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BLENDED LEARNING IN DC PUBLIC SHOOLSDANIEL K. LAUTZENHEISER AND TARYN HOCHLEITNERadvances have opened the door to use technology formore meaningful change. The entire digital educationlandscape is still new and undeveloped, with schoolsand districts across the country trying to figure outwhich tools and models work best for their students.Schools that consider themselves “blended” fall acrossall parts of the spectrum when it comes to the amountof online versus teacher-led instruction they offer.Rather than directing all schools to pursue thesame blended-learning model, Rice and his team haveembraced a more organic approach, encouraging sucha transition in schools they perceive to be most willingand able to do so. While district leaders tout thepresence of blended learning in all district schools, theyseem particularly interested in using it as an improvementstrategy in traditionally underperforming schools,where the administration is willing and the culture isripe to try something new and bold.As such, the blended-learning team assumes alargely supportive role, giving schools, principals, andteachers a good deal of latitude to pursue initiatives oftheir choosing. This approach facilitates the growth ofdifferent models, allowing DCPS to learn from earlypilot programs and to gradually coalesce these disparateefforts into a more coherent strategy. DCPS staff, principals,and teachers use such words as “experiment,”“pilot,” and “vetting” to describe these efforts, suggestingthis is an exploratory phase. This approach separatesDCPS from other school districts that have optedto implement more prescribed digital learning modelsuniversally, such as one-to-one laptop or iPad initiativesin Mooresville, the Los Angeles Unified School District,and a number of other districts across the country.As Rice puts it, his mission is instead to “support theschools, not dictate to them what you think is best.”In practice, this organic approach yields a diverselandscape. In a press release before the beginning ofthe 2013–14 school year, DCPS leadership advertisedthe districtwide presence of blended learning: “Blendedlearning, which combines the best of face-to-faceteaching with the best digital resources, is an instructionalmodel now available in all DCPS schools.” 9But a more thorough description of DCPS blendedlearningactivity quickly becomes a laundry list of variousinitiatives. Every elementary, middle, and highschool in the district has a computer lab, and someportion of instruction occurs in the lab each week.All DCPS elementary schools use a digital math contentprovider every week, and this year the district ispiloting a blended-literacy program in one-third of itsschools. A number of schools have implemented a station-rotationmodel, where students spend their classesmoving between teacher-led instruction, small-grouppractice, and independent work online using classroomcomputers. 10 Three schools—Kramer Middle School,Ketcham Elementary School, and Randle HighlandsElementary School—are using this station-rotationinstruction for all core content areas.While district leaders tout the presenceof blended learning in all district schools,they seem particularly interested inusing it as an improvement strategy intraditionally underperforming schools.Clearly, the experiences of those students spendingjust an hour a week in a computer lab differ markedlyfrom that of those who receive their entire core instructionvia the station-rotation model. Part of the challengefacing DCPS is to find the right balance betweenproviding oversight and letting schools experiment ontheir own, between approving vendors to ensure qualityand letting schools use the tools that are best for them,and between uniting the district’s efforts and keepingroom for innovation.Vetting Vendors. One of the most important tasks fora district or school in the digital age is selecting partnersand content providers. The education technology landscapeis still a bit like the Wild West. The area is floodedwith a sea of vendors trying to sell their software, apps,tablets, games, portals, and e-content, yet many venturesare too new to have long-term measures of success.Some are reputable and some are charlatans, andit can be difficult for a district to make sense of it all.When it comes to selecting the right vendors, BrianPick emphasizes patience, especially for big districtswith no shortage of willing partners: “There are groupsthat we’ve been dating for many years now [and] it is4
BLENDED LEARNING IN DC PUBLIC SHOOLSDANIEL K. LAUTZENHEISER AND TARYN HOCHLEITNERSpatial Temporal Math, or ST Math, is a game-basedvisual math instructional software program developedby the MIND Research Institute in Irvine, California.The 17-year-old program emphasizes visual, asopposed to language-based, instruction. While it hasmet success nationally, student improvement has beenespecially noteworthy in Washington, DC.According to Matthew Peterson, cofounder of theMIND Research Institute, DC students who usedST Math achieved a 17-percentage-point gain on theDC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS),the district’s standardized academic proficiency testtaken by all students each April, versus a 4.5-percentage-pointgain for students who did not use the program—a“remarkable outcome” in Peterson’s words.The results were impressive enough in the 31 schoolsthat used ST Math last year to prompt Rice to expandit to 33 schools for the 2013–14 year. (First in Math isalso seeing good results, with students who are deemedhigh users of the program improving their proficiencyscores on the DC CAS.)ST Math provides extensive support to teachers andschools after a contract has been established, includingtraining on how to use the software as well as technicalsupport. Jessica McKenzie, the ST Math representativefor the DC region, estimates that she visits DCST MATHschools three to four days per week. McKenzie helpsthe district plan professional development workshopsfor teachers, delivers the actual training, and assistswith the implementation of the program throughoutthe entire year. ST Math provides an introductoryworkshop for teachers, which runs three to fourhours, followed by a two-hour workshop four to sixweeks later, which focuses on how to use data andhow to incorporate ST Math into instruction. Oncea year, McKenzie meets with administrators at eachschool implementing ST Math, and returning teachers(those who already used ST Math for a full year)receive a 90-minute professional development sessionduring year two.MIND Research Institute tailors its approach foreach district; McKenzie explained that DCPS optedto start implementing with third through fifth gradersand gradually work down to the kindergarten levelover a period of three years. The institute has alignedthe software’s content to the scope and sequenceDCPS prefers and provides weekly data updates onstudent performance to Rice and Pick. Workingwith MIND, Rice and Pick set benchmarks for howmany hours each school needs to use ST Math, whileallowing each school to set its own schedules to meetthose targets.important to be patient. Especially in a district likeDCPS, a lot of people want to get in the door. It takesreally good discipline to be able to say no, but continueto build the relationship in such a way that when youare ready you are firing on all cylinders.”Selecting which companies to work with and whichproducts to procure for the district’s schools is one ofJohn Rice’s primary job functions. In doing so he isadamant about aligning blended-learning tools withlarger DCPS priorities. For the 2012–13 school year,the district was focused on Common Core math. Atthe time, schools across the district used various vendorsfor their online math instruction. After trackingtheir performance over the course of the year, Rice andhis team found that two vendors stood out: ST Mathand First in Math. Other vendors were phased out,and now, in the 2013–14 school year, every elementaryschool is able to use one of these two programs.ST Math (see sidebar) is currently in 33 elementaryschools across the district. Although the $34,000 perschoolcost is largely funded via financial support fromST Math itself in conjunction with private donors,Rice acknowledges the cost is “a little prohibitive” whenit comes to expanding to more schools. First in Math isused in the other 27 elementary schools, and a handfulof schools purchased additional products not curatedby the central office to meet their needs.Chancellor Henderson’s literacy priorities havespurred a similar approach for English Language Arts(ELA) during the current 2013–14 school year. Last5
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