Located about forty-five miles north of Philadelphia, PA, Quakertown Community School District (QCSD) has seen tremendous improvement in student achievement and engagement from implementation of a blended learning approach that combines online learning with traditional classroom instruction, finds a new interactive video profile conducted by the Alliance for Excellent Education and Public Impact. “Quakertown Community School District: A Systematic Approach to Blended Learning That Focuses on District Leadership, Staffing, and Cost-effectiveness,” is the first in a series of interactive video profiles highlighting innovative school districts that utilize digital learning to improve teaching and learning.

This morning, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Education, which includes $300 million for high school transformation, a $125 million increase for School Improvement Grants, and a plan to provide access to high-quality preschool programs for all low- and moderate-income four-year-olds. In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement.

Released this morning, a new report from America Achieves compares the performance of individual U.S. high schools in math and science to the world’s highest-performing nations based on a new test involving 105 American high schools known as the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Test for Schools (based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)). In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement.

Today, the Alliance for Excellent Education and Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University opened enrollment for a first-of-its-kind Massive Online Open Course for Educators (MOOC-Ed). Titled “Digital Learning Transition,” the free course will examine how the effective use of digital learning can help school districts meet educational challenges, including implementing college- and career-ready standards for all students and preparing teachers to make effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

This morning, MetLife released The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership. In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement:“For most of the nation’s principals and teachers, the temperature gauge is in the red and bordering on burnout.

Last night, President Barack Obama announced a new challenge that will “redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy.” In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement:

A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education shows that recent progress in holding schools accountable for how many students they graduate from high school—the ultimate goal of K–12 education—may be slowed in some states based on waivers recently granted under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The Alliance for Excellent Education announced today that more than 250 school districts, representing approximately 2.5 million students across forty-two states, have already signed up for its ground-breaking new initiative to help school districts plan for and effectively use technology and digital learning. Entitled “Project 24,” the initiative will be officially launched during the Alliance’s Digital Learning Day Digital Town Hall at 1:00 p.m. (ET).

Signifying the growing importance and demand for digital learning strategies in the classroom, nearly 25,000 teachers, millions of students, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA), are joining the Alliance for Excellent Education tomorrow, February 6, for the second annual Digital Learning Day. Digital Learning Day is a national campaign that promotes digital learning and spotlights successful instructional technology practice in K–12 public school classrooms across the country.

WASHINGTON, DC--Today, U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) introduced H.R. 521, the Transforming Education Through Technology Act. The legislation would provide states, school districts and schools with resources and support to expand the availability of digital learning. By effectively utilizing technology to enhance education, the legislation will help to ensure that all students graduate from high school, college- and career-ready. In response, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, made the following statement.