Press Releases

WASHINGTON – In honor of National Teacher Day, Digital Learning. | Now! (DLN), a national campaign under the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd), today released the seventh DLN Smart Series interactive paper: “Improving Conditions & Careers: How Blended Learning Can Improve the Teaching Profession.”

“It’s important to confront misconceptions about what blended learning means for teachers. With thoughtful policies and purposeful implementation, the shift to blended learning can be a powerful enabler for improving the teaching profession and the success of students,” said John Bailey, executive director of DLN.
 
Technology does not replace educators, but rather empowers teachers and enhances their work. America’s K-12 education professionals could greatly benefit from well-designed blended learning models that provide unprecedented career advancement opportunities, time for collaboration and development, teacher-leadership roles, opportunities to earn higher pay, and job flexibility. The changes available through digital learning have great potential to improve teachers’ working conditions, effectiveness and reach.
 
Authored by Bailey; Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel, Co-Directors at Public Impact; Carri Schneider, director of policy and research at Getting Smart; and Tom Vander Ark, CEO at Getting Smart, “Improving Conditions & Careers” provides policymakers with a vision of blended learning that improves teaching conditions and expands career opportunities for educators.
 
“Personalized, blended learning is the solution to the problem of rising demands on teachers,”  said Vander Ark. “Time saved from thoughtful implementation of technology can be reinvested in working with students, growing professionally, collaborating with peers and developing new strengths.”
 
“If blended learning lets great teachers help more students, develop peers, and earn far more, they will show us the way to make digital learning outstanding,” said Bryan Hassel. “Even very small amounts of digital learning make job-embedded development, expanded impact, and much higher pay possible.”
 
“Improving Conditions & Careers" discusses how schools can improve their teachers’ experiences as empowered professionals while extending the reach of great teachers to impact more learners. The paper specifically explores:
The implementation of blended learning to “extend the reach” of in-person excellent teachers to more students and to teaching peers;
The ability to teach remotely, allowing great teachers to reach students anywhere and to have more flexible careers; and,
The opportunity for “boundless instruction” and expanded impact through online sharing of teacher-created content.
“This paper and accompanying infographic lay to rest the myth that blended learning is about replacing teachers with technology,” added Schneider. “Blended learning empowers great teachers and creates new opportunities for them to help students succeed.”
 
Released in partnership with Getting Smart, the DLN Smart Series is a collection of interactive white papers aimed at equipping policymakers and education leaders with the necessary tools for transforming education for the digital age. Each paper offers specific guidance regarding the adoption of Common Core State Standards and the shift to personalized digital learning. The first six papers in the series are also available for download:
Funding the Shift to Digital Learning: Three Strategies for Funding Sustainable High-Access Environments

Data Backpacks:

Portable Records & Learner Profiles
Getting Ready for Online Assessments
The Shift From Cohorts to Competency
Blended Learning Implementation Guide
Funding Students, Options, and Achievement

Use #SmartSeries and #DigLN to join the conversation, or copy and paste the sample tweets below to spread the word. Find DLN on Facebook at facebook.com/DigitalLearningNow or on Twitter at @DigLearningNow.
7th paper in @DigLearningNow #SmartSeries released today: How blended learning can improve the teaching profession http://bit.ly/UT5ozO
Catch the 7th #SmartSeries paper from @DigLearningNow discussing how #tech doesn't replace teachers but empowers them http://bit.ly/UT5ozO
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Digital Learning Now! is a national campaign under ExcelinEd with the goal of advancing state policies that will create a high-quality digital learning environment to better equip all students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in this 21st-century economy. The policy framework stems from the belief that access to high-quality, customized learning experiences should be available to all students, unbounded by geography or artificial policy constraints.

Getting Smart™ is an advocacy firm passionate about innovations in learning. We help education organizations construct cohesive and forward-thinking strategies for branding, awareness, advancement and communication, and public and media relations. We are advocates for better K-12 education as well as early, post-secondary and informal learning opportunities for all students. We attempt to accelerate and improve the shift to digital learning. On GettingSmart.com we cover important events, trends, products, books, and reports.

WASHINGTON – Today, Digital Learning Now! (DLN) released the sixth DLN Smart Series interactive paper with co-authors from Getting Smart. “Funding Students, Options, and Achievement” recognizes the economic realities of “the new normal” faced by states and districts in funding learning and proposes ways to redesign current school finance systems to center on students rather than institutions.
 
