Giant Campus Blog

I’m the Chief Financial Officer here at Giant Campus and I’m pretty passionate about changing the way middle and high school education is delivered.  I’m particularly interested in the Hybrid education model because as a father of six (yes, it’s the Brady Bunch) and a finance guy I see the lack of educational choices and how education funding continues to be cut.  I wholly appreciate the conflict created by lower school funding and the struggle by school administrators to balance the budget. But there is a better way. 

The Hybrid education model is still in its infancy but brings significant promise to traditional schools struggling with providing students relevant breadth and depth of choices in courses while facing significant funding pressure.  I define the Hybrid model as a traditional school that contains a room(s) with multiple computers connected to the internet with a teacher or teacher’s assistant monitoring students where they are afforded the opportunity to take approved online classes.  By implementing this model, students are able to choose from a wide variety of courses with highly specialized teachers that otherwise would not have been available.  Schools are able to save money by reducing headcount and instead offering online courses which generally are less. There is a better way.

I’m going to use my son’s high school as an example.  His school is in a district that is one of the better funded and higher performing districts in the state of Washington.   It’s a four year high school that has approximately 1,250 students with the usual activities ranging from drama, band and all the usual sports.  They have a reasonable technology program offering single classes in graphic arts, web design, digital photography, video/tv production and interactive media.  In languages, they offer Spanish, French and Japanese.  They also have a reasonable number of AP classes.  It’s the general store of education, a mile wide and an inch deep, in most subjects outside the core math, language arts, sciences and social studies. A student that wants a concentration in computer science or perhaps Chinese has zero options.  As a parent that believes China is going to be an economic powerhouse, I’d like my kids to learn Chinese and well…the computer science education…do I need to say more? It’s not available at his high school.  There is a better way to offer more breadth and depth in specific subjects with dynamic teachers and do it for less.

I think full online schools are wonderful for some students.  They offer a great breadth and depth of classes.  However, most students need and want the socialization of a traditional high school.  My kids fall into that bucket.  The hybrid model offers a student both. It’s a better way.

I will assume for argument sake that 75% of the 500 high schools in Washington and in the country don’t go as wide or as deep as my son’s high school because they are smaller and don’t have the same financial support. This applies to both public and private schools.  Those students are further disadvantaged because they don’t have the same opportunity. Rural students find themselves captured in that ugly cycle of minimal opportunity.  Parents who actively take part in their child’s education may supplement or educate at home to make up for the deficiencies but that is limited.  In Washington, there is an alternative if your school doesn’t employ the Hybrid model yet.  Students can drop a class at their resident school and enroll in a Giant Campus course taught by a world class teacher.  Its part of the public school system so it’s free and the credits are transferable to your student’s transcript.   There is one catch.  Your school district can be more interested in protecting its valuable funding and deny your child the choice to take these great courses even though it’s in the student’s best interest.  Check out our classes and if you find them compelling, ask your counselor if they will let your student take a class through an inter-district agreement. 

I encourage you to push your school administration to adopt the hybrid model. You’ll find that the quality of education will improve, kids will be more engaged in classes they enjoy and the school will save money by reducing teacher headcount.

A special report from Education Week was recently published in April, 2010 backing up blended or hybrid learning is proving to be effective because it plays to students’ strengths and weaknesses. Districts and states are embracing online learning. And as one educator puts it “There are so many technology resources out there, why wouldn’t you want your students to gain access to them?”
You can read more about how e-learning is making a difference here: www.edweek.org/go/elearningp