Position Overview

Reporting to CEO Ron Packard, and working from the company’s headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, the Chief Academic Officer will assume responsibility for the academic integrity of K12’s virtual schools and online courses.  This will be accomplished through the assessment of student results using research, data analytics, and testing to ensure superior student learning outcomes. He or she will collaborate with school directors, their faculty, and senior leadership at K12 corporate headquarters to refine, articulate, and continuously improve K12’s educational model and materials to achieve targeted academic results, and will be the chief spokesperson for the company on all matters dealing with student performance.

About K12

With revenues of more than $500 million, K12 Inc. (LRN: NYSE) is the nation’s largest provider of proprietary curricula and online education programs for students in kindergarten through high school. Using 21st century tools to prepare 21st century students, K12 provides the broadest array of options for students to learn in a flexible and innovative way, at an individualized pace. K12 provides curricula and academic services to public and private schools and districts, traditional classrooms, blended school programs, and directly to families. K12 is accredited through AdvancED, the world’s largest education community.

K12 delivers its educational content and learning systems to students primarily through virtual public schools, virtual private schools, and through sales directly to school districts as part of our institutional sales business. The company offers its proprietary curriculum, learning kits, use of a personal computer, online learning platform and varying levels of academic and management services, which can range from targeted programs to complete turnkey solutions.

As of September 30, 2010, K12 served virtual public schools or hybrid schools in 27 states and the District of Columbia. The company expanded into two new states in fiscal year 2011, Massachusetts and Michigan. In addition, the company operates three online private schools (the K12 International Academy, The Keystone School, and the George Washington University Online High School), and also sells access to its online curriculum and learning kits directly to individual consumers.

In April 2010, K12 formed a joint venture with Middlebury College, known as Middlebury Interactive Languages LLC (MIL), to develop online foreign language courses. This new venture will create online language programs for pre-college students and will leverage Middlebury’s recognized experience and reputation in foreign language instruction and K12′s expertise in online education. In July 2010, the company acquired all of the stock of KC Distance Learning, Inc. (KCDL), a provider of online curriculum and public and private virtual education. The company also acquired certain assets from Cardean Learning Group LLC to form Capital Education LLC, a provider of online services to post-secondary institutions.

On December 1, 2010, K12 acquired American Education Corporation (AEC), a leading provider of research-based core curriculum instructional software for kindergarteners through adult learners. These acquisitions and the formation of MIL and Capital Education increase K12′s portfolio of innovative, high quality instructional and curriculum offerings. Finally, in January 2011 the company acquired a 20% minority interest in Web International Education Group, a provider of English language training for learners of all ages throughout China, including university students, government workers, and employees of international companies.

The Position

Reporting to the CEO, the Chief Academic Officer will manage the development of formative and summative curricular assessments and the review and evaluation of existing curricula and scope and sequence models at all grade levels and in all subject areas.

The Chief Academic Officer will continuously work on the design and refinement of K12’s curriculum according to achievement data, instructional best practices, state and federal compliance requirements, and research of national trends and successful online curricular design models. S/he will work collaboratively with the EVP of Product Development, the EVP of School Services, and other managers of curriculum development and instruction, and the curriculum and instruction staff, as well as coordinate with various cross-departmental teams, school leaders, and third party research consultants.

