A poem for charter school advocates, adapted from the famous words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the virtual charters, and I did not speak out—
Because I don’t run a virtual charter.
Then they came for the single campus schools, and I did not speak out—
Because I run a charter network.
Then they came for the EMOs, and I did not speak out—
Because I run a nonprofit network of charter schools.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
It’s official. American public schools are now the world’s largest purchaser of iPads. And we thought that award went to moms who just want to get the laundry done.
In 2016, it’s no longer possible to argue that the age of digital education has yet to arrive. Walk into any classroom across the country and you’ll see teachers and students engaging with and learning from digital content. In fiscal year 2015 alone, American public schools spent almost $11 billion investing in educational technology for K-12 students . According to the Center for Digital Education, per-student spending for K-12 is projected to increase 18% to $13,200 by 2022-23.
With all this money raining down on education technology, surely school leaders are in touch with the innovators creating the products, right?
Wrong.
There is a serious disconnect between the innovators building products to boost student outcomes and the school-district officials and school leaders with access to the purse strings.
Last week’s ASU GSV conference brought this reality home for me. Out in San Diego, I was captivated by the flurry of innovative ed-tech products on display — apps as far as the eye could see. Yet what resonated most were the conversations with entrepreneurs about how they’re rolling out their products in schools, how they’re partnering with schools to ensure that they’re aware of the niche that their product fills and how to use the product to best educate students.
“Ancient procurement and monetary policies” are what make it difficult to bring great ed-tech into the K-12 space, according to Adrian Fenty, the former mayor of Washington, DC. Our children are in great need of equipment for the digital age, but decisions about their learning are still regulated by outdated, inflexible laws and people who were raised on the one-size-fits-all textbooks of years passed. Innovators need to be players in the game, instead of working at the sidelines tossing their products into the court and hoping someone catches them.
Right now, we have a supply problem in education technology. What we need is a demand problem. We need strong leaders in K-12 schools who will demand the highest quality ed-tech products and hold them accountable. If the needle on student achievement is going to move, then innovators and school leaders need to work together to make it happen.
The author is the Center for Education Reform’s State Director.
It’s official. American public schools are now the world’s largest purchaser of iPads. And we thought that award went to moms who just want to get the laundry done.
In 2016, it’s no longer possible to argue that the age of digital education has yet to arrive. Walk into any classroom across the country and you’ll see teachers and students engaging with and learning from digital content. In fiscal year 2015 alone, American public schools spent almost $11 billion investing in educational technology for K-12 students. According to the Center for Digital Education, per-student spending for K-12 is projected to increase 18% to $13,200 by 2022-23.
With all this money raining down on education technology, surely school leaders are in touch with the innovators creating the products, right?
Wrong.
There is a serious disconnect between the innovators building products to boost student outcomes and the school-district officials and school leaders with access to the purse strings.
Last week’s ASU GSV conference brought this reality home for me. Out in San Diego, I was captivated by the flurry of innovative ed-tech products on display — apps as far as the eye could see. Yet what resonated most were the conversations with entrepreneurs about how they’re rolling out their products in schools, how they’re partnering with schools to ensure that they’re aware of the niche that their product fills and how to use the product to best educate students.
“Ancient procurement and monetary policies” are what make it difficult to bring great ed-tech into the K-12 space, according to Adrian Fenty, the former mayor of Washington, DC. Our children are in great need of equipment for the digital age, but decisions about their learning are still regulated by outdated, inflexible laws and people who were raised on the one-size-fits-all textbooks of years passed. Innovators need to be players in the game, instead of working at the sidelines tossing their products into the court and hoping someone catches them.
Right now, we have a supply problem in education technology. What we need is a demand problem. We need strong leaders in K-12 schools who will demand the highest quality ed-tech products and hold them accountable. If the needle on student achievement is going to move, then innovators and school leaders need to work together to make it happen.
Did you miss the 2016 ASU GSV Summit, which the New York Times calls the “must-attend event for education technology investors”? No worries — CER staff has you covered. Here are our top takeaways, from Brenda Hafera, Michelle Tigani, and Ted Allen.
1. Condoleezza Rice Reminds Us Why Education Is Essential
Condoleezza Rice delivered a superb keynote. She asked us to reflect on why an educated populace is so fundamental to maintaining our country’s national and the American Dream. The answer: because America is the experiment in self-government, education is crucial to our ethos. An uneducated populace is unable to govern itself, and therefore fails the demands of republican government. Smart words from a smart lady.
