MNPS Initiates "PD of the Future" with MNPS All-Stars Training

Roughly 6,000 public school teachers will all be consistently exposed to a rigorous online self-paced course in Blackboard over the remainder of Spring semester and through the summer. In all schools in the district this week and ongoing, All-Star "Lead Learners" are introducing this program to their full-time certificated charges of 50 or fewer teachers along with the District expectation that they complete it by what I like to call "August the Oneth."

For the first time in my own 4 year employment with Metro, every single teacher will be on the same page with important concepts, policies, and resources--including Education 2018 (MNPS's plan "to become the highest performing school district in the nation by 2018"),  Common Core State Standards, PARCC testing, District hardware and software, Response to Instruction and Intervention, Teaching for Understanding, and what the district is calling it's "Lever of Change," Personalized Learning.

from http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=86150

Ever since I heard David Warlick speak for the first time, likely around 1996 or 1997, I have been on board with the concepts underlying this change. I honestly never thought I would hear support for it coming from any administration. I couldn't even really get support for it in the private school sector. It seemed idealistic and revolutionary. Do you know why? it IThis, my friends, is huge.

I was lucky to have been chosen as one of those Lead Learners and to have undergone a two day training at Martin Professional Development Center last month. When I heard our Assistant Superintendent Jay Steele explain that he believed that there was still to be too much testing going on but "that's the world we live in," even that element glimmered with hope for the future. All through the training, my dear friend Dr. Kecia Ray, Executive Director of Learning Technology and current President of ISTE, and others reminded us that we were blazing new trails and emphasized that any new ideas we had for improvement would be heard and acted upon if deemed appropriate. Again, this is a public school district, the largest in the state, serving well over 80,000 students in an amazingly culturally diverse county, with demographic and socio-economic statistics that should scare anyone attempting to do the right thing by all its constituents. I'll throw one at you: "72% Economically Disadvantaged." You can see them all here.

Expect to hear more about this. We are on the move. I'm proud to be a small part of it.

Bathwater, No Baby

I've spent portions of this week working to update our school's website at http://vlearn.mnps.org to reflect the realities surrounding the start up of Spring 2013's semester. I'm most proud of the faculty page at http://www.vlearn.mnps.org/Page83425.aspx, which displays the smiling faces of the 25 adjunct teachers who will facilitate the progress of our (nearly 100 now) full-time online students and our part-timers in the 23 MNPS high schools we serve, along with the handful of beta program middle schools where we have Middle Schoolers taking high school courses for advanced high school credit. These dedicated human beings are mostly full-time MNPS teachers, with a few retired ones and a few out of county teachers. Without exception, they believe in the future of online learning enough to take on more work in their work day in order to pioneer it.

This past week, it came to my attention that there is a small group of legislators who are mounting an initiative to (once again) ban virtual schools in our fair State. This seems to be a backlash from the documented failures of commercial providers' efforts in Tennessee, as noted in the following Google search results for "Tennessee Virtual School:"

1. For-profit virtual school drawing ire of TN lawmakers - WSMV ...

   www.wsmv.com/.../for-profit-virtual-school-drawing-ire-of-tn...Share

   Sep 3, 2012 – Virtual schools are a relatively new, but a growing option, for education across Tennessee. Metro Schools started a public virtual school in 2010 ...
2. PolitiFact Tennessee | Chattanooga senator slaps virtual school ...

   www.politifact.com/tennessee/.../chattanooga-senator-slaps-virt...

   Oct 7, 2012 – More recently, Berke has led the charge against the state law allowing for "virtual schools" to set up shop in Tennessee counties. As the ...
3. TN virtual school draws criticism | wbir.com

   www.wbir.com/news/article/.../TN-virtual-school-draws-criticis...

   TN virtual school draws criticism. 10:26 AM, Sep 10, 2012 | comments. Tennessee Virtual Academy student Jalea Slater, 8, left, takes a spelling test from her ...
4. 
   

   
   

   Tennessee senator calls for inquiry of virtual school citing low test ...

   www.commercialappeal.com/.../tennessee-senator-calls-for-inq...

   Aug 31, 2012 – A Chattanooga senator is pressing for an inquiry into the for-profit Tennessee Virtual Academy after seeing test scores he describes as 'dismal..."

   While these news and blog posts seem to point to a failure of online learning in our state, I want to go on record to suggest that Senator Berke and others would be doing a total disservice to the future of education in Tennessee to revert to the past prior to 2010, when it was against the law to educate students online. At MNPS Virtual School, the first official virtual Public School in our State, we have been tirelessly working since 2009 to craft sets of policies, processes, and courses that not only work for students, but that provide in many cases more rigorous, more challenging, and more academically engaging educational experiences for students than those available in bricks and mortar classrooms, be they public or private or in homeschool situations. 
   

