Edtech Insiders Weekly Update 8/24
It's Back to School Season! Should we be excited... or worried?
BACK TO SCHOOL
Education is in the air this week: it’s back to school season and it seems like everyone’s talking about what the next school year will look like. We’ve noticed that many of the predictions about the next school year tend to be… a bit dour.
Questions abound:
Will there be enough teachers in K-12 classrooms? (No)
Will students - and teacher- continue to struggle with their mental health in a post-pandemic landscape? (Yes)
Will parents choose online learning (or pods, or microschools, etc.) over returning to their beleaguered local schools? (Sometimes)
Will US universities continue to struggle with enrollments, leading to business model changes, pivots to adult learning and workforce reductions? (Yes)
Will adult learners scan the evolving landscape to look for the best return on their education dollar? (As the kids say, ‘bet’)
Will 2022 end with more or less Edtech investment than 2021? (Debatable!)
It’s a lot to digest… but at Edtech Insiders, we see these trying times as opportunities for new ideas to actually take flight.
Schools and universities are looking for new solutions like never before- to an expanded set of problems, like teacher retention, customer value, and mental health- and it’s a chance for thoughtful educators, Edtech leaders, education reformers, and education dreamers of all kinds to step up.
With that, let’s look at the headlines for the week!
BIG FIVE HEADLINES
Missed the weekly episode? Let’s fill you in!
1. It’s Back to School Season!: But Most Media Narratives Say Education Is in Trouble
Teacher Shortages are Real (Politico)
Local School Grades Plummeting (74 Million
Education is not an Appealing Field for Educators (HMH Report)
2. … and Many Continue To Question the Value/ROI of Traditional College
Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college (NBC News)
Higher Ed Must Change or Die (Inside Higher Ed)
“The Shrinking of Higher Ed” (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s Thoughts on Higher Ed (Ed.gov)
“It is unacceptable in the United States to have a postsecondary education system that further separates the haves and the have nots. It is also unacceptable to be burdened with unmanageable loan debt for several decades because you chose to earn a college degree. Today, too many talented Americans are choosing against enrolling in higher education due to the fear of debt and the feeling that college is out of reach. We maintain a posture of neglect when postsecondary education is out of reach for students and their families. This is unAmerican.”
Feds cancel $4B in ITT Tech loans (NYTimes)
Related: Student Loan Forgiveness looks to be coming next week….
3. One Potential Solution? Increasing Modularity and Credit Transfer in Higher Ed
Outlier steps in to ease transfer credit friction (Inside Higher Ed)
4. Another? Improve Online Learning by Meeting K-12 Students Where They Are
Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022 (Pew Research)
Teachers on Tiktok (Young Hollywood)
5. What Does it All Mean for The Edtech Entrepreneurial Space in 2022?
EdTech isn’t special anymore and that’s a good thing. (TechCrunch)
7 investors discuss why Edtech startups must go back to basics to survive (TechCrunch)
23 Most Promising Edtech Startups in 2022 (Business Insider)
To learn more, listen to the full episode of the Edtech Insiders Podcast!
FUNDING + M&A
LISTEN
In the latest Edtech Insiders episode, we talk to Gauthier van Malderen, founder and CEO of Perlego, about making a textbook streaming platform that bridges 5,000 education publishers with hundreds of thousands of learners.
“If we think about the learning experience of a textbook, it's existed for hundreds of years and it's very one-sided: you'd buy the book, read it by yourself with a highlighter, and never be able to collaborate or work with other people.
Now, if you have an $18/month affordable subscription service, and you’re digital and purely online, you could collaborate and work directly with your fellow students, your peers, and your professors on the book, going from a one-sided reading experience to a multi-sided reading experience that drives better learning outcomes.
Because as we've seen, a lot of students also learn from the comments of their peers and what they're saying and the questions they answer. That is one thing I'm super excited about; once you have that content layer, you can build that community or layer on top.”
READ
Two great eye-opening reports out this week, one about Higher Ed and one about K12:
Indicators of Higher Education Equity in U.S.
Chance of Completion Strongly Related to Family Income & Parent Education
Most first-generation students entering college at both 2-year and 4-year colleges report they expect and hope to obtain a bachelor's degree; however, the reality is that the majority will not be able to attain their goal within 6 years….
.. among dependent students who first enrolled in 2011-12, 6-year bachelor's degree completion rates were 45 percentage points lower for both low-income and first-generation than for those who were neither low-income nor first-generation (21 percent versus 66 percent).
New Meta-Analysis What Works in K12 Online Learning from NC State
The review revealed a set of contextual conditions that are foundational to student learning in K–12 online settings (prepared educators, technology access and autonomy, students’ developmental needs and abilities, and students’ self-regulated learning skills).
The literature also pointed to seven pillars of instructional practice that support student learning in these settings (evidence-based course organization and design, connected learners, accessibility, supportive learning environment, individualization, active learning, and real-time assessment).
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