Education Stories

Katie Boody Carrie Markel Lean Lab

Dying schools taught Katie Boody how to build

Editor’s note: Katie Boody is a co-founder of The Lean Lab, a Kansas City-based education incubator that helps educators create and implement innovative ideas in schools to help students. The Lean Lab co-founder Carrie Markel contributed to this piece. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Both the schools I taught at are…

The Lean Lab will award $100K to education entrepreneurs

Local efforts to inject innovation into education received a boost Friday as The Lean Lab announced fellows in its incubator program will earn seed capital for their projects aimed at disrupting traditional learning.   Founded in 2013, The Lean Lab welcomed five new teams of fellows from around the nation for its incubator, which develops…

Laura Gilchrist Silicon Valley education

Laura Gilchrist: What KC can learn from Silicon Valley education

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. A few weeks ago, several of my fellow educators and I toured five innovative Bay Area schools. Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that educators there understand the importance of finding new ways to engage and educate kids in…

entrepreneur diversity

Kansas City’s east side to receive free wireless gigabit network

Kansas City is diligently continuing work to become the most connected city on earth. Three organizations are now working to create a free, large-scale wireless gigabit network on Kansas City’s east side. The project — led by Siklu Communications, the Urban Neighborhood Initiative and KC Digital Drive — will help eliminate cost barriers to help…

Help wanted: Addressing KC’s (big) techie shortage

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.   Kansas City posted nearly 7,700 STEM job openings in 2015 — but only filled 2,550 of them. That means that for every STEM job candidate, there were three job openings. That’s great for job searchers, but terrible for Kansas City business and…