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Check back here
often for the latest news about APLUS+, the Personalized
Learning education movement in California, and the
critical issues facing Personalized Learning programs!
APLUS+ member schools continue to demonstrate excellent results in their academic performance as measured by the state's Academic Performance Index (API). Seventy two percent (72%) of APLUS+ member schools attained or exceeded their API school-wide growth target goals for 2009, exceeding the percentage of public schools statewide that met their growth targets. APLUS+ member schools also averaged an API growth score of 16 points for 2009, as compared with an average of 14 points for traditional public schools statewide.
APLUS+ member Personalized Learning charter schools, which follow the same independent study regulations as traditional independent study programs, far outperformed traditional independent study API averages according to a comparative study conducted by APLUS+ of 23 traditional independent study program results. In addition, APLUS+ Personalized Learning ASAM schools (Alternative School Accountability Model) are among the top performing ASAM schools in the state.
- Seventy two percent (72%) of APLUS+ member schools attained or exceeded their API school-wide growth score targets for 2009
- APLUS+ member schools also averaged an API growth score of 16 points for 2009, as compared with an average of 14 points for traditional public schools statewide
- Twenty two percent (22%) of APLUS+ member schools have attained or exceeded an API growth score of 800
- Of the 550 ASAM schools in the state, two APLUS+ member ASAM schools rank in the top 25. Three APLUS+ member ASAM schools rank #1 in their respective counties; one ranks #3 in its respective county; and another ranks in the top third in its respective county.
- APLUS+ member schools, less its ASAM members, averaged 739 on their API growth scores for 2009, as compared to 634 for a sampling of 23 traditional independent study programs. APLUS+ member schools outperform traditional independent study programs by more than 100 points on average.
Eight pioneering San Diego county-based APLUS+ member schools have collaborated to launch a groundbreaking promotional campaign to help raise awareness about charter schools and the Personalized Learning model to parents and students residing in San Diego county. The eight participating schools are Bayshore Prep Charter School, The Classical Academies Charter Schools, Dehesa Charter School, Diego Hills Charter High School, Greater San Diego Academy Charter Homeschool, Julian Charter School, The Learning Choice Academy Charter School, and Pacific View Charter School.
The promotional campaign will center around four San Diego-based radio stations and their websites: KFMB 760 AM; STAR 94.1 FM; KGB 101 FM; and SOPHIE 103.7 FM. To coincide with the launch of this groundbreaking Personalized Learning promotional campaign, APLUS+ has created a website on which to direct interested parents and students to learn more about the Personalized Learning model. The website is called "Putting Students First" and may be accessed by going to http://www.puttingstudentsfirst.org/
Should this promotional campaign prove effective in San Diego, it may be launched in other areas of California for the benefit of other parents and students seeking an effective student-based alternative to the traditional classroom only group teaching model.
APLUS+ is honored to announce our 2009 APLUS+ Network Conference keynote speakers. On Thursday, October 29th we will welcome Ms. Julia Bergman, former chair of the Board of Directors of the Central Asia Institute, and on Friday, October 30th we will welcome Senator Gloria Romero, chair of the California State Senate Education Committee.
Ms. Julia Bergman is the former chair of the Board of Directors of the Central Asia Institute, the renowned organization founded by Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson. Central Asia Institute and Greg Mortenson have gained international recognition for their mission to work in parternship with leaders of remote villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan to build nonsectarian schools primarily for girls to help promote peace and to help give people in these remote villages hope for a better future. Ms. Bergman is also a former librarian at San Francisco City College, and currently speaks at numerous venues on behalf of Central Asia Institute.
California State Senator Gloria Romero was elected to the 24th Senate District in 2001, representing East Los Angeles and the greater San Gabriel Valley. Upon her election she was recognized as one of the hardest working members of the Legislature and quickly rose in leadership positions. She served as a member of the powerful Senate Rules Committee immediately upon her election and was subsequently elected as Democratic Caucus Chair. Soon after, she was elected as Majority Leader—the first and only woman to ever hold that leadership position in the history of the California State Senate.