Specifically, the CAO will–

•  Oversee the development of curriculum based formative, benchmark, and summative assessments to monitor and verify student academic progress and outcomes.
•  Apply research and data to this assessment process in order to document student achievement.
•  Design and conduct research strategies and predictive studies that validate K12’s instructional model.
•  Select external vendors to analyze the performance of K12’s courses and schools.
•  Communicate research findings to a variety of constituencies, both internal and external, including state agencies, district partners, channel partners, investors, and the media; assume  the role of “chief external spokesperson” in matter of instructional validity.
•  Collaborate with the EVP of Product Development and her team in effective curricular development, backward design principles, a scope and sequence of essential skills and concepts that address state and national standards, online instructional strategies, student achievement, and systematic review and analysis.
•  Keep abreast of new instructional design models and evaluation tools, and choose from them those that offer the greatest benefit to K12’s  courses and programs.
•  Establish mechanisms for communication related to curriculum and educational standards to school staff, students, and families.
•  Serve as a consultant to school directors and other staff on matters pertaining to curriculum assessment and learning outcomes.
•  Develop opportunities for collaboration with educational leaders, industry, state agencies, community based organizations, and appropriate vendors.
•  Develop and oversee a comprehensive staff evaluation system that includes training and timelines.
•  Attend professional meetings, conferences, institutes etc. to keep current with trends and practices in online curriculum development and instructional methods.

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ETS IN THE NEWS

Message from the President

Positioning Educational Assessment for the 21st Century

What Does It Mean to be an Educational Measurement Organization in the 21st Century?

POSITION OVERVIEW

This position is a mission-critical role to lead all business development activities for ETS, including the identification and execution of mergers, alliances, joint ventures, and acquisitions for the enterprise. Specifically, this Chief of Enterprise Growth (CEG) will oversee research and analysis of business opportunities; assess potential partners and acquisition targets; develop new strategic alliances, which might also lead to merger or acquisition; and work with the R&D division to evaluate and implement opportunities for asset-based spinoffs.

THE ORGANIZATION

Educational Testing Service (ETS) is a world leader in educational assessment, with more than 50 years’ experience in promoting effective teaching and learning. With revenues approaching $1B and a staff of 2,600 professionals—including educators, researchers, psychometricians, statisticians, and policy specialists—the organization is dedicated to serving individuals, educators, businesses, and government bodies around the world.

Founded in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® General and Subject Tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, and at over 9,000 locations worldwide.

THE CHALLENGE

In conjunction with the SVP of Business Innovation and Growth and in partnership with R&D and business unit heads, the Chief of Enterprise Growth will lead a team responsible for licensing agreements, contract negotiations, policies and program development, and all other necessary activities related to business innovation and growth.

Specifically, this individual will—

• Lead all business development activities to identify, negotiate and effect partnerships, mergers and acquisitions
• Drive revenue growth through the Business Innovation function
• Negotiate and close strategic relationships from beginning to conclusion
• Build and manage a high quality team of business development professionals capable of carrying out needed initiatives
• Research, source and negotiate strategic partnerships to support business development initiatives
• Establish business development policies and procedures and align them with company objectives
• Provide support for the successful integration and execution of projects
• Oversee strategic data and provide recommendations for expansion and growth based on findings

Conduct, synthesizes and present macro and micro research in support of strategic initiatives

THE CAREER OPPORTUNITY

To an experienced business developer with solid M&A experience, this opportunity offers several attractive features

• The opportunity to work for an industry leader in a strategically vital role
• The opportunity to work broadly in business development (not just in strategic partnership or acquisitions), and to develop skills that open future career paths
• The opportunity to work with really smart people
• The opportunity to evaluate and possibly implement technology transfer out of this IP-rich organization

The opportunity to work at the attractive ETS campus in the culturally diverse city of Princeton, NJ

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A Newsletter for Education Leaders

Indian Students Wield Tests for College Spots

India has one of the world’s youngest populations, yet as the middle class has steadily grown, so has the cutthroat competition for the limited slots in the country’s system of higher education. High school seniors must pass national board exams to graduate from high school. But those same board exams also serve as the rough equivalent of SATs for students applying to most programs in many universities…more»

Student Loan Bill Scorecard

A look at who fared well — and who didn’t — in legislation to overhaul the student loan programs…more»

Students playing catch-up as they hit college

Each year, tens of thousands of Texas students land in this academic purgatory – no longer in high school but not ready for college. About 40 percent of recent high school graduates in the state’s public universities and colleges need at least one remedial class. Statistics show those students take longer to earn a college degree, if they do at all…more»

