Tom Vander Ark: Flex Schools Personalize, Enhance & Accelerate Learning

Innosight Institute’s seminal report The Rise of Blended Learning outlines several emerging school models that combine the best of onsite and online learning. Besides students taking online courses when possible, there are basically two emerging school models.

• Rotation: Students spend 20 to 50 percent of their time online. The Bay Area’s Rocketship Education is a high-performing elementary network where students spend two hours per day in a computer lab.
• Flex: Core instruction is conducted online with on-site academic support and guidance, integration and application opportunities, and extracurricular activities. Students in flex schools progress as they demonstrate mastery in most courses. In some courses, particularly those with teachers at a distance, they may remain part of a virtual cohort.

In short, rotation schools add some online learning to what otherwise may look like a traditional school while flex schools start with online learning and add physical supports and connections where valuable. As a result, the potential for innovation is higher in flex schools.
Click here to read my complete post and find out why I believe there are four big benefits of flex models.

Guest Commentary: Bryan Setser's Advice to Governors with State-Led Virtual Schools

Bryan Setser is well known in the virtual education community. He is the former leader of the the North Carolina Virtual School. He has won numerous national awards for his work developing and expanding online learning opportunities. Currently, he is  CEO of Setser Group which focuses on cultivating blended learning programs; guiding leadership coaching and evaluation, and promoting new school model design.
Recently, Setser wrote an article "4 Steps for Governors to Turn a State Virtual School Into Services Provider," which boldly asked, "Who will be the first Governor with the guts to turn their state virtual school into a virtual services provider?"
"The services could be virtual district/school incubation, professional development, light virtual services, and consulting (coaching and training). Work with the legislature could re-organize the funding streams to provide more local control with incentives to utilize new technologies and funding models," he wrote.
Click here to read the steps Setser believes need to be taken to make this shift happen.

Michael B. Horn: Colorado's Crummy Policies Lead to Crummy Virtual Schools

An investigation of Colorado’s full-time virtual schools has revealed some dubious results and practices, which led the state’s Senate President to call for an emergency audit of all of Colorado’s virtual schools.
But the state shouldn’t be shocked by the report. As the truism goes, you get what you pay for.
Colorado’s policy environment incentivizes exactly what it’s getting from its full-time virtual schools—and arguably not just its virtual schools, but all of its schools statewide.
The biggest problem is this: It pays a school all of its funds on a “count day” on October 1 based on the number of students enrolled on that day. If students leave afterward, the original school keeps the funds. If students enroll elsewhere, the new school receives no funds.
This incentivizes providers to enroll students, but there are few incentives in place to focus on what happens after that. As a result, a significant number of online providers seem to have followed these incentives and done exactly what Colorado paid them to do. The end result isn’t pretty for students, as a great number of them allegedly leave soon after the count day and enroll back in district schools if they enroll elsewhere at all.
Some are using this to bash all online learning, as well as for-profit providers that are seizing this revenue-making opportunity (as many such providers did in higher education), but in so doing, these critics are missing the point.
As I’ve written numerous times, studying whether online learning is more or less effective than traditional learning is invariably asking the wrong question. Online and blended learning have the potential to dramatically transform our education system by being able to individualize for each student’s distinct learning needs, but whether it does so will have a lot to do with policy—whether we change the incentives and focus not on merely serving students and micro-managing the inputs, but instead focusing on the student outcomes and leaving behind an antiquated factory-model system for a student-centric one.
Click here to read my complete post on this. And you know what the biggest shame in all of this? By focusing on the wrong part of the story, it may set back our opportunity to leverage the rise of digital learning to transform our system into the student-centric one that each student deserves

Tom Vander Ark: What the Connections Acquistion Means

Pearson is going to acquire Connections Education. I know both companies well and think this is a great combination.

Connections is another success story for Sterling Partners, backers of Laureate, Sylvan. Peter Cohen, President of Pearson’s School Group, came from Sterling/Sylvan and was on the board at Connections before joining Pearson about three years ago.
Connections has been very thoughtful and transparent about the formation and relationship with nonprofit boards and in contracting relationships with district partners.
For Pearson, this transaction signals a more rapid move into school management that was anticipated.
Click here to learn why I believe this transaction is good for Pearson, Connections, and education.