Senator Romero currently serves as Chair of the Education Committee as well as Chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education, making her one of the most influential voices on education policy in California. Senator Romero believes that education is the civil rights issue of our time. States Romero, “My mother had a sixth grade education; I have a PhD. I understand the transformational power of education and the key it holds to accessing the American Dream”. She emphasizes that California cannot fully compete in the 21st century economy if we fail to close the achievement gap and create an educational system that fosters success for all students. Towards this end, she created and chaired the Senate Select Committee on Urban School Governance. She has authored numerous pieces of legislation seeking to restore accountability in our public school educational system and enhance the learning opportunities for California’s students.
APLUS+ Founder/Director Jeff Rice and his wife Eleni have created a new Pennies For Peace fundraising website to help raise money to support our APLUS+ network goal to raise $50,000 in support of Greg Mortenson's work (read Three Cups of Tea) to build schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan for impoverished girls and boys. The website is called "Promoting Peace Through Education" and offers unique Pennies For Peace teeshirts, cards, and bracelets for sale. The site can be accessed at:
http://www.promotingpeacethrougheducation.org/index.html
Greg's work has become an inspiration to millions of people around the world, and his book, Three Cups of Tea, has become a New York Times Bestseller. His nonprofit organization is called Central Asia Institute (CAI), and his fundraising campaign is called "Pennies for Peace". You can read more about his work by going to the CAI website at: http://www.ikat.org/ .
We welcome donations and fundraising support from everyone who would like to be a part of this inspiring project!!
APLUS+ has partnered with a leading grantwriting firm to offer its members, beginning in January 2009, a unique opportunity to access grant opportunities and professional grantwriting services. By pooling our network resources, participating schools have an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of superior grantwriting expertise for a fraction of the cost that schools would otherwise have to pay to access these services independently.
APLUS+ has announced plans to develop a Member School Lending Library to enable member schools to access educational and inspirational resources for temporary use without having to purchase these resources independently. This idea was suggested by an APLUS+ member following the 2008 APLUS+ conference and the showing of the inspirational DVD by renowned National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones, entitled "Celebrate What's Right With the World" during the conference's opening session. Consequently, Dewitt Jones' "Celebrate What's Right with the World" DVD will be the first resource purchased for the new APLUS+ Lending Library. This one resource alone will save APLUS+ member schools a cost of $800 when borrowing instead of purchasing.
It was recently announced that thirteen additional charter schools have received quality certification by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Among the thirteen are two APLUS+ member schools:
Desert Sands Charter High School
eScholar Academy
Congratulations to our members!!
APLUS+'s 6th Annual Conference, hosted for the first time in California outside of Sacramento, was a tremendous success. The 2008 networking Conference was held at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar in beautiful Del Mar, California about a mile from the scenic Pacific Ocean. Fully taking advantage of the Southern California ocean setting, this year's conference theme was "Beach Blanket Babble On". The 2008 APLUS+ conference welcomed more than 230 attendees and 30 exhibitors, and featured more than 65 breakout sessions covering a wide variety of critical issues and best practices for Personalized Learning schools. Our conference was honored to welcome as our keynote speaker Mr. Curtis Johnson, Managing Partner of Education Evolving and co-author of the innovative book entitled "Disrupting Class". The APLUS+ Conference also featured the inspirational DVD by renowned National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones, entitled "Celebrate What's Right With the World" during the conference's opening session.
The 7th Annual APLUS+ Conference 2009 is scheduled for October 28-30th in Monterey, CA. at the Portola Plaza Hotel and Monterey Conference Center. The 2009 conference theme will be "Personalized Learning: Because There Otter Be A Better Way".
APLUS+ member schools scored very well in their overall API growth for 2007-2008. Eighteen of twenty-six member schools, or 69.2%, met their API schoolwide growth target for 2007-2008, averaging an increase in their schoolwide API of 21.94 points. Our network average now stands at 699.4 points. Take out our ASAM member schools and our network API schoolwide average total is just over 725 points.
