I love that you’re working on it. If you can figure out how to make this work, the real power of the internet can be unleashed on education… and really just in the nick of time.

Some questions for you:

1. How do you choose the pods? What happens if the kids don’t like each other?

2. What depth is the coach supposed to be able to get into? Seems like a really hard job to context switch rapidly between topics when each kid is at a different place and doing something different.

3. What does the social component feel like? Are the kids mostly building comraderie around broader cultural topics as opposed to learning?

1.) We match students to pods after a family interview and spending time with the students. The dimensions we use for matching include geography, age, online program, extra-curricular interests, learning personalities, and other needs that students may have.

Despite our best efforts, we will certainly have situations where some kids may not like each other, but we train our Learning Coaches in building positive group dynamics and helping kids learn to work together (very much like the real world!).

2. We definitely don't ask our Coaches to be content experts; that would indeed be a really hard job as you point out. Instead, we ask them to be able to sit down with the student and figure things out using the course content. When the duo figures out a complex topic together, we hear from students that they enjoyed it a lot more (and learned more!) than someone just telling them how to do it. And in the situations where the duo can't figure it out either, the coach works with the online teacher to make sure the student gets the help they need.

3. Kids mostly build camaraderie around the enrichment activities we plan every day (e.g., music classes, building bridges with spaghetti/marshmallows) where they team up. We also have breaks for free play (e.g., badminton in the yard, Bananagrams with the Learning Coaches).

Academically, it's hard for students in the same pod to 'bond' since students can be in different grades (up to a 3 year age band in each pod), can choose which subject to work on and when, and can move at their own pace. Instead, students actually get that type of camaraderie with their online school classmates. Hope that made sense; but let me know if not!

You don't need to make them go on the internet either.

And apparent "success", in the sense you mean it, isn't, either. It's just kicking the can down the road. Real progress would be the seemingly unproductive, a-month-for-every-year-in-school deschooling period like that of "the sleeping student" at Sudbury[1].

People had the chance this year and the last[2] to let children be free and they blew it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si0PPv-7yWo&list=PLBC7021B61... [2] We've known since April 2020 that kids don't spread it. Icelandic contact-tracing study.

(And thanks for sharing that Sudbury example; I had never seen it before but I love the message.)

I see similarities between your model and homeschool co-ops, and to a lesser degree, hybrid schools. I’d considered how co-ops in particular could benefit from a guide or docent to help each student put together their mix of co-op classes and individual studies via book or video. Curious if you’d studied them as well.

As you are pointing out, we do have trouble reaching the parents in a more traditional education who aren't actively seeking out alternative options. Our hope is that as we show the value of our model, the word will spread and more parents will opt in. In the meantime, we are doing whatever we can to lower the effort required for families to transition. Any suggestions are most welcome!

Homeschool co-ops are an excellent comparison. For those who may not know what those are, a co-op is a group of homeschooling families who come together (often on a voluntary basis) to support each other with their kids' education and other needs (e.g., meals, childcare, etc.). They've been around for years and, in the pandemic, they started to get mainstream as 'learning pods.'

In some ways, you can see us as making the concept of 'co-ops' more available to more people.

Given how many passionate undergraduate and graduate students are there, the depth of the talent pool for coaches is second to none!

I'm not familiar enough with Massachusetts' home/online schooling rules to comment, but when you're ready to extend north, there are robust communities of non-traditionally schooling families in southern New Hampshire!

If so, how would we find out which online public schools are an option for us? Presumably not all online public schools in the US would be able to get funding from SFUSD for an SF-based student?

For kindergarten-aged students, online schools typically require heavy 1-on-1 support from a learning coach (typically a parent or guardina). Since our model typically has 8-10 students per learning coach, we haven't figured out how to support younger students yet.

In terms of which schools are an option, if you're in California, there are several options available to you to opt in to online schools (both public and private). The one I know best is called California Connections Academy (https://www.connectionsacademy.com/california-online-school). These schools are funded by the state and operate as charter schools.

In our pods, we have space for accelerated learners who want zero constraints on their progress (i.e., just let me go as fast as I want!). We do our best to match them with learners who are equally paced (so they may work together to challenge each other) AND those who may not be as accelerated (so they may learn to work with a variety of student profiles).

To continue the analogy from before, we are all about expanding the room so all types of learners can succeed.