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Blendingface-to-face

andonline learning

ByJONATHAN SCHORR

andDEBORAH McGRIFF

T he way the 1st graders hurtle toward their computer work-

stations, you'd think they were headed out to recess.

It's an unseasonablywarm winter morning in San Jose, California,

and the two dozen students at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary

School get situated quickly in the computer lab, donning head-

phones and peering into monitors displaying their names. The

kindergartners follow a moment later, until 43 seats are filled. The

effect is of a miniature, and improbably enthusiastic, call center.

This lab-and the larger plan for the school surrounding it-has probably done more than any other single place to createenthusiasm for "hybrid schools." Such schools combine "face-to-face" education in a specific place (what used to be called "school")with online instruction. (Rocketship uses the term "hybrid," ratherthan the increasingly prevalent term "blended learning," becausethe computers are not actually "blended" with face-to-face instruc-tion in the same classroom.) It's a sign of how young the hybridand blended field is that this school at the epicenter hails all theway back to 2007. Rocketship Education, a small but burgeoningnetwork of charter schools that serves an overwhelmingly low-income immigrant community in San Jose, has made a namethrough its, forgive the phrase, high-flying student performance.Two of its three schools are old enough to have test scores. Theyrank among the 15 top-performing high-poverty schools state-wide, and the site that opened in 2009 was the number-one first-year school in the state in the high-poverty category. But what

SUMMER 2011 / EDUCATION NEXT 11

positions Rocketship on the cutting edge of school •reform is its vision for how technology will integratewith, and change, the structure of the school. (Dis-closure: Our firm, NewSchools Venture Fund, is asignificant investor in the work of Rocketship and ofseveral other organizations mentioned in this article.)

The scene in the computer lab represents the firststeps toward realizing the Rocketship vision. In thelab, the 1st graders log in by selecting from a groupof images that acts as a personal password, and thenrace through a short assessment that covers math andreading problems. Faced with the prompt "Put all thestriped balls in one basket and all the polka-dottedballs in the other basket," a student named Jazmineuses her mouse to move the objects to their places.Then it's on to the core activity of her 90 minutes inthe lab: a lesson on counting and grouping using softwarefrom DreamBox. The scenarios are slightly surreal-moreobjects to move, in this case mostly fruit, and the reward forgetting it right involves an animated monkey bringing yetmore fruit to a stash on her island-but she and most otherstudents take on the task assiduously. It may be a lesson, butthat's not how Jazmine sees it. "This game is really easy," shesays. A bit later, she'll read a book from a box targeted at herexact reading level, and make a return visit to the computerto take a short quiz about what she read.

Despite the kids' engagement in the online lesson, no one isclaiming that time in front of the computer is directly respon-sible for the extraordinary performance of Rocketship students.Rather, the online work is essential to the long-term visionfor the school's instructional model-and for Rocketship'sgrowth trajectory. Crucially, the lab requires an adult whohas experience with children, but no teaching credential (nor,indeed, bachelor's degree) is required. For this class, it's a youngmother named Coral De Dios, who dispenses help and orderas the moment requires. Her ability to monitor the 43 kidshere means that the school requires less staff, ultimately savinghundreds of thousands of dollars each year that can be plowedback into resources for the school, including staff salaries. Incash-strapped California, that's no small matter.

But the larger impact of the technology is still ahead, inthe ways it will integrate with, and alter, classroom practice.Rocketship is building a model in which kids learn much oftheir basic skills via adaptive technology like the DreamBoxsoftware, leaving classroom teachers free to focus on critical-thinking instruction and extra help where kids are struggling.Likewise, teachers will be able to "prescribe" online attentionto specific skills. Part of the model involves providing teach-ers with a steady stream of data that will help them adjustinstruction to kids' specific needs, and to guide afterschooltutors. Today, those linkages between the computer lab andthe classroom remain incomplete, in part because the datafrom various online systems aren't sufficiently standardized;the many data points from different systems could be over-whelming to teachers.

Rocketship's data guru, Charlie Bufalino, says that todate, vendors haven't invested sufficiently in the R&D andtechnical fixes that would make a standardized stream ofdata possible and take menial tasks like attendance outof teachers' hands. As more schools like Rocketship buildhybrid and blended systems, however, and as more entre-preneurs develop the missing-piece systems, the tippingpoint may be reached, fueling rapid growth of this newapproach to schooling.