2. The Field of Education Is Ripe for Disruption
Presentations from tech innovators demonstrated how education could be the next Silicon Valley. These entrepreneurs highlighted the disruptive power of technology and its potential to transform this field. While policy initiatives can face pushback from special interest groups, invention and innovation aren’t subject to legislative approval. An idea is able to take root and shatter existing boundaries without asking permission.
3. Why Education Needs More Experimenters
Why is it that every field — from medicine to money — advances by trying new things, yet when it comes to education, all we hear are excuses why X can’t be done, why Y is impossible? This is exactly why ed tech is so important: because it compels us to embrace a mindset of experimentation. After all, progress doesn’t take place in a vacuum; it needs an environment that welcomes rather than rejects innovation.
4. The Essence of Innovation Isn’t What You Think It Is
Last week I met a thousand nerds who didn’t need data to sell their dream to me. Sure, it’s there, behind the code it took to write the app that connects parents to kids’ principals. But the geeks didn’t want to talk about the data; they wanted to hear what works and what doesn’t — and how we can make it better. Each individual I encountered was less concerned with what’s been done before and more concerned with what’s to be done now. To me, that’s innovation.
On May 5, 2016, the Jack Kemp Foundation, The Center for Education Reform, the nation’s leader in advancing parent power, and Opportunity Lives welcomed Governor McCrory, Congressman Luke Messer, state and national policymakers, education and business leaders to the Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity, focusing on addressing upward mobility through parent power.
In case you missed one of the biggest education events of the year, here are five takeaways:
1) Innovation and opportunity are essential ingredients for education in this day and age. “Today, if you don’t graduate a learner, they don’t have a chance in this economy,” reflected Congressman Luke Messer.
“Today, if u don’t graduate a learner, they don’t have a chance in this economy.” @RepLukeMesser https://t.co/yb7bsZEyya #Kempforum16
— Center for EdReform (@edreform) May 5, 2016
2) Opening up opportunities and allowing parents more choices creates a ripple effect that uplifts the entire school system.
3) Allowing choices creates a huge economic impact on a community.
4) Personalized learning has the promise to nurture the potential of every individual student. But technology isn’t just about objects – it’s about how it’s implemented and operated.
Catherine Truitt, Policy Advisor 2 @PatMcCroryNC: “There’s no average student”-DL can help-2nd panel of #Kempforum16 pic.twitter.com/uTtySg5y0Y
— Katharine Correll (@HSG_NC) May 5, 2016
Money matters. But most important how it’s spent. We must let schools innovate https://t.co/yb7bsZEyya #Kempforum16 @JeanneAllen
— Center for EdReform (@edreform) May 5, 2016
5) We must work together to advance opportunity. It’s a matter of will, not ability, noted Rep. Hanes. Politicians have to get out into the schools and see what’s really happening.
We need to work tgthr & it’s the public’s responsibility to help that move fwd. It’s a matter of will not ability.@EdHanes4NC #KempForum16
— Simran Arora (@sarora4) May 5, 2016
More videos, pictures, and full taping of Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity coming soon! Stay tuned!
Should the Senate Confirm U.S. Education Secretary Nominee?
The Center for Education Reform continues its vigilance on school choice, particularly in Washington DC with the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), an effort we began in 1996 and that finally culminated in success in the 2004-2005 school year.
As the Senate HELP Committee voted 16-6 yesterday on the nomination of John B. King, Jr. for U.S. Education Secretary, CER Founder and Interim-CEO Jeanne Allen spoke with the Wall Street Journal about the power he has to expand DC’s OSP.
During one of his hearings, Senator Tim Scott pressed King on why his prospective new Department would sit on $35 million in carry-over funds dedicated for the program.
King’s nomination awaits a full vote from the Senate. As good of a man as he is known to be, perhaps it’s time for the U.S. Senate to send the Obama Administration a signal that denying opportunities to students will not stand.
Related News: U.S. Education Secretary Gets Pressed on DC OSP
Today, we celebrate education options internationally, and organizations like Bridge International Academies working to ensure every child has a chance to experience a quality education, regardless of their family’s income.
There are nearly 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day around the world, and Bridge International Academies recognizes that just like in the U.S., a huge gap exists between the education offered and the needs of the population in these communities.
