Education options are changing quickly. Families may choose public school, private school, homeschooling, tutoring, online learning, career and technical education—or a combination of several approaches.

With so many possibilities, it can be tempting to begin with the question, Which school or program is best? But a more important question comes first:

What does a good education mean for your child?

That question shaped the conversation between Sarah McCubbin and Karim Kuperhause on Beyond The Schoolhouse. Their discussion explored how parents can evaluate learning programs, engage with schools, understand edtech, and make choices based on the individual child rather than someone else’s definition of success.

Start With Your Definition of Education

At the beginning of the conversation, Karim Kuperhause made an important distinction: being educated is not necessarily the same as being schooled.

A family’s definition of education might prioritize:

• Strong academic performance
• Reading and mathematical foundations
• Empathy, honesty, and kindness
• Emotional stability
• Motivation and independence
• Preparation for university
• Career and technical skills
• Happiness and personal development

None of these priorities automatically cancels out the others. However, families need to be honest about what matters most to them and what their child needs during a particular season.

As Karim Kuperhause explained, parents should define what education means to them and then work backward from that goal. The right path may involve a traditional school, homeschooling, or another combination of learning opportunities.

This approach changes the conversation. Instead of choosing a program because it is popular or familiar, parents can ask:

• What outcome are we hoping for?
• What does my child need right now?
• How will we know whether this approach is working?
• Does this program support our family’s definition of education?

Every Child May Need a Different Path

One of the challenges of education is that children do not all learn, grow, or respond to motivation in the same way.

Karim Kuperhause shared that parents sometimes say they raised their children the same way. His response was that children may share the same family values, but they are still different people with different personalities, characteristics, and choices.

That difference matters when selecting educational opportunities.

One child may thrive in a highly academic environment. Another may need more hands-on learning. One may respond to competition, while another needs encouragement and a strong personal connection. A child’s priorities may also change over time. Reading may become the urgent focus in one season, while emotional stability, motivation, or academic preparation may matter more in another.

This is one reason a single educational model cannot be the perfect fit for every child—or even for every child within the same family.

What Is Edtech Actually Designed to Do?

The term “edtech” covers a wide range of tools and services. According to Karim Kuperhause, edtech is an umbrella term for solutions that automate something in education. These tools can serve K–12 schools, higher education, teachers, students, administrators, and families.

Some edtech products support:

• Student information systems
• Learning management systems
• Human resources
• Finance
• Individualized education programs
• Student learning and outcomes

However, not every edtech tool is designed to directly improve student learning. Karim Kuperhause noted that only about 10% of edtech solutions directly affect student outcomes.

That distinction is valuable for families. A school may use many digital tools, but parents should still ask which tools are directly supporting their child’s learning and how their effectiveness is being measured.

Ask for Evidence, Not Just Promises

When parents evaluate a learning platform or program, it is easy to be influenced by appealing language: personalized, adaptive, innovative, or AI-powered.

But labels are not outcomes.

Families should look for evidence that a tool is helping their child make progress. Depending on the goal, that might include:

• Improved reading ability
• Stronger mathematical understanding
• Increased confidence
• Better retention of material
• Greater independence
• More consistent engagement
• Progress over a defined period of time

If academics are the priority, parents should be able to identify how improvement will be measured. Karim Kuperhause suggested looking for a way to determine whether a child is improving over a certain number of weeks or months.

Parents do not need to accept every metric without question. They can use the data as one part of a larger evaluation that also includes observation, conversation, and the child’s experience.

Useful questions include:

• What is this program designed to improve?
• How is progress measured?
• How often will we review the data?
• Is my child retaining what they are learning?
• Does the program support the goal we have identified?
• What changes should we make if the approach is not working?

Personalized Learning Requires More Than Technology

Personalized learning is often presented as a modern idea, but teachers have been discussing differentiated instruction for decades.

The goal is for each student to follow a learning path that reflects their needs. The difficulty is that one teacher may be responsible for 25 or 30 students, all at different academic levels.

Karim Kuperhause described the potential of AI-based tools to provide different learning content to multiple students at the same time while allowing the teacher to monitor progress through a dashboard.

This could help address one of the central challenges in a classroom: students may be learning the same broad concept while needing very different levels of support.

For example, a child who has not mastered multiplication may need to strengthen that foundation before moving into division. If foundational skills are missing year after year, the gaps can eventually become overwhelming.

Karim Kuperhause compared this to a Jenga tower. Each missing block creates instability, and by the time a student reaches Algebra 1, enough missing pieces may cause the entire structure to fall.

The lesson for parents is straightforward: do not wait for a major academic struggle before looking for missing foundations. Ask what your child has mastered, where the gaps are, and what support will address them.

Match Learning to a Child’s Interests

Personalization is not only about academic level. It can also involve a child’s interests.

Karim Kuperhause described this as the difference between the “knowledge graph” and the “interest graph.” The knowledge graph represents the sequence of skills a student needs to learn. The interest graph connects those skills to the topics and activities that capture the child’s attention.

A student may learn mathematical concepts through sports statistics, sewing, or another area of personal interest. The academic goal remains important, but the context can make the learning more meaningful.

Technology may help create different contexts for different students. In a traditional classroom, it is difficult for one teacher to manage 30 separate projects at the same time. Digital tools may make it easier to connect common learning objectives with individual interests.

Still, engagement should not be confused with learning. Karim Kuperhause specifically cautioned against using engagement as a substitute for evidence of learning. In the strongest examples, both engagement and scores improve.

