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The remaining 60 points will be determined through “local assessments,” which will take forms that must be negotiated by school districts and their local unions. The law leaves open what those assessments could look like. Newly-developed tests or portfolio demonstrations of student work are two ideas that state officials have mentioned as possibilities.

One aspect of the local assessments is clear: they all must meet new regulations that are currently being developed by a state task force led by Deputy Education Commissioner John King.

The group ended up recommending that the 60 points be spread across five different evaluation measures, giving the most weight to observations by school administrators and other teachers in the school. A sixth measure — student portfolio work — was considered but abandoned, because the increase in paperwork for teachers seemed too high for the value the portfolios would provide for the evaluations, Anderson said.

Title 1 funding that traditionally would have paid for an additional literacy specialist was allocated for the data strategist position.

The possibilities are endless when an individual's interests and skills are considered within the context of a school's needs. Such roles might also include community liaisons responsible for connecting families with various social services while plugging students into local job, volunteering, or community service opportunities. A keen interest in 21st-century skills might develop into a role that guides students to collaborate with others, synthesize information, and create something unique and useful for their peers.

The most prevalent barrier to hybrid teaching roles is the district-mandated staffing plan that leaves buildings with little opportunity to determine how personnel are allocated.

an area with cushy couches and tables called the Fishbowl, where students gather to chat between classes or to work on group projects.

put on headphones or twist iPod ear buds into their ears, because the online programs are interactive and multimodal—comprised of audio, video vignettes, Flash animation, quizzes, and games. Paraprofessionals called “assistant coaches” walk through the center to make sure kids are doing their work, fix computer glitches, help with academic questions

The online curriculum for each course is adaptive, meaning it can gauge from the students’ answers when they have mastered something and are ready to move ahead and when they may need extra practice before moving on. A bar on the upper right corner of the screen tracks students’ progress in every course and becomes part of a report automatically e-mailed to parents at the end of every week.

Using this “daily achievement data” from the students’ online work, teachers at Carpe Diem meet with students individually or in small groups, called workshops, either to give extra remedial help or to facilitate enrichment projects. Grouped roughly by age, students rotate in and out of the Learning Center, workshops, gym, or science labs every 55 minutes until the end of the day.

combine the best of traditional, face-to-face instruction with the best of the cutting-edge online curriculum available to virtual schools. The result is something education experts are calling a hybrid school.