One way that deep change in public education slides off the rails is when ideas and terms become popular without a clear definition of what they mean. This fuzzy sense of what reform really is leaves too much room for misinterpretations that play on the popularity but don’t bring the change. Innosight Institute has updated its important earlier work on the growing significance of blended instruction in American schools with a new report called Classifying K-12 Blended Learning that goes a long way in taking fuzzy to focused. Co-authors Michael Horn and Heather Staker offer up a definition and description of blended learning based on interaction with 80 organizations and more than 100 educators who commented on earlier white papers. Innosight’s definition offers some measuring points for blended instruction, which is “a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through some online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path and/or pace.” The report narrows delivery into four models: Rotation, which can appear in four different ways in schools; Flex; Self-Blend and Enriched-Virtual. While there’s variation in how much delivery is online and how much control students exert, each of the models demonstrate the power in connecting what happens online to what happens face to face as a way of informing and personalizing those encounters and the important role teachers in those face-to-face settings will continue to play.
Defining Blended Instruction
May 11th, 2012 by Revolution K12
Morning Mile Club
April 12th, 2012 by Revolution K12Due to academic and budget demands, many schools have dropped both recess and their physical education programs. However, physical exercise helps burn off excess energy and stress (which improves academic performance and classroom behavior) and also helps combat the epidemic of obesity in this country.
Students at the Apollo Beach Elementary School in the Tampa Bay area now have the opportunity to exercise before school as part of “The Morning Mile,” a club started in January by physical education teacher Wendy Smiarowski.
Students and parents meet to jog at the school’s half-mile track at 6:30 am four days a week. After completing each lap, kids collect rubber bands and put them on their wrists to keep track of how many times they’ve been around. Distances run are logged each day, and after the first five miles completed, students get a necklace and colorful foot charm. Students earn additional charms for each additional five mile segment. When — and if — participants hit 100 miles, they get a highly prized 100-mile charm and the chance to hit Smiarowski in the face with a pie during the school’s morning assembly.
After just two months, 75 students and 12 parents are participating in the program, and at least two students are on track to throw pies at Ms. Smiarowski. Most students average 2-2.5 miles per day, and one student has already lost seven pounds.
When — and if — participants hit 100 miles, they get the highly prized 100-mile charm and the chance to hit Smiarowski in the face with a pie during the school’s closed circuit morning show.
For additional information on the program visit MorningMile.com.
Arts Education Leads to Improved Test Scores
March 30th, 2012 by Revolution K12Loyola University recently released results from a study that examined the effects of arts education on test scores at three Chicago-area schools.
The particular arts education curriculum used was provided by the non-profit Changing Worlds. The art program begins with students exploring their own identity and culture, then interviewing community residents and relatives, and finally delving deeper into world cultures. Along with producing visual art, dance and drama from their findings, students also submit written work.
The study found that fourth graders who started with the program in 2009 saw an 11.5 percentage point gain in composite test scores meeting or exceeding state standards by the time they finished the arts program in sixth grade in 2011. They also scored on average more than 11 percentage points higher than fourth through sixth graders classmates who did not take part in the program.
Chicago Public Schools are expanding their school day by 140 minutes per day beginning next year. CPS officials have suggested that 140 minutes should be devoted to enrichment activities like the arts, physical education and intervention or acceleration programs and has offered $100,000 grants to schools that come up with innovative ways to fill the extra 90 minutes of instruction.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
Parental Involvement and Student Achievement
March 9th, 2012 by Revolution K12It should come as no surprise, but parental involvement correlates with higher grade-point averages, according to “A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement,” a publication that reviewed 51 separate studies. This involvement was measured in both 8th grade and 12th grade.
In 8th grade involved parents do things like limit television viewing to make time for studies, express expectations about grades, provide outside music and art lessons, volunteer for school fundraisers, communicate with teachers, etc. In 12th grade involved parents are still supervising study behavior, communicating with their student about class choices and academic performance, and volunteering at the school. But they are also helping their student apply for colleges and scholarships or just helping them choose what challenge to take on after graduation.
Though parents may find it more difficult to stay engaged as their children advance to high school, the benefit of parental involvement appears to be worth the challenge.
To help parents and schools as they endeavor to increase parental involvement, Sherri Wilson, senior manager of family engagement of the National PTA, has recently organized National Take Your Family to School Week with such events as teacher-parent breakfasts, game nights and workshops for applying to college.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
Teacher Turns Cancer into a Learning Experience
March 5th, 2012 by Revolution K12In an inspiring story, a Colorado elementary school teacher has used her real-life battle with cancer as a teaching opportunity with her students. Pam Pottorff, a third-grade teacher at Larkspur Elementary School, was diagnosed with cancer early in the school year and has undergone both surgery and radiation.
She talked about her experience with her students and about never giving up. She shared her family history with the disease that includes a father and two siblings who experienced cancer.
Fifteen students were inspired to donate their hair to Locks of Love, and Ms. Pottorff also organized a fundraising event where students could donate money for the chance to wear pajamas to school for the day. The school raised over $700 to go towards purchasing special skin-care products for patients to use who are undergoing radiation treatments, which can give a type of “sunburn.” Recently the entire school held an assembly (all clad in pink) to celebrate her final radiation treatment.
Read more about this story here on the Denverpost.com.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
Real Life Field Trips for High-Poverty Students
February 27th, 2012 by Revolution K12A high poverty school in New York City has taken a novel approach to field trips to help narrow the gap for their students. P.S. 142 is a school where almost all students qualify for free lunch. Many of these students lack the shared experiential knowledge that makes for better reading comprehension. For instance, many have never visited a zoo or even been inside a car.