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featureBLENDED LEARNING SCHORR & McGRIFF

Rocketship and the other school modelswe describe here offer a vision for whatdeeply integrated technology can mean forchildren's education, for the way schoolsare structured, and for the promise ofgreater efficiency amid a lengthy economicdownturn. This is much more than sim-ply taking a class online. Already, mil-lions of children take one or more onlinecourses, ranging from credit recovery toAdvanced Placement. And there's a widerange of ways that the school facility andonline learning-"bricks and clicks"-mix.(Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker offeran excellent guide to the landscape in theirrecent paper, "The Rise of K-12 BlendedLearning.") Our interest is specifically inschools and platforms that use technol-ogy intensively and thoughtfully to tailorinstruction to individual students' needs,and provide robust, frequent data on theirperformance. Most of our examples arehigh-performing charter schools, which A visitor needs onljhave become a particular hotbed for the education looks lik

type of hybrid and blended models we aredescribing. Their designs call for bringingnew productivity to the way schools deploy staff and dollars.They all share an ambition to prepare their students for suc-cess not just on tests, but in college.

School of OneMuch of the enthusiasm for the potential of blended learn-ing comes from what is currently a math program. Schoolof One, operating inside three New York City public middleschools, is an exciting experiment interweaving a wide rangeof online learning possibilities with classroom instruction.

v to walk into School of One's classroom space to see what customized

an airport-style video display, listing not cities and flights,but students' names and how they will receive their instruc-tion during that period. For those who are starting on thecomputer, a press of a button will take them to a lesson pro-vided by 1 of more than 50 content providers. Each lessonruns about half an hour, and students may switch from onecontent provider to another on the same skill. Others workin small groups with a teacher, who will typically overseetwo or three groups of students, the content and groupingsinformed by data from the student's work online.

"You understand way better," says Edwin, a 12-year-old 7thgrader clad in basketball-ready dark blue T-shirt, shorts, and

School of One had veteran math teachers codify the precursors and

dependencies for each skill. They sourced more than 25,000 lessons for

middle-school math, from which they chose the top 5,000.

Indeed, a visitor needs only to walk into School of One'sclassroom space at Intermediate School 228 in Brooklyn tosee what customized education looks like. The classroomis an open space that runs the length of the building wing,but is subdivided by bookshelves into workspaces wheresmall groups of students work with the teacher or indi-vidually with laptops. The first sight that greets the eye is

athletic shoes. Thanks to the unusual structure of math classesat School of One, he says, teachers work with only 9 or 10 stu-dents at one time, while at other schools, "the teacher doesn'thave time to go over things with every student." He adds, "It'sa really good program for kids who have trouble with math."

Behind the flashy images on the laptop screens, the realpower behind School of One is in its brawny "back end"

SUMMER 201 1 / EDUCATION NEXT 13www.educationnext.org

systems, which enable the creation of real-time,hourly reports of students' progress and shortfalls.Teachers review these reports daily, both individu-ally and in a collaborative planning period when theydiscuss the progress of individual students as well asstudent groups. Teachers can review the informationbefore school, after school, during their prep period,or even while they are overseeing instruction (so theycan identify the students in a group who, accordingto previous assessment data, may be struggling tolearn a skill). "We get data every single day to helpus understand what's working and what's not," saysfounder Joel Rose. When a student struggles onTuesday, she can be assigned to a small group forhelp from a teacher on Wednesday, and with enoughdata and enough flexibility, it will even be possibleto assign her to a teacher who is particularly good atteaching that lesson. It's a model that seems certainto make us question assumptions about how weorganize classrooms and schools. Technor

Like the teachers, students can see a map of their northe•accomplishments. That map is tied to state standardsand will later align with the Common Core standards. As atRocketship, aligning lessons to these standards is no smallmatter; School of One had veteran math teachers codify theprecursors and dependencies for each skill. They sourced morethan 25,000 lessons for middle-school math, from which theychose the top 5,000. Many lessons were not included becausethey did not closely align to their map. School of One hasenough faith in the power of its standards and assessments thatit will soon offer students the option to press a "prove it" but-ton that allows them to demonstrate mastery at an upcomingtask and, if successful, skip it. The button stands as a testamentto a core notion of the blendedidea: learning that proceeds ata pace the student is ready for,rather than one set by the needsof an entire class.

