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A new 200-page study by Innosight Institute and The Charter School Growth Fund discloses a broader picture of this emerging blended-learning market by revealing the six models that are leading the pack and the individual organizations that are among the earliest pioneers of this fast-growing sector.
The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models highlights 40 influential blended-learning organizations across the country, categorizes them by model, and documents their effectiveness in reducing costs and improving academic performance.
It discusses emerging technology trends, and then concludes with advice for policymakers, school leaders, and entrepreneurs about how to shape the playing field to optimize results.
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The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models (PDF)
Innosight Institute writes, "Among the programs profiled in this study, several patterns are emerging, including the following:"
Definition of blended learning
In a field with significant confusion around what K−12 blended learning is, the 40 programs converged under a simple, umbrella definition. First, in all of the blended programs, the students learned in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home at least some of the time. Second, in all of the cases, the students experienced online delivery with some control over the time, place, path, and/or pace. These two requirements, then, start to distinguish blended learning from other types of learning.
Blended-learning models
Blended learning is gravitating toward six models. The six distinct clusters each share design elements that differentiate them from the others in terms of teacher roles, scheduling, physical space, and delivery methods. As innovators develop new versions of blended learning, the contours of these clusters will continue to evolve.
Mapping of programs
Often blended learning is depicted as something that takes place across a linear spectrum ranging from face-to-face to online. But blended learning is better captured on a plane, rather than a line, because it varies across two dimensions. The 40 blended-learning profiles map onto a two-by-two matrix, with the X-axis representing geographic location (brick-and-mortar versus remote) and the Y-axis representing content delivery (online versus face-to-face).
Technology trends
The market of companies and organizations providing content and technology is highly fragmented and disjointed. Many of the organizations in this study hope that policymakers will introduce quality metrics that force businesses to compete on network effects, which will consolidate the industry. Otherwise, a lack of outcome-focused policy will foster a “race to the bottom,” whereby providers compete mostly on price rather than outcome. In this scenario, the marketplace could remain significantly fragmented and cluttered with low-end entrants.
Steps for success
Strong patterns emerged in the answers that blended-learning leaders gave to the questions of what policies would best unlock the potential of blended learning. Robert Sommers, former CEO of Cornerstone Charter Schools in Detroit, summed up the pervading mood when he said, “Any policy about procedure, rather than performance, undermines the creation of a child-centered system.” The operators raised a strong voice for reinventing education policy to make it output focused rather than input regulated.
About Innosight Institute
Innosight Institute is a nonprofit/nonpartisan think tank based in Mountain View, Calif. whose mission is to apply Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen’s theories of disruptive innovation to develop and promote solutions to the problems in education. 
Source: Reuters
