Austin-based education company.<\/a> The program combines academics with athletics, using artificial intelligence to tailor lessons to each student’s level.<\/p>\nStudents begin their day with a concentrated, two-hour academic block. The rest of the day is dedicated to athletic training and practice.<\/p>\n
“We work in kind of a pomodoro method – short, focused learning times followed by five-minute breaks – and we repeat that several times, which then unlocks the rest of their day,” Dowell said.<\/p>\n
Families in Texas can enroll students in affiliated schools like Bennett using a $10,000 school choice voucher to cover most of the school’s $15,000 tuition. Supporters said the model offers personalized learning and flexibility.<\/p>\n
But critics argue that taxpayer-funded vouchers should not support programs with limited classroom time.<\/p>\n
“It’s unbelievable that these people will be able to qualify to take a voucher from the state,” Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said.<\/p>\n
Anderson believes two hours of academics is not enough, particularly when public funds are involved.<\/p>\n
“It’s appalling that anyone thinks a person could be in school for two hours a day and academics are going to be crushed in,” she said.<\/p>\n
Texas Sports Academy schools meet current state requirements for voucher eligibility, including having a Texas location and at least two years of accreditation.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the parent organization said students are showing “tremendous growth” on standardized Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests. Officials also emphasized that academics and athletics together make up a full day of personalized learning, rather than just two hours of instruction.<\/p>\n
Dowell said the unique approach is making a difference.<\/p>\n
“We here are able to individualize or tailor the educational piece of it, and it’s really a game changer,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sharp pop of an aluminum bat echoes across the Bennett School at Baseball USA in Houston, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,105,101,102,103,104,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-61","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-baseball-usa","11":"tag-bennett-school","12":"tag-brandi-dowell","13":"tag-jackie-anderson","14":"tag-personalized-learning","15":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}