Those who don’t have access to online learning will fall behind: K12 CEO
K12 CEO Nate Davis joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss why more students are participating in remote learning amid the pandemic.
Video Transcript
- Well, unions representing teachers and administrators in New York City have called for a reopening delay for schools. They're even threatening a strike. Across Florida, hundreds of students and teachers are in quarantine after reopening there meant contact with those infected with COVID-19. Our next guest is helping school districts with the online aspect of their learning programs. And as you can imagine, there's a lot of demand right now. Nate Davis is the CEO of K through 12. Nate, it's good to see you again. What's the current status now of these reopening? And the school districts that you're working with, what are they really focused on?
NATE DAVIS: Amazingly, 10 of the 15, 10 of the largest 15 school districts in the country are going online, and are 100% online. The other five are all doing some portion of-- portion online and portion in the classroom. It is a scary thing to do with this COVID pandemic, so all of them are focused on how they can keep the schools safe, and how they can keep their parents-- I'm sorry, their students and their teachers safe.
It's really focused on how they can avoid having one year of learning loss. The kids were not in school in the spring. They had a relatively bad experience with the hodgepodge of online tools that they were using. And all the school districts, out of everyone that I talked to, they're very focused on how do I avoid a year of the students not learning and falling behind. Parents, students, and administrators are worried about that.
- This may seem crazy. Should we just do a whole year off and do a reset? I mean, literally delay everybody's matriculation till we can get this reopened safely? Because we seem to have missed the opportunity to do that with our efforts to stop the spread of the pandemic.
NATE DAVIS: You know, it's an innovative idea, but to be honest with you, it's not practical because it would be unfair. How do we stop people from learning? So those who have the means and have the capability to continue to learning will continue no matter what the government says, and then those who don't have the means will fall further behind. So I think that just widens the gap between the haves and the have nots. Those who don't have access to internet access, don't have computers, they will, in fact, stop their learning, and those who do will continue to learn. And I think that's not good for our country.
- Nate, as you think about that growing disparity, especially as those who are affluent, who can afford to have private tutors and pods and home schooling galore, how do you anticipate this will have a long-term consequence, as all these kids end up going to apply to colleges? Perhaps let's take, you know, high school sophomores right now. Do you feel as though there will be a great disadvantage for those in underserved, underprivileged communities, or do you hope that admissions counselors will be able to sort of rectify, you know, this apples to oranges comparison?
NATE DAVIS: Well, I'll use Miami-Dade as an example because Miami-Dade does have a significant portion-- hi, Adam-- a significant portion of its students that are what I'll call free and reduced lunch eligible, that are-- come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. And they chose an approach that I think is innovative and allows all of their students to keep up. That is making sure that there are devices in the hands of all students, helping them with internet access, and most importantly, making sure that teacher to student relationship they've already established stays in place.
So they've gone online, but their teachers who have been teaching traditionally and who know where the students are, those same teachers are using online tools to reach their students. And that minimizes the-- you know, the gap. Those school districts that are not doing that are the ones where the ones who have, as the podcasts and the tutoring and the special capabilities, they're going to move ahead, because those students who don't have access can't. But I'm hopeful that all the school districts will continue to embrace more blended technology. And it's not just our technology, it's all of the technological tools that are available to reach out to those students who need the access, and who need to continue to learn.
To your question about what's going to happen with those sophomores who are-- who may be falling behind, I think that we can keep that gap minimized. There certainly will be a gap, but we can keep it minimized if we continue to give all of the students online access. And in fact, the Department of Education said there's no excuse for not delivering capabilities to all students just because some have some issue. Go out and solve those issues, like giving them internet access.
- Let's hope that's what is happening and what will happen. Nate Davis, it's good to see you again, K12 CEO. Thank you.
NATE DAVIS: Thanks for having me. Have a great day.