You are here: Home / Archives for online high schools

McDonnell to focus on education in 2012

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Education will be a focal point for Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration in 2012 and that could mean opening the door for a school voucher-like program.

During his monthly radio appearance on WNIS, McDonnnell said Tuesday his administration would continue to look at options for Virginia students and parents outside of the public school system.

“That’s why we’ve been bullish about having charter schools and college lab schools and virtual schools,” McDonnell said. “I’m strongly supportive of tuition tax credit scholarships to be able to give young people opportunities to go to other schools.”

McDonnell’s statements provide a glimpse into the Republican governor’s agenda if the GOP can win back the state senate in the November elections. Democrats now hold a 22-18 majority in that chamber and Republicans can gain control by netting just two seats.

Republicans already carry a strong majority in the House of Delegates.

Earlier this year, Democrats blocked a bill giving tax credits to companies that provided scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools. McDonnell favored the approach and admitted Tuesday a more traditional voucher system — giving public dollars to students for tuition to attend private and parochial schools — may not be constitutional in Virginia.

For the rest of the article, go to McDonnell to focus on education in 2012

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With: ,

Education Savings Accounts: A Promising Way Forward on School Choice

October 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Customization. One of the greatest benefits of Education Savings Accounts is the ability to customize a child’s education. Unlike a voucher, which enables parents to send their child to a private school of choice, the dollars in an ESA can be directed to multiple education providers simultaneously. A family could, for example, use part of the funding to pay for private-school tuition, some of the dollars for tutoring, and a portion of the money to defray the cost of textbooks. A family could use part of the money in an ESA to pay for virtual classes for their child and choose to roll over the remaining dollars to the next academic year. Policy analyst Dan Lips, who outlined the concept of ESAs in 2005, noted that the accounts “would give families greater flexibility to use education dollars to best suit their children’s needs, spurring innovation among education service providers, including virtual and online learning programs.”[12]

More than 1.5 million children took courses online in 2010, contributing to the school choice groundswell.[13] Virtual education is growing in popularity among families who want access to the best teachers and coursework available, regardless of zip code, and who want the educational flexibility and customization online learning provides. As Terry Moe and John Chubb write in their acclaimed book Liberating Learning:

[Technology] replaces the dead hand of monopoly with the dynamism of diversity and competition. It replaces the sameness of the traditional classroom model with a vast range of innovative learning alternatives. It replaces the “one-size-fits-all” approach to students with powerful new ways of customizing schooling to the needs and interests of each individual.[14]

Education savings accounts can facilitate the growth of online learning and create a dynamic education system that is prepared to adapt to new modes of delivering instruction in the future.

For the rest of the article, go to Education Savings Accounts: A Promising Way Forward on School Choice

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With:

Online teacher connects with her students

September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As online programs have become more popular, states have been working to determine how best to regulate them. Schools operating in Washington must be approved by the Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction and teachers must pass the same requirements as any other teacher. Legislation passed this year cuts the per-student funding by 20 percent unless online teachers have at least one hour a week of virtual classes, termed “synchronous digital contact.”

Caldwell lets her students vote on which day they’ll be in session together.

Donning a headset, she opens a window into her virtual classroom.

Three-quarters of the screen is filled with either a slide or video from the lesson.

To the left is a list of which students are logged in and a chat window where students can ask her or other students questions publicly or privately. Caldwell can see everything they’re typing and sometimes has to remind distracted students that she can see their whole conversation.

However, Caldwell said, “It’s not for everybody.”

Students need to learn time management and how to stay on task.

The students who choose to go to online school do so for a wide variety of reasons: to continue learning at home, to escape the torment of bullying, to take care of an ailing family member, to give birth, to train for the Olympics or to take advanced placement courses not offered in their local school.

“We get a lot of students that mainstream schools can’t serve,” she said.

Caldwell’s own children attend regular schools, though her son takes math and German courses he couldn’t take at his school.

Those wary of online schools say students lose the benefit of interacting with a group and making a connection with a teacher.

But Caldwell says she gets to know her students better than she did when she taught a regular class.

For the rest of the article, go to Online teacher connects with her students

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With: ,

Few Tacoma students switching to different districts amid strike

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The cost of private schools could prove daunting for many parents. South Sound Christian Schools tuition ranges from $2,926 to $7,410 per child, depending on how many children in a family attend. New families receive a 25 percent discount.

“We can’t say we’re surprised that families are starting to look into possibilities,” Taylor said.

Another option for families is enrolling in an online program such as Tacoma Virtual Learning or Steilacoom-based Washington Virtual Academy. At this point in the strike, those programs say they have not seen a surge in interest.

Michael Farmer, director for Tacoma Virtual Learning, said enrollment is still open. But he pointed out his program is a hybrid with teachers from Tacoma Public Schools, who aren’t working, as well as Spokane Public Schools, who are.

“If (students) have a Tacoma teacher, they just kind of need to wait and do the best in the meantime,” Farmer said. “We’re just in a weird predicament because of our contract with Spokane.”

Celeste Johnson, executive assistant to the superintendent for Steilacoom Historical School District, said enrollment at its online school and traditional brick-and-mortar schools have not been affected by the strike.

“We actually haven’t received any phone calls at all,” Johnston said.

However, the district has fielded inquiries from a few college-age student teachers looking for classroom placements because they can’t currently student-teach in Tacoma.

“We’re more than willing to try to accommodate them,” said Jan McCrimmon, principal at Steilacoom High School. “At this point, it’s temporary, in hopes the strike will settle.”

Holly Norquist, executive director of ACTS South, a local home-school resource organization, said no one has tried to contact her group for assistance. But she said the strike could have an effect on families who have been weighing their options.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last piece of the puzzle that nudges people toward home schooling,” Norquist said.

