The GSV Big 10: Equitable Grading ≠ Effective Grading
Here's your weekly coverage corner for the top 10 stories, insights, and major plays in learning and skilling.
#1 Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of ‘Equitable Grading’
We’re all for a distance-traveled approach to admissions, but that doesn’t mean we should incentivize students to cut corners, skip classes, and take the easy way out. Schools’ attempts at empathy have had an unintended consequence: student apathy.
#2 There’s A New AI Unicorn That Will Make Coders Faster
76% of the Fortune 500 uses GitHub to build, ship, and maintain software, but Replit is gaining steam. Replit has grown to 22.5 million developers, up from 2x since December 2021.
#3 Summer’s Student Debt Repayment Tools Continue Blooming With $6M Series Extension
Guild is the leader in “education as a benefit;” could Summer become the leader in “student debt repayment as a benefit.” If (or when) student loan payments resume, millions of people will be scrambling. Summer wants to be their solution.
#4 What Happens When Teachers Run The School
Conventional wisdom is that paying teachers more is the “quick fix” for improving teacher satisfaction and retention. Done right, giving teachers more leadership could be a “win-win-win” for teachers, parents, and students.
#5 AI in Hiring and Evaluating Workers: What Americans Think
For the past two decades, the admissions director at Harvard was essentially the hiring director at Google. AI could change that, but that won’t be popular for everyone. 47% of people think that AI would do better than humans at evaluating all job applicants in the same way…but only 32% of people would apply for a job that uses AI to help make hiring decisions.
#6 UFC Owner Endeavor Group to Sell Florida Sports School IMG Academy
IMG Academy is one of the most unusual schools in the world…and it’s also one of the most extraordinary. After the $1.2 billion all-cash deal closes, EQT plans to scale the IMG model from Brandenton to Beijing through Nord Anglia.
#7 Someone Has To Run The Fabs
Teaching less math is not a recipe for increasing equity in math education…it’s a recipe for disaster. Seeking to provide every student with strong math education should not tumble into a debate over equity, it should be an economic priority.
#8 Partnering with Harvey: Putting LLMs to Work
The Sequoia team claims that Harvey is the “first and best instantiation of a new breed of company: the AI super app.” Harvey is in the business of giving knowledge workers superpowers…what will the first AI super app for learners be?
#9 In Defense Of Education Culture Wars
Many people write off the “culture wars” as a distraction from pressing issues and practical solutions. Daniel Buck begs to differ: the culture war matters, it’s popular, and it’s inevitable.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
#10 Why Those Super Low College Admissions Rates Can Be Misleading
People aren’t just feeling inflation at gas stations and grocery stores…they’re feeling in college admissions as well. The combination of test-optional admissions and the Common App has led to a 32% increase in applications to elite universities since 2020. As we’ve said before, elite should mean excellence…not exclusivity.