Play, Belonging, and Balance: What U.S. Schools Can Learn from Denmark

Rethinking Assessment, Choice, and What Makes School Meaningful

In Part 2 of this School Reboot conversation, Courtney Dickinson and Sarah Zuckerman continue their discussion with Mike Domina, Principal of McAvinnue Elementary School, and David Anderson, Principal of McAuliffe Elementary School, both in Lowell Public Schools. Together, they explore how schools can rethink assessment, student choice, collaboration, and the definition of success in public education. Mike and David reflect on the power of giving students more ownership in their school day, from flexible seating and independent choices to lunch, hallways, and transitions that feel more human and community-centered. The conversation also looks closely at standardized testing, including the limits of MCAS as a measure of learning. Mike and David discuss why one test cannot fully capture student growth, creativity, persistence, or the rich learning happening in classrooms every day. They imagine more meaningful alternatives, including portfolios, authentic artifacts of learning, and stronger opportunities for teachers to collaborate across schools. This episode offers a hopeful look at what becomes possible when public school leaders trust teachers, center students, and create space for joy, rigor, creativity, and real-world learning.

Leading for Joy, Trust, and Innovation in Public Schools

In this episode of School Reboot, Courtney Dickinson and Sarah Zuckerman talk with two public school leaders from Lowell who are rethinking what school can feel like for students and teachers. Mike Domina of McAvinnue Elementary and David Anderson of McAuliffe Elementary reflect on what it takes to build schools where joy, trust, and belonging are not extras, but the foundation for learning. They talk about moving beyond compliance-driven models of teaching, giving teachers permission to take risks, and creating school cultures where both adults and students feel supported to try, fail, and grow. The conversation explores how innovative leadership is often less about adding more and more about removing fear. Mike and David share how they challenge assumptions about curriculum, instructional time, and “the way things have always been done,” while keeping student engagement and community at the center. Together, they offer a grounded and hopeful look at what sustainable school change can look like in practice.

Play, Belonging, and Balance: What U.S. Schools Can Learn from Denmark

This episode explores how schools can balance well-being and achievement without sacrificing rigor. With guest Anne Anderson of Denmark’s Playful Learning Project, we examine how playful, inclusive learning strengthens academic skills, supports neurodiverse students, and builds belonging. The conversation challenges deficit-based systems, highlights practical classroom shifts, and reframes play as intentional inquiry, practice, and problem-solving. When educators design learning with choice, flexibility, and courage, schools become places of joy, purpose, and deep learning, not compliance or fear.

Recorded Live at the School Reboot Podcast Release Party

Recorded live at the School Reboot Podcast Release Party, this episode brings together previous guests Jeff Riley and Mitch Resnick for a conversation with Courtney Dickinson and Sarah Zuckerman about what schools must become in a rapidly changing world. Jeff and Mitch explore how schools can move beyond compliance-driven models and instead nurture creativity, curiosity, agency, and deeper learning. We delve into why students learn best through meaningful projects, collaboration, and playful exploration, and why school change cannot simply be replicated from one place to another without honoring local context and community strengths. The episode also examines the promise and danger of AI in education. The central message: this is a pivotal moment to design schools that expand children’s choices, voices, and opportunities, while supporting teachers and leaders to build more human, engaging, and future-ready learning environments.

Can’t Get There From Here: Rethinking How Innovation Spreads in Schools

Rebecca E. Wolfe, PhD joins School Reboot to discuss why bottom-up innovations in education rarely spread, even when they demonstrate strong outcomes. Drawing on a paper she just released for the Hoover Institution entitled Can’t Get There From Here: A Framework for the Start, Spread, and Scale of Bottom-Up Innovation in Education, she outlines a framework for catalyzing classroom-born ideas, supporting adaptive spread, and building the infrastructure necessary for sustainability and scale. The episode examines the shift from compliance-based accountability to outcomes-based and reciprocal accountability, the importance of expanding educators’ professional networks, and the need to reduce burdens that crowd out innovation. The central message: if we want school improvement that endures, we must design systems that cultivate teacher agency, continuous improvement, and local adaptation while maintaining strong guardrails for equity and student outcomes.