Winning States

My recent all company email resulted in a clamor for re-doubling my commitment to this blog.  (Actually only one person mentioned it but he made a very persuasive case).

This week we traveled to Baton Rouge to present to the Louisianna Department of Education.  They have undertaken an exciting "course choice" initiative which will provide a catalogue of approved courses to every student in Louisiana.  The team posed for a picture prior to our presentation in front of the WCC Claiborne Building (and yes, I asked and WCC Claiborne was a Governor of LA in the 1700s shortly after the LA Purchase ...) but I am having trouble loading it.

Kandyce Coston came all the way to LA for 20 minutes of presenting and 30 minutes of questions -- but she didn't need even that much time to blow the evaluation team away.  Her thoughtful explanation of our course design and academic standards was a huge homerun (at least it seemed that way to those of us in the room).

Chad Schaedler, Rose Harper (from K12) and Jamie Northrup rounded out our team.  It was so reaffirming to hear versed education policy leaders applauding our course design, implementation planning and attention to student-centered learning.

From a learning perspective, I heard what Chad has been telling the leadership team for some time -- we need a better defined parent role for our courses.  It is interesting that even as we move aggressively into the institutional market serving students in traditional bricks and mortar schools, there is still a strong sense by policy makers that parents will be key -- something that has been a reality with our students enrolled through Virtual Academies for years.  (This is sharing a thought, not an official change to the product road map .....)

After bringing Kandyce back to the airport the guys and I headed over to New Orleans for the final two days of iNACOL.  (International Association for K-12 Online Learning) at their Virtual School Symposium.  Later today I will be moderating a panel with Senator Howard Stephenson, Utah (Chair of the Education Committee),  Rae Ann Knopf, Ex. Dir. of the Connecticut Council for Ed Reform (formerly at the VT DOE) and Kathleen Shanahan, member and former Chair of the Florida Board of Education. 

Beth Gemmill was here for the beginning of the conference and she and I were able to meet with many of our partners and some potential new partners.  One of our prospects commented that he went through the entire exhibit area, stopping at every booth, to ask about curriculum options.  He said he finally stopped asking about World Languages because every booth had the same answer, "Oh, we use Middlebury."  While that is not completely true (yet!) he came in to our meeting already convinced that Middlebury is the best, highest quality, most admired product available for online world language learning in the K-12 education space.  We still have a lot more work to do -- but how great is it to hear that in a meeting???

This jam-packed week is further reminder of the exciting opportunities we are capitalizing on and those still ahead.  I know everyone continues to work hard every day to drive our mission of delivering the very best academic products to more students in our nation's schools.  All kidding aside, I will try to be better about posting as my view out on the road is affirmation of the excitement and enthusiasm we are creating across the country.

Of course, travel isn't all a bed of roses.  Besides my many delayed flights on the way here, I did miss a field hockey game yesterday and of course my daughter scored two goals (her first two of the year!) in a 3-0 win.  I did get to look at pictures on Facebook .... :)  (It wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't mention my girls, right?)

I hope that my email-pal's belief that these blog posts are a great way to stay in touch with what the company is up to and what is happening across departments and locations and with customers is in fact true.  And I really hope you share my excitement about the year that is unfolding.