Education leader Erik Greenberg never planned to work in schools. Now, as CEO of Academies of Math and Science, he argues that the answer to America's education problem is not innovation. It is relationships, retention, and the slow work of building community schools in the neighborhoods that need them most.
In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Erik, CEO of Academies of Math and Science, to talk about why a STEM charter network serving low-income and immigrant communities has staked everything on teaching math and reading better than anyone else.
Erik grew up in Colorado Springs with a built-in math tutor for a dad and teachers he still talks to in his forties. He fell backward into education after an international business degree, spent more than a decade in higher ed and early education, and only in the last few years came to see how unevenly opportunity is handed out. That realization became the thing that drives him.
He and Mike get into why education has barely changed in centuries, why the research keeps pointing back to one enduring teacher relationship, and why a kid's third year in the same school produces a jump in growth even when nothing else changes. Erik makes the case that school choice, for all its benefits, can quietly erode the community a school is supposed to be.
Listen in for a candid conversation about high expectations, never-ending work, and why the most ambitious thing a school can build is a place where people belong.
Chapters:
- 🏔️ 01:27 Meet Erik Greenberg: Colorado Springs kid who fell backward into education
- 💡 04:28 The teachers he still talks to in his forties, and why that is disappearing
- ⚖️ 05:31 Not every kid gets the childhood I got, and I am not okay with that
- 🏫 08:30 Why AMS will only ever serve underserved communities
- 🔁 11:18 Education is one of the most archaic parts of society
- 📖 15:11 Teach math and reading better than anyone: the whole mission
- 🤝 20:39 Generational versus immigrant poverty, and the one enduring teacher relationship
- 📈 24:09 Why a kid's third year in the same school changes everything
- 🌱 35:46 Building community schools where everyone belongs
- 🧭 46:17 If you want to lead, you have to read: the mentor who changed his career
Episode 32