Millions of schools in the U.S. have closed, forcing students to learn and study online. K12 CEO Nathaniel Davis joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to weigh in on his education company is faring amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: In the meantime, over the weekend, we heard from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio that schools in New York City would remain closed through the end of the school year, although he got a little bit of pushback from the governor. This is the case, though, in many school districts now.

And we are joined now by someone who's offered some online resources for those with their kids at home-- not just now, but even before this. And that's Nate Davis. He's the CEO of K12. Thank you so much for joining us. He's joining us from Herndon, Virginia.

So Nate, how does K12 offer these resources? And those of us who have been doing this stuff at home now for a few weeks have realized just how challenging it is. What do you think is the most key thing when you're offering virtual learning for elementary school kids?

NATHANIEL DAVIS: Well, first of all, thank you, Julie, for having me on the call today. I appreciate it. Most important thing, I believe, is for children to have an easy access. Being able to get into this system, being able to navigate through content, is important. But it's got to be easy. And number two, it's got to be engaging.

Now, the third piece that I think is really important you've already mentioned. And that is parents have to be able to use the system in a way that helps their child, what we call a learning coach. That's a person who is monitoring what the child is doing, directing to different pieces of instruction, and knowing when they're making progress.

Those elements are important. I think what we all learned from this, however, is that being a learning coach is not easy, which means being a teacher is not easy. We should all learn to appreciate teachers from this.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Nate, I was curious-- it's Adam Shapiro, by the way-- if-- you know, so many kids now taking their lessons virtually. Is there less of a retention in what they're learning when it's this way, say, versus in the classroom with a teacher, a classroom of, say, 25 other kids?

NATHANIEL DAVIS: No. I don't think there's less retention. Matter of fact, some students actually learn more and perform better and engage better when they're doing it online. And all you have to do to realize that is look at every child in the United States who has some kind of device in front of them-- how much they learn from playing an online game, from communicating with their friends.

Online tools are part of the way children are growing up today. They have technology available to them from two years old that you and I never had when we were that young. So they learn to retain in this environment. All of our studies have told us that. But you have to supplement that with an adult's guidance and instruction.

When they're doing it alone, they can retain. But do they know where to go next? Do they know what steps do? When they run into a problem, who do they ask? Those are the pieces that are supplemental instruction that helps the child when they're going through online learning.

RICK NEWMAN: Nate, it's Rick Newman. If we ever get back to normal and kids return to classrooms, what elements of remote learning do you think are likely to actually stay with the curriculum that school districts might adopt? And which will school districts be quite happy to get rid of?

NATHANIEL DAVIS: Well, first of all, I think that most school districts and most parents are realizing that online learning now has to become a part of the way we educate our kids-- not that every child is going to be in a full-time online school, but that the availability of digital content is a part of the way they educate.

And I think it's actually the opposite. I don't think most schools are going to throw away and not use more content. They're going to try to figure out, how do I make it a part of my normal, everyday process and especially my backup process?

85% of parent-- I'm sorry, of school districts-- have said, during this process, they now want to have some form of online or digital content as a part of the way they educate. Unfortunately, most of them are still figuring out how to do that. And they don't know how. But most of them want it now as a part of their normal educational process.

- Hey, Nate, how do you ensure that, when kids are learning online or using these kinds of schools, that they don't just, you know, break off and start doing something completely different? I don't know. Browsing TikTok, Instagram, playing games on their own. How do you keep them focused? Because I know, you know, during a workday, I jump onto something as well.

NATHANIEL DAVIS: Yeah. Our students-- and I'll use us as an example. But I think many other pieces of content-- our students, we have monitoring tools that monitor how engaged they are. So how many keystrokes are they having? How often are those keystrokes happening?

We can even monitor and determine that it's a parent doing the work instead of a student. So in our school, if the answers are coming back always right, or if there's a pause in the process and then all of a sudden all the right answers start coming, we know that a parent has intervened. So we have many tools to monitor that that child is engaged and stays engaged.

But I can tell you, the number one tool that has to be used is teachers. And that's the difference between our program and many programs. I don't know how much you know about this. But the supplemental content is when a child learns-- signs onto a piece of education content and they're doing all the work by themselves.

In our system, that's not what they do. They log on, but there's a teacher that also monitors what they're doing. And when they're having trouble, they can reach out to the teacher. Or their learning coach can reach out to the teacher. And that's the difference of making sure they're stay engaged, is monitoring the keystrokes, monitoring what they're doing, but also having a teacher that's monitoring their progress.

JULIE HYMAN: Nate, what does K12 look like normally and what does it look like now, both in terms of how you operate and the demand that you perhaps have seen?

NATHANIEL DAVIS: We've seen a significant increase in demand, 100% increase in our calls into our call center. We are flooded with calls of people who want to enroll in schools this year, meaning school year 1920, not 2021. We're getting some of those too. But people want to enroll right now. So our demand is higher. But our schools look exactly the same as they did before COVID.

Our schools continue to operate as they did before with one exception. And that's California. But Cal-- even California said, we can't give the students instruction from the teacher. But the teacher can monitor their progress, and they can continue to access the content on their own. Every other school in the country that we operate for our school boards who are our partners and who own the schools, every other school is still open and still doing work just as they were doing just before the COVID crisis hit.

JULIE HYMAN: Nate, as a parent of kids in New York City schools, we have witnessed the issue of some kids not having access to the technology they need. And I know that that has been a challenge in other school districts as well. What do you think is the best way to tackle that?

NATHANIEL DAVIS: Well, first of all, I think there are significant partnerships can be had with corporations who provide telecommunication services. My own background is from being in the telecom industry. And I can tell you that all the big firms and many small firms, the Verizons of the world and the AT&Ts of the world, they have technologies that will provide broad access to a community-- hotspots, for example, that could be installed on short notice that gives students access.

They can track who's logged on. All you have to do is sign on to your iPad today, for example, and go to a certain spot on your iPad. And you can quickly sign up for an internet access. They can make that free. That's a partnership that can be done with the telecom companies.

So I don't think there's any excuse for not providing broadband access to everybody who needs it in all the communities that are out there. So I think that's an excuse that we should get around. And I believe that govern-- between government and private business partnerships, we can make that happen.

JULIE HYMAN: Nate Davis is the CEO of K12. Thank you, sir, for your perspective. Really appreciate it.

NATHANIEL DAVIS: I appreciate you guys having me on today. Everybody have a good day.

JULIE HYMAN: Thank you. You, too. Be well.