In The News.
Seeing the Future
By Journal Staff on Tue, Nov 29, 2011
Salvation in E-Learning
The “FUTURE of School” article alluded to e-learning as the future of education reform. As a teacher and administrator at the Southwest Learning Centers for the last 11 years, I am happy to see the Journal focusing on the important role that e-learning will have in educational reform.
At the Southwest Learning Centers we are proud of our blended model, which gradually increases the amount of online instruction as students mature. Our diverse student body has achieved some of the highest scores in the state on the Standards Based Assessment in mathematics and reading for the last six years.
We do not have an achievement gap despite the fact that nearly 30 percent of our students are considered living at or below the poverty line. Online delivery is helping students of all socio-economic backgrounds achieve content mastery.
Our real-world learning projects in our smart lab are also helping those students develop problem-solving skills and the ability to collaborate with their peers in teams. Southwest Learning Centers was the only school in New Mexico cited in the Wall Street Journal for the success of our hybrid model.
In 2000, when we first opened, we were the first school in APS to introduce online curriculum. … We currently have 4,200 families in our enrollment lottery. We have already received 50 applications for our new West Side school, which is due to open in August. We agree that the future of school learning is e-learning, and we have demonstrated consistently that this model works.
ROBERT M. PASZTOR
Albuquerque
Posted November 29, 2011