The investment firm Janus is giving Denver Public Schools $2.1 million to link teachers, students and software in what some say is a promising mix of high- and low-tech learning.
Blended learning, as the pairing of human instruction and personalized computer curriculum is known, gives teachers, and students, the ability to discover immediately what a child’s strengths and weaknesses are in a particular subject.
“This allows teachers to spend time doing what they do best, which is delivering quality content, and then giving them access to real-time data so they can know where kids are at any given time,” said Casey Cortese, president of the Janus Foundation, which makes grants and charitable gifts.
“We’re not replacing teachers with technology,” she said. “We’re giving teachers access to better technology so they can assess students’ skills.”
Several charter schools in the district are using blended learning already.
The approach puts in classrooms computers loaded with software that complements lessons teachers present live.
“We see tremendous potential for technology to be such an important and useful tool for teachers,” said Superintendent Tom Boasberg.
“The key element is a student can tell you where they are and what some of their needs are. If we can empower some students with that knowledge, we can see initiative for them to master their own learning,” he said.
The district will use the grant money to hire a director of blended learning, train teachers in the technique, as well as to buy software and hardware.
The district will focus the grant on six pilot schools, including West Generation Academy, one of two new schools that opened last month in the West High School building.
Janus intends to track the success of different software and teaching methods, and the district will take the best of them to schools across Denver, and perhaps beyond.
Boasberg said ballot initiatives going before voters in November would, if passed, provide money to sustain blended learning once the three-year Janus grant ends.
Four years ago, Janus gave the district $3 million — the largest corporate donation DPS has ever gotten — to create what is believed to be the first teacher residency program in the nation.
The success of that led the firm to explore other ways to support education in its hometown, Cortese said.
Janus recognizes that a well-educated workforce benefits them, Cortese said. But more than that, “it’s imperative that every child have access to a quality education.”
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733, kauge@denverpost.com or twitter.com/karenauge
