ETCH Weekend Reading 9/4
Do you prefer your AI with magic or sizzle?
Hello!
It is Labor Day Weekend here in the US, which is the unofficial end of summer. Based on the relative scarcity of funding announcements, it looks like many of y’all snuck in one final week of R&R before the 3-month sprint to the holidays.
On to the update!
Funding / M&A
Speak raises $16M / US, Language Learning / Lachy Groom, OpenAI, Neo, GSV / ETCH Assessment
Sizzle AI raises $7.5M / US, Tutoring / Owl Ventures, 8VC
Confirm raises $6.2M / US, Employee Management / Spero Ventures, SHRMLabs, Elefund, Gaingels, Black Angel Group
Varthana raises $2.5M / India, Student Financing / Symbiotics Investments
MagicSchool.ai raises $2.4M / US, Professional Development / Range Ventures, GSV, Rethink Education, Charter School Growth Fund, Gary Community Investments, Transcend Fund, Edovate Capital
GradRight raises $600K / India, Student Finance / IvyCap Ventures
Dreambox Learning acquired by Discovery Education / US, K12 Curriculum
People Moves
Gary Eimerman, Alex Varel, and Asha Aravindakshan join Multiverse as Chief Learning Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, and US GM, respectively / via PRNewswire
Jennifer Dirmeye joins the Postsecondary Commission as VP of Accreditation / via ETCH
Luci Willits joins Age of Learning as VP of Public Policy / via businesswire
Ananya Tripathi, CEO of Byju’s subsidiary Whitehat Jr., resigns / via YourStory
Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha resigns / via Inc42
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Links
Early Childhood
Can digital apps help preschool children learn math? In short, yes! But the improvement has just as much to do with parent involvement as the apps themselves. “To improve children’s learning, interventions either have to increase the amount of time parents spend with their kids, or make the actual learning process more efficient.” / via EdSurge
A plan to retain early childhood educators by reinvigorating Head Start and Early Head Start. / via Hechinger Report Opinion
K12
US students need better schools, not smaller classes. I don’t know whether this thesis is right or wrong, but I appreciate the simplicity and clarity of thought that goes into Michael Bloomberg’s op-eds | on | education. / via Bloomberg Opinion
Related, there is no silver bullet to “fix” education, but a constellation of services to support schools when needed. A substitute teacher videoconferencing in from 2,000 miles away is not exactly desirable, but serves as an important backstop for the ecosystem. / via Wall Street Journal
Also related, US K12 Education Satisfaction matches record-low at 36%. Even if there is no silver bullet, maybe it is time to try some new things? / via Gallup
Abundance mindset: all ideas are good ideas. Philly will pay parents $300/month to drive children to school. (Joining a slew of articles that have brought busing to the forefront of the back-to-school news cycle.) / via USA Today
Or maybe, we pay teachers more? 67% of adults back the concept. / via K12 Dive
Let no good deed go unpunished and no newsletter go without a ChatGPT mention. What if we sent the faculty to ChatGPT camp? (I actually like this idea.) / via Education Week
Looking at the data behind the teacher shortage. / via 74Million
Some hospitals have opened their own schools to support children in psychiatric care. A sad but important part of the education world I did not know about. / via Hechinger Report
Higher Ed
Why has it been so hard for University of Phoenix to find a home? Myriad reasons, but, at the core, the Phoenix name is both the institution’s greatest asset and its greatest liability. / via Chronicle of Higher Education
Related, if and when Phoenix does change hands, their new owner will be taking on the institution’s regulatory liabilities (known and unknown). As the University of Arizona is finding out with their acquisition of Ashford. / via Inside Higher Ed
University said it won’t charge for textbooks. Professors ask how. Textbook fees, on the decline for almost a decade, punch above their relative weight in the broader conversation about the increasing cost of higher education. You can have high-quality homebrew course materials or you can have adjuncts, but you can’t have both. / via Inside Higher Ed
An academic bootcamp tells soldiers, “you belong here.” This is really neat. I have lamented the lack of vision at many US universities; this is a great example of new ways to build enrollments. / via the Chronicle of Higher Education
Promising, then revoking, alumni status for certificate grads. Is it me, or is USC | at the center | of a heck | of a lot of | higher ed controversy? / via Inside Higher Ed
UNCF partners with Axim Collaborative to help launch HBCUv. / via UNCF
The benefits of Higher Ed beyond earnings. / via Inside Higher Ed
Course Hero is graduating just in time. / via Forbes
Workforce
Upskilling platforms see robust demand for courses amid EdTech slump. Including some data points on how 3 of India’s largest upskilling players - Emeritus, UpGrad, and Great Learning - are doing. / via MoneyControl
3% of Handshake job postings now include student loan repayment as a company-provided benefit. / via Axios
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WOIA) is broken. Here’s how to fix it. It is frustrating how our primary pieces of education (HEA) and workforce development (WOIA) legislation are so stuck. There is a bi-partisan win waiting for the folks who take on updating one or both of these. / via OpenCampus
A return to office plan that employees actually like. Raise your hand if you had Smuckers (the jelly company) on your highly-rated return-to-office program bingo card. / via Wall Street Journal
Don’t like negotiating with your employer over salary? Soon enough, a chatbot will do it for you! Everyone will be in the 1% or you may never get a raise again. / via Axios
Related, in Smallville everyone is an AI bot. A sort of wild AI experiment that hosts the only successful university in the metaverse. / via Financial Times
This email, EdTech Thoughts Weekend Reading, is the free sister publication of the EdTech Thoughts Weekly Update. It provides 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!
Photo of the Week
I tried to take a day off from EdTech this week. My wife’s mother and brother graciously helped us take our 1-month old son to the beach for the first time. About 5 minutes after making ourselves comfortable, a plane flew by…
