K-12 Blended Learning Profiles of Emerging Models

This paper profiles 40 organizations that have blended or have plans to blend online learning with brick-and-mortar classrooms. These represent a range of operators, including state virtual schools, charter management organizations, individual charter schools, independent schools, districts, and private entities. The organizations profiled in this paper are not a "top 40" list. Thousands of other schools are currently participating in blended learning and may have superior programs. Furthermore, this report does not provide a comprehensive market analysis, but rather a survey that offers a more intimate look at a small sample, with the intention to identify emerging models. Included in this report are: (1) List of programs by model; (2) Technology wish list; and (3) Policy wish list. (Contains 12 figures.)

Staker, H. (2011). The rise of K–12 blended learning profiles of emerging models. Boston, Singapore, Switzerland: Innosight Institute. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535181.pdf

Digita learning report

This national study examines the state of digital learning today and highlights the need for high-quality, actionable data on the digital learning tools and methods students use. Student choice at the state level, student choice at the course level, and the existence and strength of charter school laws are three predictors of how strong a state’s digital learning opportunities are likely to be. Overall, more students than ever before have access to digital learning opportunities, including online and blended learning, but state policies and other factors often limit digital learning’s availability.
The researchers outlined four main reasons schools are increasingly incorporating digital learning opportunities into teaching and learning:
1. Improving student access to a variety of schooling options
2. Ensuring that students reach their maximum achievement levels
3. Increasing technology skills, which parents, teachers, and stakeholders believe to be essential for college- and career-ready students
4. Reducing costs
Most school districts use digital learning tools and resources, but the extent, type, and goal of that use vary widely.
Different grades use digital content and tools differently, too, according to the report:

• High schools tend to offer fully online courses and many forms of digital content.
• Elementary schools tend to offer self-paced interactive activities that are topic-focused and collaborative
• Middle schools are a hybrid of high schools and elementary schools, in which younger middle school students are more likely to use interactive and skill-based lessons, while older middle school students use other forms of digital content and begin venturing into online learning opportunities

Evergreen Education Group. (2014).  Keeping Pace with K-12 Digital Learning.
http://kpk12.com/
 

KIPP Charter Schools Receive More Tax Dollars

A new nationwide study researchers found that the KIPP network, one of the fastest-growing and most academically successful charter groups, has received more taxpayer dollars per student than regular public schools. By analyzing Department of Education databases for the 2007-8 school year, researchers determined that the KIPP network received $12,731 in taxpayer money per student, compared with $11,960 at the average traditional public school and $9,579, on average, at charter schools nationwide. The study said that KIPP also generated $5,760 per student from private donors, based on a review of KIPP’s nonprofit filings with the Internal Revenue Service. KIPP officials dispute the report, saying it significantly overstates the amount per student that the network receives from both public and private sources.

Western Michigan University, March 2011, PDF link here

Charter school teacher retention study

Teachers at charter schools are more than twice as likely to leave the profession as their peers at traditional public schools, according to a new study. Charter school teachers tend to be younger than teachers at traditional schools, and less likely to have standard certification, according to the study. The implication is that they’re more likely to see teaching as a temporary gig en route to another career. The schools, generally located within poorly performing neighborhoods and districts, also tend to enroll more challenging students than the bulk of traditional schools.

National Center on School Choice.(2010). Teacher turnover in charter schools. Nashville: Author.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/documents/briefs/brief_stuit_smith_ncspe.pdf

American education reports

The Brookings Institution published three reports on American education. One shows that the gender gap is closing in mathematics performance, but that boys are falling behind on reading. Two other reports focus on California education. One shows that low-performing schools usually do not improve over time. In examining California charter schools, conversions look more like traditional public schools than start-up charters.
Brookings Institution. (2010). Brown Center Report on American Education.
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0317_education_loveless.aspx

Urban and rural school test scores report

Urban Schools Test Scores Are Encouraging
Part of a new report has compared large urban schools to rural and suburban counterparts in the same state and found encouraging improvement. The report points to a range of explanations for improvements that include the rise of accountability systems; urban school reform strategies; and the growth of mayoral control over city schools.
Brown Center on Education Policy. (2009). The 2008 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2009/0225_education_loveless/0225_education_loveless_release.pdf

Chart schools report

This fifth annual report by Education Week examines the leadership challenges facing the nation's rapidly growing charter school sector. It includes new research on the characteristics of charter school principals, and the pressing issues they face.
Education Week. (2008). Leading for learning.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/wallace/index.html

California drop-out study

The roughly 120,000 California students who each year fail to earn a high-school diploma before they turn 20 are costing the state $46.4 billion over the course of their lives, owing to their greater rates of unemployment, crime, welfare and state-funded medical care, as well as lost tax-revenues, according to a California Dropout Research Project report.

California's alternative charters have highest dropout rates
Only 25 California high schools, or 1%, produce more than 20% of its dropouts, and most of those are schools that specialize in students having trouble in traditional schools. "Is the school doing a bad job, or are the kids at risk anyway no matter what setting they're in?" asked researcher Russell Rumberger. "If that many kids are dropping out, it's unlikely that you're doing a good job."
Rumberger, R. (2008). California Dropout Research Project. Santa Barbara: UC SB.
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/

Charter schools study

Report: Charters improve more rapidly but still trail in achievement
California charter schools may be improving at a faster pace than traditional public schools, but they continue to trail regular public schools in academic achievement and ELL programs, according to a new University of Southern California report. The report aimed to gauge "academic momentum" and "school productivity," not just test scores.
Los Angeles Times (5/4)