Blended learning (3)
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This document summarizes a presentation about a study examining how blended learning impacted course enrollment patterns for rural students. It introduced a case study of a rural high school that began offering AP science courses through a blended learning model. While this indirectly increased AP enrollments, it did not directly increase access for high-achieving students, who were already marginalized by ability grouping practices. The presentation concluded by calling for shifting the school culture to be more inclusive of rigorous academic programming and examining different blended learning models and instructional grouping strategies.
Blended learning (3)
- 1. Blended Learning: Expanding Educational Opportunities for Rural School Students (or Not)? Robert R. Pritchard, Superintendent Mexico Academy and Central School District RSA Annual Conference, July 9, 2012
- 2. Presentation outline ? Introduction ? Delimitations ? Questions ? Impact of Marginalizing High Achieving Students ? Summary & Conclusions ? Recommendations for Future Study
- 3. Introduction ?Problem Statement: Students in Rural, high-poverty school districts do not have the same access to Advanced Placement and/or Honors courses as students in wealthier school districts. ?Purpose: to determine if and how the course-taking patterns of students at Mexico High School (a rural, low- wealth school) was influenced by the introduction of AP Course offerings in Physics, Chemistry and Biology via blended learning. ?Significance: How may school administrators influence the achievement gap for high-poverty, rural school students by examining how, if at all, blended learning instructional practices influence student enrollments in science electives?
- 4. Delimitations ? The results of this study may only be generalizable to other school districts that have a similar need-to-resource capacity. ? There may be other factors that influence student course-taking behavior beyond structural considerations, but ability grouping was the only factor considered in this study
- 5. Mexico High School Case Study ? Prior to 2011-12 school year, no AP course offerings in the physical or life sciences (Chem, Bio, Physics). ? Summer of 2011 C initial discussions with principal, superintendent, dually certified teacher (Chem and Physics), and director of technology. ? High school guidance counselor solicits enrollment of 6 students in AP Chemistry and 6 students in AP Physics in a ＾Flex￣ classroom
- 6. What is Blended Learning? ? A means of instructional delivery where student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace. ? It has the potential to increase student access to advanced courses or further alienate students already assigned to a learning ＾niche.￣
- 7. Blended learning models ? Programs with a Flex model feature an online platform that delivers most of the curricula. Teachers provide on-site support on a flexible and adaptive as-needed basis through in-person tutoring sessions and small group sessions. Many dropout recovery and credit-recovery blended programs fit into this model (e.g., NovaNet). ? Other models include: Face-to-Face Driver, Rotation, Online Lab, Self-Blend, Online Driver (Horn & Staker, 2011) ? The spectrum from purely on-line (digital/avatar) to purely face-to-face (analog/human) is dynamic and is student-based.
- 8. Questions ? How did Blended Learning increase student access to more rigorous academic programming in the physical and life sciences? ANSWER: It did not (directly)´ ? ＾Tracked￣ high-achieving students who were already marginalized ? Sorting low-SES students into a low-track curriculum perpetuates the ＾Matthew Effect￣ in education (Walberg and Tsai, 1983). Intro to Foods C really? ? Starts early but is cemented in middle school as a small cohort of high performers are tracked into an accelerated program (Pritchard, 2012) ? Good news´Pilot (indirectly) created an ＾AP Craze￣ a.k.a, The Race to Somewhere. AP enrollments tripled in one year.
- 9. GRADE 6 TO 7 C HETEROGENEOUS 9 PLACEMENT
- 10. GRADE 7 TO 8 C IMPACT OF ABILITY 10 GROUPING
- 11. Summary and conclusions ? Rural school district communities that perceive themselves as lacking capacity (financial, intellectual, emotional, or otherwise) may unnecessarily restrict student access to higher- level programming in math and science. ? Blended learning has proven to be a successful instructional system for struggling students (via NovaNet credit recovery) but has reinforced the ＾niche￣ status of AP courses as exceptional, and off-limits. Are there more effective bl models? ? Sorting students by ability level does not improve student performance for low-tracked students at the middle school in STEM, and further narrows and alienates the cohort of high achievers.
- 12. Recommendations for future study ? Why do rural schools marginalize the top performing students in the sciences in light of the Matthew Effect? (Blended learning creates a rationale niche programming). ? How do we shift the culture to include rigorous academic programming in the sciences? What curriculum changes need to occur to make this shift? Universal Acceleration (Burris, 2003), math and science ＾compression￣ at the middle school, Math in Focus, Go Math, Cultural Literacy, etc´ ? What are the class size and instructional grouping considerations associated with AP implementation in the sciences? Tennessee STAR (Finn & Achilles, 1990), Track/No-Track studies (multiple authors).
Editor's Notes
- #6: What are the problems associated with not offering AP courses (arguments against AP aside C Ravitch, Race to Nowhere)? Culture of rigor, emphasis on non-academic courses, college admissions, etc´ Economies of Scale to be gained by having a dually certified teacher in one ＾classroom￣ Types of students to be involved in pilot? Other implementation concerns? Money, time, stakeholder support, space, curriculum (behaviorist curriculum)
- #7: Online and blended learning are growing at a tremendous pace, and have a high potential for accelerating student learning through personalization. They combine the ability to allow students to move at their own pace while bringing them together around engaging projects. But it ¨s a district¨s responsibility to ensure that it¨s being implemented in a thoughtful, planned way. 2010-11 C no students 2011-12 C 12 students split between AP Chemistry and Physics 2012-13 C enrollments for AP Chem 17, AP Bio 21, AP Physics 1 (Total 39) ＾ In many cases, schools don¨t have the staff or resources to offer many AP courses or electives, like foreign languages. This is a way for us to meet student needs more flexibly. Several schools are now sharing AP teachers, for instance. When one school has a resource and another school doesn¨t, we can equalize access to quality.
- #8: Model 1: Face-to-Face Driver The programs that fit in the face-to-face-driver category all retain face-to-face teachers to deliver most of their curricula. The physical teacher deploys online learning on a case-by-case basis to supplement or remediate, often in the back of the classroom or in a technology lab. ? Model 2: Rotation The common feature in the rotation model is that, within a given course, students rotate on a fixed schedule between learning online in a one-to-one, self-paced environment and sitting in a classroom with a traditional face-to-face teacher. It is the model most in between the traditional face-to-face classroom and online learning because it involves a split between the two and, in some cases, between remote and onsite. The face-to-face teacher usually oversees the online work. ? Model 4: Online Lab The online-lab model characterizes programs that rely on an online platform to deliver the entire course but in a brick-and-mortar lab environment. Usually these programs provide online teachers. Paraprofessionals supervise, but offer little content expertise. Often students that participate in an online-lab program also take traditional courses and have typical block schedules. ? Model 5: Self-Blend The nearly ubiquitous version of blended learning among American high schools is the self-blend model, which encompasses any time students choose to take one or more courses online to supplement their traditional school ¨s catalog. The online learning is always remote, which distinguishes it from the online-lab model, but the traditional learning is in a brick-and-mortar school. All supplemental online schools that offer a la carte courses to individual students facilitate self-blending. ? Model 6: Online Driver The online-driver model involves an online platform and teacher that deliver all curricula. Students work remotely for the most part. Face-to-face check-ins are sometimes optional and other times required. Some of these programs offer brickand-mortar components as well, such as extracurricular activities. Mexico experience transitioned from Rotation to Flex to Face-to-Face driver
- #10: The first research question was centered on the differences, if any, that were present in math scores when higher-achieving students were randomly mixed with lower-achieving students in math classes between grades six and seven. Because the null hypothesis was retained, the researcher could neither support the practice of randomly assigning students to math classes as a means to improve test scores nor discourage the practice of heterogeneous grouping as a way to prevent lower student achievement. This means that the increase in the mean scaled score from grade six to grade seven was likely the result of random chance and not due to heterogeneous instructional grouping. The researcher found no evidence that there is a statistically significant (p＋.05) difference between matched pair mean scores for the group of students who took the NYSTP Grade 6 Math Assessment in 2009 and the NYSTP Grade 7 Math Assessment in 2010. slide number
- #11: When lower-achieving students were assigned heterogeneously in the sixth and seventh grades, there were no statistically significant differences in their levels of achievement. When the students were sorted into high and low-tracks in eighth grade, the scores of lower achieving students declined significantly. Sorting low-SES students into a low-track curriculum perpetuates the ＾Matthew Effect￣ in education ( Walberg and Tsai, 1983). This effect becomes even more pronounced at the HS school as vocational course offerings tend to be legitimized and academic electives are either not offered (pre-2010) or offered via alternate instructional delivery (e.g., blended learning). Vocational/career electives are offered against academic electives at a ratio of 6:1 slide number