District Administration - January 2011 - (Page 16)

Br iefings NewsUpdate “Hybrid” Schools Model Gets $1 Million Boost The eli and edyThe Broad Foundation—famous for its annual $1 million Broad Prize for Urban education award to innovative districts—has awarded $1 million to rocketship education, a small nonprofit elementary charter school operator based in San Jose, Calif. The funding, in addition to $6 million recently awarded by the nonprofit venture capital firm Charter School Growth Fund, will help rocketship expand from the three San Jose “hybrid” charter schools it now operates (with two more slated for fall 2011) to 30 nationwide by 2015. rocketship’s hybrid model combines instruction from certified classroom teachers with instruction from Web-based software in a learning lab each day, as well as one-on-one tutoring. The software emphasizes basic skills, allowing teachers to focus on critical and higher-order thinking skills. “our strategy is to augment great teaching with technology, not replace teaching with technology,” says Judith McGarry, vice president of marketing and development at rocketship. “hybrid models like this are certainly worth a look,” says don Knezek, Ceo of the international Society for Technology in education. “it’s encouraging to see a model evolving that incorporates the strengths of both face-to-face instruction Rocketship Education is a nonprofit elementary charter school operator based in San Jose, Calif. Their hybrid charter schools combines traditional classroom teaching with virtual Web-based instruction in learning labs each day. and online learning. i think it’s a promising first step toward a future where there will be multiple schooling models available to choose from, so we can best reach a variety of students.” John danner, a former internet entrepreneur and previously the director of the KiPP academy charter school in nashville, Tenn., and Preston Smith, a former San Jose principal, founded rocketship education in 2005. The organiza- tion claims that its hybrid model saves an estimated $500,000 per school annually in human resource costs, funds that are instead redirected to tutoring and paying teachers 20 percent higher salaries than surrounding districts do. The organization is exploring options for new locations in cities including denver, Chicago, Tulsa and Phoenix, and will announce two new partner cities sometime in early 2011.—Kurt Eisele-Dyrli Forget About IT as You Know it Today both the infrAstructure AnD cApAbilities of K12 informAtion technology have undergone a transformation over the years, according to “the future of information technology.” this white paper, released by the consortium for school networking (cosn) on nov. 12, explains how K12 it departments have evolved and where they will be a decade from now. the paper notes four major trends changing the role of the cto: • IT outsourcing (ITO) through virtualization and cloud computing • Decentralized control as students bring their own technology to the school environment • Limitless storage solutions at cheaper prices • Mass virtualization of the data center to see the full report, visit www.cosn.org. 16 January 2011 District Administration http://www.cosn.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2011

District Administration - January 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Crisis Response
Going Mobile
Online Edge
Professional Opinion
K12 Guide to Audio/Visual Solutions
Product Focus
What’s the Value in Value-Added?
The Politicization of Bullying
Holding On to Parent Voices
Tough New Issues Refocus Health Education
New Products
Books

District Administration - January 2011