Ted Dintersmith | Executive Producer of Most Likely to Succeed & Advocate for Innovation in Education

Ted Dintersmith

Executive Producer of Most Likely to Succeed & Advocate for Innovation in Education

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Ted Dintersmith
Biography

Ted Dintersmith is one of America's leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship, and education.

Ted's professional experience includes two decades in venture capital, including being ranked by Business 2.0 as the top-performing U.S. venture capitalist for 1995-1999. He served on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, chairing its Public Policy Committee. From 1981 to 1987, he ran a business at Analog Devices that helped enable the digital revolution. In the public sector, he was a staff analyst in 1976-78 for the U.S. House of Representatives, and was appointed in 2012 by President Obama to represent the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly. Ted earned a Ph.D. in Engineering from Stanford University and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, with High Honors in Physics and English.

Ted has become one of America's leading advocates for education policies that foster creativity, innovation, motivation, and purpose. He knows what skills are valuable in a world of innovation, and how we can transform our schools to prepare kids for their futures. His contributions span film, books, philanthropy, and the hard work of going all across America. He's funded and executive produced acclaimed education documentaries, including Most Likely To Succeed, (Sundance, AFI, and Tribeca). With co-author Tony Wagner, he wrote Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era. During the 2015/16 school year, he went to all fifty U.S. states, meeting with governors, legislators, educators, parents, and students, and encouraging communities to work collectively to re-imagine school and its purpose. Learn more about his work from his website or by following him on Twitter @dintersmith.

Ted speaks frequently at major events and conferences, delivering a vision of what our schools could - and need to - be. Drawing on inspiring examples garnered during his fifty-state tour, he can articulate the conditions required to let our students, teachers, and schools race forward. Recent keynotes include state superintendent meetings in Virginia and North Dakota, the annual meeting of the Coalition for Access (several hundred top college admissions officers), the annual Jobs for America's Graduates conference, and a plenary session of the Finnish parliament. In addition to his keynotes, Ted is often asked to also screen his film and lead a post-film discussion.

Ted Dintersmith
Featured Videos

Current: TEDx: Prepare Our Kids for Life, Not Standardized Tests

Time 11:38

More Videos From Ted Dintersmith

TEDx: Prepare Our Kids for Life, Not Standardized Tests
Time 11:38
Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox
Time 26:47
What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America
Time 01:19
William & mary Convocation
Time 09:11

Transforming School

The Urgency and the Possibility

Without profound change in traditional education, most of our current students will be at risk in a world defined by innovation. It doesn’t have to be this way. Dintersmith draws on his trip to all fifty states during the 2015/2016 school year to highlight conditions that lead to exceptional student learning. He goes onto identify change models that enable a school, district, or even a state to effectively transform classrooms at scale.

Workshop Option: The speaker takes the audience through several exercises that bring insight into the purpose of school, and ways to effect change through agile, low-risk “hacks” (small innovations).

Why the letters STEM desperately need the letters A and CTE?

Many schools have been forced to eliminate art from the student experience; others still offer art, but as a stand-alone class. In this talk and workshop, Dintersmith shows the essential importance of

Art and creativity in developing science and math proficiency,
STEM skills in pursuing the arts, and
The role of hands-on learning (or CTE) for every student.

Workshop Option: The speaker takes the audience through several exercises that highlight the power of integrating these disciplines, and the missed opportunity when they are isolated or ignored.

The Art and Importance of Being Bold?

This talk, designed for student groups, will change the lives of any young adult who takes the talk seriously. Dintersmith provides compelling examples of what young adults can accomplish if they retain a sense of audacity and “bold” in pursuing their goals.

Workshop Option: The speaker works with students to help them clarify important goals in their lives, and brainstorm about how “bold” can help them achieve these objectives.

What Every Businessperson Needs to Know About Education

Former venture capitalist and entrepreneur Ted Dintersmith knows innovation, and what skillsets and mindsets will be needed for the jobs of the future. In this talk, he connects the dots between workforce readiness and an education system that, in theory, prepares students for career but, in practice, impairs their life prospects. Any businessperson -- whether their focus is on workforce readiness, their own children or grandchildren, or the stability of our democracy -- will find this talk of immense interest.

Ted Dintersmith
Featured Books

What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across Americaby Ted Dintersmith

What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America

by Ted Dintersmith
Most Likely to Succeedby Ted Dintersmith

Most Likely to Succeed

by Ted Dintersmith
The basis for a major documentary, two leading experts sound an urgent call for the radical reimagining of American education so we can equip students for the realities of the twenty-first-century economy. "If you read one book about education this decade, make it this one" (Adam Braun, bestselling author and founder of Pencils of Promise).

Today more than ever, we prize academic achievement, pressuring our children to get into the "right" colleges, have the highest GPAs, and pursue advanced degrees. But while students may graduate with credentials, by and large they lack the competencies needed to be thoughtful, engaged citizens and to get good jobs in our rapidly evolving economy. Our school system was engineered a century ago to produce a workforce for a world that no longer exists. Alarmingly, our methods of schooling crush the creativity and initiative young people really need to thrive in the twenty-first century.

Now bestselling author and education expert Tony Wagner and venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith call for a complete overhaul of the function and focus of American schools, sharing insights and stories from the front lines, including profiles of successful students, teachers, parents, and business leaders. Their powerful, urgent message identifies the growing gap between credentials and competence--and offers a framework for change.

Most Likely to Succeed presents a new vision of American education, one that puts wonder, creativity, and initiative at the very heart of the learning process and prepares students for today's economy. "In this excellent book...Wagner and Dintersmith argue...that success and happiness will depend increasingly on having the ability to innovate" (Chicago Tribune), and this crucial guide offers policymakers and opinion leaders a roadmap for getting the best for our future entrepreneurs.

Ted Dintersmith
Featured Review

How to make college admissions fairer

If you follow policy chatter, the future of U.S. K-12 education centers on federal policy (ESSA, RTTT, NCLB, ESEA), the Common Core, charter schools and school...
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A venture capitalist searches for the purpose of school. Here's what he found.

Once in a blue moon, our nation focuses a modest amount of attention on our schools, and their purpose. Last year, William Deresiewicz’ excellently titled book  “Excellent...
Read More

A basic flaw in the argument against affirmative action

By Valerie Strauss A panel of judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a ruling saying that the University of Texas can continue to use race as one factor...
Read More
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