Archive
element:what
10 Elements of Competency-Based Learning
Students should meet learning expectations and show what they know. Competency-based systems are fundamentally different than traditional batch processing by birthday. Here's 10 elements of a blended and performance-based system.
Improving Urban Education Options: A Digital Portfolio Approach
There are three key strategies to improving urban schools: bring high expectations to life, create and portfolio of quality options, and phase in personal digital learning
iNACOL & Partners Launch CompetencyWorks to Further Competency Education
CompetencyWorks, a collaborative project led by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and other partners to advance competency-based education, launches today. CompetencyWorks is a place for thought leaders to share best practices, evaluate tough issues, view state policies and learn about new resources and research.
An Odd Couple of Measuring 21st Century Skills
The morning session at the Technology Enhanced Assessments conference hosted by the K12 Center at ETS and CCSSO featured what Michael Russell, Measured Progress, called a formative assessment odd couple—a messy science virtual world and a math homework helper.
Are You a Teacher-Leader?
Teachers are master problem-solvers. They learn quickly to adjust on the fly as they react boldly and deftly in a moment’s response, whether to students’ endless questions about how to and what if, to the numerous disruptions blaring from a PA system, or to adapting their lesson plans because the Internet is down…again. When it comes to their own classrooms, teachers do not hesitate to meet daily obstacles and challenges head-on. It’s their job, after all.
Teaching Opportunity: Excellence, Leadership & Student Impact
Public Impact posted summaries of how 10 different school models leverage talent. "In each of these models, teachers have career opportunities dependent upon their excellence, leadership, and student impact. Advancement allows more pay and greater reach."
College Bound Data
Combining big data sets and building and utilizing new applications will likely take philanthropic support, some app developers, and some guys like Don Munce that have been around the block a few times. Some incentive engineering like a prize could help focus and accelerate progress that would boost college completion rates and improve connections with the labor market
In the Future, Teachers Remain Key to Student Success
New technologies and 21st century students will change tomorrow’s classrooms but quality instruction will remain the most important indicator of student achievement, which is why we must invest in professional development for teachers today.
Like Fish to Water: Virtual Learners in 2012
I have worked as an online educator since 2005 – facilitating learning in a two-year online program that equips current educators with Master’s degrees in Educational Leadership and signifies their formal readiness to take on positions of leadership inside their schools or districts. Getting to know these professionals through weekly interactions over the course of two years allows me to maintain an important connection to “real” schools and the students they serve as I fulfill other professional roles as an education policy researcher and consultant.
Rick Hess Says Edupreneurs Need to Be Thought Leaders
Rick Hess, the edpolicy maven at Education Week, published an article this week that looked at the roles of edupreneurs in the education marketplace. He argues that unlike entrepreneurs in other markets, edupreneurs need to be outspoken in order to inform, persuade and motivate the public space in which education operates.