Giving Compass' Take:

•  Jessica Calarco, writing for Business Insider, explores the critiques of pod-style learning models during COVID-19 and offers alternative, equitable solutions to key issues. 

• The suggested alternatives are more equitable but not entirely realistic for all schools. Where can donors help school districts fill gaps and support equal learning during COVID-19? 

• Read more about why schools must creatively adapt for the upcoming year. 

With the pandemic still raging, many schools across the country are opting not to reopen full-time. Some are switching to full-time online instruction, and others are opting for hybrid models where students attend school a few days a week and spend the rest learning at home.

Those plans are creating problems for employed parents, who once again have to figure out how to do their work while their kids are learning from home. Reflecting back on their less-than-optimal experiences with online learning last spring, many of those working parents, and stay-at-home parents, too, are also concerned about whether their kids will get enough academic support and social interaction if they're not physically going to school.

Faced with those challenges, some parents — especially affluent, white parents — have proposed using a "pod"-style model to support kids' learning at home. And these pods are taking a number of different forms. Some pod parents pull kids out of school entirely, while others use pods to complement online school. Meanwhile, some pod parents share the work of teaching among themselves, while others hire a babysitter, a paid tutor, or even a highly-trained, experienced teacher to teach all the kids in the pod. And, complicating things even further, some pods have meet-ups in-person, while others exist solely online.

As talk of these new learning pods has flooded social media, some scholars and educators have pushed back. They argue that learning pods — especially if they involve paid teachers or pulling kids out of public school — will further segregate public education and reduce resources for low-income students and students of color, who will disproportionately be left out of learning pods.

Pods with private teachers or tutors aren't the only way to get kids the hands-on instruction they need. Instead, small class sizes offer an effective and more equitable solution.

Read the full article about pod-style learning by Jessica Calarco at Business Insider.