In the Atlantic, Hayley Glatter writes about a company that is attempting to disrupt the market for substitute teachers.

Substitutes are almost always put in sink-or-swim situations: They’re with a class for a limited amount of time, lesson-plan-preparedness is often inconsistent, and students can be less than helpful in describing what they should be working on. And so, movies and word-search puzzles become inevitable mainstays in the substitute teacher’s arsenal. Parachute Teachers is hoping to disrupt that rhythm.

The company, founded by Sarah Cherry Rice, operates as a marketplace for community members—whether they’re scientists, writers, actors, or engineers—to leverage their talents in front of a classroom when the students’ typical teacher is unable to be there. Parachute Teachers create lesson plans based on their areas of expertise and then bring that knowledge directly to students; essentially, a day without a classroom teacher suddenly becomes a special career day instead.

In a feature article she wrote for Education Next, June Kronholz looked at the role played by substitute teachers in America’s schools and at the impact of our reliance on substitutes on school budgets and student learning.

— Education Next