Choosing the right academic path for a child can feel overwhelming – especially with more school choice options available to Alabama families than ever before. Parents want a trusted voice to help them make sense of it all.
That’s the conversation L.J. Walker, Founder and Executive Director of Better Than Average (BTA), joined when he sat down with the Bama Knows Education podcast, presented by Love Your School Alabama. The episode traces L.J.’s path from launching BTA at 16 years old to building an organization that has now delivered more than 25,000 tutoring sessions and over one million minutes of instruction to students across the state – work that earned BTA the 2025 Community Impact Award from the City of Montgomery.
The conversation goes beyond BTA’s story. L.J. and host Sheila Banister dig into personalized learning, the role parents play in a child’s academic success, and how Alabama’s expanding school choice landscape is opening new doors for families – the same insights that guide how BTA works with every student who walks through its doors.
“Education opens a lot of doors. And when I look at myself, as well as the work that we do here at Better Than Average, it’s not even just about the education piece – it’s about the mentorship, it’s about them being able to see a future for themselves through means of education.”
Prefer Apple Podcasts? Listen here, or read the full episode writeup on Love Your School Alabama.
To see these same principles at work with your own child, start with BTA’s Learning Launch Diagnostic.
Always Striving. Never Settling.