Michael B. Horn: Pearson Goes Bold, Acquires Connections Education

The announcement that Pearson is acquiring Connections Education in a move that should reverberate across the field of online learning and the education world more broadly.
My fellow Liberarting Learning blog contributor Tom Vander Ark wrote an insightful post about the acquisition today that I recommend highly.
In short, I agree with Tom on several parts of this, and, in what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who reads our work, agree with him that the shift to digital learning is happening much faster than most realize—and that this transaction should raise that profile.
Click here to read my post and learn why I believe this move should open up more room for education entrepreneurs

Tom Vander Ark: Strategies for Starting a Virtual School

Do students in your district have access to online courses on a full and part time basis? Is your district offering them? A recent survey suggests that more than half of U.S .districts claim them are developing online options.
States and districts are approaching digital learning in different ways. Iowa is way behind in online learning in terms of statewide options, but has one of the highest percentage of 1:1 districts in the country (about a third of the 357).
It may be time for your district to develop an virtual school or build an online learning partnership. Click here for a half a dozen strategies that you can mix and match.

Guest Commentary: One Teacher's View of the Highs and Lows of Virtual School

Rian Meadows, an economics instructor at Florida Virtual School, recently sat down with a writer from MindShift, a NPR/Argo Network website the focuses on technology is revolutionizing education.
In the interview, Meadows talks about moving from the traditional classroom to a virtual one. She is frank about the positive and negatives of teaching online. She also is blunt about the responsibilities teachers and students have when the classroom is virtual.
Click here to read the complete interview.

It's National School Choice Week

That's right, it's a time to reflect on the progress of the school choice movement and rededicate efforts to move forward.
Liberating Learning blog contributor Lisa Graham Keegan helped pioneer the school choice movement in Arizona. In 1990, an organization called Arizona Business Leaders for Education (ABLE) created a state plan for education reform. Key components of that plan were public report cards for schools, student testing and school choice.
Click here to read more about ABLE and Graham Keegan's memories of this fledgling effort.
Christina Martin is another Liberating Learning blog contributor. Martin is a policy analyst for the School Choice Project at the Cascade Policy Institute. This week, Martin writes, the institute has several events to increase awareness and build support for school choice.
Click here to read about them.
The Georgia Public Policy Foundation, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was a pioneer in the push to expand education choices in Georgia. The foundation is one of about a dozen organizations that will gather at the state's capitol on Jan. 25 for a school choice celebration and rally. Click here for more information.
The Center of Education Reform is another early advocate for school choice and provides a wealth of information about choice and other education reform issues. This week, the center is featuring a series of lunchtime (noon Eastern) interactive events that focus on school choice issues.
On Jan. 27, the center's series spotlights "A Virtual Choice," and features Mickey Revenaugh, senior vice president of Connections Academies and board vice chair of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). Click here for a complete list of all programs.
There are lots of events this week, and also sure to be lots written about school choice and the virtual education movement. The Liberating Learning website will keep you informed on it all. In the meantime, for more information on National School Choice Week, click here to find an event or to learn more about the movement.

Guest Commentary: Head of Nevada Virtual Academy Says Online Schools Can Save Money for States

Mike Kazek is Head of School at the Nevada Virtual Academy. In an op-ed in the Reno Gazette Journal, Kazek wrote that virtual education "is just the answer Nevadans are looking for to provide students with a quality and affordable education" during these economic challenging times.
How so?
According to Kazek, Nevada Virtual Academy, which is open to students throught the state, "doesn't receive local funding, provides all students with a computer, and all necessary equipment -- including lab materials, books and one-on-one teacher support."
That's just the beginning.
Click here to read Kazek's complete article

Guest commentary: AEI's Charles Murray on Using Technology to Transform Education

"In an age when teenagers master complex video games, track down arcana on the Web in a blinding flurry of keystrokes, pull things out of their cell phones that their parents never knew were in there and love every bit of it, we make them put all that aside at the classroom door. We tell them to sit quietly in groups of 25 or 30 and usually (with apologies to the many brilliant teachers who are out there) listen to a mediocre presentation of an uninspired curriculum," writes Charles Murray, the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
In the Washington Times op-ed, Murray adds, "the potential of ... virtual schools to transform secondary education exists."
Click here to read the entire article.

