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Online Courses for Elementary and High School Students?

November 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In an effort to accommodate students with varying levels of advancement and in reaction to state budgetary cuts, at least 30 states in the US now let elementary and high school students take all their courses online.

According to Evergreen Education Group, a consulting firm that works with online schools, an estimated 250,000 students nationwide are enrolled in full-time virtual schools, a 40 percent increase in the last three years. And the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade group, says two million kids take at least one class online.

Advocates say online schooling can save states money, offer curricula customized to each student and give parents more choice in education.

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Can Virtual Schools Really Replace Classrooms?

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The article reports that an estimated 250,000 students in 2010-11 attend school online, sometimes in the form of full-time public cyberschools, sometimes in a cyber “hybrid” school. These children aren’t “home schooled” from a statistical point of view; they’re enrolled in schools with names that sound like online degree factories (Georgia Cyber Academy, Florida Virtual School), but are legitimately run by states and districts or outsourced to for-profit corporations. They’re going to school. At home.

A quarter-million kids represent a tiny percentage of the 56 million kindergartners through 12th graders in the United States, but it’s a percentage that’s growing, according to The Journal’s numbers: up 40 percent in the last three years. It’s that increase, rather than the actual number of students affected, that makes these virtual schools worth talking about, and it’s an increase not just in children and parents willing to embrace this, but also in school districts. Georgia and Florida both say they spend substantially less on a student in their online schools. An Idaho school superintendent told The Journal that he was considering closing entire departments and outsourcing their courses to online providers. “It’s not ideal,” he said, “but Idaho is in a budget crisis, and this is a creative solution.”

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My Teacher Is an App

November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The growth of cybereducation is likely to affect school staffing, which accounts for about 80% of school budgets. A teacher in a traditional high school might handle 150 students. An online teacher can supervise more than 250, since he or she doesn’t have to write lesson plans and most grading is done by computer.

In Idaho, Alan Dunn, superintendent of the Sugar-Salem School District, says that he may cut entire departments and outsource their courses to online providers. “It’s not ideal,” he says. “But Idaho is in a budget crisis, and this is a creative solution.”

Other states see potential savings as well. In Georgia, state and local taxpayers spend $7,650 a year to educate the average student in a traditional public school. They spend nearly 60% less—$3,200 a year—to educate a student in the statewide online Georgia Cyber Academy, saving state and local tax dollars. Florida saves $1,500 a year on every student enrolled online full time.

For individual school districts, though, competition from online schools can cause financial strain. The tiny Spring Cove School District in rural Pennsylvania lost 43 of its 1,850 students this year to online charter schools. By law, the district must send those students’ share of local and state tax dollars—in this case $340,000—to the cyberschool. Superintendent Rodney Green, already struggling to balance the budget, cut nine teaching jobs, eliminated middle-school Spanish and French and canceled the high-school musical, “Aida.”

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DeKalb gives two charter schools a new lease on life, but it’s a short-term lease

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The 16 commission charters collectively would have enrolled 15,644 students this fall, 10,000 of whom would be taking their classes virtually through online schools.

One virtual school is operating, the Georgia Cyber Academy, and two are supposed to open this fall. Brick and mortar schools represent only a third of the students stranded by the high court’s ruling. It’s interesting that two-thirds of the affected students would be taking classes online, a growing trend in Georgia and elsewhere.

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Blogging live from Senate committee: Any ideas on saving charters?

June 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“We have two categories of schools,” said Millar. “Existing ones that are proven and new ones on the block that we expect would do as well.”

Of the 15,644 affected students in the 16 charters, 10,000 of them would be taking classes virtually through online schools. One virtual school is operating, the Georgia Cyber Academy, and two were due to open this fall. So, in terms of brick and mortar schools, they represented only a third of the affected students. Two-thirds of the students are online students — which presents a special challenge.

Since virtual schools are statewide and cannot apply to a single school board for approval and funding, their situation is trickier. Peevy is saying they can go back to the state and become state charter special school, but those schools only receive state funds. There is no local money when a charter school is commissioned by the state board of education.

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More virtual schools likely for Georgia. Good news?

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As expected, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission approved the four charter schools recommended by its interviewing panels. It also raised the per pupil funding for online schools, a move that is likely to lure more virtual enterprises to Georgia.

I have read a lot about virtual education, but still think we are in the discovery phase of whether online learning is effective, especially for younger students. To me, the models depend in great part on the willingness of the parents to essentially co-teach.

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The future of education is already here

December 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The next few years may well be the most exciting time in the history of American education, because emerging in the shadows of its moribund and desperately underperforming big sister comes a baby the nation can be proud of.

This is the world of school choice, where parents choose schools that work for their own children and take an active role in their children’s education. These are the nation’s private schools, public charter schools, home schools, online schools, special needs schools — these are schools that are tailored for the students they serve. This is the fastest growing, most efficient and undeniably the most effective sector of American education. This is a sector where being the best truly matters.

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State upholds denial of two virtual schools

August 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ATLANTA – The State Board of Education upheld the denial of two online schools Tuesday, frustrating parents seeking options for their children.

But advocates hope the story will be different later in the week.

The board met, half via telephone, to allow members the chance to overturn denials by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission in June of the Georgia Virtual Academy and Mercury Online Academy. The commission rejected the two applications largely because it feared neither had a governing board that could act independently of the national companies contracted to operate the schools.

Five groups had submitted applications for online schools, but one withdrew before commission consideration. The commission accepted two of the remaining four but did not grant them as much money for operations as they had hoped, so they aren’t in business yet either.

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Parents to Charter School Commission: Obey the Law on Virtual School Funding

August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ATLANTA, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A coalition representing more than 5,000 public virtual charter school students, parents, teachers, and supporters from across Georgia charged the state’s Charter School Commission (Commission) with ignoring state law by refusing to create a funding formula based on sound research and actual costs of public virtual charter schools. As a result, for the third consecutive year, over 6,000 students in Georgia’s public online schools will receive only a fraction of funds the law provides for their education.

Georgia Families for Public Virtual Education released a letter today demanding the Commission immediately reconsider its decision to fund virtual public school students at one-third of the allotment of other public school students. Students at traditional brick-and-mortar public schools and brick-and-mortar charter schools receive an average of $8,800 per pupil. The letter, penned by Georgia attorney Douglas Rosenbloom, requests a meeting with the Commission to review the arbitrary and unexplained decision to fund virtual public school students at less than $3,200.

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