Executive Summary. Connections Education. Dr. Steven Guttentag, President/Owner 1001 Fleet St Baltimore, MD

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1 Dr. Steven Guttentag, President/Owner 1001 Fleet St Baltimore, MD Document Generated On March 13, 2015

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the Corporation 2 Corporation's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 6 Additional Information 8

3 Introduction Every corporation has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the corporation makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a corporation stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the corporation, and the kinds of programs and services that a corporation implements to support student learning. <br><br> The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a corporation with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the community will have a more complete picture of how the corporation perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the corporation to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the Corporation Describe the corporation's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the corporation serves? ("Connections") is a leading provider of high-quality, highly accountable virtual and blended education solutions for students in grades K-12. The company was founded in October 2001, and became part of the global learning company Pearson PLC in In school year , Connections will serve approximately 70,000 full-time students throughout the U.S. and around the world, with 1.4 million total course enrollments (including both full time and supplementary student enrollments). Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland (where it was named one of the best places to work for two years in a row), Connections employs nearly 4,000 professionals around the country. Connections is committed to expanding access to quality education through technology and to helping students achieve both academic and personal success. Connections fulfills this commitment by supporting a growing number of virtual and blended public schools (primarily under the Connections Academy and Nexus Academy brands) in 26 states; its global private virtual school, International Connections Academy (inaca); and its partner programs with school districts and other educational organizations in all 50 states and around the globe through its Connections Learning by Pearson institutional division. By virtue of its work over the past 13 years, Connections has helped create the field that is now known as K-12 online/blended learning. When Connections was founded, fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in full-time virtual education around the U.S., and less than 100,000 were taking supplementary online courses. Today, the total number of full-time virtual students is estimated to be more than 300,000 and over three million students take supplementary online courses. Through its collaborative efforts with thought-leader organizations such as the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (inacol) and Digital Learning Now, Connections has played a key role in catalyzing this meteoric expansion while working diligently to ensure students have access to online educational opportunities that are consistently high-quality, highly accountable, and characterized by continuous improvement. The population of students benefiting from Connections programs has changed in many ways, becoming both more diverse and more mainstream as virtual school opportunities reach an ever-greater segment of the population. Students in more than half of the states in the U.S. can now choose a full-time virtual public school, and online courses are available almost everywhere. The demographics of students attending Connections Academy and Nexus Academy schools closely track those of the states in which the students live: approximately 25% are members of minority groups; 45% qualify for free or reduced-price meals; and 16% have special education needs, according to Connection's most recent school-wide Monthly School Report (for both Connections Academy and Nexus Academy schools). In addition, about 60% of students enrolling at Connections Academy or Nexus Academy schools are switching from other public schools, mostly of the traditional brick-and-mortar variety. The public schools supported by Connections have seen the most dramatic growth in their high school programs, with nearly half of all the students being served currently enrolled in grades In addition, recent company market research has revealed that while virtual schooling has become a more familiar public school choice in many communities, families still most often choose virtual school as a solution to a specific dilemma facing their child (such as being advanced or struggling academically, enduring a bullying situation, suffering an illness, and/or desiring to focus on an elite sports or artistic performing opportunity) rather than as a long-term, mainstream option. Addressing this reality, while continuing to expand the market for high-quality virtual education, will be one of the guiding challenges for Connections in the coming years. Page 2

5 While the overall Connections staff has grown exponentially to keep pace with the growth in online learning, the company's leadership has remained remarkably stable. Several members of the Executive Management team have been with Connections since its founding, and nearly all have served for more than five years. The ability of this team to successfully guide the organization through times of dramatic change was tested on September 2, the first day of the new school year for many Connections students - when Connections lost its founding CEO, Barbara Dreyer, to cancer. The Executive Management team rallied together, and rallied their teams, to ensure continuous service to families and to channel the company's collective grief toward fulfilling the mission Barbara lived by: academic and emotional success for every student we serve. Page 3

