Three Things the NY Times Article on Florida Virtual School Missed
The recent New York Times article, In Florida, Virtual Classrooms with No Teachers, takes us to Miami, where schools are using a blended learning approach: Students use school computer labs to take...
View ArticleBottom Line Goal for Blended Learning: Better Student Outcomes
Lots of buzz around blended learning — the idea that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to a forced choice between teachers and technology, but can strive to find the right combination of high tech and high...
View ArticleCheating and Other Deceptions About Students’ Learning
We’re learning that there are many ways to cheat. The legitimacy of test score increases in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), in particular those at Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, are the...
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Teachers Swap Recipes
In every school in America, in three-ring binders and file folders, sit lesson plans—the recipes that guide everyday teaching in the classroom. Like the secrets of talented cooks, the instructional...
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The Bruce Randolph Rorschach Test
Poor Bruce Randolph School. First, President Obama praises the school in his 2011 State of the Union address. Then Diane Ravitch, in a New York Times op-ed, cited the school as an example of...
View ArticleThe Flipped Classroom
Four years ago, in the shadow of Colorado’s Pike’s Peak, veteran Woodland Park High School chemistry teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams stumbled onto an idea. Struggling to find the time to...
View ArticleState Online Learning Reports Reveal Growth, Concerns
Two new reports, from Minnesota and Colorado, offer additional insights into online learning’s rapid and rocky growth. These reports, combined with data from bothPennsylvania and Ohio, reinforce the...
View ArticleLaura Johnson’s Unhappy Online Learning Journey
Amidst all of the reporting in Education News Colorado’s excellent three-part investigative series on Colorado’s largest full-time online learning programs, it was Laura Johnson’s story that struck me:...
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Standardized Testing’s Foreign Aid Problem
Spend any time listening to talk radio and you’ll hear countless stories about “billions wasted” on foreign aid. Politicians seizing on painless ways to cut the deficit reinforce this perception of...
View ArticleThe AT&T Teacher Retention Strategy
It’s a common story, one that Bay Area residents know particularly well. You got a shiny new iPhone late last year that can download all sorts of cool apps. But, since AT&T is your wireless...
View ArticleEducators Answer Questions About the Flipped Classroom
I’ve received a number of questions and comments on my recent Education Next article, The Flipped Classroom. Most gratifying have been the rich exchanges in comment threads and on twitter (#flipclass),...
View ArticleReview of New Fordham Digital Learning Papers
Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction and School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era, two new working papers in the Fordham Institute’s series on digital learning, are welcome additions to the...
View ArticleRhode Island’s Landmark Pension Reform
Last night, by overwhelming margins, the Rhode Island legislature passed what may be the nation’s most comprehensive state public employee pension reform ever (see our analysis for an education...
View ArticleThe Nation’s Online Learning Omission
The Nation’s recent online learning expose, How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools, in its zeal to connect various dots into a narrative of a corporate public education takeover, makes...
View ArticleWhy Stanford Online High School Matters (and two ways it could matter more)
Sunday’s New York Times story broke the news that Stanford University, one of the world’s most prestigious research institutions, is putting its brand squarely behind a full-time, degree-granting...
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Six Insights from New NCES Data on K-12 Distance Education
New 2009-10 school year survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics confirms the rapid growth of K-12 technology-based distance education enrollments, from an estimated 317,070 in...
View ArticleNew Data Quality Campaign Report: The Hard Work Remains
The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) could easily declare victory. Since its founding in 2005, the majority of states have made tremendous progress implementing the 10 Essential Elements of Statewide Data...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Economics of Online Learning
The Costs of Online Learning, the latest in Fordham’s digital learning policy series, tackles the tricky question of per-pupil spending. And while the paper cannot offer definitive answers for...
View ArticleThe Country’s Most Ambitious Digital Learning Project
Educators from coast-to-coast will celebrate the nation’s first Digital Learning Day on Wednesday. Amidst the cool technology demonstrations, shiny gadgets, and debates about online learning, it’s...
View ArticleDigital Textbooks, OER, and More from Digital Learning Day
Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski made the Obama Administration’s big announcement at Wednesday’s Digital Learning Day festivities: the release of a “digital textbook playbook” to...
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