Rocketships's Blended Learning Model

Thanks to Betts Gorsky, who sent along this fascinating video, linked to below. Rocketship has several things in common with Maine Enterprise Schools...sort of where we'd like to be several years from now. They are not only a replication model (meant to be sustainable by having multiple autonomous public school or public charter sites) but one that rethinks some of the orthodoxies of how teachers and other staff are deployed. There are differences too: Rocketship focuses on the elementary years and assumes classroom-based instruction; we focus on middle and high school years with a largely individualized model. Both models, though, enable adults to work more effectively with students not by spending more money, but by spending what money there is differently.

From edreformer.com: "Here is a video of John Danner, founder of Rocketship Education, describing the hybrid learning model. This is also known as the blended learning model, or a teaching and school management methodology that can save 20% of staffing costs, or up to $550,000 a year, in Danner’s case.

Danner says: “You roll this…into a few things that make your school better. I like to say it’s like someone writing you a check for $500,000 every year and saying ‘Do things that improve your school.’”