Personalized Learning
On capital budgeting and innovation
You may recall a boring unit on capital budgeting if you took a finance class in college. Your prof may have failed made the connection, but primary source of innovation is the capital accumulation and allocation decisions to produce a product/service that solves a customer problem. School districts raise…
Personalized Learning
Investment follows incentives (edu doesn't have them)
The National Journal guest hosts asked “what are the essential components of an effective innovation, research, development, and dissemination infrastructure in education?”  The question begged for a bureaucratic answer  and blog responses went all over the place, but I think most folks missed the boat on this one.
Personalized Learning
The first online course
Rita Dove was US Poet Laureate in the early 90’s. Â The First Book captures the magic of the lightbulb that comes with reading comprehension. Â This week I asked 1000 friends at iNACOL to imagine the online learning experience that for students yielded the same sensation…and the end of…
Personalized Learning
Embarrassing profitability
A six year old company with revenue of $120m and more than 10% in operating income (more than 15% EBITDA) has carefully invested capital and efficiently managed growth. Â They provide innovative services and produce outstanding customer results. Â The company is worth 15 times what the owners invested. Â They have…
Personalized Learning
iNACOL advancing online learning
The Virtual School Symposium, hosted by iNACOL, is Mon-Tues in Austin. Â I joined the board because 1) we’re within reach of being able to offer quality learning to every student in American and iNACOL will take us over the finish line. Â Hold out states like NY that don’t…
Personalized Learning
The blended world
Our kids already live in a blended world. K-12 is starting to catch up with a variety of models that combine the best of online learning and onsite support. Here’s 5 trends signaling a blended singularity: Schools become blended. The biggest growth area for online learning is traditional…
EdTech
TIF or Promise?
Alyson at EdWeek contrasts the love-but-no-$ for Promise Neighborhoods and the whopping $517m for  the Teacher Incentive Fund, which allocates grants to districts to create or bolster performance-pay programs. I’m on the board of MLA Partner Schools in Los Angeles which has developed a great turnaround strategy for…
Personalized Learning
Urban showdown coming in RttT states
While bloggers were disappointed by a series of blob-friendly compromises, I’m mostly bullish on final RttT language primarily for an important clause that will result in real improvement in the nation’s worst schools. Flypaper said, “It appears high inspiration was tempered by the various and messy forces of…
Personalized Learning
Leaders & Laggards: a call to action
The Leaders and Laggards report is an important scorecard showing why, how, and where America is losing the education race. We pride ourselves on innovation but this report suggests there isn’t much of that in education. A bipartisan group of think tanks scored states on school management, finance,…
Personalized Learning
Free higher ed courses not great USED investment
Rick Hess makes a series of good arguments that the $500m ‘online skills laboratory’ isn’t a great investment. In the mixed provider post secondary space, quality content isn’t the top barrier. Â It’s pricing that reflects the sunk costs of existing institutions. Â A healthy market will make investment in…