Florida is #1 in Digital Learning According to New Report

Watchdog.org published a story I wrote on Digital Learning initiatives nationwide this past Thursday.  The story was based upon a new report out this past week that delves into the efforts nationwide to increase opportunities for students to participate in high-quality digital learning opportunities.  from the story:

"For the 2014 report card, Florida earns top honors and the highest overall grade, followed closely by Utah.  These two states are the only two states that earned an “A” for this year’s report. Eleven states earned “B’s,” 13 states earned “C’s,” 19 states earned “D’s,” and 5 states (Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Connecticut) earned “F’s.” One of the keys to the success of Florida in this report is the passage and subsequent implementation of HB 7059 (2012).  This bill requires school districts in Florida to inform all parents of options for early high school graduation, and also expands student advancement options based upon demonstrated achievement.  Implementation of HB 7059 over the last three years also expanded career and technical offerings while simultaneously allowing those who finish high school early to maintain eligibility for Florida’s lottery-funded Bright Futures college scholarship program.  This report contains an entire section dedicated to the brief description of several current and/or pending laws from states that are moving bills in their respective legislatures to advance digital learning.  The report also includes tables listing the bills introduced in 2014, the number that were enacted, and the number that failed before passage.Additionally, the report contains links to 18 different reports on digital learning and competency based student progression, as well as numerous links to organizations that readers can contact for more information on this topic.  Digital learning is the cutting edge in education, and this report does a very nice job of introducing the topic to readers, defining what successful implementation looks like, and then ranking the states that are working toward implementation of these initiatives."

Read the full report here.