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Rocketship Education’s next phase: technology in a blended classroom
Palo Alto-based Rocketship Education has attracted national attention in the past few years for its innovative use of technology and impressive test scores for its largely low-income, Hispanic students. Now, as other districts and charter schools are starting to emulate the Rocketship model, which relies on computer-guided instruction as a key component, the K-5 charter school organization is considering leaving it behind, like a first-stage booster, and moving toward a different a 21st century classroom. Instead … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Equity issues, Featured, Online Learning, Reporting & Analysis
Rocketship’s cofounder departing for online learning startup
John Danner is leaving Rocketship Education, the innovative, Palo Alto-based K-5 charter school network he cofounded seven years ago, to become an entrepreneur again. He is starting an as yet unnamed company, he says, “out of my frustration that the online learning space never embraced student-centered learning, so we are going to try to do it right.” … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Online Learning, Reporting & Analysis
Silicon Valley charters get $1.7 million for ‘blended learning’
Two Bay Area charter school organizations that have ventured into “blended learning” will be the first to receive funding from newly created $25 million Silicon Schools Fund. Summit Public Schools, which runs four charter high schools, will receive $1.4 million to help open two more high schools next year in the Bay Area, and two-year-old Alpha Public Schools will get $300,000 to expand its first school, a middle school charter in San Jose. Both Summit and Alpha are doing innovative work with blended learning, which integrates technology in the classroom to foster personalized learning. This year, students in Summit’s two high schools in the San Jose area learning math at their own pace through a fluid combination of individualized computer programs, tutoring, small group lessons and larger project-based experiences. Its two new … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Quick Hits
Rocketship may ditch “learning lab” model next year
Rocketship Education charter schools, based in Palo Alto, might be eliminating their flagship “learning labs” where kids spend 90 minutes a day in front of a computer working with math and literacy software, according to a report on the PBS NewsHour. Why? Teachers say the labs just aren’t working well enough to provide them with quick and useful information on what students have learned and what should be done to add to that learning. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Quick Hits, STEM
$25 million gift to make Bay Area center for blending online instruction into school day
The scion of the Gap, Inc. fortune has jumpstarted a $25 million fund with the goal of turning the Bay Area into a national hub for blended learning, the promising school model that combines individualized online learning and face-to-face classroom instruction. With a sizable gift from John Fisher, the Silicon Schools Fund can move ahead with plans to underwrite 25 schools’ experiments in blended learning, within five years. The grants will be up to $700,000 – … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Program innovation, Reporting & Analysis, Technology
Zoning exemption for Rocketship charter riles local districts
Superintendents and school board members were angry last year when the Santa Clara County Board of Education approved plans for 20 Rocketship Education elementary charter schools over the next six years, in addition to the five county-approved Rocketship schools in the works or already open. Now, many are furious that the county board may assert its power to exempt a Rocketship school from San Jose zoning ordinances. This wouldn’t be the first time a charter authorizer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Charter Schools, Featured, Reporting & Analysis
Brown struggling to sell Prop 30 to wary voters
Rework your talking points, Governor. You risk losing the message war over Proposition 30. That’s one implication of the latest poll on Jerry Brown’s tax initiative for the November ballot. Most Californians continue to back it, but not by a comfortable majority. Pollsters are predicting a tight race to the finish. According to the online poll by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and the USC Rossier School of Education of 1,041 likely voters, 54.5 percent say … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Career Technical Education, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Online Learning, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula), Workforce preparation
It’s still true: The future tends to happen first in California
July 22nd, 2012 | 3 Comments | By Merrill Vargo / commentary
It often seems as if the rest of the nation – and certainly education policymakers in Washington – wants to avert its eyes from California. Many of the large national foundations have stopped or curtailed their investments here, and the federal government seems to have followed suit: California has yet to receive Race to the Top money, there is no word on California’s request for a waiver on NCLB, and when researchers cite “cutting-edge” work, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blended Learning, Commentary, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Online Learning, Program innovation, Race to the Top