Rachael Maves: So tell me, like from that classroom experience, you were a founding member of a very successful charter school network. Like how did you end up from there, from classroom now to leading Sage Oaks?

Krista Woodgrift: Yeah, so I've actually been in this type of model of education, which is a really flexible way of meeting our students needs for about 20, 21 years or so. And so I moved from the classroom. I found out about this type of model of education from a friend who was actually her child, her children were in this type of model. And so I started a different school that was sort of similar to say joke.

And we were there for, I was there for about nine years. And then a group of us decided we wanted to start our own school. And so that was very exciting. We wanted to really continue to personalize learning for students and create a lot of different options for them so that they could pick and choose with their parent and their teacher what would be the best for them. And like, I always love how we get to like,

make their hopes and I always feel like we're making their hopes and dreams come true and really helping kids to and parents because they're so involved to figure out what they love, what they're good at and really to be able to meet them where they are and take them as far as we can take them. And it's really fun to see the students at Sage Oak and how like just they're really engaged.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: in their learning and really motivated. And I think that it's just exciting to see that and to see how successful that they can be.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, that's awesome. now, say Joe, what's your enrollment size?

Krista Woodgrift: We have about 5,400 students and we serve, yeah, we serve in Southern California, kind of a large region in Southern California. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, and continuing to grow in the midst of declining enrollment and a lot of other things, especially in California that people are seeing. mean, your school system is continuing to expand, which is something.

Krista Woodgrift: Yes, yeah, yeah. We love what we do and I think that this is the way of the future of education and it's what families are looking for and it's really effective. it's exciting.

Rachael Maves: Okay.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, so in the midst of that, all these really wonderful, great things, when you think about the things that really keep you up at night, what are one or two things that are pressing or weighing on you?

Krista Woodgrift: Yeah, right now, there's more than one thing, but right now what really first comes to mind is artificial intelligence and the impact that that will have on the future and the readiness that we have or don't have. I feel like we don't have the readiness for that. And it's a little bit hard to even know how to be ready for it because it's such a, it's growing at such a rate that

I think some people are maybe shut down to that. They start to see how fast it's going and they feel like you feel like you can't keep up with it. And so either, you you jump in and you kind of start swimming or you might shut down. And my worry with that is I have two, I three kids, but two of them are young adults. And so back when cell phones were kind of a newer thing and social media was when they were like kind of young teenagers.

And that was taking off. And I feel like we as parents and educators didn't really get in there quick enough. And our kids were sort of driving that train and I see it with my own kids. And I remember my son when he was like 14 and my husband and I were both educators. We're like trying to be on top of everything. And he's like creating a VPN, which is some kind of network to kind of get around the, the passwords and things like that. I mean,

Rachael Maves: you

Rachael Maves: Hahaha!

Krista Woodgrift: you know, give it to him. mean, but it was like, what's happening? And so I think now we're starting to see a lot of the effects of, of the social emotional aspects of social media and phones and all those things. And I think that this to me, whenever I think of artificial intelligence coming into the way that it is, it's like taking something like that. And it feels like it's on steroids and the possible impact that, know, that it can have.

Rachael Maves: you

Krista Woodgrift: both positive and also possibly not positive. And so I think that what keeps me up as night is wondering, are we as the educators, parents, adults, are we in it? Are we doing what we need to do to protect our kids and to also like harness it? Because there's a lot of things that we're doing at Sage Oak. We have a lot of ideas and things on like how to really harness it.

And I think the traditional system is really slow to move. There's lot of barriers for our traditional system that keep them from being able to pivot. And at a time like this, we need to be able to pivot and we need to be to pivot quickly and we need to be like really moving forward. And so it keeps me up at night because I feel like there's a lot at stake here and I'm not sure that we're moving fast enough.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Yeah, I really appreciate that lens and highlight, Kristin, because I think that in education, there tends to be this slow movement to catch up with things. And technology, think, is a great example. mean, nothing short of the pandemic would have gotten computers into kids' hands. I truly believe that, which is such a commentary of our time that there were students who still didn't have access.