Instead of attempting to improve test scores by teaching children to decode and read sooner, the principal of P.S. 142, Rhonda Levy, is taking a different approach. Working with Renée Dinnerstein, an early childhood specialist, she has made real life experiences the center of academic lessons, in hopes of improving reading and math skills by broadening children’s frames of reference.
Many lessons are built around “sidewalk field trips,” where the students literally walk to locations within a few blocks on their school. Students have visited an auto repair shop (where several students sat in a car for the first time), the Essex Street Market, the subway, several bridges, a hospital emergency room, and a municipal parking garage. They spend time before their excursions discussing what they expect to see and making predictions. Then they discuss and debrief afterwards.
Read more about the experiences of P.S. 142 in this New York Times article.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
Kids Learn by Creating Their Own Tutoring Videos
February 25th, 2012 by Revolution K12Move over, Khan Academy! Teacher Joe Ferrante, who teaches in Jesuit High School near Sacramento, California, is using a novel approach to help stimulate interest and cement the concepts taught in his algebra classes. Ferrante originally created a series of YouTube videos that showed him outlining solutions to math problems. He then decided to flip the model by having students create their own videos.
Rather than having the school purchase expensive equipment, Ferrante has students use their own Flip cameras or smartphones to create the videos. Each student creates their own YouTube channel and partners with another student to collaborate, create and critique their videos.
Students’ learning has increased as they learn to verbalize their thought processes. And it is creating a window into how well students are mastering concepts. Ferrante is particularly noticing how students seem to be catching their own mistakes and self-correcting.
Each week, students upload their best video for viewing by their classmates, and at the end of the semester, each student will choose ten videos to be graded on.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
Income Gap Widens
February 22nd, 2012 by Revolution K12
Education policy makers have focused for years on narrowing the gap in regards to achievement and race. But while the achievement gap between black and white students has narrowed significantly over the past decade, there is a growing income gap.
A recent study from Stanford University shows that the income gap is 40% wider than it was in the 1960s. Another study by researchers at the University of Michigan has found that the imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion — the single most important predictor of success in the work force — has grown by about 50 percent since the late 1980s. Data from these studies was collected prior to 2008, so chances are that the recession has widened the gap even further.
Education has long been looked to as the answer to poverty. Our system is supposed to give less advantaged children a chance to improve their chances of success as adults and break the cycle for future generations.
The connection between income inequality among parents and the social mobility of their children has been a focus of President Obama as well as some of the Republican presidential candidates.
Some researchers believe that the main reason for the gap is that wealthy parents invest more time and money in their children (private tutors, music lessons, weekend sports, etc.) while lower-income families, which are often headed by a single parent, lack the time and resources for these education-boosting activities.
Others claim that conclusion is much too simplistic. Parental involvement, which is largely a function of culture, may be a bigger factor. Early life conditions and how children are stimulated play a very important role. The growing gap between the better educated and the less educated has formed a kind of cultural divide that has its roots in natural social forces, like the tendency of educated people to marry other educated people, as well as in the social policies of the 1960s, like welfare and other government programs, which he contended provided incentives for staying single.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
State Science Standards Receive Grade
February 20th, 2012 by Revolution K12The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based education think tank, recently issued “grades for state science standards across the country. The institute’s report focused on content, rigor, clarity and specificity.
Many states received poor grades because their standards were too vague. States could also receive bad grades if they weren’t supportive enough of evolution, a particular bias of the Fordham Institute. The report indicates that only four states—Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Rhode Island—openly embrace human evolution in their current science standards.
Another issue flagged by the Fordham report is the teaching of scientific inquiry. The report concludes that many states do a poor job of integrating scientific inquiry with content in their standards and fail to make the link between science and mathematics.
California and the District of Columbia, made the top grades. Both had standards that provided clear roadmaps for teachers, curriculum developers and assessment developers.
Some states have complained that an overall letter grade does not tell the complete story. Some states score very highly in physics and chemistry but not in biology, for example. Here are the grades received by state:
A: California, District of Columbia
A-: Indiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Virginia
B+: New York
B: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Utah
C: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, Vermont, Washington
D: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia
F: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Handwriting – Is it a Clue to Academic Success
February 15th, 2012 by Revolution K12Many experts believe that a student’s handwriting provides clues to his/her academic ability and also personality and emotions. There is currently a debate as regards the importance of cursive handwriting vs. typing, but most everyone agrees that writing (be it printing or cursive) is an important skill.
Florida International University has undertaken a research project regarding the importance of good penmanship to academic success. The handwriting of 1,000 second grade students has been evaluated, and those with better penmanship consistently receive better grades. In addition, past studies have shown that when teachers were given papers to evaluate, varying only in their degree of legibility, the papers with better handwriting received better grades. Students with poor handwriting may struggle with academic confidence, and those who struggle to craft letters and words may be focusing on their writing at the expense of the actual subject matter.
Though handwriting legibility is not a factor in the score received on the essay portion of the SAT, the speed of handwriting can be a factor as students struggle to finish their essay in the allotted time. Students who are used to doing all of their writing at a keyboard may struggle if they don’t prepare with actual pencil and paper.
About Revolution K12: Revolution K12 provides web-based, adaptive learning software that help middle and high school students on their path to college, including Algebra Readiness, Algebra 1, ELA Support, Geometry, State Testing, and ACT / SAT Test Prep. Our standards-aligned programs increase proficiency rates, facilitate differentiated instruction, and build student confidence. Revolution is transforming education by providing personalized student learning experiences that focus on results.
