Investing in Innovation Fund
Posted by michael_horn | Under Online learning Thursday Sep 17, 2009Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is beginning to announce details of the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund that Jim Shelton is leading for the Department, and there are some promising signs including the wise decision to divide the fund up into three different buckets that focus on, at one end, scaling up proven innovations with larger grants to, at the other end, funding out of the box ideas that have not yet been proven with smaller grants.
This article in eSchool News has a good summary but also highlights something that excites us quite a bit for its focus on disruptive innovations in education. The below is all from the article:
“Duncan pointed to virtual schools as one tool that can help students succeed where they otherwise might have fallen behind.
‘Online courses and supplementation are catching on fast, but we’ve made only limited investments in understanding online instruction,’ he said.
Online courses can expand access to high-level courses, especially in rural areas where 21st-century learning opportunities might be limited owing to distance, lack of funds, or lack of qualified instructors to teach specialized subjects.
‘An effective teacher is the single biggest factor in determining student progress,’ Duncan said. Tools are available today that weren’t available just a decade ago, he added–including formative assessment and real-time data to inform instruction.
‘We want to provide powerful incentives to districts and nonprofits to build the next generation of education reform,’ Duncan said. ‘Successful innovations, we know, are disruptive–we not only understand that, we welcome it.’”
This is good news - I am concerned that the $$ will be used to reinforce the old system… that innovation in this context means… ways to get our kids to perform to the standards more effectively. Instead of getting our kids to be innovative. What do others think? Thank you for sharing this news.
Virtual schools do not simply fit for those students that are looking for enrichment. Online learning can allow a school district to extend its own curriculum to those students that typically do not receive it…cyber students (as definited here in PA), on-campus alternative education students, credit recovery, etc. In most instances, these students receive a third party curriculum or some watered down version of the district curriculum. Online learning allows these students access to the regular curriculum and, therefore, creates a path or bridge to the mainstream school community for these students.