Understand school policies
Translate policy language into the choices, obligations, and practical questions that matter.
Independent education transparency
Understand the system. Bring us the issue.
Disagree Learning helps families, teachers, school employees, and taxpayers better understand public education.
For better public educationNot anti-schoolNot anti-teacherNot anti-public education
The mission
Better information creates better questions.
Public education is difficult to understand from the outside—and often from the inside. Policies overlap. Records are fragmented. The same words can mean different things to a parent, employee, administrator, or board member.
Disagree Learning exists to receive concerns, review information, explain complicated issues, analyze public records, and help people navigate those systems with greater clarity.
What we do
Start with what can be known.
Then decide what question, document, conversation, or action should come next.
Review district documents
Examine notices, plans, contracts, correspondence, presentations, and board materials.
Understand public records
Identify useful records, organize evidence, and explain what the documents do—and do not—show.
Navigate difficult situations
Help families and employees prepare for conversations, meetings, and next steps.
Prepare better questions
Turn a concern into specific, answerable questions grounded in policy and evidence.
Analyze information
Separate fact, interpretation, uncertainty, and institutional claims.
Primary intake
Report an issue
Share what happened, what you know, and the records that support it. Every submission is reviewed. Not every submission is published.
Before you submit
Information is verified whenever possible before public use. Remove Social Security numbers, full birth dates, financial account numbers, and unrelated private information from uploaded documents.
How we work
Careful before public.
Documents are examined. Public records are reviewed. Questions are researched. People may be contacted for clarification. When appropriate, organizations may be given a meaningful opportunity to comment before anything is published.
- 01
Receive
A concern, question, request, or document arrives through a secure intake.
- 02
Review
The issue is organized, the relevant records are examined, and missing information is identified.
- 03
Research
Policies, public records, timelines, and competing explanations are checked whenever possible.
- 04
Respond
Mike may offer guidance, ask for clarification, contact an organization for comment, or determine that no further action is appropriate.
Disagree Learning is not the publication. When Mike publishes an investigation, essay, report, or article, it lives at Pope Studios.
Request help
You do not need to know the right service first.
Describe the situation and the outcome you are trying to reach. Mike will determine whether Disagree Learning can help and what the most useful next step may be.
- Parent advocacy
- Teacher or staff guidance
- Policy review
- Document review
- Speaking
- Consulting
- General question
About Mike
Experience on both sides of the system.
Mike Pope spent twenty-two years in public education as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. He is an author, speaker, consultant, and the creator of Pope Studios.
Disagree Learning connects people directly with Mike for education advocacy, document and policy review, speaking, consulting, and difficult questions that need an experienced independent perspective.
Work with MikeSupport the mission
Support independent education transparency.
Help fund research, review public records, help families better understand education, and improve public accountability.
Support is not represented as tax-deductible.
Read Mike’s writing
Disagree Learning supports the work. Pope Studios publishes it.
Mike’s essays, investigations, reporting, books, and Mr. Yeser satire live together at Pope Studios.
Visit Pope Studios ↗