July 31, 2014 —

Carpe Diem: Changing Educational Culture

As we try to explain the need for personalized blended learning, facts and figures will help make our case.

Consider these:

Students in a teacher-led personalized blended learning math program at Arizona State University were 18 percent more likely to pass the class than those who took the traditional class. And they were 47 percent more likely to stick with it and not drop out.

The program, developed by the Knewton Corporation, and launched in 2009, is continuing. The software determines where students are having difficulty and channels specific content to overcome those challenges.

The statistics were compiled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the study.

Other systems include Cognitive Tutor and ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces).  In 2011, Cognitive Tutor, a personalized adaptive learning program, was being used by 600,000 students in grades 6-12. The ALEKS website specifically lists over 900 K-12 implementations of the software, some of which refer to individual schools and some to entire districts. About five million students have used ALEKS.

Both systems have also been researched for their effectiveness. Carnegie Learning reports that Cognitive Tutor’s Algebra I product improves performance of complex mathematical problem solving by 85%, and that students are 70% more likely to complete subsequent courses in Geometry and Algebra. A recent study by the University of Memphis found a significant increase in attendance and math performance when ALEKS was implemented in after-school programs.

Carpe Diem Schools, a network of public charter schools first established in Yuma, Ariz. serving students in grades 6-12, uses personalized blended learning to help achieve its success.

Carpe Diem students performed an average 92 percent proficiency and 40 percent advanced performance on Arizona’s math and reading assessments. With per pupil expenditures at 60-70 percent of typical schools, the model is also scalable. Their public school counterparts performed at less than half of this rate.

In isolation, these disparate facts, figures and examples tell an incomplete story. They, of course, require more study and analysis .  Since personalized blended learning is so new, few statistically significant studies exist on its effectiveness.  But personalized learning is an old concept. In fact, good teachers have always adapted to the needs of their students. So, in reality, personalized learning has been around forever.

My point here is that we cannot wait to collect and analyze the type of data that we normally want. If we wait long enough to have an abundance of statistically valid research, we are going to miss important opportunities.

Right now, Northeast Ohio has a chance to be one of the nation’s leaders for personalized blended learning because of its incredible and unmatched regional fiber footprint that is essential for delivering this world changing technology to school buildings. We can help schools with the needed software, hardware and last-mile of fiber to become personalized blended learning centers, capable of delivering extraordinary education for ALL students.

If we don’t begin to act now, we are going to miss opportunities to give the best possible education to each student in Northeast Ohio.

They’re doing it at Carpe Diem schools. It’s time for us to seize the day as well.