On March 13, 2014, Digital Learning Now will release its third annual Digital Learning Report Card, which measures and grades each state’s K-12 education policies against the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning. The first Digital Learning Report Card was released in 2011 as part of the Roadmap for Reform, a comprehensive guide based…
In Plain English: LA HB 1
Summary Louisiana HB 1 (Open States or Louisiana Legislature) is the state’s budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14. This bill protected the Louisiana Course Choice program by finding alternative means of funding the program after the Supreme Court ruled the original funding method was unconstitutional. It invests an additional $69 million in K-12 education,…
7 Feb 2014
Trust in the Classroom: Protecting Student Data Privacy and Security
The expanding array of education opportunities enabled by digital technology and broadband networks necessitates a renewed commitment to establishing trust with teachers, parents, and students that sensitive information is securely protected. Teachers and students have access to new tools and resources ranging from online gradebooks to online courses, personalized blended learning platforms, and math apps…
24 Jan 2014
In Plain English: FL HB 7009
Summary HB 7009 (Open States or Florida Legislature) increases accountability and transparency for charter schools while offering charters flexibility and allowing them to grow. It establishes the District Innovation School of Technology Program. It also stipulates that full implementation of on-line assessments of state standards is contingent upon verifying the technology capacity of all public…
15 Jan 2014
Digital Learning Now! Releases Smart Series Guide to EdTech Procurement
Digital Learning Now! (DLN), a national initiative of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd), today released the 10th white paper in the DLN Smart Series in association with Getting Smart. Titled “Smart Series Guide to EdTech Procurement,” the paper features the expertise of John Bailey, executive director of Digital Learning Now!, Carri Schneider, director of policy and research at Getting Smart, and Tom Vander Ark, CEO at Getting Smart, as well as that of contributing authors Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates, and Daniel Owens, partner at the Learning Accelerator.
15 Jan 2014
In Plain English: CO SB 139
Summary SB 139 (Open States or Colorado Legislature) ensures that all high school students in Colorado have access to taking at least one supplemental on-line course each year by designating a single Boards of Cooperative Educational Service (BOCES) to contract and administer online courses with non-profit providers. It also requires annual parent, teacher, and student…
9 Jan 2014
Smart Policy in the Age of Disruption
The classroom of the future is not a fixed blueprint. Just like a record producer in 1974 could barely imagine the world of music in 2014, so the future of education is one which will look little as it does now, evolving and morphing along with the needs of the students and the advances in…
7 Jan 2014
Learning Takes the Lead in Georgia
“Digital learning has the potential to leverage technology to transform our educational system by providing students, parents, and educators more flexibility over the time, place, path, and pace of learning. In other words, it individualizes each student’s educational experience and shifts the teacher’s role from being the source of information to being a guide alongside…
18 Dec 2013