September 16, 2012
On September 2, Colin Woodard, a staff writer for the Portland Press Herald, published this “special report” on Digital Learning. He asserted in his tagline, “Documents expose the flow of money and influence from corporations that stand to profit from state leaders’ efforts to expand and deregulate digital education.” These documents seem to point to the fact that the commissioner of Maine’s DOE, Stephen Bowen, hired the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s help for his digital education reforms. The article continued to focus on Mr. Bowen’s interactions with Patricia Levesque, head of the organization. Bowen responded to the allegations in his op-ed, admitting to receiving the help and defending his decision to do so;
“Schools all across Maine are already doing great work with digital learning, and we need a set of policies that expands these best practices and provides needed training and support on digital learning to Maine’s educators.
None of this matters to the Maine Sunday Telegram, however, as both Woodard’s article and the editorial that followed it focused on everything but what is best for students. By spilling all of its ink on who wrote the language of the guiding principles of digital learning that we reviewed, the paper neglected a real, and far more consequential discussion of those principles and how they would affect students.
Is the problem with the ideas themselves? Or simply with who came up with them? I would welcome a healthy discussion of the 10 elements proposed in Digital Learning Now!, which is why a work group is in place as we speak to do just that.
Good ideas are good ideas, no matter who comes up with them or why. Let’s stop debating the value of ideas based on who they came from, and instead focus our time and effort on whether they are the best ideas for helping students succeed in school and in life. That is what really matters.”
Other leaders in digital learning also rose to Mr. Bowen’s defense. Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning in Vienna, Va, criticized the paper for not adequately numbering the benefits of digital education. She, too, urged the paper to shift the focus back to the students;
The achievement we hope for our students — and the skills a global society demands — must be at the heart of each and every education discussion. The future of education will require learning beyond textbooks. Online learning provides great teachers the ability to customize instruction through expanded educational opportunities, regardless of a student’s zip code.
Tom Vander Ark, author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World, vehemently criticized both the Portland Press Herald and Mr. Woodard in his Huffington Post blog. Vander Ark illustrated the myriad of benefits that online learning provides. He criticized Mr. Woodard for having a personal and political agenda, and slanting the story with skewed facts;
“Let me back up and paint the picture that Portland paper missed:
- We need to dramatically and quickly increase the percentage of America young people prepared for college and careers.
We are in the midst of inventing much more productive learning sequences for students and far better workplaces for teachers with better support and more attractive career options.
Most schools will blend online and onsite learning well before the end of the decade. Productive uses of technology will leverage teacher talent-this is about better teaching not less teaching-and improve working conditions and earning potential for teachers.
There is a role in education for private enterprise in producing and scaling innovation. Most big advances in education will result from public private partnerships-the right capital doing the right job.
Most relationships are local, most learning opportunities are global. We need new governance models that build communities but don’t limit learning.
Performance matters. Public delivery systems should create incentives for participants and providers aligned with desired outcomes. Academic growth trajectories should be measured for every student. Schools and providers should perform at high levels or lose the right to public support.
The story we should be talking about is creating quality learning options at scale. Investigative journalism is important to our democracy but this was an example of something different and dangerous — a slanted political and personal agenda.”
Eric Smith, a former Florida Education Commissioner and emeritus member of Chiefs for Change, also defended the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s role in education reform and focused in on a shift back to student learning. His full response is below.
The State of Maine has been on the forefront of the education revolution. It was the first state to provide laptops to its students as a means of accessing education beyond the classroom, an effort praised by the Portland Press Herald for bridging the digital divide.
That’s why it was especially disappointing to read – in such stark contrast – the misleading and misguided take on Maine’s virtual schools described recently in The Portland Press Herald’s “special report.” Characterizing the relationship of those championing digital learning as for-profit and essentially conspiratorial, the report makes for some good reading, but works of fiction do not belong in journalism.
The piece is misleading in that the Foundation for Excellence in Education, one of the parties mentioned in the report, works with democratic and republican policymakers across the country in helping them advance reforms that deliver results for students. The Foundation serves as a resource to help share best practices, reforms that work, and to provide technical assistance if needed. The Foundation advocates for policies that benefit students, not the interests of one particular non-profit or private entity. Over 90 percent of the Foundation’s budget comes from family foundations or philanthropic organizations dedicated to improving students’ educational success.
A critical component of the Foundation’s work involves harnessing the opportunities digital learning offers in providing students with learning experiences and options they might not otherwise have. The Digital Learning Now! initiative was a bipartisan effort involving more than 100 leaders that produced a consensus view of the key elements needed in state policy to help accelerate education opportunities for students. The results have been used as a road map for states which have enacted changes that remove barriers to new models of learning, establish quality control mechanisms for providers, and expand options for students. What the Herald failed to acknowledge in its piece is that these recommendations urge decision makers to hold providers accountable for the quality of education they provide students.
And the piece is misguided in its critique of virtual schools. The Foundation believes that a child’s education should not be subject to their zip code, especially at a time when information can be sent across the globe in a matter of seconds. If a student in rural Maine wants to learn Mandarin Chinese, who are we to tell them they cannot because the district can’t find a qualified teacher? Why make a teacher spend hours grading math exams or send paper standardized tests across the state when they can be moved online to give teachers real-time access to data on student performance? Why teach a class of 20 students the same information, at the same time, pace, and style, when we know that each of those children is learning differently and technology can help meet these learners where they are and help them advance? Virtual schools may not be the best option for every child, but they are a viable option for some children.
The idea of an education system that harnesses the technology available today and reflects the world we live in is not a partisan issue, it’s a recognition of reality. At the heart of digital learning is the concept of creating a customized learning experience for students and providing teachers with new tools to allow them to engage each child, regardless of ability or learning style. This basic concept is highlighted in the Obama Administration’s newest Race to the Top competition for districts, which cites personalized learning as its “Absolute Priority.” The only way districts will be able to do this is by marshaling the collective strengths of non-profit providers and private sector technology partners to restructure the way we deliver education in today’s schools.
The motive of this work is to seek the benefits these new models offer teachers, students and parents. Governor LePage, Commissioner Bowen and the state of Maine should be commended for their desire to bring education into the 21st century – it is long overdue.