Next in DLN Smart Series: Funding Students, Options, and Achievement

Today, Digital Learning Now! (DLN) released the sixth DLN Smart Series interactive paper with co-authors from Getting Smart. “Funding Students, Options, and Achievement” recognizes the economic realities of “the new normal” faced by states and districts in funding learning and proposes ways to redesign current school finance systems to center on students rather than institutions.

“Funding Students, Options, and Achievement” offers practical design principles of a student-centered funding system – tested in policy and in practice on both the state and district level. According to these principles, funding should be weighted (reflecting a student’s individual needs), flexible (keeping funds free from restrictions and program designations), portable (ensuring dollars follow students), and performance-based (rewarding performance and completion).

Released in partnership with Getting Smart and the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the DLN Smart Series is a collection of interactive white papers aimed offering guidance regarding the adoption of Common Core State Standards and the shift to personalized digital learning. The first five papers in the series are also available for download:

  1. Funding the Shift to Digital Learning: Three Strategies for Funding Sustainable High-Access Environments
  2. Data Backpacks: Portable Records & Learner Profiles
  3. Getting Ready for Online Assessments
  4. The Shift From Cohorts to Competency
  5. Blended Learning Implementation Guide