Primavera, an Arizona Online Success Story
Primavera is Arizona's largest school serving more than 5000 students statewide. It serves primarily upper division students seeking an alternative pathway to graduation. Primavera has been helping Arizona students graduate for a decade. It’s a homegrown academic success story.
Webinar: The Comprehensive Assessment Consortia
Two state consortia—Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium—are hard at work putting ambitious designs in place for new assessment systems. They have released materials and will soon select contractors to build assessments and the infrastructure to support them. What do their current plans look like?
SmartTech Roundup: Deals, OER, Tablets, & Awards
Interesting Deals Countering all the Knewton press, Blackboard launched Blackboard Developmental Education to improve student outcomes and completion rates. DevEd was developed in partnership with American Education (A+), a company acquired by K12 last year. Atlanta investor Richard Smyth spent 2010 gaining control of a public company.  Last January he launched…
Welcome to the Post Textbook World: Ten Elements
A friend asked what I thought about Jay Mathew’s post on textbooks. I thought the rear view mirror critique of a process to pick better textbooks read more like a 1982, not a 2012 discussion – and certainly not the 2015 conversation we should be having.
Good Work: Persistence
Bill is one of the millions of people that are unemployed, underemployed, or facing employment insecurity. Folks like Bill give it their all and serve their customers or families with a smile, yet find themselves in lousy situations uncertain of their future in a plodding globalized economy. His persistence is rooted an identity as strong as the foundation of his cabin and grounded in beliefs shaped during his Jesuit education. Bill is persistent, constant to a purpose even in the face of adversity.
Common Core Launches Avalanche of Innovation
Common Core State Standards provide a national platform for innovation. For the first time, content developers can invest for a national market. The Core has triggered a wave of investment in engaging, personalized learning content and tools.
Staff Picks: How We Find Our News
This last week, many of our readers and partners have asked: Where do you gather your information? Well, we thought we'd share that with you! Below are our top picks for getting the front-line news.
ProProfs Training Creates Advanced Web-Based Courses
ProProfs launched ProProfs Training, a new tool aiming to make online training much easier for non-tech-savvy teachers and educators. ProProfs Training is a brand new web-based software that allows anyone to easily create advanced multi-media online courses.
STEM Education Takes Off With Fly to Learn
Students in the Fly to Learn program learn STEM fundamentals through the design, construction, flight, and performance evaluation of virtual airplanes. X-Plan incorporates realistic laws of physics found in the field, which fosters the beginnings of critical thinking and problem solving found in aviation careers.
California Reports Charter Schools Deliver Positive Impact for Low-Income Students
The California Charter School Association (CCSA) released today its second annual Portrait of the Movement: How Charters are Transforming California Education report, detailing academic performance of California's charter schools. The report finds that low-income students continue to be well-served by charters; and confirms that charters are having a positive impact on delivering high student achievement.