Zarek Drozda is the Executive Director of Data Science 4 Everyone, a national initiative and coalition based at the University of Chicago. Zarek helped launch DS4E in 2019, co-organizing a coalition of 3000+ education leaders to advance data science, data literacy, and AI education in K-12 schools across more than 25 states. Zarek previously served for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences as a Data Science Fellow, where he led research on emerging technology education and advised the national COVID response, coordinating data analytics for an inter-agency team between the White House, Department of Education, and Centers for Disease Control. Prior to federal service, Zarek helped build a social impact incubator (the Center for RISC) with economist and Freakonomics coauthor Steven Levitt.
The new Administration should announce a national talent surge to identify, scale, and recruit into innovative teacher preparation models, expand teacher leadership opportunities, and boost the profession’s prestige.
What if the concurrent challenges of digital upskilling and teacher shortages could help solve one another?