Archive
element:what
A New Bumper Sticker: My Student is More Proficient Than Your Student!
How do we serve the parents like my neighbor who want to be involved in their student’s education but don’t understand the changes that are occurring? Some say it will take a minimum of three generations before the changes we are proposing become the expected classroom culture. Regardless of whether it takes a single school year or several generations, what we need to remember is that we are on this course for a long time.
Placement Exams: The Hidden Gateway
While many have focused on ACT and SAT, the tests that drive attendance at selectives (a small percentage of post secondary students), there has been little attention paid to placement exams—the real hurdle in the system for young adults that want to earn college credit. JFF just released a must read report, Where to Begin? The Evolving Role of Placement Exams.
NRC Report Highlights Importance of Deeper Learning
While the NRC definition of deeper learning purportedly shifts from "21st century skills" to broader "21st century competencies" including skills, knowledge, and expertise, the definition seems accurate - but a bit shallow.
The Online High School Graduation That Was: My View From The Trenches
Utah Connections Academy (UCA) Inaugural Graduating Class of 2012 - eight eager faces, eyes sparkling with a sense of pride and accomplishment - for many of them an accomplishment that would not have happened without the transforming powers of digital learning.
3 Signs of Quality You Should Look For In Instructional Content
The future will bring amazingly better instructional content for teacher and student use. If the market notices key signs of this, then more effective, comprehensive content will be broadly and rapidly adopted, to the benefit of teaching and learning. I believe there’s three signs the market should be looking for.
Graduation Reflections From an Edreform Pioneer
Back in 2003, my family took a chance. It was a big one. Not like changing to soy milk or getting a pet snake. Not anything like that. We put our kids in a new school.
Hillary’s Graduation Success Story
AdvancePath Academics, Inc., a national provider of alternative learning environments for at-risk high school students, works in partnership with School Districts across the U.S. AdvancePath has proudly supported the mission of the San Juan Unified School District since 2010, with the opening of its first Academy at Encina Preparatory High School. This Q&A reveals Hillary Brandt's graduation success story.
10 Must-Haves to Lift Us from the Grading Quagmire
Converting existing schools to a competency-based environment can be a monumental challenge. At the top of the list of controversial items is grading—the old A-F system imprinted in our brains. There are 10 edtech advances that will help make the competency-based environments easier to manage.
Common Core Will Save Not Cost Billions
Common Core State Standards lift expectations and create opportunity to compare results and share tools—a terrific set of benefits that America will reap for years. Fordham released a report today on the Cost of Implementing the Common Core. They concluded that states could save about $1 billion if they take full advantage of digital assessments and materials.
From Chronology to Competency
This competency-based stuff sounds logical—kids should learn what they’re supposed to learn and show what they know—but tradition runs pretty deep. Parents that want their kid to have the best shot at a good college believe grade point is everything and they want junior to have the ability to earn that A with a little extra credit. The shift to competency rather than chronology as the foundational element of our education system is a more complicated shift than the tradition to digital. Here’s ten blogs on the subject of competency-based learning from the last 8 weeks.