Education
Charter Schools Emphasizing Character Education a Good Match for Virginia
Many of the nation’s leading charter schools and charter school networks actively promote and instill character education, which benefits the school and the student. Almost 70 studies conducted on different character education programs had strong evidence supporting their effectiveness in improving the academic outcomes of schools. Two Virginians, centuries apart, believed schools should promote virtuous character along with quality academic outcomes. Thomas Jefferson was concerned with public and private virtue, viewing citizenship, the development of character, and a strong work ethic as integral to schooling. University of Virginia professor emeritus E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder of the esteemed Core Knowledge curriculum, wrote in The Making of Americans that democracy requires virtuous, civic-minded citizens. For Hirsch, knowledge needs to be coupled with character in order for students to succeed in school and life.
Public Charter Schools: New Opportunity for Virginia Families
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch - Virginians face an important opportunity in 2016, one which may broaden high quality educational options for families across the commonwealth. Their approval — first by the legislature and subsequently in the voting booth this November — of a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state Board of Education to authorize public charter schools, positions the public education system to harness for their benefit the best of 20 years of charter school evolution nationally.
KIPP Empower Excels Again
KIPP Empower Academy in South Los Angeles, which emerged five years ago as one of the nation's first exemplary blended learning schools serving a high-poverty, urban student population, posted higher proficiency rates on the new state assessment than did 93 percent of all elementary schools in California. The charter school's consistently powerful student outcomes demonstrate just how transformative personalized blended learning can be, when well designed and implemented by a team equipped to make it succeed.
Professional Development Resources for Personalized Blended Learning
Technology can amplify great teaching, but great technology cannot replace poor teaching. Properly implemented and fully leveraged by schools and districts, the right professional development (PD) can help teachers become efficient and effective implementing blended learning, and student outcomes can be significantly improved. That is, if blended learning PD is prioritized and emphasized over a sustained period of time.
Congress’ Omnibus Omission Leaves Support for DC’s Most Succesful School Reforms Uncertain
Congress’ passage of the fiscal 2016 omnibus bill last week included a litany of policy initiatives, but failure to attach a critical education act, supporting proven education reform in Washington, D.C., has city educators, parents and students wondering where schools fall on legislators’ agenda. The Scholarships for Results and Opportunity (SOAR) Act promises to preserve Washington’s diverse and thriving education choice environment, but is set to expire. The bill, passed in October with bipartisan support, allocated up to $20 million in improvement funds for traditional public schools and public charter schools in the city. It also reauthorized the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), allotting up to $20 million for vouchers for low-income students to attend private schools. Evidence of the success of the three-sector education and federal partnership had proponents expecting the bill would be attached to the $1.1 trillion omnibus, guaranteeing a five-year reauthorization.
Middletown, NY Personalizes Learning To Narrow Achievement Gaps
The Enlarged City School District of Middletown, New York is showing the nation how to transform a once-struggling district. Proving that good things come in small packages, this economically challenged district is improving on important metrics — for example, 4-year high school graduation rates have increased from 51 to 80 percent over the past nine years. Now aiming to drive achievement and student engagement even higher, Middletown is implementing personalized learning through a comprehensive, phased approach to blended learning to help students meet the demands of New York’s Common Core standards and aligned assessments.
Announcing the Second Class of Lexington Education Leadership Award Fellows
We are pleased to announce the second class of Lexington Education Leadership Award (LELA) fellows. This remarkable cohort includes leaders from public school districts ranging in size from 2 schools to 94, in states from Georgia to California. The te ...
Vision for Personalizing the Future of Learning Unites Adversaries
Last month, two remarkable leaders from opposite ends of the education policy world shared their joint vision for the transformation of elementary and secondary education in the United States. Gisèle Huff, the executive director of the San Francisco-ba ...
It’s Time for Virginia to Embrace Education Excellence for Every Student
By supporting a constitutional amendment allowing the commonwealth’s board of education to directly authorize charter schools, Virginia can open the possibility of new, high-quality schools to be created in localities across the state. Currently that power resides exclusively with division boards of education, which has severely limited the opportunity for innovative school operators like KIPP, Carpe Diem, National Heritage Academies, Uncommon Schools or BASIS to provide their proven-successful models to Virginia students and families. Charter schools like these have much to offer Virginia’s suburban communities. For example, one nationally successful charter school network, National Heritage Academies, has a focused college-ready approach that enables teachers to concentrate on learning strategies for individual students, providing appropriate levels of challenge. They also support parents’ efforts to teach character at home by reinforcing and modeling universal human virtues, such as compassion, respect and integrity.
Personalized Learning Produces Positive Outcomes
“The longer students experience personalized learning practices, the greater their growth in achievement,” according to new research by the RAND Corporation. The report, entitled Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning, is an i ...