On Tuesday, December 6, the DC Public Charter School board released the results of its new Performance Management Framework. Twenty-two of the District’s 71 charter school campuses eligible for a ranking earned a spot in the top tier, 34 were in the second tier, and 15 were in the bottom, third tier. Tier III schools with a score below 20 points are candidates to have their charters revoked. ThContinue Reading »

I ruffled a few feathers with my friendly critique that the Digital Learning Council recommendations were “light on details for ensuring that innovation actually leads to more high-quality educational options.” So, it’s nice to see today’s Bush/Wise/Horn op-ed in The Hill begin to confront this issue:

But seeing the majority of high school students taking online cContinue Reading »

This morning, Digital Learning Now, a new advocacy effort led by former Governors Jeb Bush (R-FL) and Bob Wise (D-WV), published 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning, a set of state policy recommendations to spur further growth for not only virtual learning, but also the use of digital and multimedia content (see report below). Taken together, the ten recommendations, which advocate forContinue Reading »

As high schools seek to improve graduation rates, respond to cuts in summer school, and offer new options for students, they are increasingly turning to online credit recovery. I’ve always thought that this was a good idea (quality, of course, is essential).

But, a better idea would be to begin to develop preventive systems to avoid failure in the first place. If a student is helplContinue Reading »

Good Education Week overview on the growth of for-profit virtual learning companies in K-12 education. Predictably, the article quotes a detractor focused on the tax status of those providing the courses:

“I haven’t seen anything in this industry that is special in terms of its pedagogy or its delivery,” said Alex Molnar, the director of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory atContinue Reading »

Since students will increasingly blend their learning experiences — taking virtual courses but also continuing to attend place-based institutions in some form, there’s a pressing need to develop a better set of course-level quality indicators.

Rob responds to my suggestion of four outcome-focused quality measures by warning about the potential for providers to cream: sContinue Reading »

After reading Bill Tucker’s proposal on virtual school funding, it made me think of my own experience in the pre-virtual world, and testing out of a subject. When I was in high school, and was given the option to test out of senior government, I jumped at the chance. I bought a two-sided cheat sheet at the junior college with the basics of civics and government, and spent one weekend of prep. IContinue Reading »

If we want to open up public education to new providers and forms of learning, the fundamental challenges are to ensure both quality and academic integrity. And virtual education gives us an opportunity for a new approach that puts effectiveness and student outcomes at its center.

One idea to ensure quality virtual learning, from Brookings, (see Spurring Innovation Through Education: Continue Reading »

Part VII of the Five Principles for Smarter Data Systems series–a guest post from Lori Fey, Director Policy Initiatives, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation:

Bill Tucker and the Education Sector make important and relevant points about next-generation data systems in Five Design Principles for Smarter Data Systems to Support Student Learning. We should recognize, however, that data sContinue Reading »

Part VI of this week’s Five Principles for Smarter Data Systems series–a guest post from Laurence Holt, EVP and Chief Product Officer for Wireless Generation, and an author of And Now For Something Completely Different, a guide to Instructional Improvement Systems from which the post below is adapted:

Dear Finalist,

First, congratulations! I assume you are busy preparing your presContinue Reading »