Michael B. Horn: Why Public Schools Need Less Regulation

Rep. John Kline (R-MN) recently introduced an act that would change a piece of that. The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act would give states and districts much more flexibility in how they spend federal education dollars -- in effect, trusting local educators to make the best decisions for their students. But Kline's measure created a firestorm when he introduced it shortly after July 4. Opponents fired back that it would unravel much of what the Department of Education has accomplished over the last half century and undermine students' civil rights.
As always with proposals of this nature, the devil is in the details, but there is a strong logic to Kline's basic premise. Over the past couple of decades policymakers have begun focusing on student outcomes -- and taken to demanding accountability for them. But they haven't loosened their controlling grip on the inputs -- the resources and processes schools can use to deliver those outcomes.
Click here to read the entire article I wrote for The Atlantic and learn why I believe Kline's bill could have a positive impact on the move toward digital learning.

Guest Commentary: The Quick & The Ed Responds to Hess 'Quality & Digital Education' Report

The aftershocks being felt in the virtual education community over the past couple days are in response to a study written by the American Enterprise Institute's Rick Hess.

Called Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning, the Hess study is the first volley in series of six papers commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute on policies surrounding the growth of digital learning.

Hess looks at how to ensure that digital learning provides a quality education. No small task since, "taking advantage of all the opportunities online learning offers means that there is no longer one conventional 'school' to hold accountable. Instead, students in a given building or district may be taking courses (or just sections of courses) from a variety of providers, each with varying approaches to technology, instruction, mastery, and so forth," Hess writes.

The responses to the Hess study are growing and many have been thoughtful.

Bill Tucker, who writes Education Sector's blog "The Quick & The Ed," writes that "perhaps the best part of the paper is its realistic recognition that there is no magic recipe to ensure quality. We need a blend of strategies and a willingness to adopt better tools as they become available, not only for digital learning, but also for traditional, place-based learning and all of the blended learning options in-between."

Tucker then adds five more ideas to move along the conversation about digital learning and quality.

Click here for a link to more about the Hess study and the complete report.

Click here for a link to Liberating Learning blog contributor Tom Vander Arks response to the Hess study.

Click here for Bill Tucker's complete post.

Guest Commentary: Rick Hess on 'Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning'

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, with the support of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, has commissioned six papers that, it is hoped, will address some of the policy issues surrounding the growth of digital learning.
The first one is out and written by Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. He tackles quality and how to ensure that digital learning provides a quality education.
"Digital learning poses an immense dilemma when it comes to ensuring quality. One of the great advantages of online learning is that it makes 'unbundling' school provision possible—that is, it allows children to be served by providers from almost anywhere, in new and
more customized ways. But taking advantage of all the opportunities online learning offers means that there is no longer one conventional 'school' to hold accountable. Instead, students in a given building or district may be taking courses (or just sections of courses) from a variety of providers, each with varying approaches to technology, instruction, mastery, and so forth," Hess writes.
According to the Fordham Institute, "Hess makes a groundbreaking contribution by exploring the pros and cons of input regulation, outcome-based accountability, and market signals as solutions to the quality challenge. In the end, he recommends using all three approaches in careful combination so as to leverage their strengths and offset their weaknesses. In practice, that means demanding transparent financial information from providers, holding them to account for student achievement gains whenever possible, and developing 'crowd-sourcing' reporting systems to help educators, parents, and students identify the most effective purveyors of online learning."
Fordham adds that future papers in the series will tackle questions surrounding funding, governance, and the educator’s role in the digital learning arena. The papers are set to be released on a rolling basis later in 2011, the institute added.
Click here to read Rich Hess's Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning: Three (Imperfect) Approaches.
Click here to read Liberation Learning Blog Contributor Tom Vander Ark's first impressions of Hess's work.