DSST Public SchoolsThe constant, real-time streamof student assessment data isa crucial element of the mostpromising tech-enabled schools,including some high flyersthat don't fit neatly under theblended label. One of the mostinteresting is charter schoolnetwork DSST Public Schools,named for its flagship, theDenver School of Science and

DSST has achieved national renoresults, including the second-highin student test scores statewide.

logy is everywhere as one strolls through DSST's Stapleton campus in.st Denver, just barely within sight of peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

Technology. DSST enrolls a mostly-minority, 47 percent low-income student population and has achieved national renownfor its extraordinary results, including the second-highest lon-gitudinal growth rate in student test scores statewide. Amonggraduates, 100 percent have been accepted to four-year col-leges, where an astonishing I percent require remedial courses,in comparison to 56 percent for the Denver district. Technol-ogy is everywhere as one strolls through DSST's Stapletoncampus in northeast Denver, just barely within sight of peaksof the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. In a 6th-gradesocial studies class recently, students used collaborative user-

made web sites called wikis toaccess and respond to in-classand homework assignments.The teacher projected a map ofAsia and posted prompts on thewiki for students to respond toas they learned about the geog-raphy of the region.

DSST's assessment systemprovides real-time, instant feed-back to teachers and studentson students' progress, mea-sured through quick assess-ments that students take onnetbooks. Teachers at DSSThave been developing these

wnfor its extraordinary informal assessments and in theest longitudinal growth rate 2010-11 school year are work-

ing with a consultant to review

14 EDUCATION NEXT / SUM M ER 20 1 Iwww.educationnext.org

feature

BLENDED LEARNING SCHORR & McGRIFF

the validity of the assessment items andgather feedback that will in turn maketeachers better item writers. The dataenable teachers to differentiate instruc-tion and connect instructional strate-gies with student results. As at School ofOne, both teachers and students at DSSTcan track mastery on a particular stan-dard. Teachers can quickly adjust groupsand/or identify topics for re-teaching.Through these assessments and class-room observations, teachers identifystudents in need of extra support, whoare then assigned to afterschool tutoringthe same day. Teachers use the informa-tion to plan lessons, deciding whether tospend more class time on a certain areaor focus on individual tutoring basedon class scores. DSST is also using data Hallways at High Techto analyze teacher performance. "The winning robotics projtechnology enables us to collect gooddata on our school performance, which is used to drive andmotivate student achievement," says founder and CEO BillKurtz. "We believe that education innovation will be drivenby common data."

Carpe Diem Collegiate High SchoolElsewhere in the charter universe, schools are incorporat-ing hybrid and blended structures into already successfulschool organizations, which increasingly seek efficiency,even as they expand and work to maintain excellent studentachievement. The impact has been dramatic, for example,at Carpe Diem Collegiate High School of Yuma, Arizona.Carpe Diem represents what will likely be a crucial chapterin the story of blended schools: a turn to a blended modelbecause of financial or facilities challenges. The charterschool, which serves 250 mostly low-income students in

'Ht.Cts.

take online classes in a learning centerthat features 300 low-sided cubicles inone brightly painted room. Studentcubicles have a desktop computer andmonitor; many have been personal-ized and decorated with artwork. Thelearning center is staffed by the prin-cipal, two instructional assistants, and

Sa course manager, who also talks withX students about their progress.I- Students begin their day by logging

onto a software system called e2020and accessing the calendar, selecting asubject area, and looking at their lists ofassignments for the week. On any given

0 day, based on the data, teachers maygather an entire grade or a subset ofstudents, sometimes in groups as smallas one or two. Some students work

igh are lined by prize- through all subjects each day, whileothers focus on math for the week on

one day, science for the week on another day. Carpe Diem hasbeen a state leader in student growth for the past two years.

High Tech HighYet, even in schools that have been aggressive in incorporat-ing technology, there is such a thing as too much in adoptingblended approaches. Such is the case at High Tech High, whosecampus near the San Diego airport is perhaps the most eye-poppingly technology-rich in the country. Rooms within thewarehouse-sized buildings are delineated with glass walls 15 feethigh, leaving the remaining space under the 25-foot ceilings fora chaotic crisscross of air ducts, structural supports, and wires.Mixed-media art hangs from every wall, door, and metal roofbeam, and gee-whiz technology is everywhere. Students use thesame computer-aided design systems that they would find in aprofessional design firm as they model real-life, design-forward

At Carpe Diem Collegiate High School, students begin their day by logging

onto a software system, accessing the calendar, selecting a subject area,

and looking at their lists of assignments for the week.

6th through 12th grades, faced a crisis after losing its leaseon a church building. Its founders radically transformed itfrom a traditional structure to one heavily dependent ononline instruction, and in 2006 completed a facility tailoredto the new model. In the reinvented school, small groupstake classes directly from teachers, while most students

chairs. The hallways are lined by prize-winning robotics projects.And outside, students further their studies of air pressure by rac-ing hovercraft they have designed using large circles of plywoodwith plastic-bag cushion edges and leaf-blower engines.