Guest Commentary: The Viewpoint of a Virtual Teacher

Oregon's Jane Bartosz spent 15 years teaching in a traditional classroom. She wanted a change. So she decided to try teaching online.
She joined Oregon Connections Academy six years ago. As Bartosz puts it, "I made a choice that works for me."
It is also a choice that works for Bartosz's students.
"I'm more able to tailor my teaching to meet the individual needs of students, whether they're struggling to catch up or happen to be in the gifted category. There are weekly live lessons where I connect directly with students, and there's lots of one-on-one time over the phone and email," she writes.
There are many voices heard in the debate over virtual education. Too often, the voices of teachers are not heard.
Bartosz isn't wearing rose-colored glasses when it comes to virtual education. Still, she is positive about its future.
Read her complete post here.

My Virtual Schools Op-ed that was Banned in Boston

A few weeks ago, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education established a series of restrictions that are sure to slow the growth of any virtual schools that open in that state.
The board voted to cap enrollment of online schools at 500 students. It also requires that 25 percent of the online school's students live in the district operating the school.
I wrote an op-ed about this misguided decision and submitted it to the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. Neither paper chose to publish it.
Here is a link to the article. Read it and tell me what you think. Let me know why you think the Globe and the Herald were afraid to publish this.

Mass. "Innovation" Regulations Block True Innovation

Worst online learning law in America. That's what I wrote about this month's action by a Massachusetts state board's action that places restrictions on virtual schools that want to open in that state.


As the incoming chair of the International Association of K-12 Online learning (iNACOL), I am insulted by this dramatic assault on parent/student choice. Please read my entire blog entry on this matter.


Also, please take time to read the letter written by Susan Patrick, the director of iNACOL wrote to the comission of this Massachusetts education board

Oregon Board of Education Continues to Look at Virtual Charter School Issue

Oregon parents voiced their frustration to the state Board of Education about hurdles local school districts appear to be placing in front of children who want to participate in the Oregon Virtual Academy.

Parents told the board that is difficult to get the required release from the local school district so their children can enroll in the virtual school.

What’s more, parents must reapply for the release every year they choose to keep their children in the virtual school. They said some districts have denied reenrollment permission even after a child, who struggled in a traditional school, has shown improvement in the virtual school.

Watch the parents’ testimony and the board’s response. One interesting note: the board’s chairman said “virtual charter schools could become a more front-and-center issue in Oregon’s education policy in the next 5 to 7 years.”

The move to online classrooms

In 2008, when Liberating Learning Blog contributor Michael B. Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, began promoting his book, people told him that he was nuts to say that “by 2019” projections show “50 percent of all high school courses will be online.”

Something happened. A few months later, people told Horn he was nuts because the 2019 date was “way too conservative.” Change, he was told, was happening a lot faster than he and his co-author realized.

This wide-ranging, 2009 discussion is part of San Diego-based High Tech High School’s Graduate School of Education “Education Unboxed Speaker Series.” In the video, Horn talks about how online learning, hybrid education models and how online learning is a big opportunity to get effective teachers to the right student.

Guest Commentary: Taking sides in the distance learning debate

Education Week writer Ian Quillen acknowledges that when he started covering the education and technology, “I entered this beat assuming most supporters of online education would fall into the progressive/liberal camp.”

His assumptions were short-lived.


Quillen found that distance learning has its advocates—and some distracters—on both ends of the political spectrum. In an essay on EdWeek’s “Digital Directions” blog, Quillen tries to sort it all out.

Ensuring Every Student has Access to Online Learning

Susan Patrick, president and chief executive of the iNACOL, the international association for K-12 online learning, writes, "In an era of shrinking budgets and with an increasing need for students to be globally-competitive, online and blended learning solutions are expanding student access to high-quality courses and programs."

She's right.

From the rural ranches in Idaho to gritty urban schoolyards in the Northeast, kids who once could only dream of having access to advanced math and lit classes, now how these educational opportunities at the click of a power up switch.

Technology is changing education, Patrick says. "Online learning is expanding access to courses in K-12 education and providing a new network of highly qualified teachers to schools and students in under served communities."

Read more of Patrick's essay that was first published by the Computer Using Educators of BC.