How Students Take Flight with Yass Prize Finalist SOAR Academy

An item from a neo-liberal…  This one is an item from a business professor with little direct experience in education, but who believes free market economic principles are the answer to education’s (and pretty much all other society’s social) problems.

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MAY 31

How Students Take Flight with Yass Prize Finalist SOAR Academy

		MICHAEL B. HORN

In the latest episode of the Future of Education, I interviewed Kenisha Scaggs, founder of the Soar Academy. We talked about everything from the history of the Soar Academy to how she defines student success and why more public school funding won’t get us to where we need to go. Scaggs originally started her microschool-turned-private-school in her attic to help kids who were desperately behind in their education.

Helping neurodivergent kids reach new heights, Scaggs noted that the classroom environment she created is different for her students. “Our class is a one-room schoolhouse, so it’s not about what grade you’re in. You’re not necessarily sitting with fourth graders if you’re in fourth grade, you’re sitting with whoever meets your learning [need],” Scaggs explained.

The SOAR Academy puts a big emphasis on helping students learn to read—with a focus on phonics and background knowledge—and learning math. In the conversation around helping students learn in different ways, although Scaggs used the phrase “learning styles”—which generally refers to the debunked notion of people being a visual learner or an auditor learner and the like—you’ll see that she means something different by it in actual implementation. I also really enjoyed learning about how the SOAR Academy treats Mondays and Fridays as dramatically different from Tuesday through Thursdays to help students get in the flow of their learning and feel a real sense of belonging in and excitement about the school.

I continue to be inspired by the wave of education entrepreneurs solving problems for students whose needs aren’t being met. As always, you can listen to the conversation, above, watch it below, or read the transcript.

Michael Horn:                Welcome to the show where we are dedicated to building a world in which all individuals can build their passions, fulfill their potential, and live a life of purpose. And to help us think through that today, our guest is Kenisha Skaggs. She’s the founder of the SOAR Academy. A school that has what it says are not your typical classrooms inside. Flexibility is the name of the game, but with some clear principles at work. Which we’ll get into, and I’m excited to learn about. Also, SOAR Academy was one of the finalists recently for the Yass Prize, which rewards permissionless education. Which for my reading certainly describes what they have built at the SOAR Academy, which is based in Georgia. So Kenisha, welcome to The Future of Education. It’s really good to see you.

Kenisha Scaggs:             Thank you. I’m super excited to be here as a part of the Future of Education. So, awesome.

Morning Warm-Up

Horn:                Well, I think you’ve represent it in many ways. So let’s start with our segment, the morning warmup. We’re trying out a new set of segments for this show. And it’s a set of lightning rounds, if you will. And just simply what is SOAR Academy in your words.

Scaggs:             Sure. So, SOAR Academy is a neurodivergent micro-school. And it is for students with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and students facing remediation. Our approach is project-based learning, real world application, and just getting to the heart of what’s important. Which is mental health support and literacy and math, is what we think are the really important points in education. So that’s kind of how our education standards are formed around math, literacy and mental health support for our students.

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