Oregon Education: Staying in the Slow Lane

Today’s (8/9/09) Oregonian editorial “Oregon’s a slow starter in race to better schools” nails it in its summary of the educational environment in Oregon (here):

But what's going on with education here is not in the best Oregon tradition. This is a state that's been a bold, creative national trendsetter on everything from land-use planning to juvenile justice to protection of public beaches. And yet here we are, chugging along on schools, continually bickering over money and control, fighting most changes, and imagining all the while that we're actually in a race to the top.

We have serious problems with pockets of underachieving students and students not completing high school. There are contentious issues about how to solve those issues. But Oregon should not let those issues suck all the air out of the room. We have other dimensions we need to address.

We could and should, of course, invigorate our foreign language programs and create a Go Global High School Study Abroad Program. The additional costs would be minimal and the changes incremental. Oregon could become a national leader with our K-12 international education programs, but only if Oregon wants to get out of the education slow lane.

Oregon is falling behind in applying the digital revolution to education. Not only did the legislature pass HB 767 slowing the growth of online charter schools, but Oregon is not really developing  online courses as a part of the mainline public school system. Florida has its Florida Virtual School (here, wiki here) serving 63,675 students with 137,475 half-credit enrollments in 2007-08 with a staff of 1104. Oregon has next to nothing with its Oregon Virtual School District (here).

Meanwhile, the digital revolution moves on. The NY Times has a front page story “In a Digital Future, Textbooks May Become History” by Tamar Lewin. It reports (here):

“We’re still in a brick-and-mortar, 30-students-to-1-teacher paradigm,” Mr. Habermehl said, “but we need to get out of that framework to having 200 or 300 kids taking courses online, at night, 24/7, whenever they want.”

“I don’t believe that charters and vouchers are the threat to schools in Orange County,” he said. “What’s a threat is the digital world — that someone’s going to put together brilliant $200 courses in French, in geometry by the best teachers in the world.”

And:

For all the attention to the California initiative, digital textbooks are only the start of the revolution in educational technology.

“We should be bracing ourselves for way more interactive, way more engaging videos, activities and games,” said Marina Leight of the Center for Digital Education, which promotes digital education through surveys, publications and meetings.

 

Comments

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“I don’t believe that charters and vouchers are the threat to schools in Orange County,” he said. “What’s a threat is the digital world — that someone’s going to put together brilliant $200 courses in French, in geometry by the best teachers in the world.”

[pandora]

Oregon is falling behind in applying the digital revolution to education. Not only did the legislature pass HB 767 slowing the growth of online charter schools, but Oregon is not real

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le, the digital revolution moves on. The NY Times has a front page story “In a Digital Future, Textbooks May Become

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I don’t believe that charters and vouchers are the threat to schools in Orange County,” he said. “What’s a threat is the digital world — that someone’s going to put together brilliant $200 courses in French, in geometry by the best teachers in the world.

[Pandora Charms]

“We’re still in a brick-and-mortar, 30-students-to-1-teacher paradigm,” Mr. Habermehl said, “but we need to get out of that framework to having 200 or 300 kids taking courses online, at night, 24/7, whenever they want.”