And then, so as you're layering in now this factor of AI and what that means and looks like and how do we use it responsibly and students, they're using it, they're running with it, but how did the adults catch up so that we're helping to shepherd that? Because I think you're right, there is a, when we look at social media and the impacts that that's starting to have on the social and emotional side of things, have you seen that documentary, The Social Dilemma?

Krista Woodgrift: Yes, and I feel like everyone needs to watch it again. I just remember that was a long time ago and they were really predicting some things that are happening and yeah, yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes!

Yes!

Rachael Maves: So prevalent right now, yes. Yeah, yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: Yeah, it's just, it's taking off and it's fast. It's exponential. When you look at charts of like technology and they just kind of are going like this and even the internet kind of like when I like this and all of sudden you see AI and it just straight up. And it's just like, I know I hear a lot of talking about AI, but it's not like a real there. don't, I don't know. Like, I don't see like a real cohesive plan that we have as an education to get, get

Rachael Maves: Yes. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes. Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: you can't get ahead of it, to like say on even on close to on top of it.

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Well, and I'd love your thoughts on this too, because from my lens, what I'm seeing is either one of two things. It is the, you know, keep it at arm's length. Maybe this will just go away and we won't have to deal with it. But then on the other side is like, ooh, the next shiny thing. Yes, let's, let's purchase this and let's do this and let's do this. and then we're, I find that there's a big gap in the middle of

Krista Woodgrift: Bye.

Rachael Maves: like slowing down and saying, okay, with whatever it is that we're looking at, what is the success criteria for that? Why are we bringing it on? What do we think it's gonna change? And how are we going to measure whether or not it actually has the impact that we think so that it doesn't just become that next thing that we try and then it moves on to the next thing and then the next thing and the next thing.

Krista Woodgrift: 100%. It's like, it's like the whole like slowing down to go fast and being really intentional about about it, but really like learning. I think that's the first the first step is like, we're really trying to do a lot of professional development around AI with our our staff. Because there's things like, you know, with the deep fakes and different types of things, right, that could be really scary and really harmful for kids.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Krista Woodgrift: that can be used in different ways. And if, or the, the voice recognition that it can take your voice and, and, know, you can get a phone call from someone and you think it's somebody you know, and so it's really even like some of something we're talking a lot about too, or just like the durable skills that our students need to have to be, you know, it's like those ones that are always important, but even so like more so now like critical thinking and

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes!

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Krista Woodgrift: really questioning things and making sure that like we don't believe everything that we see or hear even that we've always been able to do that. And so I forget exactly what you said that made me kind of go down this path, but I just think that the, I know going slow to kind of go fast with AI, it's like, do we all have that kind of basic understanding even of it again, as like the adults who are responsible for bringing this to our kids and then

Rachael Maves: Yeah, that's right.

Krista Woodgrift: choosing apps and tools and things really carefully. So we have like a vetted list for our teachers that we've created that's like, these ones are safe, like these ones you can use and, you know, understanding the difference between open AI and closed AI and that when you go put your student list out, you know, in Chachi PT and the public open AI, you know, the possible implications of those types of things. so

Rachael Maves: I love that. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: I mean, we don't have it figured out, but we're really, these are the kinds of things we're wrestling with and working on and trying to make sure that we're, like, we want to be a place where students and families, when they come here, that they know that we're being really intentional about how we use AI. But then we're doing some exciting things with it too that I think will be really beneficial for our students and maximizing their learning.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, well, that's like the perfect segue into the next question, which is what are a couple of ways that people maybe who are questioning AI or wondering about it or are trying to figure out what that best practice is? What are a couple of ways that you would recommend being able to move forward?

Krista Woodgrift: I was at a conference last week and in one of the presentations, one of the school's core values was like, just start. And when I say just start, I don't mean just start and like throwing things together like what we were just talking about, but I think we all have to have a growth mindset with this and just we have to get in there and start learning it. And we have to start learning the tools as educators so that we know where we can understand them.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: and guide and support our students because whether we like it, whether we think, whether we want to put in our head in the sand about it, it's here as everyone keeps saying it, right? It's here and we know our kids are using it and so we need to understand it. And so I would just like, I think the one biggest thing is just to really start educating ourselves on what it is, what it isn't, to best use it.