As a network, APLUS+ member school API results over the past five years have been improving significantly. Since 2004, our APLUS+ network API schoolwide average has increased from 654, to 658 in 2005, to 676 in 2006, to 681 in 2007, to 699.4 in 2008. Take out our ASAM schools from the mix and our network wide API average has been at 725 the last two years. In addition, for the first time ever, both our network API state rank average and our API similar school rank average are above the state average. Our API state rank average is 5.1 and our API similar school rank average is 5.8. Our network growth in these areas over the past five years is very impressive. In 2004, our network state rank average was 4.3, and our network similar school rank average was 2.35. In five years, we have increased our state rank average by 20%, and increased our similar school rank average by a factor of 2 ½ times, or a 150% increase!!! Remarkably, these dramatic increases have occurred in spite of the many challenges of the API system for Personalized Learning schools, the high student mobility challenges, and the increasing at risk population we work with each year.
APLUS+ has announced that one of its network's major goals for the 2008-2009 school year is to produce an introductory Personalized Learning DVD. This DVD will likely be about 10-15 minutes long and will be available for member use as a promotional and educational tool to effectively describe to others outside of our movement what the Personalized Learning model is all about and how it is benefiting the lives of thousands of students and families throughout California.
Mountain Home Charter School eighth grade student Tia Thomas, who was one of two students honored at last year's APLUS+ conference by receiving an APLUS+ Pioneer Award for academic excellence, finished in third place in the 2008 National Spelling Bee competition held last week in Washington, D.C. What a remarkable achievement for this amazing Personalized Learning charter school student!
Representing Eastern Madera County, Tia has been competing in the National Spelling Bee competition for the past five years, since the fourth grade, and this was her final year of eligibility. Two years ago Tia finished 22nd in the National Spelling Bee competition and last year she finished eighth. As a result of her amazing accomplishments, last year Governor Schwarzenegger honored her by meeting her in person, and she was also a guest on Good Morning America and Inside Edition. Tia was also taken to the White House and introduced to First Lady Laura Bush. Each year Tia has shown dramatic improvement in her results, and she was one of the favorites to win this year's National Spelling Bee competition. The 2008 National Spelling Bee final round was televised on ABC, and was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Tia was one of only three students to make it to the National Spelling Bee final round. The final round consisted of a special list of 25 final round words, that were selected only for the finalists. Please join me in congratulating Tia Thomas, her family, and Mountain Home Charter School for this tremendous academic accomplishment!
The winner of the Las Vegas Championship Tournament Innovate Award is Team Number 135, Dehesa Charter School, from San Diego, California! This award celebrates a team that not only thinks outside the box, but also has the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life. This award is given to the team that the judges feel has the most innovative and creative robot design solution to the FIRST Tech Challenge to any and/or all specific field elements or components. Elements of this award include elegant design, robustness and “out of the box” thinking related to design. Here's what the judges had to say about the winner of the Innovate Award.
"This team's innovative design repeatedly impressed the judges, from the judging room to the pit area to numerous matches that demonstrated the robot's strategy. This young team not only thought outside of the box but worked together as a team to build a robust, creative, and intelligent ‘bot. "
Congratulations Dehesa Charter School!!!
Greg's work has become an inspiration to millions of people around the world, and his book, Three Cups of Tea , has become a New York Times Bestseller. His nonprofit organization is called Central Asia Institute (CAI), and his fundraising campaign is called "Pennies for Peace". You can read more about his work by going to the CAI website at: http://www.ikat.org/ .
The long-awaited UC a-g policy for nonclassroom-based charter school eligibility has finally been approved, after a two year moratorium. The policy was approved by the BOARS Articulation and Evaluation Committee on 11/1/07.
The policy applies to any public, public charter, or private high school in which at least 50 percent of the students receive 80 percent of their instruction off campus. That policy definition applies to virtually all of our members. The two main sticking points that we originally had with the UC policy draft had to do with two areas. The good news is that the language was changed to be much more flexible and realistic for our schools. Here are the two areas that were changed:
1. The original requirement for students to spend at least one hour per week in face to face interaction on the school site for classroom instruction. The language has been changed to the following, which allows a much greater degree of flexibility: Students are expected to spend at least one hour per week per a-g course engaged in interactive instruction and/or academic tutoring/advising. This instruction and/or support may be provided onsite or through virtual means.