Tom Vander Ark: A First Responder's Take on 'Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning'

Fordham is launching a series of working papers on digital learning. Rick Hess makes an important contribution with the first paper focused on quality.
For the hundred experts that contributed to Digital Learning Now this was the thorniest issue. To a person they expressed interest in quality but wrestled with limitations and barriers of input-driven approaches common to education. The final DLN report points to
outcome oriented approaches but doesn’t provide much detail.
Hess makes a solid contribution by outlining input-oriented, outcome-driven and market-based approaches to promoting quality. He makes clear the shortcomings of applying input controls to digital learning. Teacher certification strategies don’t seem to add much value
and attempts to certify teachers in online and blended learning strategies would remain hopelessly out of date with best practice. Applying a textbook review processes to dynamic and adaptive digital content libraries would damper innovation, limit access and do
little to assure quality.
Click here to read more about what I think of Rick's work and why I believe states should continue to authorize statewide online learning providers based on their track record of producing academic results.
Click here to read Rich Hess's Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning: Three (Imperfect) Approaches.

Guest Commentary: Florida Virtual School CEO Looks at the Future of Online Learning

Julie Young is the founder and chief executive of the Florida Virtual School, the nation's largest virtual school.
In an opinion article for T.H.E. Journal, Young says " it's truly amazing to see how education has been transformed during the last decade. While most of our elementary and high school memories come from the traditional schoolhouse, today that model of learning has evolved immensely. Over the years, advances in technology have spurred many changes in education. With the recent passage of the Digital Learning Now Act in Florida, which expands virtual education options to parents and students, one trend that finally has the power to truly revolutionize the very fabric of our education system is online learning. "
Young says, "today's kids live in a digital world. The reality is that the influence of technology will only grow, so, as leaders in education, we need to create educational experiences that mirror life beyond the schoolhouse. It's an exciting time in education reform and, with student focus at the center of every decision we make, we are proud to be a leader in these revolutionary changes."
Click here to read the complete article and find out the types on online learning programs Young believes are the best.

Lisa Graham Keegan: Improved Technology is Key to Better Education in Arizona

Arizona has every opportunity to provide an accountable education system that will dramatically impact the future of Arizona's workforce and economy - and especially the lives of those we teach. The issues before us are not simple, and addressing them requires maximizing every available resource.
One feature of the fastest-improving classrooms in the state is the availability of advanced technology. While technology changes the way all of us run our lives (how many of you are reading this online?), it also changes the possibilities for the classroom and school.
We know that schools can literally add hours to their week by relying on sound data systems for everything from test scores to payrolls. We also know that technology can enhance any teacher's classroom by offering personalized "tutoring" in addition to a teacher's foundational teaching.
Click here to read my complete op-ed which was published in the Arizona Republic.

Guest Commentary: An Op-ed in the Georgia Athens Banner-Herald Calls for Innovation in School Funding

Kelly McCutchen is president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an independent think tank that proposes market-oriented approaches to public policy.

Earlier this month, McCutchen had an essay published in the Athens Banner-Herald advocating that Georgian change the method it uses to fund public schools in a way that helps boost virtual schools.

"Treat school funding as we do charter schools, focusing on results rather than micromanaging inputs. A lump sum of funding, determined by the student's educational needs, should follow each child, allowing each school to determine its own funding priorities," McCutchen writes.

"Georgia's children will benefit greatly from digital learning that enables them to learn at their own pace, customizes each lesson to their learning style and offers them a wide variety of choices without needing to leave their neighborhood school or move to another school district. With Georgia's per-student spending already 23rd-highest in the nation, there may be no need to spend more money. But there certainly is a need to spend more wisely. Let's ensure that "following the money" in Georgia leads to innovation, not to the status quo," McCutchen adds.

Click here to read the entire essay.

Michael B. Horn: Why Soccer Moms Matter for Digital Learning

It’s always been a hope of many in the education reform community that parents would rise up and demand choice, which would be a big catalyst for transformation in the inner cities and elsewhere. But if those reformers are being honest, they’d have to agree that it hasn’t really played out that way despite the hype of Waiting for Superman and other flashpoints.
As I was reminded though at a recent event where I spoke, the parental support for digital learning is fundamentally different.
First and foremost, digital learning is for everyone, everywhere. It’s not something designed for “those children” or one specific slice of the population. It’s not something that a group of parents support in theory but for whom in practicality it doesn’t matter. It’s not just for charters or districts. And even more fundamentally, it’s not just for private schools or for public schools. It cuts across all of these categories.
Click here to find out why I believe digital learning is the 'killer app" for education reform.