For the rest of the article, go to Few Tacoma students switching to different districts amid strike 

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With:

Virtual Academy in full swing at Naselle

September 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

NASELLE — Veteran teacher Eileen Williams says, “The best thing about Columbia Virtual Academy (CVA) has been working with the caring families.” Teacher Cristina Hoyt adds, “I also enjoy talking to the students and seeing how they are progressing.”

They are talking about Naselle Grays River Valley School District’s new enterprise into helping families with Alternative Learning Experiences through schooling at home. There were already 192 students enrolled in CVA at Naselle Sept. 12. By the end of October Principal Jon Tienhaara expects between 350 and 400 students from throughout Washington in the program at Naselle.
*

CVA statewide already has an enrollment of about 4,800 students in Alternative Learning and they expect over 5,000 students for the 2011-12 school year.

CVA has allowed Naselle School District to employ three more teachers, two more secretaries, and a part-time principal.

“Alternative Learning students had been funded by the state at the same rate as ‘brick and mortar’ students, but the state cut the funding to 80 percent to save over $46 million due to last year’s budget crunch,” said Tienharra.

The money goes into the Naselle District’s general fund, but every Alternative Learning student has their books, materials, online, and other educational expenses paid for through the program.

Teachers and secretaries help every student and their families write student course plans and then the students are monitored for their progress throughout the school year.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Academy in full swing at Naselle

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With:

Speaker to talk video games, learning link

September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

PORT ANGELES — Are you a digital immigrant or a digital native?

Learn which you are and about a connection between video games and learning Thursday, Oct. 6, when the Peninsula College Foundation’s American Conversations brings Marc Prensky to Peninsula College for an evening of food, wine and conversation.

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. in the PUB with wine and food, followed by the main event at 7:30 p.m. in the Little Theater.

Tickets are $125 per person.

Prensky, a writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor, is the founder of Games2train, an e-learning company whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Nokia, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Los Angeles and Florida Virtual Schools.

He is the author of Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning, Digital Game-Based Learning and Don’t Bother Me Mom — I’m Learning.

A question-and-answer period will follow Prensky’s presentation.

Prensky’s professional focus has been on reinventing the learning process, combining the motivation of video games and other highly engaging activities with the driest content of education and business.

For the rest of the article, go to Speaker to talk video games, learning link

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With:

Bill to expand charter school moves on to U.S. Senate

September 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A spokesperson for the NEA said, while it was pleased with a number of provisions in the bill, it “cannot support the bill in its current form” due to issues regarding “resource and opportunity gaps between (public and charter) schools.”

Pingree said she has “serious reservations about funding charter schools in this environment because they can take scarce resources away from existing public schools.” Despite her apprehensions, Pingree said she voted for the bill because it “eased some requirements for who could apply for money under this program.”

While there are currently no charter schools in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage in June signed legislation permitting them. The first charter school in Maine is expected to open a year from now.

According to the Center for Education Reform in Washington, there are 10 charter schools in New Hampshire that serve approximately 2,200 students. Stephen Kossakoski, chief executive officer of the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School based in Exeter, said the pending bill is “a positive for the charter school movement,” because it can help fund “education research that can impact the wider education community.”

Guinta said he backed the bill because “charter schools are an important tool for reducing the federal government’s role in education” and encouraging “parental involvement to help our children succeed.”

Advocates of the bill also cite the high demand to create more charter schools across the country. According to the Center for Education Reform, more than 1.2 million children across the nation are waiting to get into a charter school.

While it isn’t clear how many new charters schools would be created if the bill becomes law, a House Education and the Workforce Committee spokeswoman said “the legislation will give states greater opportunities to expand and replicate the state’s highest-performing charter schools.”

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who introduced the bill in June, urged “the Senate to do its part for the children who stand to benefit greatly from these innovative learning environments.” He said the bill has the potential to set America’s children “on a stable path to future success and prosperity.”

For the rest of the article, go to Bill to expand charter school moves on to U.S. Senate.

Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: , ,

Whiz Kid: Adora Svitak Writes, Teaches, Gives Speeches—and She’s Only 13

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

School and Neighborhood: Adora attends both Redmond High School and online school via the Washington Virtual Academy. She lives on Education Hill in Redmond.

For the rest of the article, go to Whiz Kid: Adora Svitak Writes, Teaches, Gives Speeches—and She’s Only 13

Filed Under: Home Page, new, online high schools Tagged With:

Whiz Kid: Adora Svitak Writes, Teaches, Gives Speeches—and She’s Only 13

August 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

School and Neighborhood: Adora attends both Redmond High School and online school via the Washington Virtual Academy. She lives on Education Hill in Redmond.

Accomplishments: A gifted and prodigious youngster, Adora has published books, appeared on “Good Morning America,” taught writing classes, received a National Education Association Foundation Award for service to public education, and is an accomplished public speaker, having given a speech at TED’s 2010 conference in Long Beach, Calif.

Adora has most recently been working on putting together her second youth-centric TED conference in Redmond. Last year’s inaugural TEDxRedmond conference drew approximately 700 attendees.

Key to awesomeness: Adora says that she began writing at the age of 4, an experience she remembers as being quite memorable.
For the rest of the article, go to Whiz Kid: Adora Svitak Writes, Teaches, Gives Speeches—and She’s Only 13

Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: ,

Meridian, other alternative education programs to change under state law

June 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Alternative learning experience programs are state-funded and generally include online schools and parent-partnership programs, a hybrid of traditional school and homeschooling.

Students in the programs have individual learning plans, talk with teachers weekly in person or via technology, and are subject to the same educational standards as students in traditional school programs. Homeschooling is not considered an alternative learning experience because there is no state funding included.

For the rest of the article, go to Meridian, other alternative education programs to change under state law

Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With:
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »