The recently released Michigan’s K-12 Virtual Learning Effectiveness Report for the 2020-21 school year provides a comprehensive, statewide view of all virtual learning in Michigan. The report findings highlight the tremendous impact of emergency closures and the sheer volume of districts turning to virtual learning during the pandemic. The report is based on pupil completion and performance data reported by public schools to the Michigan Department of Education and the Center for Educational Performance and Information.

In our field a commonly heard phrase is “it’s not about the technology.” After a thought-provoking exchange on a webinar recently, I’m rethinking how I use that phrase.

First some background: in a world that often overvalues tech and undervalues teachers and relationships, it’s understandable that many people—including me—often feel the need to say that technology isn’t the most important factor in online learning. As policymakers and others outside education look at digital learning, they often lead with technology, thinking about how some new technology is the key to transforming education. I’ve not strayed from the view that we need to be clear that those views are wrong.

When the CARES Act was passed, the bill that created the Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief (ESSER) Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, every headline across the nation read: Superintendents need more, districts need more, this is not enough.

I appreciated last week’s blog post, Replication is more important than innovation. To that observation I would add that replication is a requirement to innovation, for reasons explained below.

I vividly remember one of my English teachers in high school. I was 17 years old, and I think the class was American Literature. The teacher’s name was Mr. Carlson. Mr Carlson had a passion for literature. We read and had engaging discussions every day. His primary method of instruction was reading to us as a class. He had the ability to bring the characters alive with his inflection. The two books I remember most vividly were “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller (which is actually a play) and “The Metamorphosis” by Kafka.

There’s been quite a bit of digital learning in the news recently. This post highlights and comments on a few articles and issues that may be of interest but don’t call for a fuller treatment.

Funding online students
Let’s start with a simple note for the policy wonks: the Education Commission of the States has a new policy brief on how students are counted for funding purposes. It explores how online students are funded on page six. The brief is a useful primer on all sorts of student count and funding issues, which provides the baseline for any discussions about how funding systems should address online students.

A key element of the Digital Learning Collaborative is our willingness to consider views and data different than our own. That doesn’t mean that we take new information at face value, but that we consider the data, and check our own sources, experiences, and assumptions.

Sometimes what is being said is less important than who is saying it.

A recent report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) falls into this category. Why? Because while CRPE has in the past been somewhat negative towards online learning, a report it issued in January is fairly positive. In fact, it sounds very much like what Digital Learning Collaborative members have been saying. This latest study suggests that perhaps the pandemic has changed some minds at CRPE. (To be clear, I don’t mean that as a negative comment. When facts change, as they have in the past two years, a change of opinion is often appropriate.)

It’s jarring to leave the 1500+ educators taking part in DLAC—nearly all of whom believe in the promise of digital learning—and be thrust back into the larger world where so many people believe that online learning is inherently inferior. It feels, however, that there are more quotes like the one above, suggesting that even as pandemic-induced remote schooling wanes, more people recognize that online learning can work well. As explored below, this example comes from post-secondary education. Although some people might question the relevance to K-12, arguably a post-secondary perspective is especially important, because of the implications of the educational world we are preparing students for.

It’s been a busy week at DLAC in Atlanta and online!

The entire DLAC team is incredibly grateful for the support and energy of the DLC community. We had more than 1,000 DLAC attendees in Atlanta and just under an additional 500 online. Attendees joined from 47 states and eight countries, and from mainstream districts, charter schools, intermediate units, private schools, state agencies, non-profit organizations, and companies—representing all of the types of organizations coming together to create new options for students.

As we are heading into the main DLAC days in Atlanta and online next week, we are thrilled to announce the release of the 2022 Digital Learning Snapshot.

The Snapshot both informs and is informed by our work with the DLC and DLAC, and as such readers who are joining us in Atlanta will see some key Snapshot themes reflected in the conference. Here we give a few main points.

The last two years have given policymakers across the nation an opportunity to examine, identify, and consider possible policy changes for online learning options. Too many education leaders at the state level (before the arrival of COVID-19) were convinced by influential entities that online learning was not really a needed option, and often that online learning was a less than ideal way to teach and learn. (Interestingly enough, over the course of the pandemic, many of these entities became the strongest advocates of keeping schools closed and advocating for remote options.)

The last blog post ended with this observation:

Too much of public education is clinging to practices that don’t serve students. Instead, we need to create more spaces, for more students, to learn in the ways they learn best.

The examples exist.

Two additions to that final line: 1) the examples are often in schools that are using technology to eliminate time and space barriers, and 2) many mainstream observers are apparently unaware of these online and hybrid schools.