Stellar
Schools Can Fill A Catholic Education
Need
(Perhaps
it is time to trade-in the 500-year old Protestant
inspired tradition of age-based group
instruction?)
Summary
The features
envisaged for Asora®
Education
Enterprises' Stellar Schools networks may be a good fit for
many of the needs of Catholic K-12 education. Stellar
Schools are intended to simultaneously improve student
outcomes, lower operating costs and prevent social
promotion. These benefits are presumed to be of interest to
Catholic educators. Of particular interest and concern is
the promise of lower costs, which could help save
financially strapped schools. Beyond those considerations,
and unlike so many other private schools, which are not
organized into large networks, Catholic schools often exist
in sufficiently large systems where the economies of scale
available from Stellar Schools may provide additional
advantages. Using the Stellar Schools model within the
Catholic system(s) is not an “all or none”
proposition because the features/offerings of Stellar
Schools can be introduced and evaluated one component at a
time.
Factors
In The Decline Of Catholic Schools
Demographic Changes At The Local And National
Levels
The numbers of families who can afford Catholic school
tuition depends on the disposable income of those families.
Many of the more urban settings where Catholic schools have
been located have seen changes in the numbers of local
families who can afford tuition as well as the number of
children seeking Catholic schooling. These changes most
often have led to declining enrollments, which in turn have
affected the solvency of these schools.
Charter
Schools Compete For Some Of The Same
Students
Over the past two decades many charter schools have been
established in the areas also served by Catholic schools.
Given the free tuition of the charter schools, a
significant fraction of former and prospective Catholic
school students have transferred.
The
Catholic Schools' Lack Of A Sufficiently Competitive
Product
We know, based on the Nation's Report Card and other
sources, that Catholic schools produce higher percentages
of proficient students than their public counterparts. And
that remains true even when the comparisons are controlled
for demographic factors. These same tests also show
unacceptable levels of social promotion in both public and
Catholic schools with the latter having over half of its
students improperly advanced. Thus Catholic schools, while
better, are not significantly ahead of their public
counterparts. And, in favorable circumstances, they tend to
be sufficiently attractive to capture enough tuition paying
students to remain financially solvent. However, when
demographic effects, a faltering economy, and competition
from charter schools reduce the Catholic schools' market
share, their financial health is negatively affected.
Relevant
History Of Instructional Methods
Tutoring
Likely Predates he Historic Record
Tutoring has always been and will probably remain the
preferred method of instruction when costs are of little
concern. In our own time, some parents teach their children
in a home schooling arrangement. This is clearly a form of
tutoring. Home schooled children, on average, perform well
above their public and private school peers. But such
tutoring is expensive when reckoned in terms of the
parent's opportunity costs.
Age-Based
Group Instruction Grew Out Of The Protestant
Reformation
Schools in the United States and other developed countries
are nearly all operated in an age-based group instructional
format. In the Western world, group instruction grew out of
the Protestant Reformation because it was the only way to
educate the masses up to a level of literacy sufficient to
read the Bible. After all, a Bible reading laity was a
central goal in the Reformation. Despite its Protestant
origins, age-based group instruction has spread to nearly
all schools in the world, regardless of ethnic or religious
affiliations. And among them are Catholic schools.
Online
Self-Paced Instruction As A New Kind Of
Tutoring
Under the label Stellar Schools we have designed a model
school, which uses online self-paced instruction for the
core curriculum. Children learn in a tutoring format but
within traditional schoolrooms. It is made affordable by
employing computers and the Internet to create an on-demand
(asynchronous) learning environment which is both higher
quality and less expensive than contemporary group
instructional arrangements. In this format teachers and
teaching assistants act as tutors and facilitators. Fewer
school based personnel are required than in the group
instructional format. Age based group instruction is
eliminated from the core curricular areas. To further
minimize their costs, we envisage organizing these schools
into networks that would have economies of scale.
