Reporting on key Nebraska K-12 education issues on a daily basis from Susan Darst Williams, a writer who lives at the base of Mount Laundry, Nebraska. To subscribe to this blog's mailing list, and see a variety of other education features and information, visit the main education website, www.GoBigEd.com
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Thursday, December 21, 2006
Posted
12:07 AM
by Susan Darst Williams
ONLINE EDUCATION SOARS IN MICHIGAN
Applications for online education in a state like Nebraska, with all our rural schools, are obvious. But here's what's even more exciting: the future in education is in "niches," and the No. 1 "niche" that Nebraska needs to exploit is the high-ability learner.
We have great demographics, for the most part, and a highly-educated set of parents: they combine to produce a higher-than-average percentage of our K-12 students who are working above grade level -- or they would be, if they were allowed to. But the standardized curriculum we're stuck with through standards-based education is preventing a lot of the innovation that gifted kids need.
We could vault to the top of the nation in overall ed quality with an aggressive approach toward helping our smartpantses with online education, part-time attendance, home and school hybrids, parent-led co-ops using distance learning, and so on and so forth.
Check out what Michigan is doing in this burgeoning field:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=543615
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