2. The original requirement for teachers to have at least five years of experience in the a-g course subject area. The language has been changed to the following, which allows a much greater degree of flexibility: Students taking a UC-approved a-g course are expected to have regular access (i.e., at least weekly) to a teacher who is a subject expert teacher* in that subject area, whether in person or by phone or email. The teacher should be available to answer students' questions about curriculum, explain assignments, and provide feedback on student work.
* A subject expert teacher is defined as an instructor who has taught in a particular subject area for at least three years at the high school or postsecondary level OR has a teaching credential and a bachelor's or advanced degree in the subject area OR has been certified as a Highly Qualified Teacher under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Overall, we are very pleased with this final approved policy for nonclassroom-based eligibility and wish to express our appreciation to the UC Board of Regents and the BOARS Articulation and Evaluation Committee for resolving this issue.
APLUS+ member Mountain Home Charter student Tia Thomas finished eighth overall in the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.
Tia is a 7th grader at Mountain Home Charter School. This year was her fourth time representing Eastern Madera County at the National Spelling Bee. Tia has been sent to Washington since the fourth grade. Each year she significantly improves her prior year's performance and finish. Last year she finished 22nd over all and Gov. Schwarzenegger honored her by meeting with her. With Tia's increasing status as one of the favorites in the National Spelling Bee, this year ABC/ ESPN came to her home and Mountain Home Charter School, interviewing many for the short bios that were shown on her in a variety of instances. Tia was featured this year both on Good Morning America and Inside Edition. In addition, this year Tia was taken to the White House and introduced to Laura Bush.
Tia studies her spelling approximately 2-3 hours every day and has done so since the fourth grade. According to Mountain Home Charter school principal, Mike Cox, " Tia loves the competition. Beyond being a spelling champion, Tia is taking Algebra 1, loves to ski in our school's ski program, is a fine musician and is in general just a great kid."
For her exemplary academic excellence as a Personalized Learning student, Tia will also be honored with an APLUS+ Pioneer Award at this year's APLUS+ conference in October. Please join us in congratulating Tia Thomas, her family, and Mountain Home Charter School for this tremendous academic accomplishment.
Jeremy Heckman of Paradise, CA., a senior at APLUS+ member CORE @ The Camptonville Academy charter school, has been selected as one of 234 Distinguished Finalists across the nation in the 2007 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, which honors outstanding youth volunteers.
Jeremy is being honored for designing and building a 3,600 square foot "garden outdoor classroom" to give young people in his small town a place to learn about agriculture and the planting/harvesting process. Jeremy spent six months researching and planning a design, raising funds and project supplies, soliciting volunteer assistance, clearing the ground and constructing the outdoor learning center.
All middle level and high schools in the U.S., along with all Girl Scout Councils, county 4-H organizations, Red Cross chapters, TMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award last November. More than 7,500 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected two State Honorees in each state and the District of Columbia, plus a select number of Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth. Please join me in congratulating Jeremy, his family, and CORE @ The Camptonville Academy for this outstanding honor.
| The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honor young people in middle level and high school grades for outstanding volunteer service to their communities. Created in 1995 by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the awards constitute the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteering. Over the past 12 years, the program has honored more than 75,000 young volunteers at the local, state, and national level. |
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| Two young Americans—one high school student and one middle-level student—in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia were recently named State Honorees in the 2007 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. These Honorees will receive $1,000 awards, engraved silver medallions, and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in May 2007 for four days of recognition events |
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Vienna Saccomanno and Alison Helmen, high school students at APLUS+ member Forest Charter School, won 1st place in the Nevada County Science Fair this spring. They went on to compete in the California State Science Fair at USC and won 3rd place in the Behavioral & Social Sciences Division competing with nearly 1000 students across the state. Their project was entitled: Testing the Accuracy of Human Lie Detecting Techniques , and studied people's body language, subtle and gross, when lying. Congratulations to Vienna and Alison,their families, and Forest Charter School for this tremendous achievement!!
From the California State Science Fair Website: http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/
The California State Science Fair is the final science fair of the academic year for students throughout the State of California in grades 6 - 12, serving California's future scientists since 1952. It is hosted by the California Science Center (formerly, the California Museum of Science and Industry).
The 56th annual California State Science Fair was held on May 21-22, 2007. This year there were 969 participants from 380 schools throughout the State who met in competition for awards totaling over $50,000.
