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In this episode, we speak with Joe Connor of Odyssey, which raised a $4.75M dollar seed round this week to help districts and families use flexible education funding sources, like Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and microgrants.

Ben and Alex also discuss:

1) Elections & Education: The Rise of Education Polarization 

• Is College Worth It? Voters Are Split. (Five Thirty Eight)
• How the Diploma Divide Is Remaking American Politics (New York)
• ‘There Are Two Americas Now: One With a B.A. and One Without’ (NYTimes)
• Award-Winning Teachers Are Pushing Back Against Attacks on ‘Honest Education’ (Edweek)

2) Stanford's Pandemic-Fueled Pivot to Online Education

• Review of Stanford’s ‘emergency remote teaching’ and learning explores lessons learned from the pandemic (Stanford)

3) Edtech Mega-VC Michael Moe on the Metaverse

• Virtual Reality and the History and Future of Education in the Metaverse (EIEIO: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Education, Impact and Opportunity)

4) Gates foundation pivots to Math as NAEP scores underscore crisis 

• Student math scores are down from pre-COVID levels, the National Report Card finds (NPR)
• Why the Gates Foundation Is Investing $1.1 Billion in Math Education (Edweek) 
• NAEP ‘Nation’s Report Card’ Shows Steep Fall in Math Scores (Edsurge)
• How Do Schools Come Back From ‘Catastrophic’ Drops in Math, Reading on NAEP? (Edweek)

5) Digital Surveillance and Monitoring in Schools and Children's Right to Privacy

• Kids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them (Wired)
• Surveillance Education Cycle: Finding Ways to Protect Privacy in Schools (Random Lengths News)
• New Polling Finds Parents and Educators Overwhelmingly Support Technology Designed to Keep Students Safe Online (GoGuardian PR)