Spring Branch ISD utilizing remote teachers to fill positions

For a couple of hundred Spring Branch ISD students, their teacher was nowhere in sight this year — except through a webcam.

For the first time, the Houston-area district is employing “virtual teachers,” who lecture live through a webcam to students with the aid of an in-class staff member. It’s an innovative — if somewhat untested — system that reflects the dwindling supply of highquality teachers in certain subject matters, like foreign languages and science, and the inability of districts like Spring Branch ISD to fill those positions.

The teachers are provided by Proximity Learning, an Austin-based company that operates like a temp agency for school districts. The outfit has put together a nationwide network of teachers willing to work from home, as well as a web system capable of beaming them into traditional brickand-mortar campuses.

Physics, languages

Spring Branch ISD administrators said Proximity Learning’s employees teach one section of physics in Memorial High School, two sections of Spanish in Northbrook Middle School, and eight sections of Spanish and one section of American Sign Language in Spring Woods High School.

“The colleges have not been putting out enough certified teachers, so this was one way for us to be able to find them,” said Karen Heeth, the district’s executive director of talent. “We like the quality of teachers we’re getting with this system. We like that it’s live, and we like that the teacher is interacting with the students through the video.”

To date, Proximity Learning boasts about 140 district and private-school partners in 22 states, including about 25 districts in Texas. All of its teachers have at least five years of classroom experience and a master’s degree, the company said. Its analysis shows students perform better in Proximity Learning classes than their peers do, but the research hasn’t been subject to rigorous scientific scrutiny.

For districts and Proximity Learning, the arrangement is seen as a win-win. School administrators don’t have to stick students with a long-term substitute or unqualified teacher. And Proximity Learning employees — generally moms on maternity leave, recent retirees and members of military families that move frequently — get to live where they want and set more flexible schedules.

“What we’ve kind of turned into is an HR backup plan,” said Evan Erdberg, president and CEO of Proximity Learning. “We’re that next option until districts can find and place a teacher in a classroom.”

For more than a decade, some traditional and charter school districts have offered virtual learning programs that mix online-only tutorials with delayed feedback from instructors.

Proximity Learning’s system is different. Each student sits in front of his or her own webcam-enabled computer and watches the teacher provide live instruction. If a student has a question, he or she virtually raises a hand by punching a keyboard button, then receives instantaneous feedback. A district staff member sits in the classroom, monitoring students and assisting as needed. When class is over, the teacher reviews coursework, takes questions from parents and hands out final grades.

Spring Branch ISD administrators also will use the arrangement as a training tool for aspiring teachers. The district will put associate teachers — employees with bachelor’s degrees who haven’t received their teaching certification, but plan to get certified — in classrooms with Proximity Learning educators.

“This gives that (associate) teacher some time to work with students, build some relationships, get to know the classroom before they take their test,” Heeth said.

Satisfied in Garland

Administrators have been satisfied with Proximity Learning’s product in Garland ISD, a suburban Dallas district that contracts with Proximity Learning for American Sign Language and Mandarin teachers.

Veronica Salgado-Joyner, the district’s coordinator of world languages, said the system expands the options available to students. Proximity Learning can live-stream instruction by teachers into all seven of the district’s high schools for a single class each day. If the district hired one teacher for those subjects, the employee would likely be tethered to one or two campuses.

“There was no way for them to service all seven high schools,” SalgadoJoyner said. “So by opening this up, all of the other campuses would have the same opportunities.”

Heeth said Spring Branch ISD does not see Proximity Learning as a permanent fix to its teacher shortages. District officials will continue to recruit teachers during the school year and, if possible, replace Proximity Learning educators with full-time district hires.

“The intention of using this company is kind of as a stopgap measure,” Heeth said. “We’re hoping to get the positions filled quickly.”