Bridge International Academies currently serves approximately 100,000 families in Africa, and is expanding soon to Asia. They offer access to low-cost, high-quality private schools, charging fees that are 70% lower than any other private schools in local communities. They work to provide both intellectual and social education for their students, along with preparing them for the 21st century.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done for Josephine Meweni Nyakundi, a Bridge International Academies student in Ongata Rongai in Kajiado Country, just outside of Nairobi, Africa. She dreams of being a neurosurgeon one day so that she can help the people in her community, as its sorely lacking in its supply of qualified doctors. Thanks to Bridge International Academies’ scholarship program, which works to support its top-performing pupils by helping them to complete secondary school in the U.S., she’s closer to realizing her dream.
“With determination, courage, support and assertiveness …you can achieve your dreams, no matter how big they are and despite your current circumstance,” says Josephine of her beloved school.
The scholarships are a testament to the support and dedication of Bridge Academies’ teachers, academy managers and an incredible achievement for the pupils. These children only want to better their lives and the lives of the people around them, and having the choice to attend a school that offers high-quality education is the best way to accomplish that. This is why school choice and institutions like Bridge International Academies are important. They give students like Josephine opportunities to succeed and chase their dreams, regardless of where they come from.
This is one of a series of posts highlighting numerous diverse opportunities from towns to nations for National School Choice Week 2016.
Today, we celebrate national lawmakers like Rep. Luke Messer and Sen. Tim Scott who understand the importance of creating education opportunities for children, especially those who need it most.
They are champions of DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), which has proven powerful in improving education for low-income children in the nation’s capital for over a decade. The average annual income for families who receive opportunity scholarships is less than $22,000, and approximately 98 percent of DCOSP students live in zoned neighborhood schools designated as in need of improvement. More than 90 percent of DCOSP participants graduate from their schools of choice – a much higher rate than DC’s traditional public schools (by at least 30 percent!) – and 88 percent go on to enroll in two or four year higher education institutions.
More than 16,000 families have applied to the program since its inception. Data reveals that parents are both highly satisfied with their school of choice as well as the progress their children are making.
However, despite efforts to reauthorize the program in October 2015, the DCOSP was left out of the FY 2016 Omnibus Bill, creating uncertainty for these students most in need of educational attainment and options.
Take action here to ask Congress to make sure the DCOSP continues to be a vital lifeline for students.
This is one of a series of posts highlighting numerous diverse opportunities from towns to nations for National School Choice Week 2016.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
This is the motto found on Columbus Preparatory Academy’s (CPA) website — a K-8 public charter school in Columbus, Ohio that’s not only earned a National Blue Ribbon distinction, but has also been recognized with an “Excellent with Distinction” award for four consecutive years.
Because public charter schools are free from traditional rules and regulations, while still being held accountable for results, CPA is able to help students succeed using an innovative curriculum and methodology called The Blitz©.
“The Blitz© is an exciting way to teach students to create, motivate, be a team player, and above all, be responsible for their own success in testing and academics. It is a year-long data tracking tool that customizes each individual student’s learning experience based on strengths and learning opportunities.”
CPA implemented The Blitz© in 2009 in part to respond to the challenges it was facing, such as inconsistent leadership, enrollment, teacher turnover, and parent involvement. During the school’s first few years, CPA was deemed a school in academic emergency by the Ohio Department of Education.
However after implementing The Blitz©, the school was able to achieve excellence, creating a culture that “emb
odies a collaborative momentum toward closing the achievement gap… and a school-wide drive toward excellence, [where] every student at CPA feels like a champion.”
Schools of choice like CPA are able to overcome challenges because they’re free from the traditional bureaucracy and red tape that can limit a school’s ability to innovate.
Today we celebrate schools of choice like CPA that are committed to doing whatever it takes to meet students’ needs and the policies that allow them the freedom and flexibility to do what they do best – educate students – while being held accountable for results.
This is one of a series of posts highlighting numerous diverse opportunities from towns to nations for National School Choice Week 2016.
THIS IS YOUR LIFE, charter schools!
As you’ve probably heard, charter schools celebrated their foundational birthday this month. All the tributes remind us of an episode of This is Your Life, in which numerous people pay tribute to the icon being celebrated.
So today, we join those celebrating charter schools again, because of their long history of successfully changing the paradigm of education in this nation, showing how public schools can be different, and how they can achieve for kids at much greater rates, given the flexibility to do so.
Take a trip down memory lane with us, then, in this video of How Charter Laws Really Got Started. Long before most of today’s reformers were around, there were pioneers fighting for the right to do public education differently.
That they succeeded is the reason we are celebrating today.
Happy Birthday, Charter Schools.