How Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is helping teachers adjust to distance learning this fall

Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, joined The Final Round to discuss the company's new subscription service HMH Anywhere and how it's helping both teachers and students adjust to distance learning for the upcoming school year.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Well, we have the first week of August under our belt, so the conversation here is shifting to the school year, because academic school year is quickly approaching here in the US, and schools across the country, they're struggling with the decision of whether or not they should have kids back in the classrooms. So for more on how the pandemic has disrupted education here in the US, I want to bring in Jack Lynch. He's the CEO of education and publishing company Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt.

And Jack, it's great to have you on the show. Your business obviously has had a significant impact, significantly disrupted from the pandemic. So talk to us just about what the past six months have been like, and also, how you're navigating this pandemic.

JACK LYNCH: Yeah. First of all, thank you for having me. It's been an incredible six months for education and Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt. In the middle of March, all of the students went home, and all of our employees went home. And we've been-- our-- our employees have been working from home ever since.

And now what you're seeing is we are weeks away from most of the schools going back to school. And the question that education leaders are asking themselves, do we start remotely? Or do we start in-person? Or is there some hybrid model for education, this back to school?

And you saw, for example, today New York City, unlike Chicago and Los Angeles, decided they're going to start in-person, whereas those two other larger school districts said they're going to start remotely. And so one of the things we decided to do in response to that uncertainty is release a platform that is integrated with videoconferencing tools, so Google Meet, Zoom, as well as Microsoft Teams. Includes all four major disciplines-- reading, math, history, and science.

Includes online professional development. Includes a computer-adaptive assessment to measure student progress all in one place for remote, in-person, hybrid anywhere. And so it's been a really interesting time, really good market reaction to-- to this particular solution, which is really purpose built for the uncertainty that school leaders are facing right now.

INES FERRE: Jack, and based off of that point, I've spoken to teachers, some of which kind of dread this-- the idea of doing hybrid or all digital. I mean, there's different points of views as to what the best combination really is. And a lot of schools at the beginning of the pandemic really struggled when they went all digital.

From where you sit, what do you think is the best combination? Is it in-person? Is it all digital? Is it hybrid? And where do you see this going after there's a vaccine?

JACK LYNCH: Yeah, a great question. You know, I think the in-person classroom experience is the ideal that we want to get back to. I think it would be a very different experience post-pandemic. We'll be leveraging artificial intelligence to personalize learning to a far greater degree than we did prior to the pandemic, but we'll also leverage the social gathering.

A lot of learning takes place through social discourse, through collaboration, one student with another student on a project, and that will continue too. And what we don't want to get to is what we experienced this past spring, in some cases, where we have this device-- you know, steady drip of device-mediated instruction that can be very isolating for students and, you know, a lot of plate spinning for teachers.

Using multiple platforms to assign work, it was-- you know, it was a failure, in most respects, remote learning. So going back now, I think with the benefit of going through the spring, we're going to be much more thoughtful about remote instruction, if we find ourselves remotely, and in-person or a hybrid. And so a lot of good thinking has gone into it, and I think it'll be a far better experience as a result.

AKIKO FUJITA: And Jack, how do you measure the effectiveness of the curriculum if you're sort of jumping around a bit? I mean, between March and June, you could argue that that was a bit of a trial period, because a lot of these schools and teachers had to adjust so quickly. Now, you've had a few months to think about it.

You've got the fall-- you know, fall classes basically online for a lot of schools. And then what happens in January if there is a vaccine and people feel a little more comfortable? How do you kind of measure the effectiveness as you jump around?

JACK LYNCH: Yeah, I think it-- you know, a really great question, because affecting this in the spring time is we had between 30% and 50% loss of learning as a result of the disruption from the pandemic. And so one of the things that we do is we use a computer-adaptive assessment to measure each and every student, where they are on their learning journey and what they're ready to learn next. And that's important going back to school to establish a baseline for every student so you can measure their student progress over the course of the year.

And that's going to vary, depending on remote, or in-person, or hybrid. If you start out remote, one of the benefits of our platform is you can pick right up in-person where you left off remote. And so that's really what we're focused on right now is ensuring that you can feel comfortable wherever you are-- remote, in-person, hybrid-- and not worry about what's going to happen in January, ensure that you have the same platform they're using for all modes of learning.

SEANA SMITH: Jack, I want to ask you about funding, and specifically at the state and local levels for schools, because I think the pandemic has placed this spotlight on this divide that we have seen and the inequality, I guess you can say, in our nation's school system. And the Senate, and also the White House, they propose a $70 billion in additional funding for K through 12. The Dems have their own plan. But how critical is additional funding for schools at this stage? And what do-- the school districts that you're working with, what do they need from the federal government in terms of help?

JACK LYNCH: Yeah, I think it is critical right now. As you know, 90% of school funding comes from the state government and local property taxes, and the economy affects not only tax receipts, but ultimately the funding of K12 schools, so it's very important. The package that the White House and the Senate have been working together, $70 billion is a meaningful amount.

We started out with $13 and 1/2 billion in the CARES Act, so this would be additive. And I think when we get to the House, it will probably be more than $70 billion. Think about that within the context of about a half trillion dollar expenditure for K12 instruction. So that's a material amount of stimulus for K12.

SEANA SMITH: Certainly is. All right, well, Jack Lynch, CEO of HMH, thanks so much for joining us today.

JACK LYNCH: Thanks for having me.