   Our Principal, Dr. James Witty, comes to us from an accomplished career dedicated to Alternative Education.  As stated on our school's "Administration and Staff" page, Dr. Witty ",,,brings a wealth of experience and expertise in nontraditional educational methods. He most recently managed more than 60 educational reform initiatives for Metro Schools as the Race to the Top Grant Manager for MNPS. Previously, he served as the Director of the Center for Dropout Prevention, creating and launching a resource center for the Tennessee Department of Education. Dr. Witty also has expertise in out-of-school learning, previously serving as a Director for Extended Learning for the Murfreesboro City School District."

   At ISTE 2009 in Denver, Colorado, Dr. Kecia Ray, MNPS Executive Director for Instructional Technology and now incoming ISTE President, approached my dear wife Lee Ann on the veranda of her sister's historic Denver home during a party, looked her in the eye and told her "I'm going to steal your husband." She clarified that she intended to "steal" me away from my 14 year career at University School of Nashville to help her make her vision for online learning work for our school district's 80,000+ students. Along with Coordinator Barbara Thoeming, I began this labor of love within the month. We nurtured options along as a program with a small dedicated team until laws changed, we became a School, and Barbara moved along elsewhere in her career, making room for Dr. Witty to come on board, similarly walking away from his own successful and contributive career to help turn vision into reality.

   
   

   As of yesterday, we are serving right at 700 individual class "seats" to our students with a staff of 5 full-time professionals and 25 Adjunct Teachers. We offer a new paradigm of accountability with our "Performance = Attendance" policies. We have in place a communication system of "Performance Concern" which supports students in a timely and effective manner through communication with parents, school counselors, and students. We underscore every module in every online course with a "Discussion Based Assessment" graded in accordance with a rubric made available to students even before they sign in to their course for the first time. This DBA is simply a structured (telephone or Skype call) conversation between instructor and student about the learning they have just mastered. We offer 24/7 online tutoring to many of our students via Grade Results. Our teachers deliver regular tutoring opportunities in our Thomas W. Hatfield Student Success Center up until 5 pm after school on a regular basis. We provide in-person orientations for teachers, students, and parents, supported by separate 50+ page handbooks for Full-Time and Part-Time students. We are continually evolving in the spirit of student support and accountability. We rock.
   

   

   Thomas W. Hatfield Student Success Center at MNPS Virtu@l School

   Come see us, Senator Berke: We are open for the business of learning and teaching. Please don't throw out our baby with your bathwater.

From Metro Nashville Public Schools News 08-06-2010

MNPS Virtual High School: A new era in education

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Aug 6, 2010) – Imagine the day that all 22 credits needed for high school graduation could be earned in a student’s own time, a time when students will be able to learn at their own pace earning credits based on mastery not seat time. Metro Nashville Public Schools is excited to say that day is here thanks to the district’s new Virtual High School.

“Virtual High School will open so many doors for so many students,” said Executive Director of Instructional Technology Dr. Kecia Ray. “We will now be able to meet students where they are on their path to finish high school on time and provide options for students where the traditional school or classroom is not conducive to their learning style. Our opportunities with Virtual High School are unlimited.”

For the 2010-11 school year, Virtual High School will seat 10-15 full-time students and will be able to seat more than a thousand part-time students at any given time. 

Full-time students can take up to three courses at a time. Though all courses will be taught entirely online, the group will be required to meet at least once each semester for non-academic reasons, such as social skills and bonding. Students will maintain a Virtual High School blog and other social elements to help them feel part of a bigger community.

“The beauty of virtual education is that students are in control of their own education,” said Associate Superintendent of High Schools Jay Steele. “We want to meet students where they are academically, regardless of age or geographic location.”

Upon completion of a course, they can immediately enroll in a new course, regardless of day or month. This will allow all students the opportunity for accelerated learning. Eligibility guidelines are still being developed, though five full-time students have already been identified for the upcoming school year. The district is now accepting full time students or students may enroll part time through their regular high school.

Ray explains this first class will be very small so that the district can “build out student support.”

“We have to be able to provide every student certain support services -- access to advisors and counselors, assistance with financial aid and post-secondary education opportunities, online resources like libraries, social networking -- all the things students in traditional high schools have access to. So we will start with a small group of full-time students in 2010-11, but we expect to be completely open by 2011.”

The school will also be open to students enrolled in other high schools in the district. These students will take a regular load of classes at their enrolled high school and be able to take additional courses online. This will benefit students who want to take classes not offered at their regular school, or those who want to get ahead but not miss out on the traditional high school experience. There will be a fee for non-Metro students; it has not been determined.

All students interested in Virtual High School must have access to a computer. Parents must also be prepared to learn. All parents of full-time students will be expected to participate in a training program that will teach them how to help their children.

About online learning

Online learning is different from e-learning, which MNPS already offers in the form of A+ Credit Recovery. While e-learning does not require an actual instructor, every online course has a full-time instructor. The teacher may be in another state, but he or she monitors and instructs the students daily.

