Curriculum Associates’ Departing CEO on Building Trust With Districts

When Rob Waldron stepped into the role of CEO of Curriculum Associates in 2008, the housing bubble was bursting, Common Core standards were being created, and schools were moving away from fixed computer labs to bringing laptop carts into classrooms.

Now, nearly two decades later, Waldron has stepped down from the top executive role in a K-12 space that looks very different — one with well-established state-based standards, 1-to-1 student-to-device ratios, and debates about the best way to bring artificial intelligence into learning.

Over his tenure, Waldron helped transform the curriculum organization into a major player in the K-12 sector, embracing technology, and connecting academic resources to formative assessment and student data. The provider is now best known for its core and supplemental online reading and math offerings and its diagnostic iReady exam, which the company reports is used by around a third of all K-8 students in the U.S.

As of this month, he stepped into the role of chairman. Kelly Sia — who formally served as the company’s chief financial officer, chief operations officer, and president — has stepped into the role of CEO.

During his last few days at the helm, EdWeek Market Brief spoke to Waldron about his time guiding Curriculum Associates, what he learned about leadership, the biggest changes he’s seen in education over time, and where he sees the market moving next.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the industry like when you first joined Curriculum Associates in 2008?

We were in a tough spot in 2008. The economy was falling apart. That was a property tax issue, among other things, because housing and property taxes are 40 percent of the funds for schools. And if you have a choice to fire your teacher or fire your book, you’re going to fire your book. So people weren’t buying things.

We made some state-based materials, like everybody else, that were not Common Core. And then Common Core was going to go away once the [2008] stimulus came.

I think I was on month four [in the job] when I realized we had 82 days of cash, and we may not make it. That was fun.

How did you handle the company being that close to shuttering?

I remember I came home to my usually warm and kind wife, and I said, “Honey, I made a mistake, I don’t think we’re going to make it. I can’t pull this out.”

She looked at me — again, she’s the warmest, kindest person if you met her — and she’s like, “You sound like a whining sack of s***. Those people will not have jobs, so you go in there, and you save their jobs. And then you can talk to me about what you’re going to do, but first you save their jobs.”

The entire strategy of the company for 18 months was: Stay married by saving people’s jobs. Literally. We had about 100 people at the time. We have over 2,500 today.

After, we created Common Core materials, and those really sold well. We were able to take the proceeds from that and make it a tech company that made iReady.

As you’re reflecting on your career, what are some of the big trends or shifts in K-12 that you witnessed?

The first thing is that our industry used to be [divided] — there was core and supplemental. You would go make this product, you would dump the product on people — it was typically a print product — and then you run to the sales meeting and have a martini. That’s how it worked.

Over time, the business model changed to subscription, which has happened in other industries, too. And I actually think this is a wonderful thing for schools.

Why was the subscription model such a pivotal shift for the industry?

[Companies] really needed [districts] to renew, or you wasted all your time and money. Because you needed them renew, you actually had to provide great value. And it became a service business.

Forty percent of the people at Curriculum Associates do service, and our competitors have a hard time believing me when I say that. One of the biggest shifts was realizing, you can’t just make these products, you have to actually implement them and serve [districts] well. We have over 1,000 people who do that.

Great service begets great product. Because all of the service people — if you hire great people — have relationships [with school and district leaders], and they know exactly what’s going on [in schools], and they yell at all the product people. If you have 1,000 service people yelling at your 700 product and tech people, you don’t need a focus group. You’re really understanding what’s happening.

Are there other ways you measure the success of CA’s big investment in service?

I have a rule that when I meet an administrator or educator: I listen in the first five minutes for some compliment of a person who serves them, and they use that person’s first name. So they say, “I just want you to know that I love CA, but [so-and-so] is the best person that’s worked in our district.”

Over 95 percent of the time I hear that in the first five minutes. If I don’t hear it, I have a meeting.

What is your approach to leadership?

I once heard … that it’s easier to be an outstanding recruiter and an average manager than an average recruiter and an outstanding manager. Ever since I heard that, I decided to be an average manager, and I spent about 50 percent of my time on talent and recruiting.

I didn’t really add it up until [now], but I’ve interviewed over 4,000 people in my tenure at CA. One year —the final year before they made me slow down, which was two years ago — was 438 interviews in a year. And you know what, you just develop a pattern recognition of who’s outstanding talent.

If you’re going to sell intellectual property and bring it and serve it in a very relationship-based business, you better have the best talent. And you better treat that talent with grace, so that they stay. Whoever wins the talent game will make the most impact in education.

What does that look like?

I remember being in Manchester, New Hampshire, and there’s this guy named Mike — [who] we now call Grandpa iReady — who served a district, and the superintendent said, “You know, Rob, I love your product. But if Mike leaves, I’m leaving with him, OK?”

