Evan Erdberg

Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of spearheading the growth of Proximity Learning Inc. (PLI) from a modest team of three to a thriving community of over 800 professionals. As our organization expanded, we established corporate offices in Austin, TX, attracting many employees who commute to the office at least three days a week.

However, with the majority of our workforce — over 700 employees — residing and working remotely, even across international borders, cultivating a… Show more

Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of spearheading the growth of Proximity Learning Inc. (PLI) from a modest team of three to a thriving community of over 800 professionals. As our organization expanded, we established corporate offices in Austin, TX, attracting many employees who commute to the office at least three days a week.

However, with the majority of our workforce — over 700 employees — residing and working remotely, even across international borders, cultivating a unified company culture has posed a significant challenge. Show less

Teaching has historically been regarded as a noble profession, and yet somewhere along the way, society lost sight of its prestige. When a teacher shares their chosen profession with others, the revelation is all too often met with pity, concern or even disgust. Why be a martyr?

The K-12 education sector is full of turmoil right now, but it’s been building for decades. Despite the fact that teachers are shaping the minds of future generations and fostering students’ intellectual and… Show more

Teaching has historically been regarded as a noble profession, and yet somewhere along the way, society lost sight of its prestige. When a teacher shares their chosen profession with others, the revelation is all too often met with pity, concern or even disgust. Why be a martyr?

The K-12 education sector is full of turmoil right now, but it’s been building for decades. Despite the fact that teachers are shaping the minds of future generations and fostering students’ intellectual and personal growth, over the past few decades, and especially post-COVID, the teaching profession has faced denigration. Show less

As leaders in the education sector, it can be difficult to take in such dismal information regarding the future of our industry and the students we serve, but we have to face reality. Now more than ever, we need real action plans and productive yet thoughtful interventions if we want to bring students back up to speed and support their current and future learning needs.

As markets diversify and we become even more connected in the age of global-fast technology, it’s absolutely necessary as leaders to set the tone for the best ways to communicate with our teams and clients.

As my company grows past 1,000 employees, effective workplace communication becomes essential to our success and that of any business. Good communication between employees and the management team can help ensure that operations run smoothly.

Over the past nine years, though, I… Show more

As markets diversify and we become even more connected in the age of global-fast technology, it’s absolutely necessary as leaders to set the tone for the best ways to communicate with our teams and clients.

As my company grows past 1,000 employees, effective workplace communication becomes essential to our success and that of any business. Good communication between employees and the management team can help ensure that operations run smoothly.

Over the past nine years, though, I have seen that adequate communication involves more than just talking; it also means listening, understanding and being able to exchange ideas in a constructive and collaborative manner. When communication is effective, it can help boost morale, increase productivity and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Show less

Studies show that even before the pandemic, approximately 88% of Americans were stressed out by the holiday season. In these uncertain times, it’s crucial to keep the mental and physical well-being of your employees in mind if you want to make it to the end of what has turned out to be yet another turbulent year.

I have turned to transitioning teachers to help fill my open positions. Over the past two years, I have hired over 100 former educators into my company, Proximity Learning Inc. What I have seen is with the right tools, roles, training and environment, transitioning teachers can become successful in the corporate world.

Since the 2020 pandemic, approximately 1.2 million students have left the public school system according to a recently published national survey. While this staggering 3% drop is not the highest in U.S. history — that was in 1943 at the height of WWII — we are also now facing a teacher shortage.

Although some families have responded to the Covid pandemic by opting for homeschooling and/or private schools (subscription required), many of which remained open during the pandemic, there are… Show more

Since the 2020 pandemic, approximately 1.2 million students have left the public school system according to a recently published national survey. While this staggering 3% drop is not the highest in U.S. history — that was in 1943 at the height of WWII — we are also now facing a teacher shortage.

Although some families have responded to the Covid pandemic by opting for homeschooling and/or private schools (subscription required), many of which remained open during the pandemic, there are other students whose enrollment, whether in person or online, is unaccounted for (subscription required). If these students are not in public schools and didn’t opt for home schooling, how do we know if they are receiving any education at all? Show less

These are modern times, and there are modern solutions that can bring education out of the dark ages and into the 21st century. While virtual learning has gotten a bad rap these last few years because of the pandemic scramble to launch virtual classrooms across the nation by unprepared (and untrained) districts, teachers and students, virtual learning can be the saving grace to fill teacher vacancies.

If you’ve scrolled through LinkedIn recently, you may have noticed the hashtag #teachertransition has been gaining traction and shows no signs of slowing down.

While it’s no secret the teacher shortage was exacerbated by the pandemic, and many districts have been in a tailspin to not only retain their current teachers as they try to hire replacement teachers to fill vacancies, one cannot help but wonder: Is there any hope for public education on the horizon as the country watches the… Show more

If you’ve scrolled through LinkedIn recently, you may have noticed the hashtag #teachertransition has been gaining traction and shows no signs of slowing down.

While it’s no secret the teacher shortage was exacerbated by the pandemic, and many districts have been in a tailspin to not only retain their current teachers as they try to hire replacement teachers to fill vacancies, one cannot help but wonder: Is there any hope for public education on the horizon as the country watches the cost of everything soar? Show less

These are difficult topics and troubling times, but we have the opportunity to build something better than the society and systems we inherited.

While it is clearly important to acknowledge our shortcomings and past mistakes, the next and most important step toward building a more equitable future for the education industry is to have radical visions and goals for what that looks like.

As we look ahead to another turbulent year, it’s important to acknowledge the issues facing our remote and face-to-face teachers in order to help improve learning communities nationwide.

We must be willing to recognize our structural deficits and institutional vulnerabilities to ensure the future for students in the expanding global economy.

Originally characterized as programming for students who need credit recovery, VI has become a powerful educational institution on the vanguard of an educational revolution.

We must develop and adopt standards, alignments and rubrics that lay out the best practices of the virtual classroom and how students can more successfully engage with teachers in this instructional modality.

This pandemic will end, but will our schools be prepared for the next one? Or will we have another lost year?

How virtual learning may benefit students with disabilities.

Virtual education offers students flexibility, both in teachers and in curriculum. They can also create meaningful choices for educational institutions in terms of their scheduled programming, diversity of students and long-term strategic planning.

Here's what public schools should be doing now to meet the demands of the next generation of students.

As leaders in education, we need to rethink how we educate our students, how our teachers instruct and where they instruct from. Otherwise, we risk colleges and companies starting to make recruitment from outside the U.S. a priority.