The Educated Guess � Online learning to drive charter schools’ innovation and expansion

The Educated Guess � Online learning to drive charter schools’ innovation and expansion

Online learning to drive charter schools’ innovation and expansion

Tags: Danner, DreamBox Learning, Gates, Hastings, Rocketship, Shalvey
Posted in Charters

Netflix CEO and charter school benefactor Reed Hastings attracted attention two months ago when he bought the education software company DreamBox Learningfor $10 million.
Losing interest in charters and moving on to a new challenge? Hastings said he was asked.
To the contrary, Hastings said this week, technology and charter schools will reinforce each other. Savings from the use of new technology will fuel the expansion of charter schools, and their growth will force hidebound school districts in turn to adapt innovative technologies that will improve learning.

Hastings, who donated ownership of DreamBox to the non-profit Charter School Growth Fund, spoke at a strategy meeting in Palo Alto for Rocketship Education, a San Jose based elementary charter school organization that’s doing what Hastings predicts.
I’ve written about Rocketship and its CEO, John Danner. Its flagship school had 916 API score last year, making it the third highest scoring low-income elementary school in California. Rocketship has incorporated a learning lab into a quarter of the school day; the savings from the hybrid model of online and direct instruction reduces the number of certificated teachers from 21 to 16, saving each school