Guest Commentary: Indianapolis Star Publishes A Skeptic's View of Virtual Education

Jeff Swensson is the superintendent of Carmel Clay Schools, which is located in a suburb of Indianapolis. The district serves 15,573 students.
In a commentary published in the Indianapolis Star, Swensson wrote, "The unhappy truth of putting all of learning or education into a "virtual basket" for any student is that we marginalize the potential for exchange; virtual thinking and virtual knowledge are subsumed into a vacuum bereft of real time exchange, challenge, feedback and interaction."
"Quality education, the result of many factors, including a wonderful effective public school educator, cannot be generated out of thin air like tea from a Replicator on Star Trek," he added.
Click here to read the complete article titled, "Virtual Gold? Virtual Education? Really?"

Terry M. Moe: My Radio Interview on How the Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power

Earlier this week, I was on the radio in St. Louis, the Hancock & Kelley Show on KMOX-AM, to be specific.
Our topic was my recent Wall Street Journal essay How the Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power.
I gave Hancock and Kelley an overview of how information technology is changing K-12 education. While the impact of this historic change may still be flying under the radar, the unions see the future: as virtual education grows, the need for more teachers will be reduced.
After my interview, Hancock and Kelley launch into a debate that is being repeated at the kitchen tables around this nation.
Click here to listen to the complete 10-minute segment. Make sure to click on the button below the description of my part of the show.

Guest Commentary: From Blatimore Sun--In Digital Age, Schools That Succeed are Schools That Connect

Shelly Blake-Plock is blogger-in-chief at TeachPaperless.com. He also leads courses in 21st century teaching at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Earlier this month, Blake-Plock and former Washington, D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee were keynote speakers at at conference on the future of technology in education.
"Many teachers I work with each semester wonder how social technology would ever relate to their assignments in cash-strapped Baltimore schools. So, we spend a semester reimagining funding and policy. Last year, one of my students persuaded his principal to let him pilot a tablet program with money that otherwise would have been spent on a more expensive desktop computer lab. Andrew Coy, a teacher at the Digital Harbor High School, has turned an unused room and a few computers into a new media center. But individually, teachers can only do so much,"Blake-Plock wrote in the Baltimore Sun.
"The second crack is evident in those classrooms with technology. The 'access divide' is marked by the blocking of access to the very heart of what resources are available on the Internet, including YouTube, blogs, new media and anywhere a student might actually read a comment. This tends to derive from a ham-fisted approach to digital safety. At a public school conference recently, I found myself struggling to rearrange my live-web multimedia slides because so many were blocked by the district filter," he continued.
"The trickiest of the cracks to get our heads around is the 'connected divide,' separating those who are proficient in collaborative, creative and connected social networks and those who are not. It is growing exponentially wider on a daily basis. From students connecting with authors and scientists via Skype, to kids engaging in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curricula via MIT OpenCourseWare, to students tweeting and conversing with people half a world away in the midst of a revolution (as students at my own school did during the events in Egypt), to teachers participating in daily worldwide discussions on professional development via the #edchat Twitter feed, connectedness will define the value of education over the next generation," Blake-Plock continued
"In the same way social media has changed the face of journalism, politics and entertainment, it will change the face of schools. Just as no business can afford to ignore social media, no school will be able to ignore it. For our students, the value of social media will prove not to be how many followers one has but with how many leaders one engages," he added.
Click here to read his entire essay.