FCC Broadband Plan Pushes Ambitious Agenda for U.S. Education

After almost a year of development that included holding 36 public workshops in person and online and reading through 23,000 public comments, the Federal Communications Commission has released its national broadband plan with a formal report to Congress. Calling high-speed Internet access “indispensable for the 21st century, the foundation for our economy, the foundation for our democracy in the digital age,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski declared the plan “ambitious but achievable”…more»

The Great Charter Debate: Part Four

This is part four of a debate between myself and a colleague who believes I have been too critical of charter schools. In Part One, he shared his perspective on the value of charter schools. I responded with my own views on the limitations of charters as a force for reform, and this week he offered his rebuttal to that. Here is my response to that one, Part Four of the great charter debate…more»

Mobile Learning Makes Its Mark on K-12

Mobile devices such as smartphones and iPods, still seen as nuisances or contraband by many schools, are now viewed by an increasing number of teachers and administrators as cost-effective tools to build and sustain 1-to-1 computing programs. But while the use of mobile devices for learning is sparking a shift in the ed-tech landscape, its impact on student achievement is unclear…more»

Educators Struggle to Design Mobile-Learning Content

Developing meaningful lessons that fit the constraints of small-screen devices is a challenge. How can educators (and publishers) find or develop meaningful, standards-based lessons that fit the visual and data constraints of a small-screen device?…more»

In Texas Curriculum Fight, Identity Politics Leans Right

In the fight over curriculum, conservatives in Texas have more in common with liberals than they think. In reality, this controversy is the latest version of a debate that reaches back many decades and is perhaps essential in a heterogeneous democracy whose identity has long been in flux…more»

Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes
Historians criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum Tuesday, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state’s borders…more»

A Private College Goes For-Profit
Dana is sold a year after another Lutheran institution was sold. But new owners plan to keep tenure and the traditional, residential mission…more»

One Classroom, From Sea to Shining Sea

No one in either party today has the courage to say it, but what made sense for a sparsely settled continent at the dawn of the Republic is ill suited to the needs of a 21st-century nation competing in a global economy. Our lack of a national curriculum, national teacher training standards and federal financial support to attract smart young people to the teaching profession all contribute mightily to the mediocre-to-poor performance of American students, year in and year out, on international education assessments. So does a financing system that relies heavily on local property taxes and fails to guarantee students in, say, Kansas City the same level of schooling as students in more affluent communities…more»

In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt

Commercial trade schools are under fire because they are attracting more students and Pell grants. At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year…more»

CCA Response

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FCC announces Children’s Agenda for broadband

The FCC has announced the creation of the FCC’s “Children’s Agenda for Digital Opportunity,” which will build on the four pillars of digital access, digital literacy, digital citizenship, and digital safety. The Children’s Agenda is part of the National Broadband Plan to be released this week…more»

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Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools

A panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation’s public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation…more»

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False Fronts? Behind Higher Education’s Voluntary Accountability Systems

A new report from Education Sector and the American Enterprise Institute examines current voluntary accountability systems—the University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN) and the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)—and argues that these systems are not measuring up…more»

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Cultivating Failure

Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse is much more than a restaurant. It is a standard-bearer for correct moral values, and now it will dictate our kids’ education. Do we really want this?…more»

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Will Millennials become the chump generation?

