EDUCAUSE, through the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), in its wave IIIa has issued a request for proposals to provide grants to developers (entrepreneurs and innovative organizations and agencies) of new, whole school, breakthrough learning models at the secondary (6–12) education level in the U.S.
NGLC, launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EDUCAUSE, the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges, the International Council for K–12 Online Learning (NACOL), and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), seeks to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States, maximizing student learning and closing achievement gaps, through the applied use of technology, particularly among low income individuals.
NGLC proposes to advance an important need and growing opportunity in U.S. public education: how to personalize the learning experience for every student in order to reverse stagnant education progress and an unacceptable achievement gap among K–12 students.
About Wave IIIa
Wave IIIa attempts to address both a design problem and a cost problem. First, the prevailing model of education in the United States largely reflects a century old factory model that struggles to meet the needs of today’s diverse student population, particularly low income, African American, and Hispanic students. Its failure is rooted in a flawed assumption—that groups of similarly aged students start courses and grades having mastered the previous year’s standards and then acquire new knowledge and skills at the same pace over the course of a year. In reality, students start with different strengths and weaknesses and progress at different rates. Because of this disconnect between design and reality, teachers within this one size fits all system often struggle to meet the diverse needs of their students.
Wave IIIa Objectives
Personalizing instruction to reflect student needs and interests helps students learn more rapidly and deeply.
Combining technology enabled, interactive, and face to face instruction makes personalized, mastery based learning more effective and affordable than relying on either method alone.
Relative to pure online models, blended models that operate primarily out of brickDandDmortar settings offer two distinct advantages: (a) having a physical location facilitates the delivery of key scaffolding to students who need additional support; and (b) a pure online model is not a feasible option for students who do not have access to a computer, Internet connectivity, and/or a conducive learning environment at home.
Ensuring that all students are prepared for college will require an intense and relentless focus on identifying and meeting individual student needs. Only school models that produce exceptional results and are sustainable on recurring public revenue can (and should) achieve massive scale.
Despite a number of promising personalized, mastery based school models in operation today, the number and the variety are limited relative to what we believe is possible.
Starting new schools from scratch provides maximum flexibility, which is necessary to produce transformational innovations in areas such as instructional delivery, the use of time, the role of teachers and other educators, and business models. The degree of innovation we seek might be possible through conversions of existing schools, but we believe that to be far more difficult and thus it is not the primary focus of this RFP
NGLC accepts applications for Wave IIIa funding round on a rolling basis till June 8, 2012.
Next deadline for submission of proposals is November 11, 2011.
For more information, visit this link.
