Charter Schools
EdTech
EdTech 10: Dads, Dollars & Digital Learning
Before you run to the store for a bottle of cologne and the usual golf polo for your Dad take a few minutes to catch up on this week’s edtech happenings.
Leadership
Developing Character, Courage & College Readiness
The Kerm Family Foundation recently convened several organizations that are reevaluating student character development and better preparing their students for college. DSST, Great Hearts, and Educational Enterprises are networks with well developed charter development programs.
Leadership
Good Work: Iterating & Innovating At Scale
Four leaders had, by eight years ago, achieved a career crowning accomplishment of running a great school. None were satisfied. Each saw more opportunity to help boost youth success. They viewed blended learning as an chance to innovate and iterate. Unlike superficial Tinkering Toward Utopia, these leaders are engineering powerful learning pathways. Driven by a passion for impact at scale, leaders like Diane, Marcy, Tom and JoAnn are transforming U.S. education.
Personalized Learning
Charter School Authorizing 2.0
Within the richness and diversity of the ed reform sector, the practice of charter school authorizing isn’t the trendiest. However, the multitude of charter school authorizers in Michigan is leading to a paradigm shift of authorizing in the mitten state.
Ed Policy
Authorizing Great Schools & Encouraging New Models
The good news is that, "More authorizers are adopting practices that will lead to high-performing charter portfolios," according to NACSA in a report released todary, The State of Charter School Authorizing. They concluded that "States are improving their laws and policies on charter accountability, and some are breaking new ground in holding authorizers accountable for outcomes of their work
Ed Policy
What’s the Point of More Charters?
An elementary school principal asked Charter Schools? Why, Exactly? Following are five answers to his question.
Personalized Learning
Smart Cities: Raleigh/Durham
Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the nation’s largest R&D center with 7,000 acres and 170 companies including DuPont, Glaxo, IBM, EMC as well as NIH, EPA, and CDC. The triangle refers to three top-notch universities: Duke in Durham, UNC In Chapel Hill, and NC State in Raleigh. There’s also NC Central (an HBCU), a leader in biomanufacturing.
Personalized Learning
Rocky Mount NC: Where Rocketship Meets Carpe Diem
A year ago Doug Haynes made a recommendation to the board of Rocky Mount Prep to adopt a blended learning plan modeled after the Rocketship elementary model and the Carpe Diem high school. The board asked him to become CEO and implement the plan…over the summer.
Leadership
Detroit: Pulling Out of the Death Spiral
“The Motor City’s traditional district remains the worst-performing big-city school operator in both the Midwest and the nation,” reported RiShawn Biddle. “With 69 percent of its fourth-graders and 57 percent of eighth-graders being functionally illiterate in 2011, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Detroit has become infamous for perpetuating educational neglect and malpractice.” Biddle notes, “the district’s financial mismanagement has been even more spectacular.”
Personalized Learning
Rocketship to Open 8 Blended Learning Schools in Nashville
Rocketship Education announces its plan to open and operate eight public charter schools in Nashville, starting in the fall of 2014, under its charter authorized by the Achievement School District (ASD). Rocketship has been approved by the ASD to open an additional eight schools in Memphis.