High Tech High has taken gentle steps into blended territorythrough its use of ALEKS, which bills itself as "a Web-based,

SUMMER 201 1 / EDUCATION NEXT 15www.educationnext.org

High Tech High is perhaps the most eye-poppingly technology-rich charter school in the country. Mixed-media art hangs from every wall,door, and metal roof beam, and gee-whiz technology is everywhere.

artificially intelligent assessment and learning system." ALEKS,which runs on computers on the periphery of a 9th-gradeclassroom, provides teachers with detailed diagnostics, help-ing them to focus on the areas where students are struggling,and lets students take lessons at their own pace. A student logson to ALEKS and begins by taking an adaptive assessment,each question chosen on the basis of previous answers. Withthis information, ALEKS develops a snapshot of a student'sknowledge in a given content area, recognizing which topics

confidence. He hastens to add that the technology augments,rather than replaces, the teacher. "Nothing," he says, "canreplace human interaction." Danie's teacher, Jane Armstrong,agrees, saying ALEKS gives her more flexibility in groupingstudents. Today, Armstrong has divided the class in two. Halfof the students are using ALEKS while Armstrong is workingwith the other half in small groups. "This setting allows me toget to know all of my students," she says. "If I'm just lecturingthem, I don't get to know what they've mastered."

Blended schooling is dawning at a time when, as recent public opinionpolls show, people are open to online learning. Yet as much as anything,the blended effort is being driven by a new fiscal reality.

he has mastered and which he has not. This information isrepresented for both the student and teacher by a multicoloredpie chart, which is constantly being updated as the studentmasters new topics. Once a student has mastered a specifictopic, new ones become available for the student to choosefrom. "It doesn't slow you down," says Danie, a 15-year-oldboy with a dark mop of hair that he regularly brushes off hisforehead. Danie, wearing untied high-tops and faded blackjeans, confesses matter-of-factly that he is repeating the 9thgrade. "Students learn at different speeds," he says with marked

California's budget situation today is nothing short ofdisastrous. Yet High Tech High recently rejected a muchmore aggressive move into the blended field, a "flex" planthat would have brought students to campus only once aweek, with the other four days spent online, typically fromhome. The plan would have created enormous cost savingsby allowing five different cohorts of students to use onebuilding each week. Yet teachers, students, and parentsrejected the idea of giving up the daily campus experience,and teachers were not enthusiastic about doing a large

16 EDUCATION NEXT / SUMMER 201 1www.educationnext.org

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BLENDED LEARNING SCHORR & McGRIFF

proportion of their teaching online. "We're not drinkingthe Kool-Aid," said founder and CEO Larry Rosenstock.

On the VergeIndeed, it seems likely that, just as happened with chartermanagement organizations, rapid growth will take placeonly when the pioneers can demonstrate proof points ofexcellence in student performance. "In order for there to belarger market traction, the overall industry has to see moreresults," says Anthony Kim of Education Elements, a nascentfirm that designs the technical back end for blended schools."We're at the very early adopter stage right now."

Blended schooling is dawning at a time when, as recentpublic opinion polls show, people are open to online learn-ing. According to the 2010 EdNext-PEPG Survey ("Meet-ing of the Minds," features, Winter 2011), support foronline coursework jumped 8 to 10 percent in a singleyear. Yet as much as anything, the blended effort is beingdriven by a new fiscal reality. In a widely regarded speechat the American Enterprise Institute called "The NewNormal: Doing More with Less," education secretary ArneDuncan noted that a loss of housing valuation meant

that education funds are down sharply and aren't comingback anytime soon. In the spirit of never wasting a crisis,he said he hoped the difficult financial straits would helpbring an end to "the factory model of education" and anincrease in productivity in schools. He said, "Our schoolsmust prepare all students for college and careers-and dofar more to personalize instruction and employ the smartuse of technology."

Is the blended school the model he's looking for? TomVander Ark, a former head of education for the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation and now a partner in a privateequity fund focused on education innovation, thinks so. Inthe past, technology actually made schooling more expensive,as computers were layered onto an existing model withoutadding any efficiency. Technology-driven productivity, hesays, stands to change that. "We can make learning far moreproductive," says Vander Ark. "It's the first chance in historyto change the curve."

Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff are partners atNewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropyfirm that supports entrepreneurial innovation to improvepublic education for low-income children.

I Virtual School SymposiumI November 9 - 11, 2011

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The Virtual School Symposium (VSS) brings together representativesfrom national, state, district, private and other virtual school programsto attend the industry's leading event in K-12 online learning. The VSSconference provides important analysis, interactive sessions andthought-provoking workshops for leaders looking to help shape thefuture of education.

SUMMER 2011 / EDUCATION NEXT 17www.educationnext.org

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