The Reality and the Hype Behind Online Learning and the 'School of One'
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Leonie Haimson Executive Director, Class Size Matters |
The Daily News has a story about a new negative evaluation of DOE's much vaunted "School of One" program. This study, which found no significant achievement gains from the program, was quietly placed on the Research Alliance website in the middle of summer with no apparent outreach to the media or the public. This contrasts with the huge publicity machine promoting this online program that has operated since its inception as a pilot started in the summer of 2009.
The School of One is an online, or "blended," learning math program, combining online with small group instruction. It was started by Joel Rose when he was at DOE, using an algorithm devised by Wireless Generation. Rose, along with Chris Rush, formerly of Wireless Gen, has now taken the company private and renamed it New Classrooms. According to its website, the company is hiring new staff to work in NYC, as well as in Washington D.C., Chicago and Perth Amboy, N.J. schools