Education Revolution: Amy Nakamoto Of Discovery Education On Innovative Approaches That Are Transforming Education | by Authority Magazine Editorial Staff | Authority Magazine | Jun, 2025

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?

My career has always been guided by a long-standing interest in youth development and education. From coaching college sports to leading nonprofit organizations designed to foster opportunities for young people to scaling impact in corporate and philanthropic circles, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide range of roles creating meaningful experiences for young people to thrive. That multi-sector perspective gave me a unique insight into what can be accomplished when organizations collaborate to support education in ways that go beyond the traditional classroom.

In my current role leading the Marketing and Corporate Partnerships team, I get to create innovative, real-world learning opportunities that ignite engagement by partnering with global brands and organizations. What brought me to this work, and what keeps me inspired, is connecting dots between communities and resources that allow for scaled approaches to inspiration and impact for young people. Everything we do is focused on impact; how we can build student confidence and accelerate learning to supporting the next generation of leaders. I’m driven by the belief that when we bring together the right people and resources, we can help students achieve the dreams they have for their futures in a way that makes the world a better place for all.

Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority in the education field?

I believe in combining my lived experience and surrounding myself with best-in-class subject matter experts. From a master’s in education to spending years inside schools blending in- and out-of-school time instruction to coming to a company of passionate former educators, I have listened, observed, probed, and formed perspectives that are guided by experience, theory, data, and outcomes when it comes to the K-12 landscape.

Now, I lead initiatives that connect over 60 corporate, nonprofit, and government partners with K-12 classrooms to deliver real-world learning experiences for students all over the world. My experience has allowed me to bridge theory and practice, and while my “credentials” point to experience in education, I actually believe my authority in the topic comes from the incredible individuals I surround myself with that I am constantly learning from and building new ideas with.

Can you identify some areas of the US education system that are going really well?

An area that is going well is that we see school districts focusing on what works and spending time evaluating programs and partners that don’t bring true value to the classroom. After a complex few years in the height of the pandemic, we see school districts retrenching on critical priorities and the matching partners and tools that allow those priorities to be met. This may mean a review of solutions with the intention of keeping best-in-class products; this may mean examining areas like low engagement or teacher turnover and putting strategies in place to drive progress. In general, the focus I see from school districts seem to be re-evaluating the ROI of their edtech spending.

As pioneers in the education technology space, we have been laser-focused on building engaging solutions and partnerships that work. Discovery Education was early in market to provide digital content in the classroom, created the first digital-first textbooks, or Techbooks, and we are now leaping ahead again through our newly improved essential companion for classrooms (Experience), updated AR/VR content, and our applications of Artificial Intelligence.

Additional areas of rapid growth in K-12 education are the move towards innovation in learning, as well as workforce development, or college and career readiness. I’ve really enjoyed seeing schools focus on career connections. For example, any district can use immersive learning to conduct science labs and explore space, travel around the world and explore incredible feats of nature and engineering through virtual field trips, and network directly with industry professionals through online networks that open a world of opportunities and careers that students may never otherwise have known they existed.

Can you identify the key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement? Can you explain why those are so critical?

There is a disconnect between what students are learning in school and the skills they actually need to thrive in the future workforce. According to the Post Graduation Readiness Report by YouScience, 83% of students cannot connect their classrooms skills to future, real-world careers. This gap not only impacts student motivation and direction but also their preparedness for the evolving job market. We are looking at a future where by 2030, there will be over 170 million new jobs in the workforce, many of which require not just technical skills but also adaptability, creativity, and critical thinking.

In the Discovery Education Education Insights report, we found that while 88% of district leaders, teachers, parents, and students rate life skills as very important, only 57% of students believe their schools adequately teach the life skills needed for future success. It is therefore more critical than ever to create connections between classroom learning to real-world careers.

Please tell us all about the innovative educational approaches that you are using. What is the specific problem that you aim to solve, and how have you addressed it?

The challenge we are solving is career invisibility: too many students go through school without understanding how their learning connects to real-life possibilities. This can leave them feeling adrift without a clear direction, and many students miss out on careers in industries they might have really enjoyed. It’s simple, but true: you can’t be what you can’t see.

Something that has been really great at Discovery Education is the emphasis on addressing emerging issues such as these through solutions like Career Connect. Career Connect is an award-winning software solution available to all users of Discovery Education’s Experience. Career Connect works by connecting K-12 classrooms directly with diverse industry professionals, helping them put a real face to careers they’ve heard about and concepts they’re actively learning in class. Educators can complement that session with standards-aligned high-quality instructional materials like videos, ready-to-use activities, lesson plans, and more. Plus, interactive maps highlight 16 National Career Clusters® to support student’s career exploration and workforce readiness skills.

This resource helps revolutionize how careers are talked about and taught in the classroom. It’s designed not just to be a point of a connection between these groups, but to function as a solution to issues like not knowing what careers are out there and the growing skills gap that limits student achievement before they even really get started.

In what ways do you think your approach might shape the future of education? What evidence supports this?

Imagine if every student could come home at the end of the day sharing that they understood in real-time how what they were learning could be used in a future setting. Or imagine if those same students can now name individuals or organizations that provided new information on what types of jobs, innovations, and opportunities exist after high-school or post-secondary education. This is what we believe should shape the future of education. At the end of the day, research shows that students who are engaged with and interested in what they are learning perform better in school and succeed beyond.

By combining this knowledge with career readiness programs geared towards students of all ages, we can kick start conversations about their future starting now. Our emphasis on finding ways to build up that intrinsic desire for learning within each student helps create lifelong learners who are unafraid to tackle hard challenges and new careers paths, while diving in with enthusiasm at school.

How do you measure the impact of your innovative educational practices on students’ learning and well-being?

We have measured the impact of these resources using both internal and external research and polls of students, educators, parents, and district leaders. Discovery Education is committed to facilitating deep and sustained learning with our research-based products and services. We regularly verify their efficacy across a variety of educational settings, programs, and contexts and ensure our K-12 solutions meet rigorous evidence-based standards.

Furthermore, Discovery Education holds the Learner Variability Certification from Digital Promise, the global nonprofit working to shape the future of learning and advance education by bringing together solutions across research, practice, and technology. This certification recognizes a rigorous and comprehensive design approach with learner variability in mind. I encourage you to dig into our research-backed solutions here.

I also want to emphasize that the results reveal students want more exposure to different career paths, parents view interest and motivation as one of the most important ways of keeping students in school, and teachers find career readiness resources incredibly helpful for students but need time-saving solutions.

Our time spent connecting and talking directly with students and educators around the world provides invaluable insights into the impact resources have on learning, rather than just making assumptions based on the resources’ goals. All this work is centered on our mission to inspire curiosity, build confidence, and accelerate learning.

What challenges have you faced in implementing your educational innovations, and how have you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges has been navigating different expectations across sectors. Corporate partners, educators, and communities don’t always speak the same language or operate on the same timeline, and rightly so. They have different needs, challenges, and desired outcomes. It’s our job to figure out how to combine these differences into something where everyone benefits. This work requires thoughtfulness, deep listening, empathy, and collaboration to ensure that content is both educationally sound, engaging for students, easy to use for educators, and authentic to our partners at the school and district level, as well as industry level.

Interestingly enough, these “power” skills are the very ones so important to student growth, as well, so it’s rewarding to find myself continually growing. By emphasizing collaboration and understanding, we can bring together educators and industry professionals with the common goal of sharing as much information, in as much of an impactful way, as possible. And most importantly, we work to ensure that students are at the center of every decision that is made.