Nov 29 2023 45 mins
"I haven’t had a teacher since the fourth grade!"
We talk with Kate Liemandt, known as Austin Scholar online, a high school student in Austin, Texas, who stands out for her exceptional academic performance, consistently scoring in the 99th percentile in nationwide tests despite not having a traditional teacher since fourth grade.
Her secret? Online learning through adaptive educational apps vastly differs from the often ineffective "Zoom-school." Austin attends Alpha, an innovative school where students learn at their own pace using educational software, allowing them to grasp academic concepts twice as fast and consistently score in the 90th percentile.
Austin's concern about the state of education in the U.S. is highlighted by the startling results of the nationwide Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Test: 50th percent of high school graduates have similar language skills as 98th percentile second graders and similar math skills as top-performing fourth graders. This alarming trend underscores the urgent need for a systemic change in the educational system, a change Austin is determined to be a part of.
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