Motivation Is Central to Learning

A program can be well designed and still fail if a student has no reason to participate.

For Karim Kuperhause, motivation is one of the central issues in education. When motivation improves, other challenges—including absenteeism and lack of engagement—may also improve.

But motivation is not identical for every child. One student may be motivated by a clear challenge. Another may need encouragement, relationships, creativity, or a connection to a future goal.

Karim Kuperhause argued that one of the most important roles of a teacher is to unlock motivation, even though motivation is not typically taught as a standalone subject in teacher education.

Parents can apply the same insight at home by asking:

• What makes this child want to learn?
• When does my child become most engaged?
• What kinds of feedback are helpful?
• Is the current challenge appropriate?
• Does my child need more support, more independence, or a different approach?

Sometimes the best educational choice is not the one that most closely matches a parent’s personal preferences. It is the one that helps the child grow.

Parents and Schools Need Ongoing Communication

Parent-teacher conferences should not be the first time families hear about a problem.

Sarah McCubbin described the value of beginning the school year by discussing a child’s goals and family circumstances. A child dealing with difficulty at home may need emotional stability at school, while another child may need immediate academic support.

Karim Kuperhause agreed that strong parent communication should be ongoing. Drawing on his experience as a teacher and tutor, he described parent meetings as opportunities to celebrate progress rather than surprise families with previously unknown concerns.

For parents, productive communication may involve:

• Sharing the child’s goals at the beginning of the year
• Asking how the child is progressing
• Discussing strengths as well as concerns
• Providing relevant context about changes at home
• Asking what support is available
• Following up before a small problem becomes a major one

This does not require parents to take over a teacher’s role. It does require them to remain engaged in the process.

Be Involved Without Creating an Adversarial Relationship

Parent involvement can be complicated. Schools have policies, teachers have large classes, and administrators change. What works with one school leader may not work with the next.

Karim Kuperhause described parent engagement as a balance that requires open communication and emotional intelligence.

Sarah McCubbin also emphasized the importance of understanding a teacher’s perspective. A teacher may be responsible for 25 or 30 students with different academic, emotional, and behavioral needs.

Parents can advocate for their children while still recognizing the complexity of the classroom. A constructive partnership might begin with curiosity:

• What are you observing?
• What has already been tried?
• What seems to help?
• Where do you see the biggest need?
• How can we reinforce this at home?
• When should we check in again?

The goal is not to avoid difficult conversations. It is to have them with enough context and respect that they can lead to solutions.

Educational Programs Need Room to Improve

A learning program may look promising in theory and still need adjustments in practice.

Karim Kuperhause explained that the edtech products supported through HierLearning are tested through pilots in multiple schools and districts. These pilots help reveal how students, teachers, and administrators actually respond to a solution.

The process is not about assuming the first version will be perfect. It is about collecting feedback, identifying problems, and improving the product through collaboration.

He described this as “co-design”: creating a solution with input from the people who will use it. Founders need to remain curious and humble enough to recognize when their assumptions were wrong.

Families can use a similar mindset when making education decisions. Choosing a program is not always a permanent declaration that the approach is perfect. It may be a thoughtful experiment that requires observation and adjustment.

Parents can ask:

• What is working?
• What is not working?
• Is the challenge temporary or ongoing?
• What does my child say about the experience?
• What does the available data show?
• What can we change without abandoning the larger goal?

Mistakes and setbacks can become learning opportunities for both children and parents.

Define Success Beyond a Career Title

Education is often evaluated through future career outcomes: university admission, a high GPA, or a particular profession.

Those goals may matter to some families, but they are not the only way to think about success.

Karim Kuperhause shared that he and his wife have talked about where they hope their children will be as adults—not primarily in terms of careers, but in terms of who they will become. For him, success is connected more closely to happiness than to a specific career.

That perspective leaves room for multiple futures. A child may pursue university, a trade, or another path. The important question is whether the educational journey is helping that child develop toward the family’s deeper goals.

A Practical Framework for Choosing Learning Opportunities

Parents can use the following process when evaluating a school, program, tutor, or edtech platform.

1. Define the goal

What does your family mean by a good education? Identify the academic, personal, relational, or practical outcomes that matter most.

2. Consider the individual child

Think about your child’s current needs, personality, interests, strengths, and challenges. Do not assume that what worked for one child will work for another.

3. Identify measurable indicators

Decide how you will know whether the approach is helping. This may include academic growth, skill mastery, improved confidence, stronger habits, or another clearly defined outcome.

4. Examine the learning experience

Look beyond claims such as “personalized” or “AI-powered.” Consider whether the program supports foundational skills, connects with your child’s interests, and provides meaningful feedback.

5. Stay in communication

Whether your child is in school or learning at home, create regular opportunities to discuss progress and concerns.

6. Review and adjust

Be willing to acknowledge when something is not working. Changing a strategy does not mean abandoning the goal. It may be part of finding the right path.

The Goal Is to Educate the Child in Front of You

There is no universal educational path that guarantees success for every child.

The better question is not, Which option is best in general? It is:

Which approach is helping this child move toward the education and life we value?

That requires clarity, observation, communication, humility, and a willingness to adapt.

As Karim Kuperhause emphasized, families need to define education for themselves and then reverse engineer what that looks like for each particular child.

The path may look different from one child to the next. That is not a problem to solve. It may be one of the most important realities to recognize.

Connect With Karim

• Education accelerator: HierLearning.com
• Book: The Great Unlock: How AI Is Making the Future of Learning More Human