A recent article in The Economist on technology in education includes comments on Rocketship Education:
Rocketship, a chain of seven charter schools in San Jose, California, blends traditional teaching with at least an hour a day of individualised online instruction in mathematics, literacy and comprehension. Its low-income pupils outperform those living in the wealthiest districts in the state. . . .
Teachers at Rocketship’s schools in San Jose earn 20% more than the local going rate, but will have up to 100 children in a class when they are working one-to-one in online learning laboratories. This gives Rocketship lower costs compared with schools of a similar size. It also means fewer teachers per pupil.
“Catching on at last”, Economist, June 29, 2013. It’s a wide-ranging article—worth reading the whole thing.
As mentioned in this earlier post, Rocketship is applying for a Texas charter this year, with plans to open a cluster of schools in San Antonio’s neediest areas. Cities across the country are wooing Rocketship; it is fortunate for San Antonio that Rocketship is looking here. (Choose to Succeed had a lot to do with it.)
