Yesterday, Chancellor Klein visited the School of One, a two-month summer school program at Chinatown's MS 131. Unlike typical summer school programs which target low-achieving kids who need to catch up, 80 middle school math students volunteered to spend their summer vacation in MS 131's school library. They are piloting the use of a technology-based classroom that offers them individualized instruction, complete with their own laptop and daily "playlist."
According to Gothamschools, which has a good rundown of the program, a student’s playlist, or schedule, might direct him to start the day by meeting with a tutor, then to complete a set of online assignments, and then to work on a project with classmates. The New York Times reports that, for some, online tasks may take the form video games in which math problems are obstacles: "[Students'] screens looked no different than typical arcade screens — except when their equations popped up."
Each playlist is unique; it's based on the results of the student's daily end-of-lesson quiz. The New York Post explains that this closing assessment not only reflects whether or not a student mastered the work assigned, but also shows which lessons worked best for his learning style and how to improve mastery of a topic the next day.
Is the School of One a ploy to cut costs by cramming more than 40 kids into classrooms and replacing real-live teachers with its interactive technology? In the current 80-student program, there are four flesh-and-blood teachers who are supported by four New York University graduate students and two high school interns, which GothamSchools notes is a lower student-teacher ratio than most middle schools have.
Forbes.com reported that the bulk of the financial support for the $1 million pilot program came from private sponsors, led by tech companies Cisco and Microsoft, and educational publishers Pearson and McGraw Hill.
In a Department of Education press release, Klein is quoted as saying the innovations of the pilot program are " some of the most exciting and promising work being done in education today." There are plans to expand the program to additional schools in the 2009-1010 school year. Are you on board?
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