Candidates for 2010 iNACOL Board of Directors
Jamey Fitzpatrick
President & CEO
Michigan Virtual University
Candidate's Statement and Summary of Qualifications
I have been a long-time supporter and user of iNACOL services. This organization has played an important advocacy role at both the state and national levels. Michigan Virtual University (MVU) has benefitted significantly from iNACOL's leadership as we work with school administrators and policy leaders in the state of Michigan. I am interested in serving on the iNACOL Board of Directors for two reasons. First, I want to share my personal and professional experiences related to the adoption, use and expansion of online learning in Michigan, including barriers and successes. Secondly, I want to contribute to iNACOL's expanding role to provide leadership in shaping policy development and best practices at the local, state and national levels.
I have provided leadership, vision and strategic direction for Michigan Virtual University, a dynamic growing, non-profit corporation that serves Michigan's K-12 community with online educational services. MVU has helped the state of Michigan earn high national rankings for online learning policy and practice the past several years. For example, I served on the Michigan Department of Education Superintendent's task force that recommended new high school graduation requirements, including the nation's first online learning provision that became law in 2006. Prior to joining MVU in 1998, I served as the Director of Technology for the Michigan Department of Education where I worked for more than a decade promoting educational technology within the K-12 community.
I have worked hard to be a catalyst for change and a champion of innovation in public education for the past 20 years. I strongly support the mission of iNACOL and believe I can make a positive contribution to its continued success.
Biographic Summary
Jamey Fitzpatrick has served as a catalyst for change and a champion of innovation in public education for more than 20 years. As both an education and technology policy advocate, Mr. Fitzpatrick provides leadership for Michigan Virtual University (MVU), a private nonprofit organization dedicated to serving Michigan's K-12 community.
Dwight D. Jones
Colorado Commissioner of Education,
Incoming Superintendent of Clark County School District, Nevada (December 2010)
Candidate's Statement and Summary of Qualifications
From the inception of public education, increasing student achievement for students has been the tenet on which education is founded. How to do so for all students, however, has until recent years gone unaddressed. The advent of the Internet has opened up worlds of information, both figuratively and literally, for people of all ages. It has also taken the idea of correspondence courses to a new level and has proved an excellent means of education delivery for students – whether for credit recovery, access to coursework and higher education.
As a district superintendent, I saw firsthand dropout students re-engage with school and other students recover credits through the use of online coursework. In fact, a large portion of the doctoral coursework I personally pursued was done online.
While online education has gained increased popularity with K-12 students and their parents, public perception and policy have effected perhaps unintentional restrictions and limiting the opportunities for districts and schools in general and teachers and students in particular to take full advantage of the options online education presents. As Colorado's commissioner of education, I have definitely seen this to be true. Technology advances by leaps and bounds; state policy moves more at a snail's pace. So where initial legislation was passed to open doors and establish the viability of online education, it has not kept pace and can at times be more of a hindrance than a help.
In 2007, the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 07-215, which expanded school choice by establishing online education as a complete educational option for students who didn't do well in a traditional classroom setting or simply preferred a virtual setting. Within the department of education, we also created an online office to ensure the quality of and to provide support and service to online programs statewide.
The blended learning concept exponentially expands the educational experience – for students and teachers alike. More than accessibility to content, however, today's "connected" students are both adept and drawn to learning via technological modes.
As a champion of increasing student achievement, I have long seen online education as yet another way of delivering information for student success. During my last year as superintendent, the district provided each high school student with a laptop for their use and instruction. While much of the core coursework was installed, additional tutelage was indeed provided online. As I transition from commissioner of Colorado to superintendent of Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nev.), I look forward to exploring how best to create a climate where blended learning is a mainstay, if not the norm.
I am privileged to be invited to serve on the iNACOL board of directors, as I believe this board will be able to address the issues that present challenges for the advancement of online learning and firmly root the blended learning concept in public education. It will be a giant step forward toward reaching the goal of increasing achievement for all students.
Biographic Summary
Dwight D. Jones's passion for students and reform-centered leadership style have established his career in public education, from his first job as an elementary school teacher in Kansas to his tenure as Colorado Commissioner of Education. In December 2010, he will begin as superintendent of Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nevada), the fifth largest district in the country.
Coni Rechner
Vice President of Digital Partnerships
Discovery Education
Candidate's Statement and Summary of Qualifications
As Vice President of Digital Partnerships for Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development services to America's classrooms, I am each day engaging with educators at all levels on the subject of digital content. While my position provides me a truly national perspective on the issues surrounding the use of digital content in the classroom, it also offers me the opportunity to help students reach their fullest academic potential.
Throughout my career, I've worked to create services for both students and teachers aimed at this goal. Almost ten years ago, I worked with a small team to create the first digital video streaming service for schools (unitedstreaming), revolutionizing how media was used in the classroom. Likewise, I was the architect in the creation of the Discovery Educator Network, which, as the largest professional learning community of its kind, each day helps hundreds of thousands of educators integrate digital content into their instruction.
My experiences in creating these truly transformative services, and many others, have shown me how today's educational technologies are the foundation to take the learning experience beyond the four walls of the classroom.
While my professional experience has allowed me to become a tremendous evangelist for digital learning, my personal experience as a volunteer board member at my local school has helped me see another perspective. As I led efforts to integrate educational technologies and blended learning into existing curriculum, I've seen first hand the challenges teachers and students face in bringing education into the 21st Century, and now feel even better prepared to aid iNACOL in their mission is to ensure all students have access to a world-class education and quality online learning opportunities that prepare them for a lifetime of success.
Biographic Summary
Coni Rechner, Vice President of Digital Partnerships for Discovery Education, has been an integral part of Discovery's growth. She helped launch the Discovery Educator Network and currently oversees the digital sales team. Rechner is the recipient of the Marketing Pacesetter Award and has served on the boards of FETC, P21, and Congress for Digital Content. Rechner holds degrees from Marquette University and the University of St. Thomas.
Mickey Revenaugh
Co-Founder and Senior Vice President
Connections Academy
Candidate's Statement and Summary of Qualifications
Virtual visionaries, passionate educators, innovators of all stripes: This is our moment! In this noisy, fractious time in American education, while others are racing to the top or waiting for Superman, only online learning is poised to push beyond reforming education to truly transforming it. We have seen with our own eyes what can happen when we remake schools to fit kids instead of the other way around. And now that policymakers have stopped looking at us like we're from Mars and started listening to our experience, the day is ours to seize.
I can help iNACOL and the online learning community make the most of this unique moment in history. When you elected me to the iNACOL Board in 2007, I brought with me hard-earned expertise as an advocate, communicator and organizer from nearly 10 years of building Connections Academy into a leading provider of quality virtual learning services. My previous work on the e-Rate and at Scholastic prepared me well to think broadly and act collaboratively in the service of better education for our kids.
Together with iNACOL staff and iNACOL members from around the nation, I led the Board in taking on issues ranging from state virtual school budget cuts to blocked opportunities in the military for virtual school graduates. In three short years, virtual learning has moved in from the fringes toward the heart of what is needed in American education. Now, with unprecedented opportunities and challenges ahead for the online field, I am eager to roll up my sleeves for what comes next.
Please seize this unique moment to vote a second term for me on the iNACOL Board.
Biographic Summary
Mickey Revenaugh is co-founder and Senior Vice President at Connections Academy, a leading national provider of virtual public school services, and also serves as Chairman of the Board of iNACOL, The International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Previously, she helped launch the E-rate program to wire American schools to the Internet, and served as education technology editor at Scholastic.