#061 - The ROI of Personalized Education

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💡 THOUGHT

The ROI of Personalized Ed

We keep hearing that personalized education is "too expensive." But what's the real cost?

Jonathan Chizik, a co-founder of SmartPath, runs the numbers:

• Traditional private schools: $12,000-30,000/year

• Customized learning at home: $500-2,500/year

Meanwhile, Chizik notes that homeschooled students score 15-30 percentile points higher on standardized tests than their traditionally schooled peers. (Not that standardized tests are the gold standard—we're more interested in creating lifelong learners than expert test-takers.)

Think about that: Better results. Lower costs. More flexibility.

With today's tools like Khan Academy, Outschool, and Time4Learning (to name just a few), personalized education isn't just more affordable – it's more effective.

Why do we think that learning must happen in expensive buildings, or that personalization is a luxury?

📊 TREND

"They're in the 8th Grade"

We've covered Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe's campaign to bring attention to the shortage of skilled trade workers. Here’s his latest alarming stat:

"For every five tradespeople who retire this year, two will replace them."

One company building nuclear submarines needs to hire 100,000 skilled workers in the next nine years. When a newscaster asked Mike where to find these workers, his answer was perfect:

"They're in the 8th grade."

While traditional schools push students toward four-year degrees, companies desperately seek skilled workers for six-figure jobs that don't require college diplomas.

The jobs are there. The salaries are there. But our education system isn't preparing students for these opportunities.

🛠️ TOOL

AI Meets Curriculum Planning: SmartPath Beta

Finding the right mix of resources for your child can feel like solving a puzzle with too many pieces. That's why we're intrigued by SmartPath, a new AI-powered tool entering beta testing.

The concept is simple: Answer a few questions about your child's needs, interests, and learning style, and SmartPath's AI suggests a curated list of homeschooling resources and options.

While the platform is still in beta (and we're eagerly awaiting our chance to test it), early feedback from parent testers sounds promising:

Want to be among the first to try it? 👉 Join the waitlist here.

Meanwhile, we’re brainstorming our own tools for families doing Open Education. What features would you most want in a curriculum planner?

(PIC) OF THE DAY

Pop Quiz! Think eighth grade was easier in 1912? Take a peek at some questions from this graduation exam:

• "Define longitude and latitude and give boundaries of the five zones."

• "Find cost at 12½ cents per sq. yd. of kalsomining the walls of a room 20 ft. long, 16 ft. wide and 9 ft. high, deducting 1 door 8 ft. by 4 ft. 6 in. and 2 windows 5 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in. each."

• "Name and locate these cities: Mobile, Quebec, Buenos Aires, Liverpool, Honolulu." (Without Google Maps!)

And here we were, thinking "kalsomining" was just a typo. It's actually a type of whitewash paint (we had to look it up).

That’s all for today!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)