While many still question the benefits of online learning, there is one fact that is undeniable:  online learning increases access which expands educational opportunity.  By accommodating more students, offering greater scheduling flexibility for non-traditional students, and reducing many overhead costs associated with traditional college courses, online learning in higher educatiContinue Reading »

The new Education Next piece on substitute teachers by June Kronholz is terrifying. It weaves together her own son’s experiences as a substitute, the latest findings on the prevalence of teacher absences, and eye-opening research on the (lack of) standards for substitute teachers and their harmful effects on student learning. It’s well worth your time.

Kronholz’ son gives the story a perContinue Reading »

Stanford Emeritus Professor, education historian, and noted education technology realist/skeptic Larry Cuban sets out to throw a “dash of cold water on overheated hyperbole” around online and blended learning.

In his post, Cuban outlines two potential losses from the move towards more online learning. The first is equity:

And the losses? Another digital divide. StudentContinue Reading »

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 touch teaching. If you want to understand what this looks like in practice, I recommend “Future Schools,” a new article from Education Next.

As we think about these Continue Reading »

Education Next has a new story by David Bass about possible fraud in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). As EdNext is wont to do, the article leads with a provocative graph, this one purporting to show the rise in free and reduced-price lunches as the percentage of children in poverty has remained more or less constant. By using the percentage of school lunches served free or at reduced pContinue Reading »

Many thanks to Cathy Cavanaugh and Erik Black for their thoughtful guest post below reviewing Gene Glass’s policy brief, “The Realities of K-12 Virtual Schooling.” As virtual schooling becomes increasingly prominent, it will rightfully deserve increasing amounts of scrutiny and attention. This is all good if the focus is on ensuring good outcomes for the increasing numbers of Continue Reading »

The new book, Disrupting Class, written by Clayton Christensen, author of Silicon Valley bible The Innovator’s Dilemma, is getting a lot of attention for its projections that half of all high school courses could be online by 2019. (Education Next has an article summarizing the book.) Beyond this headline, though, is a much more fundamental and interesting prediction.

Christensen aContinue Reading »

Writing in the latest Education Next, UVA’s Robert Pianta notes research showing that high-quality preschool classrooms can significantly narrow achievement and behavior gaps for at-risk 4-year-olds. But, he cautions, other research finds that:

Most children in pre-K, kindergarten, and grade 1 classrooms are exposed to quite low levels of instructional support and only moderate levContinue Reading »