Guest Commentary: Slicing and Dicing Digital Learning Now's Report Card

Brian Bridges is director of the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) a board member of CUE, a nonprofit, California corporation whose goal is to promote technology in education Board of Directors and a frequent commentators on the virtual education movement.
Bridges recently took a detailed look at the results of Digital Learning Now's Report Card. He was disheartened to find out that, by his calculations, California finished dead last when it comes to providing a nurturing atmosphere for expansion of digital learning opportunities.
Bridges then used this protocol and ranked all 50 states--something the Digital Learning Now Report Card didn't do. In one data base, Bridges used the 50 categories used by DLN. In another analysis, Bridges fine-tuned the DLN categories and 72 data points for his analysis. Bridges' results:
"While there are 72 data points, the highest score by any state was 49, shared by Utah and Wyoming. If we weren’t grading on a curve, both No. 1s would have 68% on our test, earning 'D' grades," Bridges wrote.
"However, given that this is a new test, one might ask if all the questions are valid, if some are more important that others, if there was a rubric indicating what is required to meet each point, or if the tests are fairly graded," he added.
Click here to read more of his analysis and to find spreadsheet showing DLN totals and a spreadsheet using Bridges 72-point database.