“Student-centered systems recognize diverse student needs, allow dollars to follow students to the best learning options, create mechanisms to ensure quality, and foster innovation,” said John Bailey, executive director of DLN.
 
Today’s public education finance systems were created for a bygone era. Consequently, these broken systems are locked in outdated delivery models, stifling innovation in our nation’s public education systems and ignoring the relationship between spending and student learning. We have the technology to connect each student with the schools, courses and instructors best suited to meet his or her individual needs, yet in many states, district lines and funding formulas thwart this progress.
 
“Today’s finance system lacks the flexibility needed to support the flood of educational innovation,” said Tom Vander Ark, founder and chief executive officer of Getting Smart. “Reorienting the system around students will extend equitable student access to high-quality options that have the potential to personalize and customize learning.”
 
Carri Schneider, director of policy and research at Getting Smart, stated, “The implementation of college- and career-ready standards and the shift to personal digital learning have created an unprecedented opportunity to redesign the school finance system to set students free to explore a growing slate of learning options.”
 
“Funding Students, Options, and Achievement” offers practical design principles of a student-centered funding system – tested in policy and in practice on both the state and district level. According to these principles, funding should be weighted (reflecting a student’s individual needs), flexible (keeping funds free from restrictions and program designations), portable (ensuring dollars follow students), and performance-based (rewarding performance and completion).
 
“The extent to which each student will be able to access innovations like digital learning will depend largely on the manner in which public resources are allocated to schools and students,” said Marguerite Roza, school funding expert and technical advisor on the paper. “As state leaders re-examine their finance systems, the current moment provides a key opportunity to look forward and design a system that’s suitable for our students over the next two decades.”
 
The paper concludes that evolution in the nature of teaching and learning precipitates corresponding advancements in the way education is funded. Today’s education policymakers have a unique opportunity. Powered by the growth of digital learning and with the implementation of Common Core State Standards on the horizon, these leaders can redesign current school finance systems and free students to choose the schools, educators and courses that match their needs.
 
Authored by Carri Schneider and Tom Vander Ark of Getting Smart and John Bailey of Digital Learning Now!, the principles within “Funding Students, Options, and Achievement” are designed to assist policymakers as they create student-centered finance systems to represent the changing needs of K-12 students. Education leaders and practitioners in the field are encouraged to submit comments on the draft and engage with the authors through their websites, blogs and social media.
 

Released in partnership with Getting Smart and the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the DLN Smart Series is a collection of interactive white papers aimed at equipping policymakers and education leaders with the necessary tools for transforming education for the digital age. Each paper offers specific guidance regarding the adoption of Common Core State Standards and the shift to personalized digital learning. The first five papers in the series are also available for download:

Tallahassee, Fla. – The Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) congratulates Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell for signing into law on Friday, March 22, 2013, legislation that creates an A-F school accountability system for all public schools. The A-F school grading system is part of Governor McDonnell's ALL STUDENTS initiative – a broad package of education reforms that aim to improve student learning in the Old Dominion.

“We applaud Gov. McDonnell and the General Assembly for their commitment to improving education in Virginia. The A-F school grading system will provide transparency to parents, create a command focus on learning in schools, and rally communities around education by providing clear information on how their schools are performing," said Patricia Levesque, chief executive officer of ExcelinEd.

Similar to systems already in place in Florida, 10 other states and New York City, Virginia's A-F school grading system will simplify the existing accountability system through easy-to-understand A, B, C, D and F labels. Instead of using only static student achievement data, the grading system will incorporate student learning gains for the first time in Virginia, which allows schools to be highlighted for making progress with struggling students.