The networks of these non-profit schools could be organized
under a non-profit service organization or under a
for-profit franchising company. We can work with interested
parties in either format. Our for-profit arm is the
company, Asora® Education Enterprises, while our non-profit
effort will be organized under the Stellar Schools
Development Corporation. Regardless of the profit nature of
the service organization, non-profit schools, such as
Catholic parish schools, could operate under its umbrella.
What
Catholic Schools Need To Do To Survive And
Thrive
We see two basic strategies that can stanch and even
reverse the declining market share of Catholic schools:
1. Lower the per pupil operation costs.
2. Improve the quality of instruction.
In the context of age-based group instruction it is
generally not possible to do both. Lowering costs usually
reduces instructional quality while, conversely, improving
instruction generally raises costs.
Asora's Stellar Schools accomplish these strategies
simultaneously. Our significantly lower costs of
instruction can translate into lower per pupil operating
costs. Our online self-paced instructional format
accommodates rigorous content while at the same time
preventing the ills of social promotion. Schools, like
these, that are providing a better product at a lower cost
will likely see their market shares increase.
Schools now using the age-based group instructional format
need not convert every course to the new format at the same
time. The new formats can be introduced gradually over time
with much less disruption to school operations.
Conclusion:
Abandon The Age-Based Group Instruction
Format
The traditional Protestant inspired age-based group
instructional format that is now used by nearly all schools
in the world should be phased out as superior replacements
become available. During the nearly 500 years of this
tradition, the alternative and superior instructional
format of tutoring has been too expensive to offer to the
masses.
Now, thanks to technology, the tutoring model can be made
less expensive than group instruction. This is essentially
what Stellar Schools are all about.
More
About The Stellar Schools System Of
Instruction
Stellar Schools networks may be a good fit for many of the
needs of Catholic K-12 education. In terms of getting costs
down, consider that:
*
Top quality instructors can be hired to provide the online
content to a large student population.
* In the schoolroom, the ratio of students to teaching
staff can be significantly larger than now.
* Much of the tutoring function, itself, can be
automated.
A
number of other features, potentially of interest in
Catholic education, include:
* Special
courses, such as religion, can be developed to the
patron’s specifications.
* The Stellar Schools courses can be introduced and
evaluated one course at a time.
* The mastery levels required for students to pass courses
prevent social promotion.
* Under the non-profit version, Catholic authorities would
control the entire system.
We imagine that
the twin benefits of improved student outcomes and lower
operating costs are surely of interest to Catholic
educators. Of particular interest and concern is the
promise of lower costs, which could help save financially
strapped schools.
Beyond those considerations, and unlike so many other
private schools, which are not organized into large
networks, Catholic schools often exist in sufficiently
large systems where the economies of scale available from
Stellar Schools may provide additional advantages.
What Asora Can And Cannot Do To Help
Asora
and its "sister" non-profit effort, Stellar Schools
Development Corporation, are available to help Catholic
educators implement these proposals. For those who prefer
to work purely in a non-profit environment we refer you to
the Catholic Education page
of the
website of the non-profit Stellar Schools Development
Corporation.
We are available to help Catholic educators implement these
proposals.
Asora Capabilities And Limitations
As should be evident from the information on this website,
The Stellar Schools system is in a very early stage of
development. We are not (yet) producers of courseware nor
are we experienced school operators. Our core competencies
lie in school design, aspects of assessment systems, and in
the subject areas of physics and mathematics. We are in the
process of developing a spreadsheet of online courseware
vendors showing the features of their products and
services. This database will form the basis of our
brokerage service.
Thus we can assist schools obtain courseware and related
services from third party vendors in our role as broker. In
doing that we foresee various kinds of limitations in the
online products for which we will seek remedies. Most of
these vendors do not provide the twelve modes of
instruction outlined elsewhere
on this
website.
Seeking
Partners In Development Projects
Catholic educators and others may wish to undertake a pilot
project in which one or two courses would be given online.
Asora's Stellar Schools project is seeking collaborators to
do this. Schools participating in such efforts would
potentially benefit in a number of ways including:
1. Directly benefiting its students with course mastery.
2. Saving on costs if less labor is used per student.
3. An ownership interest and possible royalties from its
co-authorship.
4. Favorable publicity.