A study of the 50 million Millennials 18 and over by the Pew Research Center found some surprising and some not-so-surprising developments. Surprising (to me): Almost two-fifths of Millennials have tattoos, up from a third among Gen Xers and from a seventh (15 percent) among boomers. Not surprising: Millennials are the first truly digital generation. Three-quarters have created a profile on Facebook or some other social networking site. Only half of Gen Xers and 30 percent of boomers have done so. A fifth of Millennials have posted videos of themselves online, far more than Gen Xers (6 percent) or boomers (2 percent)…more»

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Executive Recruiters Boston Search Group and IdealWave Solutions Merge to Form BSG Team Ventures

Bringing Unparalleled Mobility and Social Media Expertise IdealWave Deepens Firm’s Commitment to Building Trusted Advisor Relationships with Clients

Boston – August 1, 2009 - BSG Team Ventures, formerly Boston Search Group, an international retained executive firm serving emerging and high-growth companies, today announced a merger with IdealWave Solutions, a nationally recognized executive recruitment leader in the mobility and convergence sector.  IdealWave couples deep expertise in the enterprise mobility and social media industries with a unique team-based approach that yields quick results with highly personalized service. The combined company, BSG Team Ventures, will be headquartered in Boston, with offices in Silicon Valley, New York and London.

As many other retained search firms are shrinking or closing down, BSG Team Ventures is taking advantage of the opportunity to grow stronger.  The merged entity will be uniquely positioned to identify and recruit top Board Director, C-level and VP-level talent for both emerging and established companies across its now seven practice specialties – mobility and convergence, cleantech, technology and media, medical devices, biotech, education, and not-for-profit.  While the executive search industry has been slow to harness advanced technology to optimize domain expertise, market involvement, and the candidate development process, BSG Team Ventures has turned to innovative social networking technologies to cultivate a large and growing community of mobile industry executives working for some of the most high-profile companies in the world.

“Combining forces to create BSG Team Ventures marks the beginning of an exciting adventure and a natural evolution for our business. With BSG we have found a partner whose commitment to innovation, client service, and results mirrors our own,” said Mathew Corbett, founder and managing director, IdealWave Solutions.  “I look forward to drawing on our combined 17 years experience in retained search and mobile industry expertise to grow the firm, provide increased capabilities to our clients, and expand into new markets.”

INmobile.org: Engaging the Global Mobile Community

The brainchild of Corbett, a longtime social media evangelist, INmobile.org is one of the largest industry-specific social networks on the Web, comprising more than 2,500 mobile industry executives who gather in one place to learn, share ideas, and network with peers.  Combining online networking with offline executive receptions at top mobile industry conferences, INmobile.org is both a key facilitator in helping BSG Team Ventures’ clients stay abreast of market and technology trends, and an invaluable tool in keeping BSG Team Ventures fully engaged with top leaders and decision makers globally.

The mobile industry is especially well poised for continued growth.  “Even more exciting than the internet phenomenon is this mobile phone phenomenon,” according to Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in a speech given to the Economic Club in 2008.

“Our merger with IdealWave comes at a pivotal time for our firm as we look to expand to new markets and set the highest bar for innovation in the executive search process,” said Clark Waterfall, founder and managing director, BSG Team Ventures.  “With decades of combined executive search and strategic organizational development experience, we’re confident that together with IdealWave we can continue to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction in the industry.  We couldn’t be more thrilled with the addition of Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall as partners to the firm.”

About BSG Team Ventures

BSG Team Ventures is an international leader in retained executive search and human capital consulting for emerging and high-growth companies. Its mission is to build deep, trusted-advisor relationships with its clients, and to do so with a keen appreciation for the unique requirements of entrepreneurial ventures.  Via its presence in Boston, New York, Silicon Valley and London, BSG Team Ventures has completed hundreds of leadership searches on behalf of its clients in its practice specialties that include technology, media, cleantech, biotech, medical devices, education and non-profit.

About IdealWave

IdealWave is the leading executive search partner for companies involved in or effected by mobility and convergence. Established in 2001 and headquartered in MA, IdealWave has worked with many of the most exciting companies innovating within mobility and convergence. The company was launched by Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall.  For more information please visit www.idealwave.com.

Contacts:

BSG Team Ventures

Clark Waterfall: Managing Director cwaterfall@bsgtv.com

Matthew Corbett: Managing Director mcorbett@bsgtv.com

Address: 224 Clarendon Street, 4^th floor, Boston, MA 02116

www.bsgtv.com