iNACOL
Getting the Plumbing Ready for the Flood of Data
Personal digital learning will helping more students achieve higher standards. The shift will require prepared teachers, effective communications, smart tools--and really good plumbing. The initiatives mentioned above are helping to create the data infrastructure for smarter education options. But for adult learners like you and me it often feels like drinking from a fire hose.
10 Big Advances in the last 12 months
Susan Patrick, iNACOL Fifteen years ago when I was a superintendent, online learning was a new idea in K-12. Six years ago when Susan Patrick joined iNACOL as Executive Director, it represented a small but growing fringe. And now, while many reform groups continue to fight old battles,…
Union policy shop wants to stop learning online
Funded by a center fronting for Midwest teacher unions, the National Education Policy Center (let’s just call it the NEA Policy Center) in Boulder recently published a hit piece on online learning. The unstated goal of the brief is to block the rapid growth of online learning, particularly schools supported by Connections and K12.
Education Leaders Discuss Online Learning in K-12 at VSS
More than 1,800 education leaders across the country, including teachers, administrators and policymakers, convene in Indianapolis November 9-11, 2011 for the Virtual School Symposium (VSS), an annual conference hosted by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).
States and Districts Require Online Learning
Education Week reported this Monday that Tennessee and a handful of other states now require all students take at least one class online in forward-thinking policies to ready kids for the future.
iNACOL Promotes Online Learning With Education Week
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) announced Thursday that Education Week invited Vice President of Strategy and Organizational Development Matthew Wicks to discuss virtual education opportunities during a webinar September 20th on "Reaching Students With Special Needs Through E-Learning."
Demonstrated Competence
The goal of school is learning but we still manage it based on time. Students still progress a year at a time after a 180 day school year along with other kids their age. Occasionally politicians call for an end to social promotion, but just mean making struggling students repeat a grade. We didn’t really have a better way to manage matriculation in the era of data poverty.
iNACOL President & CEO Discusses Vision for Proficiency-Based Learning
David Nagel with THE Journal recently interviewed iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, President and CEO Susan Patrick about her vision to shift from a system based on seat time to proficiency- and competency-based learning models in her recent report, "Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-based Learning."
NACSA Releases Viewpoint On Authorizing Online Learning
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) released today "Authorizing Online Learning," a Viewpoint article by iNACOL President and CEO Susan Patrick and Chair Tom Vander Ark that targets key questions around authorization, enrollment and funding of online learning.
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 US districts claim them are developing online options. States and districts are approaching digital learning in different ways. …