conditions that led to the Holocaust. Rees discusses how the Nazis promulgated their anti-Semitic ideology and laws, and underscores the criminal realities of the Auschwitz concentration and death camp, as well as the Holocaust’s six million Jewish victims. Rees also talks about the fragility of both human life and political and cultural institutions. Mr. Rees closes the interview with a reading from his book on the Holocaust. Guest: Laurence Rees is a former Head of BBC TV History Programmes, and the founder, writer, and producer of the award-winning online resource, WW2History.com.
Guest:
LRLaurence Rees
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

D.C.’s Kevin Chavous on National School Choice Week

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Kevin Chavous, president of Stride K12, Inc. and a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia, on the growing movement toward school choice in education. Chavous discusses the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Carson v. Makin, as well as the expansion of private school choice programs, education savings accounts, vouchers, and education tax credits. Amid the successes, however, he also addresses some of the self-inflicted wounds that have harmed the charter public school movement in recent years, and what lessons educators should draw from the challenges schools faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, in the wake of recent nationwide declines in NAEP scores in both reading and math, he offers key suggestions for governors, state legislators, education reformers, and school choice advocates alike on a constructive future for K-12 education reform.
Guest:
KCKevin Chavous
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Pulitzer Winner Prof. David Garrow on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement

This week on The Learning Curve co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson are joined by David Garrow, who was Professor of Law & History and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and is the Pulitzer-winning author of Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Garrow shares his insights into the historical and religious context around key events and speeches in the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He examines the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as well as King's famous speeches, including the “I Have a Dream” and “I've Been to the Mountaintop.” Garrow discusses Dr. King’s legacy for students and educators, with reference to “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and other writings that evoke the theme of human dignity through history, poetry, scripture, and America’s Founding ideals. Stories of the Week: A new Boston monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King has stirred controversy.
Guest:
DGDavid Garrow
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Independent Institute’s Dr. Richard Vedder on Higher Education, Skyrocketing Tuitions, & the Student Debt Crisis

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Richard Vedder, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ohio University. He shares analysis on the macro impact of COVID on the U.S. labor market, and the long-term economic prospects of American college students. He reviews insights from his recent book, Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America, on the true cost of higher education to American society amid the student debt crisis, administrative bloat, controversial admissions policies, and intercollegiate athletics scandals. They discuss the need for greater transparency about students’ earnings potential, the key ingredients of higher education reform, and what he refers to as the “three Is”: information, incentives, and innovation. Stories of the Week: In Arkansas, Governor-elect Sarah Sanders has hired Jacob Oliva, a senior chancellor in Florida’s education department, to lead reform efforts, and focus on school choice and early literacy.
Guest:
RVRichard Vedder
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Columbia’s Prof. Roosevelt Montás on the Great Books & a Liberal Arts Education

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Professor Roosevelt Montás, Director of the Freedom and Citizenship Program at Columbia University, and author of the book, Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. Professor Montás shares his background as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who attended Columbia, and what inspired his appreciation for the Great Books tradition. He explains the deep connection between philosophy, liberal learning, and a good life, why this tradition matters for advancing liberal education, and its implications for K-12 students in a world that is increasingly centered on technical skills, and that has become overly politicized. They delve into lessons from works like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, about how literature and art can ennoble our young people and elevate our democratic ideals. Professor Montás concludes with a reading from his book.
Guest:
RMRoosevelt Montas
Organization
Pioneer Institute

December 2022

The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

UK’s Prof. Michael Slater on Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge, and A Christmas Carol

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Gerard Robinson and guest co-host Mary Connaughton talk with Prof. Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the world's foremost expert on Charles Dickens and his works. They discuss some of the main elements of Dickens’ brilliant, prolific, and complicated life, as the 19th century’s most influential, best-selling writer of memorable works, from Oliver Twist to Great Expectations. Professor Slater describes Dickens’ early childhood, having been separated from his family, who were incarcerated in debtors' prison, and how this heart-wrenching experience inspired his writing as an instrument of social reform. Prof. Slater concludes with a reading from A Christmas Carol, a tale of ghostly salvation which was enormously influential in shaping our popular conceptions of this holiday, and in drawing attention to the need for greater charity.
Guest:
MSMichael Slater
Organization
Pioneer Institute
The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Senegal’s Magatte Wade on Education & Economic Freedom in Africa

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard talk with Magatte Wade, the founder & CEO of Skin Is Skin and an advocate for African dignity and prosperity. Her forthcoming book is The Heart of the Cheetah. She shares her journey from Senegal in West Africa to America, and how she came to experience the power of free enterprise to promote upward mobility and human dignity on her native continent. She describes some of the regulatory practices in both Africa and America that either help or hinder economic activity and prosperity. Stories of the Week: For over a century, educators have used the Carnegie Unit, a time-based measurement of student progress. But now the Carnegie Foundation is seeking alternatives that more accurately reflect content mastery. In New Hampshire, the president of the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against the education commissioner to block Education Freedom Accounts, which were created in 2021 to help eligible parents afford private school.
Guest:
MWMagatte Wade
Organization
Pioneer Institute
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