The blueprint for digital learning recognizes no distinction between public and private

Two former governors from two different political parties this week announced the 10 elements of a digital-learning initiative they hoped would set educators on an entrepreneurial path to disruptive innovations in public education. If it wasn’t clear to the more than 500 people in attendance at the Washington, D.C., conference, where the elements were unveiled, this was a bipartisan drive to further scramble the current conept of “public schools” and “private schools.”

What former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise identified at the National Summit on Education Reform were the principles of transformational productivity in education demanded by President Obama’s White House education team. When Bush says that we have to think of public education “as educating the public” and calls for policies that allow students to customize their education, he’s applying the same concept that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan does when Duncan tells schools to do more to “personalize” education.

The Digital Learning Now! initiative meets all these goals, and makes no distinction between public and private schooling. Indeed, its provisions demand that states recognize all learning providers – public, private and charter – equally. And for traditional school districts to adopt the digital innovations at the core of education reform, they will have to recognize private providers – with all their human and financial capital – as partners.

This is a daunting task, but Bush and Wise both drew parallels to the explosion of digital interaction in private and business life. The way public education uses technology today, Wise said, is the equivalent of ordering an item online and then being told you must go pick it up at the very mall you were trying to avoid. In the online world, roads and streets and political boundaries simply don’t exist. Said Bush: “This is where we can tear down the walls.”

The Digital Learning Now! website outlines all the elements that Bush and Wise said would provide “a blueprint for the future of education.” They are:

1. Student Eligibility: All students are digital learners.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State ensures access to high quality digital content and online courses to all students.
• State ensures access to high quality digital content and online courses to students in K-12 at any time in their academic career.

2. Student Access: All students have access to high quality digital content and online courses.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State does not restrict access to high quality digital content and online courses with policies such as class size ratios and caps on enrollment or budget.
• State does not restrict access to high quality digital content and online courses based on geography, such as school district, county, or state.
• State requires students take high quality online college-or career-prep courses to earn a high school diploma.

3. Personalized Learning: All students can customize their education using digital content through an approved provider.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State allows students to take online classes full-time, part-time or by individual course.
• State allows students to enroll with multiple providers and blend online courses with onsite learning.
• State allows rolling enrollment year round.
• State does not limit the number credits earned online.
• State does not limit provider options for delivering instruction.

4. Advancement: Students progress based on demonstrated competency.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State requires matriculation based on demonstrated competency.
• State does not have a seat-time requirement for matriculation.
• State provides assessments when students are ready to complete the course or unit.

5. Content: Digital content, instructional materials, and online and blended learning courses are high quality.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State requires digital content and online and blended learning courses to be aligned with state standards or common core standards where applicable.

6. Instruction: Digital instruction and teachers are high quality.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State provides alternative certification routes, including online instruction and performance-based certification.
• State provides certification reciprocity for online instructors certified by another state.
• State creates the opportunity for multi-location instruction.
• State encourages post-secondary institutions with teacher preparation programs to offer targeted digital instruction training.
• State ensures that teachers have professional development or training to better utilize technology and before teaching an online or blended learning course.

7. Providers: All students have access to multiple high quality providers.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State has an open, transparent, expeditious approval process for digital learning providers.
• State provides students with access to multiple approved providers including public, private and nonprofit.
• States treat all approved education providers- public, chartered and private – equally.
• State provides all students with access to all approved providers.
• State has no administrative requirements that would unnecessarily limit participation of high quality providers (e.g. office location).
• State provides easy-to-understand information about digital learning, including programs, content, courses, tutors, and other digital resources, to students.

8. Assessment and Accountability: Student learning is the metric for evaluating the quality of content and instruction.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State administers assessments digitally.
• State ensures a digital formative assessment system.
• State evaluates the quality of content and courses predominately based on student learning data.
• State evaluates the effectiveness of teachers based, in part, on student learning data.
• State holds schools and providers accountable for achievement and growth.

9. Funding: Funding creates incentives for performance, options and innovation.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State funding model pays providers in installments that incentivize completion and achievement.
• State allows for digital content to be acquired through instructional material budgets and does not discourage digital content with print adoption practices.
• State funding allows customization of education including choice of providers.

10. Delivery: Infrastructure supports digital learning.
Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
• State is replacing textbooks with digital content, including interactive and adaptive multimedia.
• State ensures high-speed broadband Internet access for public school teachers and students.
• State ensures all public school students and teachers have Internet access devices.
• State uses purchasing power to negotiate lower cost licenses and contracts for digital content and online courses.
• State ensures local and state data systems and related applications are updated and robust to inform longitudinal management decisions, accountability and instruction.