The GSV Big 10: Big Man on Campus
Here's your weekly coverage corner for the top 10 stories, insights, and major plays in learning and upskilling.
Before we get to our headlines…
Episode 2 of the Ed on the Edge podcast is out now ⬇️
🎙️ Ep 2 · Ed on the Edge | 40+ Years of Disrupting Education: John Katzman | Dash Media
Always original, universally provocative. This is a must-watch interview with our friend John Katzman. Tune in for the Founder of the Princeton Review, 2U, and Noodle…unfiltered.
#1 Ep 71: No Debt, Top Professors & Personal Coaches — A New Community College with Tade Oyerinde | American Optimist with Joe Lonsdale
Hot Tade! Campus is reimagining the community college model to address the $1.8 trillion student debt crisis and the current 30% completion rate. Key to its winning formula comes from Matching talented but underpaid adjunct professors with students hungry for the American Dream. Campus is leveraging $40 billion in available government funds (and ensuring that costs stay beneath that) to allow for a debt-free experience for students. Shoutout to our friends Joe and Joe...Lonsdale the host and Dr. May the board member. Hope is on the way!
#2 Tennessee Gov. Lee Launches School Voucher Expansion Effort | Axios Nashville
Most Americans are pro-choice…when it comes to education. Polls show 75% of parents want options for their kids. Riding the Choice Tidal Wave, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee launched a proposal for the nation’s 10th full choice program. “Huck”, a.k.a. Arkansas’s rising star for education Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, joined forces with Governor Lee to make the announcement. We had a front-row seat to hear the Governor last month at the GSV Leaders Summit in Nashville – check out the interview.
#3 The Charter-School Movement Just Keeps On Keepin’ On | Education Next
The Charter Explosion isn’t just a Red State phenomenon…it’s a Red, White, and Blue reality. New Mexico has seen charter school enrollment grow by more than 20% since 2019, while New Jersey approved a large number of charter school expansions in February 2023. In New York City, charter enrollment has still grown by 12,000 students while traditional public schools have lost more than 66,000…despite a cap on opening new charter schools since 2019. Parents are voting with their feet…the free market is working.
#4 Opinion | Schools Should Ban smartphones. Parents Should Help. | The Washington Post
Many students have become walking zombies addicted to their phones and TikTok. The friendly fire of the Digital Revolution is killing students’ socialization. While we need to find a way to achieve its benefits and mitigate its unattended consequences we’d caution against outright bans. Though prohibition led to a decrease in the number of people drinking, it led to a massive increase in alcoholics and alcohol-related misconduct. It will be important to thread the needle on how to use the supercomputers in our pockets to prepare students for the real world, not turn them away from it.
#5 Can U.S.-China Student Exchanges Survive Geopolitics? | The New York Times
What the world needs now is love, sweet love. In 2010, President Obama launched an initiative to send 100,000 American students to China over five years. In 2019, there were 11,000; this year, there were only 350 (and that includes the Schwarzman Scholars program). The deep-seated cultural importance of education in China is as strong as ever. American students may no longer be learning Mandarin instead of Spanish, but China’s not going anywhere as a dominant hub for education.
#6 #EIE23: Richard Reeves: Solving the Hidden Crises with Our Boys and Men | ExcelinEd
The stunning fact that 1 in 5 young men is getting stoned daily is a symptom of a bigger problem. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the group that had zero advocates over the past decade is having major issues. American males are facing a crisis of loneliness, purposelessness, and depression. Few know more about this than Richard Reeves, and his breakdown at the National Summit on Education hits the nail on the head. Reeves is not just talking about the issue, he’s taking action. He left his job at Brookings to launch the American Institute for Boys and Men, the first and only non-partisan think tank focused on the struggling demographic.
#7 Grade Inflation Teaches Students We Don’t Mean What We Say | AEI
Lax grading policies lead to a disparity between perceived and actual student learning and undermine the principles of hard work and excellence. 83% of 6th graders in LA received A, B, or C grades in Spring 2022, even though just 27% met or exceeded standards on state and national assessments. Make it make sense.
#8 Prosus Slashes Valuation of India’s Byju’s Below $3 Billion | TechCrunch
Byju’s valuation has been marked down 86% over the past year, from $22 billion to less than $3 billion. “Long India, Short China” seemed like the perfect pair trade during the COVID era…the reality is much more complicated than that.
#9 Ranking the Best Companies for Career Growth | WSJ
Businesses that combine “HireEd” with lifelong learning get recognized and create a talent flywheel. The 2023 American Opportunity Index highlights the best companies for career growth. Winners include Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and J.M. Smucker. Top tech companies are ServiceNow, Meta, and Intuit.
#10 Evanston, Ill., Adopts Exciting New Solution to Underperforming Minority Schoolchildren: Jim Crow | National Review
We’ll never end racism by being racist. In some parts of the United States, the inmates are running the asylum. Evanston, Illinois has decided to go Back to the Future, and not in a Marty McFly sort of way. An issue is that nearly 50% of public school students are Black or Brown, yet less than 2% are teachers are. We need to create a melting pot in our schools. We’re about developing smarts and hearts, which have nothing to do with the color of your skin.
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