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Back **How K-12 Online Learning Will Help Reach Our National College Attainment Goals (Cascade C)** //Richard Hezel, Hezel Associates//

//Compared to other developed nations, the US has stagnated in college degree completion. How can K-12 virtual schools and online learning prevent the extraordinary loss of college-going talent and bolster completion? How can online students contribute to national college degree goals? This panel discussion will demonstrate through research and experienced observations how particular strategies can prepare students to attain degrees more rapidly and retain students at risk of dropping out.// media type="file" key="How K12 Online Learning will Help Re.mp3" width="240" height="20"

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Notes from Marcel Kielkucki, Director of HS Completion Programs, Kirkwood Community College (mkielku@kirkwood.edu)

Compared to other developed nations, the US has stagnated in college degree completion. How can K-12 virtual schools and online learning prevent the extraordinary loss of college-going talent and bolster completion? How can K-12 online students contribute to national college degree goals? How can particular strategies prepare students to attain degrees more rapidly and retain students at risk of dropping out? Key ideas—K-12 elearning enrollment must increase as higher ed elearning enrollments rises. K-12 elearning can be funded with existing financial resources, and successful outcomes in K-12 elearning will increase higher ed admission and higher ed completion rates. By failing to prepare students for a 21st Century “globalized” knowledge-based economy, we’ve created a vicious cycle of a shrinking economy, limited educated workforce, and only 30% of high school graduates being ready for careers or higher education. We need to stop doing the good things for just a few and instead look at emerging practices in order to change for the new economy. We need to take the new successes we’ve had and move that into other areas as well. Audience issues raised included how are colleges looking at e-learners coming out of high school, challenges in credits being granted by post-secondary institutions for online courses, equity and access, what do we do the middle of the road students who are not college-ready, college board concerns with public online students taking AP courses, 21st century skills vs. true 21st century skills. The president has a goal along with the Lumina and Gates foundation to have 60% of students having post-secondary degrees by 2020-2025. The challenge is that we’ve really stagnated in the number of college degree completion rates. It’s stayed right below 40% from 1966-2006, but we’ve slipped from 1st to 10th worldwide. In the 25-64 age demographics from 2008 Census data, over 60% doesn’t have a college degree. High school education is no longer the currency of our time. Noteworthy events in the education pipeline: By the end of Kindergarten, students need to be reading ready By the end of 5th grade, they need to be math ready By the end of 8th grade, they need to be good at content reading If not, we see dropouts in high school, developmental education “black holes” at community colleges, and failure to transfer from a 2 to 4 year degree program Another concern is reading and math proficiency differs in males at 4th and 8th grade greatly when demographics are taken into account. However, some good news: -According to Census Bureau data, in the 07-08 year, there were 200,000 more recent hs completers, 75% of the growth came from racial/ethnic minorities, with a 29% increase in Hispanic Student hs completion. Access to broadband at home also seems to vary based on demographics such as income, ethnicity, and rural vs. urban The Sloan Foundation reported a 17% growth in higher ed distance learning in a recent 2009 study. Another study from the Instructional Tech Council saw a 22% increase in distance education enrollments, much higher than the brick/mortar saw increases of less than 2 percent A 2009 USDOE study found that K-12 online/blended students performed better than those in f2f courses Why? It allows for personalization Since higher ed uses a variety of distance learning tools, K-12 needs to embrace these tools as well to prepare students for higher ed. An example of an effective program is in West Virginia where they worked with schools and at-risk students on computer repair. Elearning is not about computer learning—you need to develop a systems approach on the entire framework of the e-learning process. 1:1 access can really be helpful in having success. You also need to have good PD to have e-learning savvy teachers So we have a “Grand Challenge” that we face to design and implement a state-wide system of transforming the legacy system to hybrid elearning. To do this, we need to have intellectual infrastructure in which teachers are a elearning master. To do this we need to transform colleges of education, have a massive PD program, define teachers as technology workforce, and support decisions with formative assessments. We also need to create the digital content, and revise necessary policies. We also need to work on broadband access, and give students the technology devices they need. So strategies to implement: 1) Recruit students at risk of dropping out 2) Provide blended learning opportunities with differentiated learning, tutoring, counseling, strong individual technology infusing, continuous enrollment, and credit recovery. 3) Support improved low cost broadband access Existing budgets can implement online learning through options such as student retention, perkins funding, and parent/corporate funding. Because you can leverage teachers at a distance, you can stretch your dollars. To find more information on this presentation go to www. esats.org
 * __Breakout Session 6: How K-12 Online Learning Will Help Reach Our National College Attainment Goals—Helzel, Kraver, and Radford__**

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