Paul Tough challenges our culture’s belief that intelligence, endlessly measured by test scores, is the sole indicator of value in our education system. It’s not. In How Children Succeed, he ushers in a tidal change in thinking and argues that non-cognitive skills—or, character—are better...

Emily Bazelon is the author of Sticks and Stones, a major new contribution to the national conversation on bullying. Clear-eyed and accessible, Stones was hailed in the New York Times as an "authoritative and important book [that] should not only be read by educators and parents alike, but should...

Sal Khan is the founder of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing free, high-quality education to "anyone, anywhere" in the world. A former hedge fund analyst with degrees from MIT and Harvard, Khan is also the author of The One World School House, which explores the potential impact of the...

Nínive Calegari is the co-founder, with Dave Eggers, of 826 National, which she helped grow from a local tutoring program into an influential education phenomenon that partners with schools, families, and community organizations across the country. An emphatic speaker, Calegari explores how scalable social projects...

For thirty years, Bill Strickland has used his innovative arts and training centers to transform the lives of thousands of impoverished adults and teenagers. A commanding speaker, his resonating message of self-worth leaves audiences in tears and on their feet. “Strickland is a genius," says former e-Bay president...

A dynamic speaker, Pedro Noguera is one of America's most important voices for healthy public education, focussing on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in urban settings. He's an expert on school reform, diversity, and the achievement gap—and he translates social theory into...

TED Fellow Juliette LaMontagne is pushing education further—outside of the classroom. A former New York City high school teacher, LaMontagne is the founder of Breaker, a social innovation program in which "legions of underestimated young people with new insights to old problems” use design solutions and entrepreneurial...

Jonathan Kozol has dedicated his formidable career to keeping public education alive in the popular imagination and in political discourse. In a nation of such abundance, Kozol asks, why do so many children go without a decent education? What are the true costs of childhood poverty? And why does our political system seem...

John Maeda is a world-renowned artist, graphic designer, computer scientist and educator whose career reflects his philosophy of humanizing technology. For more than a decade, he has worked to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation. At RISD, in his books,...