Technology & the Shift to Student-Centric Learning

Hosted by The Philanthropy Roundtable and NewSchools Venture Fund
For years we’ve wondered if technology had the ability to transform America’s schools. Now, it no longer seems a question of if, but rather a matter of how, when, and with what focus this inevitable shift will occur.
 
Funders play a crucial role in answering these questions. In this evolving field, how can they balance the demands of ensuring student achievement with the need for rapid scaling and innovation? The Philanthropy Roundtable and NewSchools Venture Fund hosted a discussion in San Francisco on current trends and funding strategies, including:

• What does the current K-12 technology landscape look like and where are the gaps that need to be filled?
• How do blended learning models work—and how will they transform the teaching profession?
• What policies will ensure the quality of digital learning?
• How can philanthropists and venture investors leverage each other’s strengths?

Schedule of Events:
Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Palace Hotel, San Francisco

9:30 - 10:45 a.m. Opening Briefing and Panel

Blinded by Blended? How Technology Is—and Isn’t—Driving the Shift to Student-Centric Learning

Few would contend that the $60 billion spent retrofitting America’s K–12 classrooms with technology over the past two decades has effectively boosted student achievement. Yet the recent rise of technology-based personalized and blended learning has shifted this conversation from a question of if technology will transform our schools to a discussion of how, when, and with what focus this inevitable shift will occur. Funders will undoubtedly play a crucial role in answering these questions—but as many in the field caution, just because something is online or blended does not automatically make it better. So how can funders leverage technology to personalize instruction, prioritize student mastery, and better use teachers’ skills—all in a financially sustainable and scalable way? Learn the latest from donors and experts about important developments in K-12 education technology, how to avoid being blinded by the “cool factor,” and what you need to know about investing in this rapidly changing space.

• Cat Alexander, program officer, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
• Michael Horn, executive director, Innosight Institute
• Tom Vander Ark, managing partner, Learn Capital
• Bryan Hassel, co-director, Public Impact (moderator)

Blended Learning School Model Forum

10:45 - 11:00  a.m. School Model Introduction

As you deepen your knowledge of how technology can reshape K-12 education, it is crucial to understand how successful blended learning models work. In two back-to-back interactive briefings of your choosing, you will hear from school and charter network leaders about how their models operate, what results they have achieved, and what major obstacles they continue to confront. See what it’s like to be a student in a blended learning classroom and learn what challenges exist in these new learning formats. Dive deeper into the potential of new models as you experience what technology enables teachers to do and discover how blended learning affects school finance, human capital, and physical space.

School Model Presentations include:

• Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and Middle School in Yuma, Arizona has evolved from a traditional high school when it opened in 2000 to one of the nation’s most highly recognized blended learning schools today. Its building features 300 cubicles in a central learning lab, where students do most of their learning online. On-site teachers provide seminars and tutorials in classrooms along the periphery. US News & World Report recognized Carpe Diem as one of the 2010 top high schools in America. That same year, Carpe Diem ranked first in its county in math and reading scores and placed among the top 10 percent of Arizona charter schools.
   
• KIPP Empower Academy is the first school in the KIPP network to implement a blended learning model. Based in South Los Angeles, the Empower opened in fall of 2010 with its first kindergarten class. When fully implemented, it will serve grades K–4. Its classrooms feature three stations: small-group teacher-led instruction, online learning, and individual assignments. This rotation model allows for a student-teacher ratio from 28:1, instead of the typical KIPP LA ratio of 20:1. By end of year one, 96 percent of students were proficient in reading, compared to 9 percent at the beginning of the year.
   
• Rocketship Education in San Jose, California aspires one day to serve one million low-income, urban elementary students across the nation. Its rotation model includes a two-hour block each day when students cycle into a Learning Lab for online and independent instruction without supervision by a certified teacher. This rotation saves the school $500,000 per year in traditional expenditures, which it reinvests in other parts of its model. Rocketship schools are among the top 15 for academic performance among low-income schools in California.
   
• Summit Public Schools in Silicon Valley first opened its doors in 2003 and now operates four charter high schools. The schools have been ranked among the best public high schools in the nation, according to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. In 2010, Summit decided to adopt a mixed blended learning model for its math courses. Each school will add one blended learning grade level at a time, and will continue to expand this model to include other subject areas. The school also developed a partnership with Khan Academy, inviting developers to regularly observe Summit’s classrooms in order to constantly improve content, student feedback dashboards, and curriculum alignment with Common Core standards. Using Khan Academy lessons and interactive mastery tools requires fewer teachers and boosts student engagement levels above that of traditional classrooms.
  
  • Marcia Aaron, executive director, KIPP LA Schools
  • Melissa McGonegle, regional director, Rocketship Education
  • Rick Ogston, founder and director, Carpe Diem Academy
  • Diane Tavenner, CEO, Summit Public Schools
  • Heather Staker, senior research fellow, Innosight Institute (session leader)

12:30–1:45 p.m. Lunch Plenary

What Role Should Technology Play in Education Reform?

