About Us

SparkED was founded by Art Worrell, Mike Taubman, and Scott Kern, who have been teachers and leaders for a combined 60 years. Since 2004, we’ve helped schools, departments and teachers cultivate student thinking and voice through intellectually rich analysis, writing, and discussion, all with the goal of helping students create transformative change in their own lives and in our society.

Our approach has led to pathbreaking academic results. Under our leadership, students have annually exceeded the national average on AP History and English exams for over a decade and averaged English SAT scores 100 points higher than College Board’s college readiness benchmark – all some of the strongest AP and SAT results nationwide among schools serving low-income communities.

Our work has been featured in multiple prominent books on education, including Make History (written by Art and Paul Bambrick-Santoyo), Teach Like a Champion, Leverage Leadership, and Love and Literacy, and in two books by education researchers. Our classrooms have also been covered by the Washington Post and Chalkbeat.

Our approach, built on instructional frameworks refined over two decades, also incorporates cutting-edge pedagogies and technologies. We infuse AI tools into all our programs, and we work with leading edtech innovators and education researchers to continuously adopt and refine emerging best practices. Mike is also a Stanford Digital Education Fellow.

Most importantly, our approach helps students see the humanities and career exploration as lifelong pursuits that pay lifetime dividends.