Mich. school flips traditional ideas on homework upside down

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mich-school-flips-traditional-ideas-on-homework-upside-down/

By/Elaine Quijano/CBS News/March 27, 2014

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- It's 7 p.m. on a school night and Larontay Welton is at home -- and in geometry class. He's part of a new way of learning called the flipped classroom. He listens to lectures at home, and when he goes to school, he does what's traditionally known as homework.

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There are 525 students in the flipped school at Clintondale, where flipping made financial sense. It cost little or nothing to implement. Teachers either assign videos from free educational websites or record their own lessons.

"It's given me the opportunity to be aware of where my students are and how much I can better help them," says Thomas Fiore, who has been teaching at the school for 25 years.

"To me, it felt like the teachers were starting to care more, and it kind of made me break out of my shell, so to speak," Larontay says.

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Graduation rates have gone from 80 to 90 percent in the past three years. The failure rate has dropped from 35 percent to 10 percent. College enrollment rates have jumped 17 percent.

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