CSSF Category Awards: 2007 Behavioral & Social Sciences
Senior Division
First Place Michael J. Vredenburgh, Grade 9
Patient Safety: Testing the Effectiveness of Patient Medication Information Sheets in Communicating Pharmaceutical Risk
Advisor: Mr. Karl Walker
School: Carlsbad High School, Carlsbad, San Diego County
Second Place Anna K. Dewey, Grade 12
Charles D. Dewey , Grade 9
Infrawaves: Nature's Early Warning System
Advisor: Ms. Grace Lee-Chung
School: Corona Senior High School, Corona, Riverside County
Fourth Place Ranae Jabri, Grade 10
The Effects of Audio-Visual Skew and Background Sounds on Human Perception of Video Content
Advisor: Ms. Millie Hackworth
School: Redwood High School, Larkspur, Marin County
Honorable Mention Miriam C. Glicksberg , Grade 11
Are There Distinct Categories of Math Ability?
Advisor: Dr. Annie Darakjian
School: El Camino Real High School, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles County
Honorable Mention Ketaki M. Panse , Grade 9
Math: Are We Born with It?
Advisor: Mr. Harry Post
School: Hemet Senior High School, Hemet, Riverside County
Honorable Mention Sarah T. Silverstein , Grade 12
Attitudes, Exercise, and Stess: A Longitudinal Study of Dental Students, Year 3
Advisor: Mr. James Davis
School: Henry (Patrick) Senior High School, San Diego, San Diego County
Tia Thomas, a seventh grade student at Mountain Home School Charter, (a Personalized Learning K-8 charter school headquartered in Oakhurst, California and a member of APLUS+), has advanced to the next round in the 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Tia is among 286 students competing for the annual title, and has completed four very challenging rounds so far in this year's competition.
This is Tia's fourth National Spelling Bee. Last year, as a sixth grader, Tia finished 22nd out of 286 students. Tia will be appearing on Good Morning America on May 31st. Please join me in congratulating Tia Thomas and her family, along with Principal Michael Cox and the entire staff at Mountain Home School Charter for this tremendous achievement. Below is an article released today from CBS news on the latest from the National Spelling Bee.
WASHINGTON, May. 30, 2007 (AP) The start of the 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday resembled a classroom of students taking the SAT as 286 youngsters from the English-speaking world filled in ovals with their No. 2 pencils.
Along with the 25-word, multiple-choice spelling test, they were also given their only guaranteed moment on the Grand Hyatt's ballroom stage: a chance to spell one word before an audience of parents, friends and judges.
"Macaroni _ what does it mean?" asked 14-year-old Michael Yeh of Kokomo, Ind., exercising his right to ask for a definition before correctly spelling the popular kids' food often served with cheese.
The multiple choice test (worth 25 points) and the preliminary oral round (worth three points) served to narrow the field to 90 or so spellers, who advanced to the quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon. The semifinals and finals take place Thursday, with the champion crowned in prime time on ABC for the second consecutive year.
The winner receives $35,000 cash, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete set of reference works.
The oral round was hardly taxing for the top spellers. Tia Thomas, 12, of Coarsegold, Calif., back for her fourth national bee, correctly spelled "flagrant." The audience laughed when pronouncer Jacques Bailly defined "ninety" as "being one more than 89" for 13-year-old Mary Harrington of Vineyard Haven, Mass.
Aishwarya Pastapur of Overland Park, Kansas, made her feelings known by wearing a T-shirt with the words "mishpelt werds eeritate me." She displayed no irritation whatsoever by correctly spelling "enumerated."
Kate Weir, 13, of Christchurch, New Zealand, traveled far to participate, and she must have felt the wait was even longer when she was kept at the microphone while the judges conferred over her Kiwi-accented spelling of "eeriness." Her spelling was eventually replayed over the loudspeakers before it was declared correct.
There were a few flubs, however. Ten-year-old Seher Sethi of Rhinebeck, N.Y., let out a sigh after misspelling "pallbearer." Christian Wilks, 10, of Freeport, Ill., tried to put an "a" and an extra "l" in "felony."
