Fresh off its Race to the Top win, Tennessee is leading a group of states in competing for another $50 million in stimulus money from the federal government.
This time, the state’s online school, E4TN — whose director is Hamilton County Schools employee Wendy Oliver — is heading up the Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant proposal.
The idea is to combine the strengths of the state’s already developed virtual schools into a multistate program and give more students access to the courses while also conducting research on what makes an effective online teacher.
“There isn’t teacher-effect data for online teachers,” Ms. Oliver said. “Until you have a large enough sample size, you can’t really determine what that is.”
Since 2005, the number of students participating in online learning has grown by 800 percent in Tennessee, Ms. Oliver said.
Winners for the federal money should be chosen late this summer.
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