District Administration - October 2011 - (Page 46)

Building a Blended Learning Program existing budgets by restructuring resources, she says. For example, instead of textbooks and other paper-based materials, they’re using the money to purchase less expensive digital content and to train teachers to teach online. In many cases, schools are also saving money by not having to run summer school courses, as students can recover credits online during the school year. Horn says another shift that can save districts dollars is to use personnel differently. He points to the KIPP collegepreparatory public schools, whose blended classes have allowed them to increase student-to-teacher ratios from 23-to-one to 28-to-one. “You don’t have to cut back on services even though you use fewer teachers,” he says. In some districts, federal funds are still coming to the rescue. Because of its phenomenal track record of increasing graduation rates from 63 percent in 2008 to 83 percent in 2011, the Osceola School District in Kissimmee (Fla.) was able to continue its blended learning program through a $2.3 million 21st Century Community Learning Center grant awarded last year. The grant helped fund after-school programs in the district’s seven high schools, says Beth Rattie, director of high school education and alternative programs. Using content from PLATO Learning, the program runs credit recovery, grade forgiveness (where students retake a course for a better grade) and supplemental programs in both Face-to-Face Driver and Online Lab models. For other districts, a blended learning program is turning out to be a sustainable win-win budgetwise. The Los Altos (Calif.) Unified School District began a blended learning pilot with online content from the Khan Academy, which offers a library of more than 2,400 free videos and practice exercises on a range of academic subjects. The district implemented the program in the fall of 2010, integrating math content, which was the most fully developed course area in the Khan offerings, into three fifthgrade classes and one seventh-grade class, with a goal of helping teachers differentiate 46 October 2011 I Key Considerations in Blended n THE PAST fIVE yEARS AS CEO Of THE International Association for K-12 Online Learning, I have witnessed tremendous growth in the use of online learning as a solution for today’s students. In recent years, there is a new trend taking the best instructional models and technology tools from student-centered, online courses and bringing the designs and flexibility that online learning affords into our brick-andmortar classrooms. In the next five years, I expect tremendous growth in blended learning as a way for America’s school districts to confront a number of challenges—continuing budget constraints, a diminished range of course offerings, teacher shortages in hard-tostaff areas such as STEM—and to deal with ever-increasing pressure to boost performance. With so much on the line, many traditional schools are turning to online and blended learning solutions as a way to more easily scale high-quality learning for all students. We are part of an important movement; the rapid pace of enrollment growth represents the fastest mainstream adoption of any innovation in K12 education. In 1999, there were fewer than 50,000 students enrolled in online courses. Today, there are an estimated 4 million students enrolled in K12 online or blended learning programs. Research Is Necessary The U.S. Department of Education is also supportive of this growth, citing online education in the national Education Technology Plan released a year ago, and the national Broadband Plan as important innovations. Department officials understand that there is a need for more research in K12 online and blended learning to understand which interventions work best with which groups of students. The existing research is sparse. In a 2009 attempt to review existing rigorous (control group) studies in online and blended learning programs in K12 and higher education, the Education Department’s study “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies” concluded that students in online and blended learning courses outperformed students in traditional classrooms. The study cited the extended learning learning, says Superintendent Jeff Baier. The results have been increased collaboration, more personal time with teachers, and motivated fifth-graders tackling college-level math concepts. “Parents report a equivalent (FTE) amount the state pays brick-and-mortar schools per student, but beginning this school year, budget cuts mean that she will only receive 90 percent of what her traditional counterparts do. “you don’t have to cut back on services even though you use fewer teachers.” —Michael Horn, co-author, “The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning” report lot more conversations about math around the dinner table,” says Baier. But not all blended learning models are economic successes. At WAAT, Cruse is concerned that state policymakers may not understand the expenses involved in her blended model, which rents and staffs drop-in centers in strip malls to provide students with the computer access, teachers and mentors many need for times when they encounter academic or motivation “hiccups” in their online courses. To date, Cruse has received the same full-time Staff Skill Sets USDLA’s Flores, who is also dean at the Fischler School of Education and Human Resources at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, says requisite skills for successful blended learning teachers include the ability to challenge students with higherorder thinking through such methods as inquiry-based assignments, and the ability to offer many opportunities for support, such as responding to student emails within 24 to 48 hours. LeVasseur says teachers who are District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2011

District Administration - October 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Transportation Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Building a Blended Learning Program
How Are Science Fairs Fairing?
A New Age for Algebra
Early College High Schools
Changing of the Guard in Florida
CIO News
How Much Computing Power Do You Need?
An Unconventional Approach to 1:1
New Books
Problem/ Solution
Research Center
Product Focus
New Products
Professional Opinion
Going Mobile
Online Edge

District Administration - October 2011

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