Small Business Makes it Happen

Parents care about who comes in direct contact with their students, they care about teachers, and they care nothing at all for administrators.  But school organizations are limited in how much flexibility they can provide parents when choosing teachers.  Obviously a school can not allow a few teachers to have hundreds of students and others a handful, this kind of popularity contest is demoralizing to all employees.

The key is to get the school out of the way when a parent selects a teacher. This is accomplished by regarding the teacher as an independent contractor rather than an employee.  After-all, teachers who are employees all need to be treated equitably, getting paid the same regardless on their job performance.  With this approach, the school endevours to recruit as many quality teachers as possible to become independent contractors, and the teachers recruit their own students. 

• The school is motivated to find great teachers since they have better recruiting credibility
• The teachers are motivated to look after the interests of the students in order to retain their revenue stream.

The school's responsibility to the teacher is to provide quality on-line curricula, training, and a platform to manage student outcomes.  The school's responsibility to the student is to ensure the course work advances the student's learning.  The school's responsibility to the family is to ensure the school meets the accreditation standards and certification standards that are expected.

The Rise of the Teaching Para Professional

With computer-based learning, students are streamed the same kind of direct instruction that highly-qualified teachers have done for years, they can watch the best explainer-videos. They have responsive learning software applications that help them fill in the learning gaps. The computer auto-grades at least 80% of regular assignments.  Teachers can now use computer dashboards and click their way to student management.  So what does the teaching profession look like when students are learning mostly from the computers anyway, why are they even lecturing all day?

The type of education required to manage a group of students learning online is very different than that which most teachers study in college.  Lesson plans are not needed, lectures are not needed, and grading papers is easy.  Teachers spend a tremendous amount of time learning about standards in college, when the on-line curriculum provider takes care of addressing standards. A differently qualified teacher 'para professional' can excel at helping students be successful at computer-based education.

These para professionals are more learning coaches, and their primary function is to keep students engaged and getting their work done.  When they help students with academic content, they only need to help with specific problems, the coach and the student can figure it out together.

As there is no certification or bachelor's degree for 'education coach' as yet, ambitious and caring community members have an opportunity to step into this void.  With a major shift to computer-based learning, the specific, academic requirements of a traditionally educated teacher are just not as relevant.  Most high school graduates can become a learning coach with a few weeks of refresher training, some computer technical training,  and solid business sense.

Computer-Based Learning is the Key to Taking Back Education

The advancement of computer-based learning is the pathway for community members can take back education through operating a school as a profitable small business, or facilitating a group of parents to operate a small school as a co-op.  A well thought out virtual school partner can dramatically drop the administrative overhead of delivering course work, managing records, and fulfilling accreditation requirements, so that the people closest to the students retain the majority of the tuition fees.