To teach physics, one must understand physics, so it’s hardly a surprise that high school physics teachers are in short supply all over the country.
Key West High is no exception and has been forced to use substitute teachers, certified in other subjects, to teach physics and advanced chemistry classes.
But students deserve better, so the school board on Aug. 22 agreed to try something new — live, remote teachers.
The board approved a one-year, $90,000 contract with Elevate Live, a Chicago-based company that provides teacher-strapped school districts with live, remote instructors. Classes are taught by teachers qualified in the subject matter, who teach in real time via an audio/video software platform designed to emulate the classroom experience.
Elevate Live offers remote teachers for all grades, but Monroe County is only contracting for a high school-level premium science teacher.
“The instructor is projected on a large screen in front of the class and sees all the students as one class, not as individual video squares, and the students can see the teacher both on the large screen and on their individual monitors,” states the Elevate Live website.
To maintain adult supervision, each Elevate class has an in-person classroom coach, paid by the school district, who is typically a “paraprofessional” employee, not a certified teacher. Elevate K-12 will train the classroom coaches.
The solution is not ideal, and board members voiced concerns at their Aug. 22 meeting in Marathon. Mindy Conn had questions about how Elevate’s student performance compares with other Florida students in traditional classrooms. She and board member Sue Woltanski wanted assurance that the Elevate curriculum aligns with Florida’s statewide standards.
But Elevate, an eight-year-old company, only works with one other Florida school district — Hendry County. And that district only signed on in 2022.
The rep would not say what Elevate Live pays its teachers, but said the company gives teachers the opportunity to only work three or four hours a day.
Conn and Woltanski also questioned the company’s curriculum transparency, given Florida’s recent focus on parental involvement in schools. Board member Darren Horan questioned how remote teaching will affect morale among career, in-person teachers.
Ultimately, though, remote physics teachers were deemed better than real-life non-physics teachers acting as substitutes.
“This isn’t a COVID classroom,” the Elevate rep said. “We’re not a staffing company; we’re a teaching company. Doctors now have telemedicine. And the more we get kids used to learning and engaging via video, the better off they’ll be.”
The board voted 4-1 to approve the contract, with Conn dissenting, only because she wanted more time to get some answers to her concerns.
The district administrators “are asking us for another tool in their toolbox for recruitment efforts,” board chair Andy Griffiths said. “I’m speaking for the parents who have kids at Key West High School. I’d want this if I were them. I’m going to support this now as an experiment.”
