Tutoring has been a favorite intervention among school systems looking to get their students back on track after the pandemic. But not all programs are created equal. Results have been uneven at best. I sat down with the Alan Safran and AJ Gutierrez of Saga Education, a nonprofit that has been supporting schools to get tutoring right since long before the pandemic. We discussed the evolution of their model, what it will take to weave tutoring into the fabric of schools, sustaining programs after federal COVID funds are depleted, and the role of AI in the future of tutoring. As always, subscribers can listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below.
This was a great pod. Really captures the zeitgeist of what's happening - love AJ's description Alan as Miyagi, trying to tell superintendents et al about wax off / wax on.
That analogy from Karate Kid actually had 3 parts. Value of hard work. Counter-clockwise movements - Daniel was learning karate movement without knowing it. And once that happened, trust of Miyagi.
The thing is, Daniel had to get in the ring, and based on his implementation of what he learned would affect whether he had his ass kicked.
Saga challenge - all efforts to change districts challenge - is that supes will never get in the ring.
If they make a dumb decision from Upstairs, like push the tutoring to after school, they're not actually sitting there, humiliated, when no kids show up.
If they assign 10 kids to one tutor, they're not sitting there to actually watch the overwhelmed tutor.
The disruptive innovation lens, as I understand it, is the incumbents can't make the right decisions....hence the need for outside disruptors who entirely bypass the system. This is where I would most welcome MH commentary to square the circle.
This was a great pod. Really captures the zeitgeist of what's happening - love AJ's description Alan as Miyagi, trying to tell superintendents et al about wax off / wax on.
That analogy from Karate Kid actually had 3 parts. Value of hard work. Counter-clockwise movements - Daniel was learning karate movement without knowing it. And once that happened, trust of Miyagi.
The thing is, Daniel had to get in the ring, and based on his implementation of what he learned would affect whether he had his ass kicked.
Saga challenge - all efforts to change districts challenge - is that supes will never get in the ring.
If they make a dumb decision from Upstairs, like push the tutoring to after school, they're not actually sitting there, humiliated, when no kids show up.
If they assign 10 kids to one tutor, they're not sitting there to actually watch the overwhelmed tutor.
The disruptive innovation lens, as I understand it, is the incumbents can't make the right decisions....hence the need for outside disruptors who entirely bypass the system. This is where I would most welcome MH commentary to square the circle.