S5E7: Launch School Explained with Chris Lee

In this episode, recorded at the end of 2023, Brandi asks Chris the most frequently asked questions that current and potential students have. Chris starts the episode with a recap of the story of Launch School, and how his journey into teaching software over 10 years ago led to the Launch School curriculum as we know it now. This story explains how the curriculum is chosen and why adding assessments was a necessary step in the evolution of his teaching platform. The story of Launch School gives a lot of insight into why things are the way they are now, but there were still questions to be answered. Chris spends the last hour of the episode answering questions that we see again and again, whether it's from current students, potential students, or those who've chosen a different path for their education journey. This episode highlights how intentional every piece of Launch School is. It's an educational system built with an engineering mindset. We hope you come away with a better understanding of Launch School, and as always, we're happy to answer your questions or hear your ideas. 1:19 - The History of Launch School 22:43 - Why do students have to participate in interview assessments? 28:40 - Why is there a limit on the number of ‘Not Yet’s a student can get? 36:11 - Why is the standard or required grade to pass an assessment so high? 43:45 - Why can’t students test out of the core curriculum if they already have experience? 55:15 - How do you decide what content and the level of difficulty of the core curriculum? 58:51 - Why doesn’t the Launch School curriculum have a portfolio? 1:02:59 - Why are the community guidelines so strict? 1:08:15 - Why isn’t there any support to help core grads get jobs?