the positive outcomes, because I think we could see a lot of students who have historically been more disadvantaged to have access to things that historically that they didn't have access to. Private tutoring or I always think of those college advisors that a lot of parents, pay a lot of money to help their child get into.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: you know, all of the good colleges and they're like thousands and thousands of dollars, but it's like, you know, could, could there be a tool I've seen at some of the AI conferences that help students to, to be able to, to do these types of things. And so I really love that part, of, kind of like leveling out that for our first students, helping them to maximize like their growth and their potential. But I think that we just have to like,

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: be really intentional about that and make sure that we're learning and understanding as much as we can. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Is there one AI platform or a way in which you guys are using AI that you're really excited about?

Krista Woodgrift: Well, I know that Parsec is really invested in the power standards. And so we're doing some really, I think, exciting things with one of our, we have an administrator on special assignment and this whole area. She's been working with a developer and it, it's all being generated through AI, but it's creating a

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: creating different resources and different, it's like an app. And then there's also a couple of websites. And what she was learning was that a lot of like curriculum providers, when they are creating apps and tools, it's more about engagement and keeping the students engaged and less about the efficiency and effectiveness of learning. And so what she's been working on is just that because we want our students to be able to learn efficiently and effectively. And of course, engagement's important.

but sometimes curriculum vendors, it's more about engagement because they want to keep the students going and things like that versus like the actual learning part. So we've been building that and also just using, she's also working on curriculum. We have a lot of different curriculum options for our students at Sage Oak. And so using AI to really help support filling gaps, because sometimes curriculum is...

has gaps. And so the AI is being used to help identify the gaps because we use, like I said, different options. And then we're able to identify those and help fill those gaps. so I'm just excited about that. And we have a few other things that we're working on as well. But that was our big project that is going on right now.

Rachael Maves: That's awesome. So our final question, what question in education are we not asking that we really should be?

Krista Woodgrift: Well, I believe the question that we should be asking is why we're still doing education so similarly now in this day and age as we've done for so long. I know it gets talked about a lot, but it really was like a model for the factory. And when we're looking at the current day, it's very different. It's a very different landscape.

And as I was talking about before this like future of education, it's going to need to look very different in order to be prepared for this really unknown future. And so I think the question we should be asking ourselves is just what would it look like? Like, could we envision a different way? And I believe that we're doing some of that at Say Joke, so I think it's exciting, but a different way to educate.

kids. I see a lot of charter schools doing really innovative things. And I don't think that there's one approach that's for every student. that, you know, what is what really works and what's going to prepare these kids for this unknown future? And so I think the question we should be asking ourselves is maybe just why we why we are staying so in this model that was really not designed for this time that we're in right now.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Thank

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. And you're right, it's unfortunate because I feel like at the pandemic, to your point, there was a lot of bringing that forward and okay, how do we redesign this and how do we rethink this? And then it was kind of like the pandemic passed, we saw the reality of learning loss, and then it kind of came back to doubling down and the things that we've been doing in hopes of changing outcomes versus that. Let's take a minute to rethink some things a little bit.

Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: Yeah. And I think with the pandemic, was just such a, I think sometimes, the idea was that this type of virtual learning model does is it doesn't work. And I think that what happened during that time, was that, that the, the way that some districts did, it was really effective and then others, not so much. Some just tried to take the classroom model and duplicate it online. And that's, that's very ineffective. And so,

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Krista Woodgrift: finding ways to, like where are we experimenting and trying new things and doing things in a different way, I think is really important and getting kids ready for the next, this future that we're happy.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Krista. It was great just to connect with you and hear how you're thinking about all these things and the cool ways that you guys are using AI.

Krista Woodgrift: Thank you. It great to see you.

Rachael Maves: And

And for those of you who are looking for a way to better employ AI to serve your school system, we at Parsec are here for you. Parsec Real is an AI-powered platform built for gathering input from across your community. Our platform's ability to engineer questions for all audience types, reading levels, and in multiple languages grants accessibility to students and families who previously may have been unable to add their voices to the conversation. To learn more on engaging your whole community through valuable feedback, check out parseceducation.com.

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This transcript was created from the episode's captions and lightly edited for readability. It may contain small errors; please refer to the audio for exact wording.