Guest Commentary: The National Journal Ponders Digital Learning

An interesting conversation on digital learning is taking place in the National Journal's Education Experts Blog.
The jumping off point is a recent visit by former District of Columbia schools chief Michelle Rhee to her old stomping grounds.According to the Journal, was back to talk about one of her complaints with the D.C. school system: that it doesn't use technology effectively. "She described schools in the district that weren't compatible with computers because their electrical outlets only accept two-pronged plugs. This drives her crazy because she believes technology is the great equalizer for disadvantaged students," according to the Journal.This led the Journal to ask, "How important is technology in a child's education? (At the end of the day, isn't it most important that they can read, write, and solve basic math problems?)"Liberating Learning blog contributors Sandy Kress, Lisa Graham Keegan and Tom Vander Ark are regular contributors to the National Journal's debates on education. At this posting, they have not posted any thoughts.That said, there is a lively debate going on. Click here to read what members of the education community are saying.

Terry M. Moe: The Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power

In an essay I wrote for the July 18, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal, I show why over the long haul, teachers unions are in grave trouble--for reasons that have little to do with the tribulations these unions have had this year.
One of the greatest challenges teachers unions face is the information technology revolution in education.
This tsunami is only now beginning to swell, and it will hit the American education system with full force over the next few decades. The teachers unions are trying to stop it, but it is much bigger than they are.
Online learning now allows schools to customize coursework to each child, with all kids working at their own pace, receiving instant remedial help, exploring a vast array of courses, and much more. The advantages are huge. Already some 39 states have set up virtual schools or learning initiatives that enroll students statewide, often providing advanced placement courses, remedial courses, and other offerings that students can't get in their local schools.
Click here to read my complete essay.

Tom Vander Ark: 5 Market Drivers & 5 Market Shapers

Today, I am circumspect about the education industry. The opportunity for scale and impact has never been greater, but we face particular and unique challenges. In any sector, growing a new business or teaching a big business to innovate are challenges. But U.S. education isn’t a market, in any traditional sense, it’s a complicated (predominantly) public delivery system.Growing a new business requires getting the right team focused on the right products, services, and customers. That’s particularly a challenge in education especially in the middle of the worst fiscal crisis in recent history. I live and watch this challenge every day in the venture space.We are living through, and in many respects leading, the historic shift to personal digital learning. The fact that anyone on the planet with access to broadband can learning almost anything is an important threshold in human history. But this phase change from print to digital and from age cohorts to individual learners will be uneven and unusual from city to city and state to state.The handful of big companies that we used to think of as textbook publishers are attempting to navigate this transition—and doing so thoughtfully. A decade from now a school board near you will still be adopting print. But it’s also true that the school down the street will likely have kids using tablets this fall. Before 2020 they will be teaching a Harvard Business School case study about how complicated Disrupting Class proved to be.
Click here to find my five market drivers and five forces shaping the opportunity set.

Guest Commentary: North Carolina's John Locke Foundation on How Teacher Certification is Hobbling Virtual Schools are Virtual Irrelevant

Terry Stoops is Director of Education Studies for North Carolina's John Locke Foundation. In an article written for the foundation, Stoops says looks at how teacher certification is slowing the growth of virtual education.
Here are Stoops key facts:
• Teacher-certification requirements are among the most onerous rules enforced by state education agencies and have the potential seriously to limit the scope, quality, and accessibility of virtual schooling for years to come.
• By design, certification requirements prohibit unlicensed individuals who reside within a state — such as higher education faculty, private-sector professionals, private school faculty, and independent scholars — from teaching virtual courses.
• States should allow their virtual schools to have the flexibility to focus on hiring candidates who possess the requisite skills and relevant knowledge and experience, rather than those who possess mandated credentials.
Click here to read the complete article.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Reasons Teachers Love Blended Learning

Teachers have tough jobs—lots of kids and lots of responsibility—and budget cuts are making things worse. They have administrators telling them to boost achievement and personalize learning, but most of them are on their own without tools. But that is beginning to change as schools are beginning to blend traditional teaching with online learning.
Blended learning is a shift to an online environment for at least a portion of the student day made to improve learning and operating productivity. In two important ways, this definition is different than layering computers on top of how we’ve always done things. First, this definition of blended learning means that technology is core to instructional delivery and it incorporates some student choice over time, location, and/or rate. Second, it requires differentiated (different levels) and distributed (different locations) staffing.
Click here to find the 10 reasons why I believe teachers love blended learning.

