By Derek Newton
Reposted from Forbes, with permission
If you judged by recent headlines, you might conclude that for-profit education providers have had a rough ride lately. And some have –- especially a few of the education companies that are public.
But as is always true, the stumbles are in bold headline font while the successes and milestones earn a footnote, at best.
As an example, Stride Learning (NYSE: LRN), the publicly traded education provider with products and services from K-12 through career certification and training and sporting a healthy market cap of $3.5 billion, recently marked 25 years in business.
Maybe there was one, but I did not see a footnote.
As part of the company’s accomplishment, I was able to sit down with James Rhyu, the CEO at Stride, to chat about the company, the market, and the road ahead. Rhyu has been with Stride since 2013 and has been CEO more than three years.
I asked Rhyu for his thoughts about how Stride had managed to do so well for so long in such a tough marketplace.
“First, being a first-mover innovator and disruptor in the segment has advantages. I think the second thing is that students and families are choosing our options in record numbers so the strong customer demand has helped. Customer demand continues to grow because we provide an educational choice that fills an important need for families,” Rhyu said.
Choice, Rhyu said, was fundamental to not just corporate success but also to their educational philosophy. “We have advocated for this choice for the past 25 years at the consumer, institutional and governmental levels to empower families to choose the best educational options for their children. Keeping those needs at the forefront is imperative,” he said.
Interestingly, Stride doesn’t have a customer. It has more than one, says Rhyu.
“For us, it’s not just the family we consider our customer. It’s also the schools themselves that are run by independent and forward-thinking partners. These partners, whether they be school districts or charter schools, have been at the forefront of educational choice and options for families and are the real heroes helping to offer solutions for families where previously none existed,” Rhyu said.
“And I think that some of our longevity,” Rhyu continued, “is because we continue to evolve and execute well. Investing in content and tools for students and teachers helps the overall ecosystem. This means that we are continuing to innovate in the space and provide value to the customers we serve.”
Asked about any lessons he can take from 25 years of success, Rhyu said, “The biggest lesson is to not take anything for granted.
“Markets and situations move quickly and can change or pivot on a dime. Think about what happened during the pandemic. The pandemic did more to sell school choice in America than any other force or factor in history, and we positioned ourselves accordingly to serve more families desiring different learning modalities for their kids. But more than that, over a longer period, think about how technologies have evolved and how student and family behaviors have evolved,” he said.
Asked about things in the education space that may have surprised him, Rhyu said, “I’ve always been surprised by how much politics can influence decisions about children’s education in this country. In almost every other facet of our lives, innovation, technology, and choice have permeated and improved the customer experience. Education sometimes feels like we are pushing against progress for the wrong reasons.”
At the same time, he also raised caution about new technologies that may warrant some cynicism and regulation.
“On the flip side,” Rhyu said, “the rush to integrate AI with little oversight of how to use AI responsibly within K12 education is concerning. LLM’s high error rates and biases have potential to impact students negatively.”
Looking ahead for Stride, Rhyu was unsurprisingly optimistic saying, “Stride is poised to profoundly impact education, extending far beyond the core full-time online programs we currently manage. That includes reaching further into the skills and career space and preparing the next generation with the essential skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the rapidly evolving job market over the next 25 years.”
I asked Rhyu about do-overs or mistakes, either at Stride or in the marketplace more generally.
“Although we have always had positive intent, there are many things that we just could have done better. I’m sure some families somehow didn’t get the experience they deserved. I wish I could fix all of those customer experiences,” he said.
That answer was a surprise. And a rare example of a top-level CEO not using CEO-speak. The candor is a welcome change from the companies, including many education companies, that too often refuse to acknowledge anything that is even remotely not positive. Maybe the humility and skepticism about some things are part of the reason that Stride has continued to thrive as so many of the other unicorn-level players in education have fallen flat.
To be sure, there’s more to the Stride story than that. But it’s still a big deal when the CEO of billion-dollar company speaks truth. And when you think of all that’s changed in education in a quarter of a century, it’s big news that a company has survived all those changes. Or at least it ought to be.
