Substitute Teachers and the Education System Quiz

Last fall, Arkeria Wright wanted to check up on her son’s progress in math after a particularly difficult seventh grade year. So, she contacted the person she thought was his teacher. The response shocked her. The staff member in the room at ______ in Fulton County, Georgia, was a substitute, there to monitor behavior and ensure students completed their work. Their actual teacher was hundreds of miles away, delivering instruction virtually for an Austin, Texas-based company called Proximity Learning. “We didn’t know our kids had virtual teachers,” Wright said. “Parents need to be aware that that is the type of learning students are getting.”

Live, online instruction in school has long linked students to subjects they couldn’t otherwise take, like advanced placement calculus or Latin. But as districts struggle to fill teaching vacancies, they are increasingly turning to companies like Proximity to teach core subjects. Districts are spending thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars on virtual teachers, according to the 74’s review of purchase orders in ______, a government-spending data service. The practice – derided at the height of the pandemic as “Zoom-in-a-room” – is raising eyebrows as students return to school and continue to grapple with the lingering effects of remote learning.