The research-to-practice gap for ML pedagogy

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Brandon Cardet-Hernandez is the Founder and CEO of Medley Learning, a platform building AI-powered scaffolding tools for multilingual learners. A former multilingual learner himself, Brandon has served as a teacher, turnaround principal, Boston School Committee member, NYC education advisor, and edtech leader. His work focuses on closing the access gap, not lowering expectations.

💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1. Why education has an access gap, not just an achievement gap
2. The dangers of over-scaffolding and “AI slop”
3. How AI can embed rigor without lowering standards
4. A new workflow for supporting multilingual learners
5. Why implementation determines impact

✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:58] Brandon’s journey and the educators who changed his life
[00:10:50] The “ELL trap” and lowering cognitive demand
[00:15:11] Student-controlled, embedded scaffolds in real time
[00:23:58] Why strong district champions matter for implementation
[00:27:24] AI’s promise: turning research into daily practice
[00:30:02] The risk of “AI slop” in classrooms
[00:31:52] Building AI policy around knowledge not fear 

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