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Online Classes Accelerate Math for Middle Schoolers, Research Finds
December 17, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment
Eighth-graders who take an online Algebra I course score higher on end-of-year algebra assessments than other students who take the standard instructor-led math program offered by their schools and are twice as likely to follow an advanced course sequence in high school as their peers. Those results came out of a multi-year study done in 68 mostly rural schools in Maine and Vermont and could influence decisions by more middle schools to begin offering Algebra I classes.
The research was conducted by a team at Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), one of 10 laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences at the United States Department of Education to perform research for informing policies and educational practices in the area of improving student achievement.
As described in “Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students,” a team of eight researchers randomly assigned a group of volunteer schools in both states to offer either an online Algebra I course to their “algebra-ready” students during the 2008-2009 school year or to serve as a control school by offering their standard math curriculum. At the end of the school year, the researchers collected results of an algebra achievement test and a general math achievement test for each of the 440 students who participated.
In spring 2009 they also collected information from the students about what high schools they planned to attend and which math classes they planned to take. Then the researchers followed them into high school to collect additional data, including which ninth grade math classes they took and what grades they earned and what 10th grade classes they were enrolled in.
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America Is Still the Most Innovative Country in the World
November 15, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment
Embracing America’s comparative advantages requires appreciating that, when the world changes, the challenges, as well as the tools, talent, and technology at our disposal, also change. Seeking to provide high-quality instruction to every child in the 21st century is a sea change from our agenda a century ago–when we only expected one student in ten to finish high school and when it was impossible to instruct a child who was 1,000 feet away. Today, we can meet new demands by drawing upon a talent pool and tools unimaginable in 1911.
American K-12 schooling is a hotbed of dynamic problem-solving on this front. Non-profits like Teach For America, Florida Virtual School, The New Teacher Project, Carpe Diem, and Citizen Schools are showing new ways to recruit and utilize educators. For-profits like Wireless Generation, Tutor.com, Pearson, Discovery, and Rosetta Stone are offering up a range of ways to harness new tools and technology to support teaching and learning. Figuring out how to leverage these new problem-solvers is a place where our state systems, districts, and schools have fumbled badly. This is an area where would-be reformers have devoted far too little attention. Meanwhile, not only have the “best” performing nations not done any better on this count, but the schemes promoted by those covetously eyeing Finland inevitably entail oodles of regulations and rule-writing calculated to stifle such providers.
Indeed, if we look to nations that are gearing up to lead the pack in 2052, rather than 2012, we see that countries like Qatar and India are busy spying on these American ventures to help them make the leap. We would be well-advised to take the hint, and to push forward by drawing on what the U.S. has always done best.
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Change Will Give Greater Weight to AP Course Grades
October 31, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment
The change won’t become visible for a few years because it affects this year’s ninth graders and all subsequent graduating classes.
This isn’t the first time the high school has tried to weight course grades to better reflect academic challenge and achievement. In 2009-2010, the school attempted to implement a new GPA system for the entire school, but they reversed course and dropped it because of the negative response from students and parents. The system didn’t include weighting A.P. classes; instead it awarded three tenths of a point more for an A-plus than an A. Some students called the change unfair, saying they would have put in extra effort to receive an A-plus if they had known it would have a greater weight. The school now treats an A and an A-plus the same when it comes to calculating GPA.
Other changes in grade weighting system could follow, as some students and parents push to make the system more accurate. Students who get an A for a Middlebury College course they take, for example, now boost their GPA by the same amount as a student who gets an A in one of the high school’s less-challenging classes. The same is true for students who take rigorous online classes through Virtual High School.
In both cases, the absence of weighting creates incentive for some grade conscientious students to avoid enrolling in challenging classes.
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