I remember thinking: That’s fine, because I’m going to run the company like that. I’ll make Mike not leave. Can you design a company around Mike?

When you have more knowledge about that individual district, you’re going to have a better implementation. They trust you on the way in and when you guide them. We have the lowest turnover — as far as any indicator I’ve ever seen — in the industry.

What’s the secret to fostering that trust between your team and district clients?

I had the death of a brother and some other things happened to me where I just decided to live my life with 100 percent integrity all the time. Like, I’m just going to try to get to heaven. And I got involved with a movement called Conscious Capitalism.

Particularly if you’re doing something as sensitive as the learning of children, integrity could be a competitive advantage. It turns out that people are sick of not having a moral purpose, and the people who are attracted to education are doing it to create change.

The best way to get people to believe you is to fire everybody who lies, right? The moment someone lies in our company — like knowingly lies — they just get fired. You don’t get written up, you’re not on probation, you’re just fired. Those are the rules. It’s been the rule the whole time. And then people know, you lie in this company, you’re done.

Maybe it sounds harsh, but people need to know that that’s true and that we have integrity in all things. If you ever try to oversell or say some feature is coming when you know it’s not coming, you’re done. I don’t care how much you sell.

When you came to CA, you signed up for something very rare, which is a 20-year deal. What made you sign that dotted line?

Frank [Ferguson] ran the place for 25 years. It’s a long story, but he said in order for me to get my part of the ownership that I had to sign up for 20 years, and I almost quit over it. He told me that after I joined, and I [was] like, “Well, you’re out of your mind.” But I now call it the “gift of Frank,” because what it did is it focused me.

His view of the world is … that these institutions that stay, outperform, and do better, and are going to make the biggest difference. And that you have to have that view. It turned out to be true.

Part of being a conscious company is thinking in a 20-year increment, right? Because we’re not going to do things for this year’s little profitability. We’re doing things over the long term. And, again, that made it easier for me to recruit. Because in the middle of different economic problems [everyone knows] well, this guy’s staying, he’s not going to spin it and sell it out from under us.

I will, as chairman, be completing [20 years].

Why transition to the chairman role now?

The chairman title is overrated, we just needed something to call me and that’s what we called Frank. Kelly [Sia] will be running the company. I am still going to be a talent hog and doing recruiting. I’m going to be doing some partnership M&A stuff, just because I have time to do that. We have a company called Elevation that I’m spending more time on.

The [two] principal reasons are: One… she was ready. The second thing is: Companies need newness and new skill sets, and as the company got larger, she comes from a world of being a great operator. I was more of the startup guy, so there’s just different skills.

Going forward, what do you think will be next for the industry?

The average dentist is 50 percent accurate at knowing whether you have a cavity. If you study that, it’s because they have one semester — one hour a week — on X-rays. That’s how much information they have on X-rays. And then when they look at your X-ray, the average dentist spends 30 seconds on it.

If you think about what a dentist does… they’re in a massive game of pattern recognition. I was studying a dentist company recently because I’m studying AI. They’ve gotten a group of dentists to compare and contrast all the X-rays. When they all agree, it goes into a data set. If they don’t agree, it doesn’t go to the data set. And now the AI version of them looking at your teeth is over 90 percent accurate.

A teacher, when in a classroom, is … also engaged in a massive game of pattern recognition, and that pattern recognition can be based on years of experience and the inputs they’re getting from the kids.

How do you think AI will roll out in K-12?

We’re starting with voice. When a kid is reading aloud, there’s a wealth of knowledge. So you can know — in ways that it’s hard to do as a teacher with 30 kids — whether they know their blended vowels and their diphthongs and all the science of reading stuff. [It’s] the figuring out how to actually cater information and instruction and then tools for the teacher to do in the moment based on just hearing kids. So that’s super exciting.

Creating knowledge agents for teachers, which is different than the AI for kids — I think will come, too. People want AI tutors for kids, but I think the first stop is the knowledge agent for teachers. I think this will be, over these next few years, a stunning change.

Final thoughts to share?

You know, the people, in my opinion, who become CEOs of these companies … there’s a reason they’re taking these jobs. I wanted to prove to the world that the people who did the right thing, the ethical thing, would kick your a**.

That was my personality, my ego needs — some unsatiated thing was tied up in proving that. And Kelly was chosen [as the next CEO, and ] she wants to prove that, too. I believe in our sector.

The company went from near-bankruptcy to being many billions of dollars of value. My hope is people see the reason that happened consistently, for that many years, is that we made a great product, we serve people well, and we treated our employees well — and, well, that’s how you win.