Why Personalized Education Hasn’t Happened and How Outschool Aims to Fix It with Amir Nathoo & Justin Dent
Description
Amir Nathoo is CEO of Outschool, a marketplace for live online classes for K-12 learners, and an advocate for expanding education access. Previously, he led product development at Square and co-founded Trigger.io, a platform for creating native mobile apps. Amir holds an MEng in Electrical and Information Sciences from The University of Cambridge and lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.
Justin Dent is the founding Executive Director of Outschool.org. Justin was previously the Founder and Executive Director of Ethos, a nonprofit that provided career education to 18,000 low-income, first generation, or minority students annually. An active voice in the dialogue around education equity, Justin's writing has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and he's appeared on Fox Business, CNBC and Cheddar.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why personalized learning remains elusive in traditional education systems
- The overlooked frictions families face when given more choice
- How Outschool uses a marketplace model to serve diverse learner needs
- The role of community and trust in enabling educational autonomy
- How AI and tech can simplify decision-making for families
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:03:00 ] Amir explains how traditional education systems block personalization
[00:06:00 ] Justin breaks down the real friction points for low-income families
[00:11:00 ] How Outschool’s variety increases motivation and access
[00:16:00 ] Why free resources don’t always lead to usage
[00:23:00 ] Community-driven guidance as a key to family engagement
[00:28:00 ] Outschool’s approach to neurodivergent learners
[00:34:00 ] Systemic flaws in standardization and learning lanes
[00:41:00 ] ESAs and why trusting families is essential
[00:45:00 ] Preventing marketing dollars from skewing family choices
[00:49:00 ] How AI can help families navigate education options
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