Former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s education foundation gives Idaho a D for digital education policy on its new Digital Learning Report Card. The Foundation for Excellence in Education advocates for increased use of technology in schools. Its new report card grades states on promoting online learning in 2012.
There’s no bell curve in this grading system. Idaho, with its solid D, is in the middle of the states. F is the most common grade and only one state, Utah, got an A. Among Idaho’s neighbors Washington got a C. Oregon, Nevada and Wyoming also received Ds and Montana, an F.
Idaho did best on quality of online material. Another high mark came for assessment and accountability of digital courses and online course providers. However the state didn't excel on infrastructure to support online education. Idaho also rated poorly on how many online courses students could take and when they could enroll.
For most of 2012 the Students Come First Education laws were in place in Idaho. They were repealed by voters last November. Those laws sought to increase technology use in Idaho classrooms. A spokesperson for Idaho’s Department of Education says the information the department submitted to the Foundation for Excellence in Education was from after the repeal and the state’s score would have been higher had the laws remained in place. However, Idaho’s total score in 2011, the year Students Come First went into effect, was lower than 2012.
Jeb Bush praised Idaho’s efforts to increase classroom technology under those laws at last year’s Republican National Convention. He also visited Idaho in 2011 to speak to a task force that was working on recommendations to implement the technology requirements in the laws.
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