Guest Commentary: Education Next Publishes Essay from a 'Virtual Schoolteacher'

Karen Faucett taught middle-school math in a traditional school setting for 13 years before moving to virtual education. In the Summer 2011 issue of Education Next, the veteran educator provides an insider's view of the life of an online teacher.
"My day begins at 6 AM, a quiet time in my house. I spend the early hours working on grade books. I teach 6th- and 7th-grade math to 90 students. Parents and students go online to the grade book to view the student’s progress. My goal is to give each one of them the productive, positive, and personalized feedback that will enable the student to turn mistakes into learning opportunities," she writes.
"My students vary in how much one-on-one instruction they need. Some students I speak to weekly, others less often, but at least once a month. Whenever students do not understand a concept, they can pick up the phone and call me for help. If their questions require that they be able to see what I am talking about, we have two options: We can use the “whiteboard,” where they can see what I am doing and talk to me on the phone at the same time. Students can write on the whiteboard and go step-by-step through a problem so that I can see where they are making mistakes. We can also use the web-based program Elluminate to work through problems together using a microphone instead of the telephone," she adds.
Click here to read more about why Faucett believes online education works for teachers and students.

Terry M. Moe: Road to Reform Runs Through Indiana

The June 2011 issue of The School Choice Advocate focuses on this year's school choice success. Articles include a look at the recent education reform efforts in Indiana that resulted in a landmark voucher program, the Foundation For Education Choice's newest study that sparked a national dialog and an interview with me.
They call this a " Two-Minute Talk ." Click here to read it.

Tom Vander Ark: Gubernatorial Takeover of Oregon Schools Chief Job Should be Good for Online Education

In June, the Oregon legislature abolished the position of elected superintendent and gave the responsibility to the governor who will appoint a deputy. The change won’t take place until the current state schools chief Susan Castillo leaves office in 2015.
Traditionally, elected superintendent don’t lead very aggressive reforms because the majority of their support came from employee groups. However, Idaho chief Tom Luna and Oklahoma chief Jane Barresi are bucking this trend with very aggressive reforms to education employment laws and with the support of Republican-controlled legislatures.
This should be a positive move for education reform and specifically for online and blended learning in Oregon.
Click here to read more of my thoughts on what's happening in Oregon.

Guest Commentary: Education Next Article Looks at Blending Face-to-Face and Online Learning

In the Summer issue of Education Next, Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff look at the blended learning movement and its impact on the future of education.
The writers start with Rocketship Education, a network of K-5 charter schools based in California's Silicon Valley. Located in predominately working class and minority neighborhoods, Rocketship academies use a blended learning model of education. The schools are based on the premised that every child deserves an excellent education, that every child can attend a four-year college, and that the path to college starts in kindergarten."
Schorr and McGriff found that "online work is essential to the long-term vision for the school’s instructional model—and for Rocketship’s growth trajectory."
The writers also discovered that "the larger impact of the technology is still ahead, in the ways it will integrate with, and alter, classroom practice. Rocketship is building a model in which kids learn much of their basic skills via adaptive technology ... software, leaving classroom teachers free to focus on critical-thinking instruction and extra help where kids are struggling. Likewise, teachers will be able to “prescribe” online attention to specific skills."
Click here to read about the future of learning and what it looks like in the Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Denver.

Christina Martin: Recent K-12 Education Reforms Let Kids Transfer to a Brighter Future

Public education exists to serve children – period. However, as evidenced by the Oregon Education Association’s (OEA) ongoing actions, some believe public education should serve primarily the adults who work in the system. Thankfully, this legislative session, Oregon’s state leaders concluded otherwise.
After tense negotiations on several education-related bills, Oregon’s legislature passed the most substantial education reforms Oregon has seen in decades, at the governor’s request. The more “controversial” elements of that package will provide students – who find their traditional public schools unsuitable – more educational options from which to choose, including charter and online schools. Such student-focused, choice-based measures were a particular pebble in the OEA’s shoe. Click here to find out why.

