Guest Essay: Fight or Flight: Pods as a Third Way

Oct 14, 2022

Hello!

This is the second guest essay on Learning Pods, which will be the final guest essay of 2022 (I hope to return with more in 2023). Today’s author, Amar Kumar, did not write this piece as a follow up to last week’s essay, but the two do intentionally provide different viewpoints on the Learning Pods market.

Transparently, I’m still not sure where I stand on Learning Pods. But I know I am better off for having worked with Jack and Amar to understand the topic with more depth. After reading both essays, I hope you feel the same way.

With that, let’s meet Amar!

Author Spotlight

About a month ago, I walked into the offices of today’s author, Amar Kumar, and was greeted by a thirteen year-old in a black t-shirt, navy suit jacket, and untied shoelaces with a question about whether I had listened to Meta’s most recent earnings call and what impact it was having on their stock price.

The question was asked in all seriousness and the conversation only got more interesting from there! It had been a while since I’d been in a non-adult learning environment and was a welcome reminder of how excited we should be about our children’s future. Amar, who built and works from the Learning Pod where I met this thirteen year-old, is determined to make that happen.

Amar Kumar is the founder of KaiPod Learning, the fastest growing national network of learning pods. Prior to founding KaiPod Learning, Amar was the Chief Product Officer for Pearson’s Connection Education, the second largest network of online schools in the world. He has also been a school teacher and principal. He can be reached via his LinkedIn

Ed Tech Thoughts is a short ( ~ 5 mins), weekly overview of the top stories in EdTech, with a few (hopefully interesting) gut reactions attached. If you enjoy this guest post, I hope you will subscribe and/or forward to your friends!

If you would be interested in contributing a guest post to EdTech Thoughts in the future, please reply to this email and let us know!

Fight or Flight: Pods as a Third Way

By every single measure you can find, public education – a real driver of America’s growth over the last century – is in a great deal of trouble.

Despite being a product of and an ardent supporter of public education, I see the system entering a vicious and self-reinforcing spiral. We are spending more money and hiring more people, but achieving the same or worse outcomes.

The best teachers are leaving in droves, concerned that teaching affords them neither a living wage nor respect. As these teachers leave, schools are being forced to pay more to retain the ones that remain.
There’s less money left over for everything else, whether it’s basic infrastructure or new learning pathways to help students. Unsurprisingly, when great teachers leave and schools cut learning pathways, academic outcomes accelerate their trend downwards.
Parents looking for higher quality learning are joining the exodus out of public schools and into alternative options. When parents leave, their tuition dollars follow, which further exacerbates the funding shortfall, starting a whole new round of teacher departures.

And the flywheel spins.

As if all this weren’t enough, school budgets are about to hit a “cliff”, the likes of which we have never seen. More than $190 billion was allocated for COVID-era education stabilization, equaling ~$3,800/student, all of which is set to expire in September 2024 – just as the system starts to recover.

Parents seeking alternatives at higher rates

The pandemic-era “Zoom classroom” gave parents a first-person view of the quality of their children’s education and many are voting with their feet to leave the public system. District public school enrollment continued its decline from 2020 and dropped ~10% between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022.

In addition to private and charter schools, parents are looking to alternative models more than ever before in history. April 2022 data from 18 states shows that homeschooling is still 45% higher than pre-pandemic levels.1 Data from Stride, the nation’s largest network of online schools, shows that their online schools are still filled to the brim, with enrollment at 23% higher levels in April 2022 than in early 2020.

And, this whole segment is poised to grow even faster!

The real rate limiter here is not supply, funding, or regulation, but a mindset: most parents don’t see themselves as homeschoolers. They are concerned about balancing work and family obligations, their child’s ability to build social skills, and, of course, their need for childcare.

A solution emerges

“Hybrid learning pods” can solve many of these challenges for parents curious about alternative education. These pods are groups of 8-10 learners who meet regularly to work on academics, collaborate on projects, and socialize. Pods can meet anywhere, but are at their best when they meet in a dedicated space for “co-learning.” Pods can be led by any trusted adult, but are at their best when led by former teachers with classroom experience and a passion for personalizing learning. Students can work on any curriculum; some choose to join an accredited online school and others develop a homeschool plan with their parents.