In recent years there has been a flurry of efforts to reform America’s failing schools. Vouchers, teacher effectiveness measures, charter school growth, standards and accountability, tax credit scholarships, and parent-empowerment laws have all changed the landscape of K-12 education in the United States. But as the technology revolution makes its way into K-12 education, questions arise about the role it will play in efforts to ensure a high-quality education for every child in America. How exactly will technology fit into tomorrow’s education system? And why should other areas of K-12 reform care about technology? These are questions on which Jeb Bush, considered one of the nation’s most successful “education Governors,” has considerable expertise. As Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, Mr. Bush’s K-12 “cocktail” mixed together a host of reforms that resulted in some of the strongest academic achievement gains in the nation, especially for students most at risk. He brought accountability to the state’s schools through high-stakes testing and an A-F accountability grading system, built the nation's largest publicly-funded voucher and tax credit programs, and aided the growth of a vigorous charter school sector. Florida also happens to have one of the most technology-friendly state policies in the nation.

• Gov. Jeb Bush, chairman, Foundation for Excellence in Education
• Chester E. Finn Jr., president, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (moderator)

2:00–3:15 p.m. Breakout Sessions

System Upgrade: Why Getting Policy Right is Essential for High-Quality Digital Learning

Digital learning is an improving, evolving process that allows for student learning to take place anytime, anywhere, and at any rate. Despite constant, rapid innovations in learning technologies, state and local policy has been slow to keep up. Existing policies—seat-time-based funding, 180-day calendars, enrollment restrictions, teacher certification requirements, student-teacher ratios, and end-of-year testing—inhibit innovation and restrict how providers can serve students’ individual needs. Building student-centric systems requires rewarding providers for achieving student performance outcomes rather than static inputs, thus unlocking the potential for entrepreneurial innovation to positively affect millions of students. What does a quality-driven digital learning policy look like—and what’s working in states to adopt these changes? What role should donors play in freeing up the K–12 education space to enable the innovations seen in countless other industries around the world?

• John Danner, CEO, Rocketship Education
• Tony Lewis, executive director, Donnell-Kay Foundation
• Gov. Bob Wise, president, Alliance for Excellent Education
• Hanna Skandera, secretary-designate of public education, New Mexico
• Susan Patrick, CEO, iNACOL (moderator)

Rolling Up Our Sleeves: How Traditional Schools Convert to Blended Models

Think changing a school’s operating model is as simple as flipping a switch? As several experienced school leaders and turnaround experts will tell you, what might appear a straightforward process is both incredibly challenging and complex. Yet the potential benefits of these new models makes a successful transition to a high-achieving, cost-effective blended model imperative. So what should donors—who may or may not know the ins and outs of blended learning—do to jump-start these efforts in the schools they support? Learn the steps schools must take to successfully navigate politically delicate, technologically intricate, logistically thorny, and (at first) financially burdensome conversion process. Panelists will also discuss how they approached issues of planning, selecting technology, training teachers, creating buy-in, re-designing space, configuring class schedules, and molding back-end data systems.

• Sajan George, CEO, Matchbook Learning
• Scott Hamilton, managing partner, Seton Education Partners
• Rick Ogston, founder and director, Carpe Diem Academy
• Michelle Tubbs, principal, Alliance Technology and Math Science High School
• Caitrin Wright, director of new learning models, Stupski Foundation (moderator)

Closing Presentation and Plenary

How Can Philanthropists and Private Investors Accelerate the Delivery of High-Quality, Personalized, and Cost-Effective Digital Learning?

The K-12 education technology market is dynamic and quickly changing. Entrepreneurs, educators, investors and donors are all trying to understand and keep track of the sector based on the idea that technology will play an increasingly important role in increasing student achievement and improving our schools. But effectively investing in this space is not straightforward—the involvement of both private capital and philanthropy can be both exceedingly dangerous and endlessly generative of new solutions. That’s why it is imperative to better understand the market of tools, programs, and services and how they fit in K-12 education. The K-12 Education Technology Market Map offers a snapshot of this emerging market by grouping technologies—revealing which areas are oversaturated with providers and identifying areas ripe for entrepreneurial action. It also offers a backdrop for funders—philanthropic, venture, and angel—to learn how they can best invest in the delivery of high-quality digital learning and leverage one another’s strengths. Join funders as they discuss what they look for in strong investments, what potential pitfalls they see ahead, what’s preventing them from investing more, and how we can attract the next generation of education entrepreneurs.

3:30–3:45 p.m. Unveiling the K-12 Education Technology Market Map

• Michael Horn, executive director, Innosight Institute
• Anthony Kim, president, Ed Elements, Inc.

3:45–5:00 p.m. Fueling Innovation:  How Can Philanthropists and Investors Accelerate Digital Learning?

• Stacey Childress, deputy director of education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Luis de la Fuente, director, the Broad Foundation
• Michael Moe, co-founder, GSV Advisors
• Roger Novak, general partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
• Ted Mitchell, CEO, NewSchools Venture Fund (moderator)

5:00-6:00 p.m. Market Map Launch Party


NOTE: This meeting was scheduled to coincide with the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s 2011 national policy summit on October 13-14, also at the Palace Hotel. To learn more, go to www.excelined.org.
 
This solicitation-free event is open to individual donors, private foundation trustees and staff, and corporate giving staff who annually distribute at least $50,000 in charitable donations. Additionally, venture capital and private equity investors actively investing or considering investing in K-12 education may attend. There is no fee to attend.
 
Conference Location:
The Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA

For more information about the content of this program, please contact Anthony Pienta, deputy director of K-12 education programs at (202) 600-7878 or apienta@philanthropyroundtable.org.