Tom Vander Ark: 2x with Digital Learning

Most kids in America would benefit from spending twice as much time learning in a positive place—and that should be a combination of more time at school, more time at home, and more learning time at community-based organizations (CBO). That’s why I’m excited about attending The After School Consortium (TASC) Digital Learning Forum on July 27 in New York. Here’s how TASC summarizes the opportunity:

"Digital learning could dramatically change the educational landscape and begin to connect all assets – schools, families, community-based youth development organizations, cultural institutions – into learning opportunities that transcend physical boundaries. Kids with means and access interact with web-based learning every day, at home and in school. We have a chance to ensure that the least advantaged kids aren’t left behind. Expanded school days and Out-of-School Time (OST) programs offer the ideal time, place and conditions to personalize learning, next-generation style – not just by delivering stand-alone enrichments such as tech clubs, but by using web-enabled tools across curriculum and activities, and by contributing to citywide networks of learning opportunities with students at the center."

Click here to read about the five factors I believe would lead to most students benefiting from extended learning opportunities.

Guest Commentary: Boston Globe Scribe Wonders When Bay State Will Jump on Virtural Education Bandwagon

Boston Globe columnist Jim Stergios is on a tear. If he has it his way, he will push Massachusetts into the 21st century when it comes to virtual education.
A few weeks ago, Stergios wrote a column in which he talked about the good news and the bad news in Massachusetts education.
"The good news for Massachusetts is that last January the state passed a law to double the number of charter schools. Further good news is that students in our charters consistently do better than their district peers; in other states that level of consistency is not always the rule.," Stergios wrote.
"The bad news for Massachusetts is that states like Florida, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and so many others are pushing forward with digital learning much faster than the Bay State is."
Stergios has written another column about online learning. This one is called "Virtually There."
"If Massachusetts has because of lack of leadership within the Board and the Department of Education, ground to a halt on digital learning, other states are moving fast, he wrote in the latest column.
"Virtually, Massachusetts is way behind states across the country – places not known for as sustained and comprehensive a commitment to reform as the Bay State," he added.
Click here to read his complete post.

Guest Commentary: K-12 Students: We Want More Online Learning

Remember the iconic 1980s advertising campaign that launched cable network MTV? It was a series of youthful and demanding voices saying, "I want my MTV."

Well a generation of digital natives may have a new call, "I want my online classes." That's one of the conclusions of the study Learning in the 21st century: 2011 Trend Update.

This annual report is produced by Project Tomorrow, an education nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of students voices in education, for the Speak Up National Research Project. Each year, Speak Up polls K-12 students, parents and educators

about the role of technology for learning in and out of school. Since 2007, Project Tomorrow has collaborated with Blackboard Inc. on a series of annual reports that focus on how online learning. Blackboard Inc. is a publicly-traded company that develops education technology for K-12 schools.

The findings in in the 2011 report are breathtaking. In just three years, according to the study, the number of high school students who have been involved with online learning has tripled and twice as many middle school students are now learning online as in 2008. Additionally, 36 percent of classroom teachers say they have now taken an online class for their own professional development.

"What is propelling this new level of interest and excitement

around online learning?" the researchers ask. "There are three factors at work: increased personal familiarity with online learning by teachers and administrators, intensified demand for online learning opportunities by students and their parents, and the emergence of a new value proposition for administrators around online learning."

Can online learning really transform the learning process? Yes, according to middle school students. That's right, middle school students.

"They believe that the benefits of online learning go way beyond convenience in scheduling and can actually be the conduit to the more personalized learning environment they crave," according to the report.

But the report tamps down any irrational exuberance. "Despite this heightened interest level, administrators still report significant barriers to adopting or expanding online learning in their schools and districts. Most notable are the ongoing challenges associated with evaluating the quality of online courses and the lack of teacher interest in teaching an online class. Even within the more tech-savvy cadre of teachers with less than 10 years of experience, only one-third indicate an interest in teaching online."

Click here to for the complete report.