MNPS will contract with an online learning vendor to locate and provide courses. The district will purchase so many “seats” which can be used for any course and any student. One of the greatest benefits to online learning is the unlimited number and type of courses MNPS will be able to offer students. According to Ray, “Japanese, AP Archaeology, you name it. If it’s out there, we can offer it.”

MNPS has a Coordinator for Virtual Learning and a Virtual Curriculum Specialist in place. Coordinator Barbra Thoeming worked with Florida Virtual School as an instructor and Instructional Manager. In addition, she was an online student during her Master’s Degree program. This gives her a unique insight into the needs of students, parents, and teachers in the virtual environment.  

Specialist Scott Merrick was recently selected as a National Association of Independent Schools “Teacher of the Future” and is chairperson of the Virtual Learning Environment Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments. He served 14 years as a Technology Coordinator at University School of Nashville.

Virtual High School will be funded through federal grants. This is the first school in our state to offer online learning in this capacity.

Important Reminder:

The 2010-2011 school year begins on Thursday, August 12, 2010, with new immunization requirements for pre-school, pre-K, kindergarten and 7^th grade students. Vaccination information is available, in English and Spanish, at   http://www.mnps.org/Page68374.aspx.

- MNPS -

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools serve more than 76,000 students with the goal of being the first choice for families in Nashville and Davidson County. The governing body for MNPS is the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Board of Public Education, a nine-member group elected by residents of Metropolitan Nashville. For more information, please visit www.mnps.org.

From usnlstech.blogspot.com

Dearest Parents of my dearest Students,

It is with a heavy heart and a firm sense of hope for the future that I bid University School of Nashville goodbye. Last week, I was interviewed for and accepted a position with Metro Nashville Public Schools to join a small team of educators who will craft the new Metro Nashville Virtual School into a model of its kind. Over the coming years, tens of thousands of children who for whatever reason cannot or will not attend a traditional school for a traditional learning experience will have an opportunity to become excited about learning, to learn, and to earn a high school diploma through our efforts.

Accepting the job, the "call" really, was not an easy decision. Most of all I will miss the daily interaction with your children. Over the last decade and a half, they have been at the center of my personal fulfillment, joyfully filling my days with challenges and successes. The announced plan for filling my position is to hire a capable substitute to work in the lab until a capable full-time replacement can be found.

Appropriately, this will be the final post at this blog. Whether my replacement will choose to communicate in this manner is anybody's guess. I plan to leave it up as a resource for her or him and an archive and resource for anyone in the world. That's the way the world works now, and I do hope it's helpful in some way.

If you wish to keep up with our progress in MNPS, I'll be posting, of course at http://scottmerrick.net and I will be setting up new channels of communication on the internet. I'm on Twitter and Facebook as well, and  feel free to friend/follow me there.

I wish you and your children all the best, and I leave them in the care of some of the most dedicated and capable educators I know. I'll be around, of course, only not as much. If you are in the neighborhood of the Martin Professional Development Center on Fairfax Avenue, next to Dragon Park, please feel welcome to drop in to say hi.

I just got word from NAIS that I'll still be welcome in their "Teacher of the Future" cohort for the year 2010-2011, so I'll be contributing to the resources there over the coming year as well.

Take care, and as I always told your children, "be good and have fun."

Sincerely,
Scott Merrick
Virtual Learning Curriculum Specialist,
Metro Nashville Public Schools
scott@scottmerrick.net

A Reply,

I'm doing double duty here by pasting an email response to my dear brother Ed in the hopes of updating everyone. There will certainly be more to follow. :O


Hey, Let's talk today. I'm at Metro this morning getting fingerprinted, etc. and processing paperwork. Basically, I've accepted a non-teaching but certificated (licensed) position as "Virtual Learning Curriculum Specialist" for Metro Nashville Public Schools. In this newly designed position I'll be responsible for reviewing and implementing course content for the new virtual high school and I'm hitting the ground running, fleshing out coursework for the 10 full-time students my colleague and supervisor, Kecia Ray, the Director of Instructional Technology at MNPS, has lined up for enrollment starting Aug. 16. Florida Virtual School is a district of itself and served 150,000 students last year, and we can expect our student population to be growing quickly. 


This will be a chance to serve kids for generations by designing a school that takes from the best established practices and builds a model that incorporates better ones, including virtual worlds in some guise. I'm buzzed. It took Lee Ann and me a week to sort out this decision once the job was offered, and now I'm committed. I'll be packing up my possessions and leaving 14 years of memories behind at USN this week and moving into my little cubicle at Martin Professional Development Center by Eakin School off Hillsboro Village, which will be the locus of my work for a good long while. Wish me luck. 

Let's also look for cooler weather. I have a voucher for airfare from the cancellation of my DC/Nashville flight last week. I'm thinking fish, one soon fall weekend. What are you thinking?

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 11:02 PM, Edwin Merrick  wrote:

Anxious to hear about your new job.