Database of learning pods includes two dozen from California
For the past year, a university-based education research center based in the University of Washington, Bothell, has tracked one of the novel outgrowths of the pandemic: learning pods. The Center on Reinventing Public Education released “It Takes a Village: The pandemic learning pod movement, one year in,” a summary findings from its database of learning pods, earlier this month.
Also known as learning hubs, learning pods have taken many forms, including elite in-person mini-private schools. Many of the 331 learning hubs in center’s database, including two dozen from California, were organized primarily to even the playing field for some of those struggling the most from distance learning.
City governments, nonprofits like the YMCA, school districts and philanthropies separately and together have provided tutoring, internet services and academic enrichment, mostly for younger children in small non-school, in-person settings. Some have fees with a sliding scale, while others charge no money.
“The small pandemic-driven learning communities have broken open many of the assumptions we have about what school looks like, where it occurs and who supports student learning,” the authors wrote.
The California learning hubs in the database include:
- A partnership bringing together the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto, the Boys and Girls Club, the San Francisco 49ers Academy and East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring to provide 140 students with support during school hours.
- Stockton Unified’s on-campus programs for essential workers with remote learning support and enrichment activities daily.
- Oakland REACH’s Literacy Liberation Center and Virtual Hub for low-income Oakland families, providing laptops and instruction for students and workshops for parents and caregivers.
- A network of 55 learning hubs in Marin County, coordinated by the Marin Promise Partnership, coordinating efforts of community organizations and school districts to provide internet access, adult supervision and assistance with distance learning for students in poverty.
- School on Wheels, in partnership with Los Angeles Unified, to create learning pods in different locations several days per week, staffed by volunteers, for students living in motels.
“Whether the partnerships forged in this moment endure beyond the pandemic remains to be seen,” the authors wrote. “But the necessity of leveraging community resources on behalf of children is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.”