So how does one solve this problem once it’s entrenched? Imposing a new funding model on top of the existing business typically doesn’t work. Instead management needs to create an autonomous organization that can craft its new business model from scratch as the innovation demands–serious business model innovation.

Given this, I’d be surprised if districts could simply shift to the new funding model Hill describes—and even if that didn’t matter, because this funding is opposed to how they operate today, they will predictably gear up to fight the sort of wholesale change for which Hill advocates.

It’s one of the reasons that I think a more fruitful way forward, at least for now, is to create these new funding models for the online learning entities that are growing—just as Florida did with the Florida Virtual School, for example—and build on the change from there as these disruptive innovations gain share.

For the rest of the article, go to School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era: A Review

As online learning programs become prevalent in U.S. schools, school and district leaders, teachers, and policy makers are looking for the best ways to use technology to enhance learning. A new SRI International report, Implementing Online Learning Labs in Schools and Districts, provides such a guide for creating successful blended learning programs that can benefit many students.

The report summarizes lessons learned from the pilot year (2010-2011) of the Virtual Learning Lab program, a collaborative effort between the Miami-Dade County public school district—one of the largest in the country—and the Florida Virtual School—a state-wide, Internet-based public high school with the highest enrollment in the country. SRI researchers collected information on 5,500 students in 38 public high schools through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and site visits to seven schools.

For the rest of the article, go to Study of Miami-Dade’s Virtual Learning Lab Reveals Key Success Factors for “Blended Learning” Programs