In addition to the A-F grading system, a number of education reforms were signed into law on Friday, including:

The “Educator Fairness Act,” which requires annual evaluations of educators based on student learning, requires performance to be considered when making teacher layoffs, allows school boards to extend teacher probationary periods from three to five years, and ensures that underperforming teachers can be dismissed based on their unsatisfactory evaluations.
The “Strategic Compensation Fund," which creates competitive grants for districts that design incentive pay programs aimed at improving student achievement. For example, grants could be awarded to districts that create systems to reward teachers for improving student learning, transfer to low-performing schools, or teach in hard-to-staff subject areas like math and science.
Legislation that authorizes Teach for America to operate in Virginia, starting in the 2013-14 school year.
ExcelinEd applauds Gov. McDonnell for the vision laid out in his education agenda; House Majority Leader Kirk Cox, who was an integral part in shaping and advocating Gov. McDonnell’s priorities; Senator Bill Stanley and Delegate Tag Greason, who championed the A-F bills through the legislative process; and all the legislators, business leaders and supportive Virginians who turned this bold, student-focused agenda into a reality in the Old Dominion.

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The Foundation for Excellence in Education is igniting a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21st century economy.  Excellence in Action, the organization’s flagship initiative, is working with lawmakers and policymakers to advance education reform across America.Learn more at www.ExcelinEd.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Digital Learning Now! (DLN) today released the 2012 Digital Learning Report Card, which measures each of the nation’s 50 states against the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning as it relates to K-12 education. State policy plays a central role in either accelerating or constraining the scaling of next-generation models of learning.

The 2012 report shows states are advancing student-centric reforms, reducing barriers to blended learning, and encouraging the use of technology to offer a more personalized college- and career-ready education. In 2012, more than 700 bills involving digital learning were considered and more than 152 were signed into law, with nearly every state enacting a bill that advanced a digital learning policy.

“It’s encouraging to see the number of states that have put students first through legislation that helps modernize our education system for the 21st century. We need leaders in every state who are willing to make the necessary changes so that student-centered education is a reality. I am confident we can meet the challenges ahead, but only if we harness the opportunities afforded to us through technology and innovation,” said Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd).

States are racing to modernize their policy to create new opportunities for students, explore new models of learning, and provide needed infrastructure. Examples from the 2012 legislative session:

Louisiana, Georgia and Utah are leading the way in adopting “course choice” programs that offer students the option to take publicly-funded, online courses from providers approved by the state.
Massachusetts, Arizona and Iowa, among others, passed legislation designed to support competency-based models of education in which credit is awarded based on mastery instead of seat time.
Maine, Utah and Alabama, are exploring new approaches to help schools provide Internet-enabled devices for all students.
Even with the progress achieved in 2012, only six states – Utah, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Virginia, and Kansas – received an A or B, indicating that considerable work is needed to offer America’s students a high-quality digital learning experience and modernize an outdated K-12 education system for all students.

“A great deal of work is still needed to modernize an outdated K-12 education system for all students, but we have seen significant progress this past year,” said John Bailey, executive director of DLN. “The purpose of this report card is to highlight that progress, and provide states with policy examples for creating the conditions necessary to support high quality, next-generation models of learning.”

The 2012 report offers a comprehensive state-by-state analysis of laws and policies that embrace new models, utilize technology to meet the needs of all students and eliminate the barriers that inhibit innovation in K-12 education. It identifies opportunities for reform and highlights states that are making strides in offering high-quality digital learning options.

State policymakers are urged to advance bold reforms by:

Using Digital Learning to Accelerate Education Reform: Make digital learning a priority and a means by which to accelerate state education reform.
Making an Unwavering Commitment to Quality: Ensure every policy makes an unwavering commitment to quality as measured by improved student outcomes. Low-performing providers and schools should be shut down, and high-performing ones should be scaled.
Expanding Course Choice: Establish more statewide course choice programs in which states approve a portfolio of high-quality courses from multiple providers. Like teacher reciprocity, states should consider entering into agreements to recognize the courses approved in other states that use a rigorous review and approval process.
Expanding Student Eligibility: Ensure all students in the state are provided access to high-quality online courses.
Reforming Funding Streams: Reform funding models, particularly for online learning, to award completion and success instead of simply attendance. Funding should reinforce quality and improved outcomes.
Funding the Student: Fund the student instead of the system, so portions of the per-pupil funding follow the student to the course providers and schools serving them.
Embracing Competency-based Education: End the archaic practice of seat time and establish a competency-based model that requires students demonstrate mastery of the material in order to earn credit.
Creating Space for Innovation: Explore innovation waivers that allow schools to apply for regulatory relief around administrative, procurement, or instructional barriers.
Accelerating the Shift to Digital Content: Expand the definitions of textbooks and instructional resources to allow flexibility in funding digital content, online resources and Internet-access devices. Use the process of evaluating instructional resource alignment to Common Core State Standards to accelerate the adoption of digital content and resources.
Strengthening Data Collections: Improve the monitoring of implementation and outcomes through improved district surveys to better capture student enrollment and completion rates in online courses, student performance measures, blended learning implementation and adoption of competency-based models.
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State Leaders on the 2012 Report Card:

“Digital Learning Now! provided tremendous help to me during the entire legislative process, from identifying key reforms to pursue to assisting with research and strategy for final passage of my bill. Digital learning, the future of education, maximizes achievement by allowing students to learn at their own time, place, path, or pace," said Minnesota State Representative Pam Myhra.
“In order to be effective and reach every single student, education in Louisiana must continue adapting to our increasingly digital world. The Course Choice Program passed last year is a big step in the right direction. In addition to dual enrollment with postsecondary education and coursework created by business and industry, Course Choice is open to virtual providers that empower students to customize their learning experience, individualizing education and expanding access to more content like foreign languages, advanced math and science, and other electives. In addition, Louisiana has virtual charter schools and a number of school districts that are taking their own initiative to start virtual education. The Digital Learning Now! Report Cards have helped shed light on practical, attainable goals that can help states integrate more technology and innovation in the classroom. Indeed – here in Louisiana, we see course choice as the beginning of a new, exciting path toward modernizing, improving and customizing education for all students,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
“Digital Learning Now! has become the recognized source for advancing American education through technology-driven solutions. The report is a helpful resource for legislators to determine where their state ranks, how they can improve, and what other great ideas are being implemented,” said Former Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers. “Ultimately, students will greatly benefit as we transform American education from a factory model to a system that can truly individualize in a manner we have never realized before. Thankfully Digital Learning Now! is helping lead the way to this brighter future.”
“Parents for Choice in Education, an education advocacy organization, uses the Digital Learning Report Card as a measuring stick to identify areas for personalizing education and shifting the paradigm to student-centered learning in Utah. Seeking constant improvement, multiple initiatives such as competency, blended learning, seat-time removal, and smarter use of student data are currently being advanced through policy in our state,” said Robyn Bagley, Board Chair of Parents for Choice in Education (PCE). “PCE appreciates the standards set by the report card and the challenge issued to meet the metrics for integrating technology and innovation into our schools in order to raise student achievement in Utah!”
“Digital learning provides the greatest possibility that every student in every corner of the Commonwealth, or the country, can have a quality education. It removes barriers and levels the playing field for all students. We cannot guarantee outcomes for our students, but digital learning makes it possible to guarantee the same opportunities for all students,” said Virginia Delegate Richard P. Bell.
“Virtual learning is a very important component of today’s educational system. Rural communities can use it to offer Advanced Placement and other honor classes to their students where otherwise they would not be able to afford a teacher for small classes. There are also children who can benefit greatly from virtual learning, such as disabled children unable to leave the home or children seeking opportunities in the arts or athletics that may take them away from home often,” said Janet Barresi, Oklahoma Superintendent of Education. “I know of two children in Oklahoma whose parents are missionaries. They are able to travel with their parents while receiving a quality education through virtual learning opportunities. Technology is changing our world and in the spirit of preparing all our children to be college, career and citizen ready, we must take advantage of the learning opportunities that technology has to offer.”
Join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #DLNReportCard and #DigLN, or use the sample tweets below to spread the word.

The 2012 #DLNReportCard was just released from our friends at @DigLearningNow. Check out the results at http://bit.ly/10c8ftk
What grade did your state receive on the 2012 @DigLearningNow report card? Results here: http://bit.ly/10c8ftk #DLNReportCard
Just released: The @DigLearningNow team measures how states align to the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning #DLNReportCard
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About the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning

In 2010, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise organized a diverse group of nearly 100 leaders in education, government, philanthropy, business, technology and policy to identify specific issues and policies states need to address in order to support emerging next-generation models of learning. The Council’s work produced a consensus around the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning. The 10 elements are: student eligibility, student access, personalized learning, advancement, quality content, quality instruction, quality choices, assessment and accountability, funding, and infrastructure.