During the breaks, the ballroom was vibrant with spellers who have become fast friends during their short time in Washington _ and some who have formed a camaraderie over the years. Matthew Evans, a 12-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., who is also appearing for the fourth time, excitedly compared notes with Tia following the multiple choice test. Matthew said he got 24 correct.
"My favorite word was actually word No. 25!" Matthew exclaimed.
And what is that word?
"Bewusstseinslage," he said, defining it as state of consciousness and pronounced bay-VOOHST-seins-lahg-eh.
And why is it his favorite word?
"Just because it's so weird sounding."
Thirteen-year-old Samir Patel of Colleyville, Texas, was scheduled to take part in the morning's final oral round. Samir has finished third, 27th, second and 14th in his four national bees and is considered by many the favorite to win.
"I feel I've been trying my hardest for the last few years and it hasn't worked out," Samir said. "But life is not completely about the spelling bee and I've learned to realize that. But I will be very disappointed if I don't win."
Sierra Charter School has announced that their charter petition was recently approved by Fresno Unified School District on April 18th for a full 5 years!
Sierra Charter School had been previously sponsored out of Mono County but was serving the majority of their students in Fresno County. The school had established its administrative offices and a learning center in Fresno County as well. As with other APLUS+ member schools, Sierra needed to find a new sponsor in Fresno County and establish a local presence in order to maintain its learning center operations in Fresno County. According to Lisa Marasco, Sierra's positive track record made the difference with the district in granting a full five year term. Please join me in extending our heartfelt congratulations to Lisa Marasco and her entire staff at Sierra Charter School for this tremendous accomplishment!
After a very long and courageous two-year effort led by Jan Jablecki at CORE @ The Camptonville Academy to find a sponsor in neighboring Butte County in order to establish a local presence and maintain their learning centers in Butte County, CORE Butte Charter School won approval of their charter petition at the Butte County Office of Education (BCOE) on April 9, 2007.
The petition, which was presented on appeal, was approved for an initial two-year term. The basis for the BCOE staff recommendation to approve the charter was the outstanding track record of the replicated charter, CORE @ The Camptonville Academy, an APLUS+ charter member. CORE's strong performance on the API, as well as their track record of fiscal responsiblity, laid the groundwork for overturning the refusal by Golden Feather School District. CORE Butte will be an independent charter with accountability directly to the BCOE. Please join me in extending our heartfelt congratulations to Jan Jablecki and her entire staff at CORE @ The Camptonville Academy for this tremendous accomplishment!
Five APLUS+ members schools have just announced that they have been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
Announcing their recent WASC accreditation are Gold Rush Charter School, Long Valley Charter School, Merced Scholars Charter School, Sierra Charter School, and Vista Real Charter High School. With these announcements, the APLUS+ Network Association, in just over three years, now has 69% of its eligible member schools accredited, with 89% either accredited or candidates for accreditation.
Also announcing that they will be receiving their final WASC results later this Spring are Carter G. Woodson Charter School, Plumas Charter School, The Learning Choice Academy (TLC) Charter School, and W.E.B. DuBois Charter School. Receiving their results later this Spring from initial committee visits are Crescent View Charter High School and Crescent View West Charter High School.
An article by Jeff Rice, Founder and Director of the APLUS+ Personalized Learning Network Association, describing the growing California Personalized Learning movement, is featured in the Winter 07 Threshold Magazine on pages 9-12. You can read the article at: http://www.ciconline.org/thresholdwinter07
Threshold magazine is produced by Cable in the Classroom in partnership with the State Educational Technoloby Directors Association. The entire Winter 07 magazine edition is dedicated to the vision of and need for personalizing learning for students in the 21st century. The following summary of the Winter 07 Threshold edition was provided:
The end is near for the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning that has dominated American schools for most of the past century. Instead, that outdated model must be replaced by schools designed to better support individualized instruction enhanced by technology, as detailed in the new issue of "Threshold: Exploring the Future of Education" from Cable in the Classroom and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). The research has been clear for decades: individual students learn through different learning styles; at different paces; and through various physical, emotional, and environmental challenges and limitations. They also learn with different interests and passions, and to varying degrees of success in different social and physical environments. The issue on personalized education features: (1) Personalization strategies and tools for teachers; (2) A discussion with education experts on personalization, technology and their hopes for the future; (3) Personal computing for students; (4) How to use assessment tools to personalize instruction; and (5) Best practices from a professional development model program from New Mexico.
