Blended Education Case Study

With cutbacks in education and more demands being placed on teachers, 21st century educators are obligated to create efficient and engaging delivery and assessment methods to meet the needs of their students. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that the new normal for 21st century educators is to do more with less, and he specified that “blended learning will play a vital role as school operators must rethink the educational structure and delivery of curriculum with the new realities of public funding” (Horn & Staker, 2011, p. 3). Educational technology assists educators with overall instruction which includes assessment, student engagement, differentiation, and overall learning environment of the 21st century classroom. Investigations

These test scores show an immediate need for intervention and serious education gaps to close in order to meet the districts plan that all students are on grade level (The Denver Plan, 2013). For students to make adequate yearly progress showing growth and improvement, solid pedagogical practices and access to materials to reinforce learning must be available for the students. Best practices in education call for targeted instruction, focused learning objectives, and assessment of student mastery of the objectives (Cafarella, 2014; Thorvaldsen, Vavik, & Salomon, 2012). For those students who do not make adequate progress, the instructor must formulate a plan to address those students who did not demonstrate mastery through various assessment. The results of such assessments are shared with the students to remove the veil of secrecy surrounding progress and the meaning of the numbers from the assessments (Cafarella, 2014). Blended learning in technology rich teaching and learning environments may provide the diversity of curricular delivery methods and best practices to meet the at-risk student individual learning needs and provide a means to demonstrate performance quickly through technology-based assessments (Cafarella, 2014; Horn & Staker,