Digital Learning Now! is an initiative under ExcelinEd with the goal of advancing state policies that will create a high-quality digital learning environment to better equip all students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in this 21st-century economy. The policy framework stems from the belief that access to high-quality, customized learning experiences should be available to all students, unbounded by geography or artificial policy constraints.

Washington, D.C. - Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced legislation today to help families pay for more school options through a new tax credit. The Educational Opportunities Act creates a federal corporate and individual tax credit to promote school choice by allowing contributions to go to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) that will distribute scholarships to a student to be used toward private school tuition or expenses related to attending a private school. 

"Education plays a central role in the 21st century knowledge economy", said Senator Rubio. "If we want our children to thrive economically, we need to equip students and families with the tools they need to succeed and make it in the middle class and beyond. Parental school choice is a critical piece in this, which is why I introduced the Educational Opportunities Act. This bill will incentivize investment in students and empower parents and K-12 students by allowing more educational opportunities, especially in low-income households that would otherwise not be able to afford it. It's the kind of incentive that will help improve education in America and prepare our children for the jobs of tomorrow, without additional burdens on the American taxpayer."

The Educational Opportunities Act is the first bill Senator Rubio has introduced in the 113th Congress, and is part of an effort to help build a 21st century middle class, as discussed in his speech last December at the Jack Kemp Foundation Dinner. In order to provide tax encouragement to help parents pay for the school of their choice, the bill creates a corporate and individual federal tax credit to go toward a qualifying, non-profit 501(c)(3) Education Scholarship Organization, so that students from low income families can receive a scholarship to pay for the cost of a private education of their parents choosing.

National School Choice Week continues to gain attention on its cross-country Whistle Stop Tour and with 3,600 events and counting throughout the states!

ExcelinEd team members have enjoyed sharing the choice message this week, including the importance of empowering families with a variety of quality education options – whether through public schools, private schools, charter schools, home or virtual schools.

Governor Jeb Bush traveled to Arkansas Tuesday and spoke at an education rally in Little Rock hosted by A+ Arkansas. In addition, ExcelinEd Senior Advisor of Policy and Research Dr. Matthew Ladner spoke at a luncheon yesterday in Tallahassee at the James Madison Institute – the event highlighted quantitative findings and compelling student stories, which make the case for further expanding learning options in the Sunshine State.

Read more about school choice from Governor Bush in his CNN opinion piece. For continued School Choice Week updates from ExcelinEd team members, visit us on Facebook or Twitter. Speaking of social…

Choice. It’s good for kids!
One variety of milk doesn't work for all kids, and one school type can't meet the needs of every child. Consider sharing this “Not So Super of a Market” video with your network of friends using these sample tweets and posts!

The Foundation for Excellence in Education is igniting a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21st century economy.  Excellence in Action, the organization’s flagship initiative, is working with lawmakers and policymakers to advance education reform across America. Learn more at www.ExcelinEd.org.

Forty years ago, Korea was widely considered to be a third world country, having barely begun to rebuild from war Recently, a Korean poultry company purchased Allen Foods in Sussex County and saved hundreds of jobs.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – On Thursday, October 25, 2012, the Oklahoma State Department of Education released its first-year A-F School Report Cards, following the unanimous approval by the State Board of Education. The report cards were scheduled for release on Oct. 8, but the Board delayed the vote to take into consideration concerns voiced by a group of state school superintendents. After thorough consideration and review, the grades were approved consistent with the requirements of House Bill 1456, which was enacted into law last year.

• Hawaii. Student enrollment increased 2.7 percent while administrators and other non-teaching staff increased 68.9 percent from FY 1992 to FY 2009.
• Ohio. Student enrollment increased 1.9 percent compared to a 44.4 percent increase in administrators and other non-teaching personnel during the same period.
• Minnesota. Student enrollment increased 8.1 percent compared to an increase in administrators and non-teaching personnel of 68.2 percent.
• New Hampshire. Student enrollment increased 11.7 percent while administrators and non-teaching personnel increased 80.2 percent.

• Maine had a decrease of 10.8 percent in student population yet increased its non-teaching staff by 76.1 percent.
• South Dakota lost 3.9 percent of its student population yet increased non-teaching staff by 55.4 percent.
• The District of Columbia lost 14.8 percent of its students yet increased non-teaching staff by 42 percent.