As described on its website at www.ciconline.org , Threshold is a forward-looking quarterly journal for district, state, and national education leaders. Launched in 2003, it features nationally-recognized experts offering provocative ideas, opinions, and research at the intersection of education and technology. The content for each issue is developed in partnership with a leading education organization with a stake and expertise in the topic at hand, meaning readers are guaranteed authoritative perspectives on the key educational issues of the day. Past partners have included: Council for Chief State School Officers, National PTA, Institute for Educational Leadership, NASA, National School Boards Association and many other significant organizations. Past topics have included: emergency preparedness, high school reform, textbooks and digital content, math and science education, and others.
The Jacquelin Hume Foundation, based in San Francisco, has announced a pledge of $33,875 toward the APLUS+ Personalized Learning Research Project.
The APLUS+ network and APLUS+ member schools are currently ramping for the official launch of the project on July 1, 2007. APLUS+ would like to extend its heartfelt appreciation to the Jacquelin Hume Foundation for its support of the Personalized Learning Research Project.
Caprice Young, President and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), recently announced a pledge of $10,000 on behalf of the Association to support the APLUS+ Personalized Learning Research Project. The project will last a duration of three years, and will demonstrate both the value-added benefit of the Personalized Learning model for struggling students who came from a rigid traditional classroom model, and the diversity of students successfully served by the Personalized Learning model.
The APLUS+ network and APLUS+ member schools are currently ramping for the official launch of the project on July 1, 2007. APLUS+ would like to extend its heartfelt appreciation to the CCSA for its support of the Personalized Learning Research Project.
APLUS+ Personalized Learning schools have made significant improvement in their schoolwide API (Academic Performance Index) results. For two consecutive years, APLUS+ schools have outperformed the California state public school average in API schoolwide scores and growth point averages.
- In 2005, 73% of APLUS+ Personalized Learning member schools met their API schoolwide growth target. That beat the state average of 68%.
- In 2005, APLUS+ member schools averaged a 31 point growth in their API. By more than 50%, that beat the state public school average of 20 points growth in their API.
- APLUS+ member schools also beat the state average in graduation rates in 2005. The statewide average was 83.3% of schools meeting graduation rate requirements; the percentage of APLUS+ schools meeting graduation rate requirements was 91%.
- In 2006, 68% of APLUS+ member schools met their API schoolwide growth target. By more than 30%, that beat the state average of 52%.
- In 2006, APLUS+ member schools averaged a 23 point growth in their API. That, by more than double, beat the state average of 11 points growth in their API.
The Walton Family Foundation recently announced a pledge of $147,650 to support the APLUS+ Personalized Learning Research Project. The project will last a duration of three years, and will demonstrate both the value-added benefit of the Personalized Learning model for struggling students who came from a rigid traditional classroom model, and the diversity of students successfully served by the Personalized Learning model.
The APLUS+ network and APLUS+ member schools are currently ramping for the official launch of the project on July 1, 2007. APLUS+ would like to extend its heartfelt appreciation to the Walton Family Foundation for its support of the Personalized Learning Research Project.
The APLUS+ Network Association is proud to announce that thirteen APLUS+ member schools have received notice this summer from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) that they have received accreditation! This now increases our WASC accredited member schools to a total of 22 of 39 eligible schools (serving secondary students) in our network (or 56%!). Receiving WASC accreditation in Summer, 2006 are the following APLUS+ member schools:
Connecting Waters Charter School: 6 year Accreditation
The Classical Academy Escondido: 6 year Accreditation The Classical Academy Oceanside: 6 year Accreditation
Delta Charter High School: 3 year Accreditation
Dehesa Charter School: 3 year Accreditation
FAME/BASIS Charter School: 3 year Accreditation Forest Charter School: 6 year Accreditation
Golden Valley Charter School: 3 year Accreditation
Modoc Charter School: 6 year Accreditation
Shasta Secondary Charter School: 6 year Accreditation
Somis Academy Charter School: 2 year Accreditation
Stellar Secondary Charter School: 6 year Accreditation
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