6 Corporation's Purpose Provide the corporation's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the corporation embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. Connections has been a purpose-driven organization since its founding, with multiple organic mechanisms for imbuing all of its operations - corporate and school - with a sense of mission and a shared culture of high expectations for all stakeholders, ethical practices, and continuous improvement. The focus from the start was on creating a new kind of school that provided each student with personalized performance learning to maximize his or her potential. The development of the Connections curriculum and platform, the creation of teaching protocols, the addition of schools to the network and outreach to students have all been guided by this purpose, now codified in both external and internal communications. The overarching Connections' mission, "to help each student maximize his or her potential and meet the highest performance standards through a uniquely individualized learning program," is articulated in everything from employee handbooks to computer screensavers. Connections has also formalized its corporate values as pillars of organizational culture. To work at Connections corporate or a Connections supported school is to make service to students and families the touchstone for every task; to enjoy personal empowerment in exchange for accountability for results; and to commit to "no surprises" through data-based anticipation of issues and rapid response to resolve them. All employees are expected to embrace these pillars of Connections' culture, along with the guiding purpose and a bedrock commitment to ethical practice. As a result, in the fast-changing and often controversial field of K-12 online and blended learning, Connections is known for its stability and integrity. One of the cornerstones of Connections' educational philosophy is, and has always been, the importance of "teachers who teach" and who regularly engage with their students in meaningful ways. To that end, Connections maintains rigorous requirements and expectations for direct student-to-teacher contact in every Connections-branded school - and provides teachers with the tools, trainings, and supports they need to be effective. Teachers use Live Lesson classroom presentations, videos, telephone, WebMail (internal ), open office hours, and Message Board resources to engage with students and support each student's learning and success. Professional development and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), focused on continual improvement, are embedded in the fabric of Connections' teachers' lives. School leaders are charged with giving teachers individualized feedback that rewards effective practices and targets specific areas for improvement. Delivered via the Connections' proprietary school management system platform known as Connexus, the rigorous curriculum and academic services are designed to meet the varied needs of the diverse students who choose a Connections school. Courses in addition to core curriculum include Gifted and Talented Math, Language Arts, and Science for grades 3-8; many Honors and Advance Placement courses; Foundations courses and a wide range of support programs for students who need additional help, and electives for students as young as kindergarten. To ensure students are prepared for success wherever they go, the curriculum is aligned to national standards such as those from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (inacol), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and Common Core State Standards, as well as state standards where appropriate. Dynamic educational tools, designed to foster engagement and address varied learning styles, are embedded throughout the curriculum. Student progress is monitored systematically through many tools and reports available in Connexus - the Assessment Objective Performance Report, grade book, and tools such as the Intervention Indicators and Alerts help teachers use data effectively to improve student outcomes. Curriculum Based Assessments provide strategies and assistance for struggling students, and are also used to authenticate students' course work. Specialty Academies (renamed as Talent Networks for 2015 and beyond) are designed to enhance the educational experience of students who are competing and/or preforming at a Page 4

7 high level in sports, the visual and performing arts, or advanced STEM work. Finally, Clubs and Activities, National Honor Society, and field trips and school events provide learning and socialization opportunities beyond the classroom. In 2014, through a close study of learning sciences and more than a decade of accumulated data and experience, Connections crystallized a set of beliefs about what best promotes student mastery in an online setting. These include: Practice that is meaningful, deliberate, and ongoing, and that provides students multiple opportunities to learn and demonstrate learning - without negative consequences- to build fluency and long term memory Feedback that is valid and provided early and often to guide and support student learning Student Engagement and Motivation that is focused on the value of learning, self-efficacy, emotion, grit, and persistence Intervention that is timely, targeted, monitored, and effective Data visualization systems that present real time student performance data to key stakeholders These five evidence-based principles now guide ongoing improvements to Connections' curriculum and instructional programs. Page 5