Today, thousands of families use these hybrid learning pods as a “full-school replacement.” Children come to the pod every day to work on their online curriculum and get support from the Learning Coach on site. Because of the small group nature of the pod, parents get unparalleled visibility into student progress and achievement. Children get to build a co-learning community with similar-aged students while maintaining their own unique academic journeys.

These hybrid learning pods bring together the best aspects of education:

A learning experience that is highly-personalized and digitally-enabled moving at the pace of each child (not that of the “average” student)
Deep connections and community with a small group of peers that deters bullying and harassment
Enrichment opportunities that are flexible and geared to spark student interests rather than administrative availability
Custodial care that is highly flexible for working parents, including extended hours, vacation week enrichments, and summer programming
And, a far better lifestyle for educators. Most Learning Pods pair their Learning Coaches with groups of just 8-10 students and their families. Ultimately, this solution creates more well-paying, local, and sustainable jobs for educators.

Learning pods are still a relatively new solution and we are building KaiPod Learning with outcomes-tracking in mind. Here is what we’ve seen across our network so far:

90% of the students who attend regularly pass their classes as opposed to 25% of the students who don’t (and regular attendees achieve 2 letter grades higher on coursework)
100% of our students from last year chose to return to the pod this year with many calling last year their “best year of school ever”
Parent Net Promoter Score stands at 94
Our KaiPod Coaches call this their best job ever

It is no wonder that an entire industry of microschools and learning pods is popping up across the country. It doesn’t require large physical buildings or district administration, it is local, and it’s structured entirely around the needs of the parents and students in these communities.

A cautionary tale

I grew up in a large Indian city where 50-70% of students enrolled in private schools. Decades ago, the government failed to listen to parents when it came to public education (e.g., desire for English medium instruction, better facilities). Parents left for the significantly more innovative private options available to them. The Indian public education sector will never be able to attract those families back.

The U.S. education sector is poised to start a similar one-way trip. Today, less than 10% of students go to private schools. But here is what we don’t appreciate: households with 18-20M children could afford private options if they needed to.2 They choose not to today because of the American ideal of public schooling. The pandemic called this ideal into question. These are the families that public education leaders must win back.

Two scenarios for the future

Having been in education for more than 15 years, learning pods are the first innovation that truly excites me – not as the end, but as an important means to the end. Pods can be the vehicle to help us deliver more effective, more personalized, more agile, more local, and more convenient learning experiences for every child in America.

What remains to be seen is whether the public education system absorbs or rejects this innovation.

In one scenario, public system leaders reject the chance to offer new pathways, instead doubling down on the current ‘one size fits all’ approach. Frustrated parents who feel ignored become angry activists, asking for vouchers and ESA programs as a pressure relief valve. If this scenario comes true, the poor performance flywheel will spin faster.

In another scenario, public system leaders provide alternative options like learning pods within the public system. Small-cohort pods would provide targeted and customizable support for learners with different learning abilities, athletic or cultural talents, or other preferences – all at the same or less cost to traditional schooling. Schools who use alternative options alongside their existing physical footprint and position of trust in their communities will have a stronger argument to retain the 20M students with the means to leave the system and win many families back.

Nationally, 72% of registered voters already express support for school choice, with majorities across every party affiliation and demographic group. If school leaders can build choice into the public system, I believe it could be the start of a new golden age in education, where enrollment resurges, teachers have more opportunities to work their craft, and children start to enjoy learning again.

As a founder in this space, I see the tension between these two scenarios playing out every single day. We have many hills to climb but I’m determined to see our public system thrive. I am using my energies to develop pathways that strengthen public education in partnership with districts, using existing infrastructure and funding, all while improving life and learning for all those within it.

The future is bright.

Ed Tech Thoughts is a short ( ~ 5 mins), weekly overview of the top stories in EdTech, with a few (hopefully interesting) gut reactions attached. If you enjoyed this guest post, I hope you will subscribe and/or forward to your friends!