The Learning Accelerator Announces Sytem-Wide Investments in Human Capital Sector

Four organizations to receive nearly $2 million to improve support for educators

Cupertino, CA – March 3, 2014 – The Learning Accelerator (TLA), a nonprofit organization supporting the implementation of high-quality blended learning in school districts across America, today announced a nearly $2 million series of investments in the human capital sector to support educators making the transition to blended learning. The recipients include The Highlander Institute, a non-profit organization that designs and provides professional development and education services; Relay GSE, a non-profit graduate school of education; BetterLesson, a teacher- founded organization that helps educators create, organize, and share curricula and teaching practices; and TNTP, a non-profit that helps schools, districts, and states to ensure effective teaching in every classroom.

“The promise of blended learning is realized when great teachers harness the power of technology to personalize education for their students, “ said Beth Rabbitt, TLA partner in charge of human capital. “We want educators to have the right support at each stage of their work to successfully implement new models of teaching and learning.”

The overall goal of TLA’s human capital work is to help districts build staff effectiveness to ensure blended learning transformation efforts are successful. Ultimately, says Rabbitt, “We hope that the resources educators have for professional learning are as personalized and mastery-based as those we want them to put into practice with students in their schools.” These initial investments span a range of projects and organizations in an effort to improve the content, structure, and delivery of blended learning supports at the state, district, and school level.

Brief summary of each initial investment:

• Relay GSE: Develop a suite of blended learning training and teacher preparation modules, which will be offered for free to the public at large and for credit in the context of the organization’s degree-granting programs.

• BetterLesson: Fund the capture and sharing of the practices of master blended learning teachers, helping educators to learn from each other via digital case studies and online materials and to see blended learning approaches in action.

• TNTP: Develop a series of actionable recommendations and advice for human capital management strategies to support district and school transitions to blended learning models.

• Highlander Institute: Build the organization’s capacity to provide support to schools and districts across Rhode Island by creating a technical and training assistance network.

“Investing in these four organizations as a cohort will enable them to achieve a bigger collective impact than they would in isolation,” explained Rabbitt. “TLA can help coordinate research in design activities up front to accelerate the work, help share lessons learned, and eventually test and propagate project outputs.”