The
Essentials of
Asora®'s Stellar
Schools
and Why We Need Them
Advancing
the Goal of Ending Education as We Know
It
Whether it is through our
for-profit Asora Education Enterprises company
or through the related non-profit Stellar Schools
Development Corporation, we and our colleagues intend to
develop, establish, and operate networks of K-12 Stellar
Schools that are designed to solve many of the problems
currently seen in public and private education. Rather than
face the difficulties of managing a wholly owned system of
schools, we plan to utilize franchising or licensing
networks in running our schools.
We know, both from anecdotal accounts and from research
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, that many
high school aged children either dropout of school or are
among the 78% of public high school graduates who are not
proficient at the 12th grade level. For further information
about these problems, please see our page
What Ails Our
Schools.
Our research indicates that we can design better schools
that will operate for less expense. We know that:
* From the viewpoint of business, we need both economies of
scale and the cost savings that derive from automation.
* From the viewpoint of education, we need a more rigorous
curriculum (including economics) and we need to provide our
instruction in a self-paced format.
*Also from the requirements of education, we need schools
that are structured to prevent social promotion.
* From the viewpoint of economics, both altruism and profit
motives are needed to provide strong incentives for
superior performance.
* From the viewpoint of ethics, for-profit entities tend to
be corruption resistant while non-profits and particularly
government organizations are more at risk.
* From a combination of viewpoints, we need the flexibility
at the local level and the ease of raising capital that is
accomodated by establishing a licensing or franchising
network.
Consistent with the concepts of licensing or franchising,
the individual schools in a Stellar Schools system will be
owned by the licensees or franchisees, respectively. The
licensor or franchisor will provide centralized services to
the local schools. These will include Web-based distance
education services, examination services, and the provision
of supplies. Home schools will also receive services from
the licensor or franchisor under a format similar to
existing "virtual schools."
Our plan for developing these schools within the for-profit
world can be reviewed in our Asora®
Education
Enterprises' Business Plan
Summary or our full
Business
Plan.
The plans for developing similar schools in the
non-profit world are described in our Strategic Plan
for the Stellar
Schools Development Corporation. We envisage providing
each student with a laptop computer on which they will
access the instructional services and content for all of
the courses of the core curriculum. All routine teacher
functions will be automated and the teaching faculty
(who actually do the instruction) will be based at the
system's central service facility. These faculty,
working in two person teaching teams, will produce the
courseware including the Web based video lectures. They
will also generate and maintain the examination data
base. Finally, they will assist at the system's
centrally located help desk when the remotely located
students seek additional help that's not available at
their locations. At the local (licensee or franchisee)
school locations, the instructors will act as tutors
with the help of teaching assistants and student tutors.
Another unique feature of Stellar Schools is its
curriculum, which is operationally defined as the
universe of examination questions and answers applicable
to each of its courses.
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Now, as a visitor to our Website we recommend the following
segments of our Website content according to your type and
level of interest:
General Interest: (What's New, What Was
New,
What Ails Our
Schools, Stellar School
Essentials,
How We'll Teach
Physics)
Prospective Students and their Families: (The foregoing
links plus Staff &
Credentials)
The Education R & D Community: Most segments except
(Rationale &
Motivation,
Investor's
Video)
Prospective Players and Investors: All segments and
particularly Rationale &
Motivation.
NAEP Estimates of Individual Public School
Proficiencies: Achievement Test
Services.
Guidebooks
based on these
NAEP will be produced for most regions of the United
States, if we can find the resources to produce them. So
far, one book has been published for the Potomac
Region.
Customers, Collaborators, and
Schools Interested in Using Third-Party Courseware:
Courseware
Brokerage
Policy Makers: All segments or those relevant
to their specific interests.