Education Week - Sizing Up: Blended Learning - S27

ENGLISH
1
ONLINE
LEARNING
2
INDEPENDENT
WORK
3
MATH
4
Students work at
different learning
stations inside the
"flexible" 4th grade
classroom at
Rocketship Mateo
Sheedy Elementary
School, in San Jose,
Calif. (Photo is a
panoramic shot made
up of multiple images.)
organization against critics who accuse
it of pushing too hard to expand
blended learning's boundaries.
But even Mr. Smith concedes the
network is at an "inflection point."
"We need to figure out the flex
model and get much more grounded
on how we can consistently realize
the levels of achievement we
expect," he said. "It puts us in this
conundrum of do you continue to
focus on innovation, and try to get
it right, or do you actually start to
push toward scale?"
Founded in 2006, Rocketship's
motto is "rethinking elementary
school from the ground up."
In pursuit of that lofty goal, the
organization has relied on technology
to accelerate student achievement,
while cutting labor costs. For
years, schools in the network have
used the "station rotation" model
of blended learning, with students
cycling each day between about six
hours of traditional classroom time
and two hours of computer-assisted
instruction in "learning labs." That
model, which helped give birth to
the blended learning movement, has
allowed Rocketship to replace one
3
INDEPENDENT WORK:
17 CHILDREN,
1 AIDE
The center of
Mateo Sheedy's
flexible 4th grade
classroom is also
for independent
work overseen by
the same aide.
At right, Celeste
Martinez examines
a Pablo Picasso
painting.
credentialed teacher per grade with
software and an hourly-wage aide,
freeing up $500,000 yearly per school
that can be redirected to other uses.
The approach generated impres-
sive test-score results, particularly
in math: Rocketship's early academic
results far outpaced state targets,
ranking its schools among the
best in California when it came to
serving English-language learners
and students from low-income families,
who represent the overwhelming
majority of Rocketship students.
Mr. Smith said those results led to
immense parental demand, prompting
the organization to try to grow
as quickly as possible.
This fall, Rocketship opened a
new school in Santa Clara County,
in California's Silicon Valley, as well
as its first school in Milwaukee. A
school in Nashville, Tenn., and another
in the Bay Area are on tap to
open in the fall. By 2017-18, Rocketship
aims to serve more than 25,000
students in 60 schools across the
country, according to board documents.
(See chart. Page 29.)
But as the network has grown,
scores on California state tests have
4
trended downward. According to an
analysis performed at the request of
Education Week by the California
Department of Education, the number
of Rocketship students scoring
"proficient" or above in English/
language arts has plunged 30 percentage
points over the past five
years, to 51 percent, while math
proficiency rates have dropped more
than 14 points, to 77 percent.
Lynn Liao, Rocketship's chief programs
officer, said the organization
has also received troubling feedback
on how students educated under the
original blended learning model fare
in middle school.
"Anecdotal reports were coming
in that our students were strongly
proficient, knew the basics, and they
were good rule-followers," Ms. Liao
said. "But getting more independence
and discretion over time, they
struggled with that a lot more."
Like other blended learning practitioners
and advocates, Rocketship
has now come to believe the station-rotation
model is too rigid and
leaves too wide a gulf between the
computer-based learning labs and
traditional teacher-led classrooms.
"There's [now] a general consen-
sus that...station-rotation can produce
impressive student outcomes
within the narrow band that state
testing represents," said Andrew
J. Calkins, deputy director of Next
Generation Learning Challenges,
a Washington group that backs
blended learning. "But by itself, it's
insufficient to bring students to the
level of skills and knowledge required
for 21st-century success."
Complicating matters for Rocketship
were weak school budgets
and the possibility of further cuts
in California state funding-both of
which threatened the organizational
growth slated to begin in fall 2013.
Rocketship's response, hatched
in mid-2012, amounted to doubling
down on the formula that first made
it a national phenomenon: To bolster
academic quality, generate more efficiencies
and continue growing, the
group sought to leverage the power
of technology even further.
Three months into the 2012-13
academic year, Rocketship began
knocking down classroom walls in
order to quickly pilot the new, flexible
classroom model.
A Rocky Rollout
A timer inside Sí Se Puede Acad-
emy's new, wide-open 4th grade
classroom turns to zero, and the
EDUCATION WEEK: SIZING UP BLENDED LEARNING > www.edweek.org/go/blended-learning JANUARY 29, 2014 | S27
MATH LESSON:
22 STUDENTS,
1 TEACHER
On the far side of
the room, teacher
Jason Colon works
with a group of
Mateo Sheedy's
most-advanced
4th graders on
a lesson about
graphing
coordinates.
Students in flexible
classrooms are
re-grouped based
on ability every six
weeks or so.

http://www.edweek.org/go/blended-learning

Education Week - Sizing Up: Blended Learning

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