ETCH Weekend Reading 2/19/24
ETCH Growth Mini-series, aging public school buildings, and the "modern" university
Hello!
It is President’s Day Weekend here in the US, which approximately half the country celebrates (I’m not sure which half, but it does include New England). As such, this note comes to you about halfway through the East Coast workday.
This note also contains an invitation to join the EdTech Growth Mini-series, authored by Jeevan Balani.
One of my aspirations for ETCH is for it to grow beyond providing news to a place where professionals come to build careers in EdTech. Everett Reiss helped me kick off this strategy by taking on the Jobs of the Week newsletter (which you should also subscribe to), which highlights roles for folks at all levels of functional experience and seniority.
The Growth Mini-series is more targeted, designed for folks who want to build/maintain competencies for Marketing and/or Growth roles.
I hope to produce several more mini-series in different functional areas, and that readers like you will help turn these “series” into longer-term communities of practice. If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to follow along with one or more of them.
With that, on to the news!
Funding / M&A
Funding
Amber raises $21M / India, Higher Ed Services / Gaja Capital, Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures
BridgeCare raises $10M / US, Early Childhood Software Infrastructure / Avenue Growth Partners
AlensiaXR raises $3M / US, VR / Sopris Capital, Healthcare Collaboration Fund, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund
SocialCrowd raises $1.6M / US, HR Tools / Bread and Butter Ventures, VC 414, Serac Ventures, Gala Capital Partners
M&A
SchoolStatus acquires SchoolNow / US, K12 Infrastructure
Millpond Equity Partners acquires Galileo Education / US, Special Education
CentralReach acquires Silas / US, Special Education
95 Percent Group acquires Morpheme Magic / US, Literacy
Reports
Reach Capital’s 2023 EdTech Funding Report / via Reach Capital
To be named in this newsletter, a company must raise $1M+ with verifiable institutional investors, be part of an acquisition where the combined entity has > 50 employees, or raise a VC/PE fund of $10M+
ETCH Funding Database
All of the above deals, and 1,000+ more can be found in the ETCH Funding Database, available in Beta to Paying subscribers. Upgrade your subscription to learn more.
People Moves
Jeff Cassidy joins Prodigy Education as CFO / via Betakit
Looking for a job or hiring in EdTech? Join the ETCH Jobs Community and/or subscribe to our Jobs of the Week (JOTW) newsletter!
Featured Organization - Growth Fraction
“Building” an EdTech product has never been easier, but the path to meaningful growth is harder to crack than ever. Facebook and Google ads are more expensive, Gen AI is creating powerful learning products for cents on the dollar, and online learning fatigue is palpable in a post-Covid world.
ETCH is partnering with Jeevan Balani of GrowthFraction to create a *free* Growth Mini-Series to explore how different Go-To-Market levers can scale your EdTech business.
Jeevan has worked with several EdTech companies including Masterclass, Emeritus, and Outschool. As a Fractional Head of Growth, he partners with EdTech startups on marketing-led growth (e.g., SEO, performance marketing) and product-led growth (e.g., referral, merchandising).
Links
Early Childhood
The case for spending way more on babies. / via The Atlantic
K12
Why so many kids are priced out of youth sports. Youth sports are not, strictly, education/edtech. But they do play a formative role in the development of at least 50% of children in the US (including myself). Or they did before commercial interests took over, creating a $30-40B industry that costs, on average, $833/child/season ($2,068/child/season for households making $150K+). / via New York Times
Connecticut seeks to fund teachers’ project proposals with a $4M investment. What I like about this is that it doesn’t let perfect be the enemy of impact. Rather than trying to build their own “portal” for administering these funds, the state is using DonorsChoose. Rather than making up a list of “qualified” items, the state is trusting teachers to make good decisions. A very rewarding read. / via 74Million
The average age of a public school building in the US is 49 years. This is not necessarily problematic, but does start to become so when you layer in that 1/3 of buildings have not ever undergone a major renovation to update things like HVAC systems. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our public school buildings a D+ rating. Poor public infrastructure provides a simple and highly visible reference point for school choice advocates. / via K12 Dive
On paper, teens are thriving. In reality, they’re not. I cannot imagine what it is like being a 16-18-year-old right now, trying to understand what is “real” and what is not. Trying to grasp what the next 80 years on earth might look like. If you have a teen in your life, even peripherally, do something nice for them this week. / via Hechinger Report
If you think I’m being hyperbolic, ask an 18-year-old to read this article and break down all the competing interests vying to control the narrative. My bet is the exercise ends with your teen throwing a medium-sized book at you. The plastics industry would like a word with your kids. / via Washington Post
Higher Ed
Online course provider 2U faces doubts it can continue. I continue to believe bankruptcy is the most likely outcome (to shed as much debt as possible), probably with a subsequent change of control to a PE firm. After that, I think the company will look pretty similar to the way it does today. / via Inside Higher Ed
Lots of folks seem eager to dance on 2U’s grave. As a thought exercise, if 2U were to shut down entirely (which, again, is an unlikely outcome), who steps in to pick up the 60K+ students they currently serve? It is not going to be a plucky DIY regional upstart. It will be the Mega and elite universities - further stratifying the online world between the haves and the have-nots. 2U should not be held up on a pedestal, but be careful what you wish for.
States bet big on career education but struggle to show it works. Proving graduate outcomes is a problem that runs rampant throughout the postsecondary education ecosystem, not just in the career education space. It is a pain for schools and government workforce initiatives, but it is even worse for students, who have to make decisions based on nebulous/missing/false information. / via Washington Post
In the past, I have tried to unravel what the modern (21st century) university is supposed to be. It is an ongoing process, and looks different to almost anyone you ask. Is a university’s job to be a financial success? Should that financial success be driven by profitably educating students or some other mechanism? How responsible is the university for local job creation - or maintaining local culture? This week, we have some examples of modern university visions being contested:
The federal government runs a college. It has had 8 presidents in 6 years. The story of Haskell Indian Nations University, which is run - seemingly poorly - by the Bureau of Indian Education. A fringe case not reflective of any trends in the broader education ecosystem. But a reminder of how the US’ chaotic and, in this case, unsavory history manifests in the modern day. / via Wall Street Journal
Even more complex to dissect, Christopher Newport University President Paul Trible transformed the university he led for 26 years. Not everyone is pleased. / via Chronicle of Higher Education
Another complicated (in very different ways) mix of financial success and culture clash, Texas A&M decides to shut down Qatar campus. / via Inside Higher Ed
A question I hadn’t considered before: is the modern university a globally consistent concept, or will it look different in different geographies? In India, a fierce ideological battle rages at one of the country’s top liberal universities. / via New York Times
Education Department continues to navigate rocky FAFSA rollout, will ease verification requirements and program reviews. / via Higher Ed Dive
Workforce
Gensler’s office of the future. I prefer the carrot approach to the “return to office”, which includes thoughtful space design as outlined here. It *might* also include dedicated learning spaces for employees and/or their children, if designed and incentivized correctly. / via Worklife and Foundation for Economic Education
This email, ETCH Weekend Reading, is ETCH’s free newsletter providing links to the week’s EdTech Funding, M&A, People moves, and a curated list of Links to relevant industry news. If you enjoyed this edition, I hope you will subscribe and/or forward to your friends!
Image of the Week
I'm also following the 2U story with keen interest, having known and worked with several team members there as a university partner - appreciate and agree with your perspective there. And that image of the modern university! Surely the emphasis on greenery and water must stem from the volume of online content related to colleges and universities emphasizing renewable energy, decarbonization, sustainability, etc. My hypothesis is that the modern workplace might look similar.