8 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the corporation's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the corporation is striving to achieve in the next three years. Over the past three years, Connections has grown and changed in significant ways, achieving important milestones that set the stage for critical future developments over the next three years. In the fall of 2011, Connections was acquired by Pearson PLC ( the world's largest education company, with 40,000 employees working in more than 80 countries. Pearson provides learning services such as curriculum and assessments; school improvement services including professional development and leadership training; and innovative school operations reaching students in schools across the U.S., the United Kingdom, and India. In addition to greatly expanding Connections' resources and creating the potential for global reach, the Pearson relationship reinforces Connections' corporate mission through Pearson's commitment to efficacy and its focus on helping people everywhere aim higher and fulfill their true potential. School year was also the first full year in which the organization operated as, having restructured, renamed, and expanded six months earlier. Its Connections Academy division focused on the core business, supporting public schools through virtual educational services, for which Connections had been known since its launch. An additional division, Connections Learning, was created to address the growing need for districts/schools to have access to the type of 21st century educational opportunities for students that Connections is expert at providing, including everything from individual online courses to services for blended schools to fully virtual programs. In , schools and programs supported by Connections together served approximately 30,000 students, and the staff headcount reached approximately 1,400. In , Connections celebrated a decade of operations since supporting its first schools in the fall of Connections marked its 10th anniversary by creating a special scholarship fund for students graduating from Connections-supported schools. Connections also launched the Nexus Academy network of highly innovative blended-learning high schools, as well as two new fully virtual schools: Iowa Connections Academy (IACA) and California Connections Ripon (CalCAR). International Connections Academy (inaca), formerly focused solely on students in the U.S., was renamed and expanded to reflect the growing demand for the school to serve students worldwide. Connections Learning integrated the Pearson GradPoint and NovaNet programs serving school districts and was branded Connections Learning by Pearson. Total students served through all Connections programs for the school year reached 40,000, and number of staff neared 2,000. In , Connections added two more blended Nexus Academy schools and two new virtual partner schools: New Mexico Connections Academy (NMCA), and the innovative year-round Great Lakes Cyber Academy (GLCA) in Michigan. Connections also acquired the assets of Advanced Academics, a complementary online enterprise serving school districts and credit recovery programs. As part of a Pearson global reorganization, Connections became the centerpiece of a new Inside Services and Direct Delivery group focused on providing school services around the world. As it had each year for the past several years, Connections won multiple curriculum and program awards from ComputED Gazette, Tech & Learning, and the U.S. Distance Learning Association. In addition, Connections was named one of Baltimore's Best Places to Work by the Baltimore Sun newspaper (an honor it would win again the following year). Total enrollment topped 50,000 and number of staff exceeded 2,500. In , Connections launched two virtual schools in the previously under-served Northeast: Maine Connections Academy (MCA) and Page 6

9 TEC Connections Academy (TECCA) in Massachusetts. Along with an additional new school in California (CalCAN), this brought the Connections online/blended school network to more than 30 schools in 25 states, serving nearly 70,000 students with a staff near 4,000. In the fall of 2014, following the death of founding CEO Barbara Dreyer, co-founder Steven Guttentag, Ph.D. took over the helm at Connections, with the support of a veteran Executive Management team to take the organization into its next era. As it embraces its next era, Connections faces new challenges as a purpose-driven organization. Connections must determine how best to engage a rapidly growing workforce in shaping and sharing a unifying corporate purpose, and how to ensure space for innovation and daily improvement in culture deeply committed to data-driven accountability. In addition, Connections leadership has identified the following areas to be of overall strategic importance for the company's next five years, and has begun seeking buy-in from key stakeholders throughout the organization: - Improving the efficacy and fidelity of implementation of the Connections Core Model of quality virtual schooling - Continued responsible growth in both managed schools and in service to school districts - Expansion of international offerings and Pearson synergies - Fostering the next generation of Connections leaders Throughout this process, Connections will be working diligently to maintain a clear and resilient purpose to serve an increasingly diverse customer and employee base in a time of accelerating change. Page 7

10 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. has consistently high stakeholder satisfaction results. Specifically, over the last four years: - More than 95% of parents agree the curriculum is high-quality. - 90% of parents gave their Connections Academy school a grade of A or B. - 94% of parents indicated that their child was very satisfied or satisfied with the Connections Academy program. - 92% of parents agree the program is flexible. - 91% of parents agree the teachers improve the learning experience. - Almost all parents recommend Connections Academy to parents whose children are not enrolled (92-94%). - 96% of employees said customer focus is better/significantly better than at their previous job. - 91% of employees said the work environment is better/significantly better than at their previous job. Page 8