Empowering Students to Take the Lead at Kairos Academies with Jack Krewson

March 3, 2025

“Kairos Academies’ mission is to empower students to direct their own lives and learning. That requires a different kind of school model. A school that allows students to make decisions for themselves, and to practice making decisions for themselves.”

Jack Krewson

Today’s guest is Jack Krewson, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Kairos Academies. Jack sat down with Staci to discuss how Kairos Academy empowers students to make their own decisions, the difference between growth and proficiency scores, and instilling solid executive functioning skills in students.

  • K-12 education
    • Jack grew up in the city of St. Louis where he went to really good private schools, but he lived in a neighborhood where that wasn’t the experience for the other kids.
    • Jack went to Washington University where he studied political science and economics. 
    • He became curious about why society looks the way that it does – what creates equitable systems and inequitable systems.
  • What is Kairos Academies?
    • Kairos is ancient greek for “the opportune moment of time,” and at Kairos, they believe they are at one of these moments.
    • We have access to technology and data and information about how to serve people who have been historically disadvantaged, and they want to put that to work at Kairos.
    • “Kairos Academies’ mission is to empower students to direct their own lives and learning. That requires a different kind of school model. A school that allows students to make decisions for themselves, and to practice making decisions for themselves.” 
    • In traditional schools, a lot of choices are made for students without them.
    • When you get to college and the real world, you don’t want that to be the first time you’re making decisions for yourself.
    • Kairos wants to meet kids where they are and help them forge their own path.
    • They start in 5th grade.
  • Is the “personalized learning” an IEP?
    • An IEP is an individualized education plan. Kairos creates an IEP if they recognize the need, but they also believe every student needs their own personalized path.
  • What does an IEP or personalized learning plan look like for a 5th grader versus a 10th grader?
    • In 5th grade, they don’t want to give them too many choices about when, how, or why they work, because they’re just learning how to handle those types of choices.
    • Kairos has project based classes with teachers as facilitators, and you might see independent practice in that classroom where different kids can work on different things. And that would be something the student would discuss with their mentor.
    • In 9th grade at Kairos, they have students put together a vision and a mission for their life and how they can take steps toward it during high school. 
    • If you wait until 10th or 11th grade to figure out what you want to do with the world, you might have missed some opportunities already.
  • Who is helping these students make such big decisions?
    • Every kid has a one-on-one mentor that is assigned to them.
    • They have a dedicated space with their peers and their mentor in advisory – that happens every day. 
    • That’s where they do things like “how do I calendar my time” and other executive functioning strategies.
    • Then within that class, they have a personalized one-on-one once a week where they discuss their steps and what is and is not working.
  • Can a kid start Kairos Academies in 9th grade, or do they need to come up from 5th grade?
    • They can start in 9th grade. 
    • “We exist as a school because we know the existing school system isn’t working.” 
    • “How do we focus on our critical student intervention groups (students who are coming in two or more years behind), catch them up at the same time that we’re teaching these executive functioning skills. And that’s the real challenge. 
    • If someone comes in at 9th grade and they’re 2 years behind, their focus might have to stay on getting them ready for collegiate level coursework.
  • What does that look like for a classroom teacher?
    • The easiest way to think of it is like a free period. There is still a math, english, etc class with a dedicated class period. And then if they don’t need to use their free period for intervention or work on their other work, go to office hours, etc
  • How is it working? How do you measure growth of executive functioning?
    • It’s difficult to measure growth mindset. 
    • Ultimately it is how much choice can you handle and still get your stuff done?
    • “How well academically do our students who have choice do compared to students who don’t?”
  • What is growth and how is it measured? Vs what is proficiency and how is it measured?
    • Every year, kids take a state test. That state test is only on content for the grade level they’re in. At the end of the year, they test on that, and they gauge how close they are to being on par. That’s proficiency. 
    • Proficiency doesn’t capture movement from where kids were previously. 
    • Growth takes into account how far you’ve come. 
    • When kids arrive they take the MWA Map test that places their academic level.
    • Growth showing what a school is doing for their child. 
    • Ultimately if they keep growing, they will catch up.
  • As a parent, how do you evaluate the two scores (proficiency and growth)?
    • Ignore proficiency, look at growth.
    • You should be very discerning, you ask lots of questions to schools about growth. 
    • It’s not okay for a school to continually not help students grow.
    • Kairos is a little above city average for proficiency because they see such strong growth over time with the kids who come in behind.
    • Kairos met 100% of the possible points for math and science across all grade levels.
    • That tells us that there is something working there, even if the proficiency score isn’t there.
  • How are we creating balance in that atmosphere to prevent academic burnout for these students so they don’t burnout in college?
    • There are a lot of students who are academically strong, but don’t have good executive functioning skills. So that’s where they struggle. 
    • On the flip side, if you go into college a little bit academically behind, but have good executive functioning skills, you can chart your path toward doing well.
    • It’s not always the kids who got straight A’s who found purpose and success. It’s the kids who know what they want and who they are and how to travel the road to get there.
    • How do you teach soft skills? It’s not the same way you teach math.
  • What is the demographic of children who are benefitting from this type of education?
    • Kairos is a charter school with open enrollment. There is no selection criteria. If there is a seat, they can get in. 
    • The students who do best at Kairos are the students who want to take charge of their life.
  • Where can people find Kairos Academies?