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U.S. Virtual Ed. Companies Court Global Clients

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Within U.S. borders, online learning providers often approach districts, schools, and individual students and families by pitching the idea that virtual courses can help a student reach beyond a school system that falls short of addressing all student needs.

International e-learning consumers, by contrast, are approaching American virtual providers because they represent not an alternative to traditional American education, but an extension of it.

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Online High Schools Attracting Elite Names

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

PALO ALTO, Calif. — In June, about 30 seniors will graduate from a little-known online high school currently called the Education Program for Gifted Youth. But their diplomas will bear a different name: Stanford Online High School.

Yes, that Stanford — the elite research university known for producing graduates who win Nobels and found Googles, not for teaching basic algebra to teenagers. Five years after the opening of the experimental program, some education experts consider Stanford’s decision to attach its name to the effort a milestone for online education.

“This is significant,” said Bill Tucker, managing director of Education Sector, a nonpartisan policy institute. “One of our country’s most prestigious universities feels comfortable putting its considerable prestige and brand behind it.”

As the line between virtual and classroom-based learning continues to blur, some see Stanford’s move as a sign that so, too, will the line between secondary and higher education. Several other universities — though none with the pedigree of Stanford — already operate online high schools, a development that has raised some questions about expertise and motives.

About 275,000 students nationwide are enrolled full time in online schools, according to Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Most of these are free public charter schools, but colleges — private and public — have begun to get into the business as well.

The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the University of Missouri have awarded diplomas to about 250 and 85 students, respectively, annually for the last several years. The George Washington University Online High School opened in January.

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Virtual high school online proposal off to good start

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Nebraska Virtual Partnership made a progress report to the Legislature’s Education Committee last week. The verdict: online courses are in demand. And the partnership is capable of meeting it.

The Nebraska Virtual Partnership was created this year to expand educational opportunities for high school students throughout Nebraska. The partnership is a collaborative effort by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School, the Nebraska Department of Education, the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications.

The interim study presented Oct. 3 gauged what each member of the partnership is doing to expand course offerings and educational opportunities across the state.

Brian Halstead, assistant commissioner of education, said the committee’s efforts in creating a virtual high school, with legislation going back as far as 2006, is working well.
A pilot program launched by UNL in August was created to gauge the demand for distance education in Nebraska. The pilot program offered 50 free course enrollments through the Independent Study high school, with preference to first-time applicants, rural students and applications for science, technological, engineering and math courses.

Barbara Shousha, director of Independent Study, said 74 applications were received as of Sept. 2, when admissions closed.

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Where will virtual schools end up?

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Virtual education is also expanding online. In a sense, this is nothing new. The University of Nebraska- Lincoln’s Independent Study High School has been operating since the 1920s, offering courses first by mail, and more recently, online.

Most of its students are from outside Nebraska – including people in all 50 states and more than 100 countries who want an American diploma, or people whose schedules haven’t permitted a traditional high school education, like entertainer Britney Spears in her younger years. But 11 percent of its course enrollments are from Nebraska – 2,800 in the last two years.

Now, the high school is involved in a virtual partnership, testing demand for online courses for Nebraska students through a pilot program offering them for free. High School Director Barbara Wolf Shousha said that in general, Nebraska schools do a good job of meeting students’ needs on their own. But, she added, “There are, however, always those situations where there isn’t a match – where there’s a very high-performing student who desires curriculum options that the school doesn’t have, or alternative students that aren’t performing well because of the emotional noise of a high school classroom. And they are better suited for the online, individual instruction.”

This year, instead of charging students or schools, the University offered 50 free courses from the Independent Study High School. It received 74 applications, and decided to accept all of them.

Among them was one from Wheeler Central High School in Bartlett, a small town about 50 miles west of Norfolk. On a recent morning, guidance counselor Dawn Erickson was giving student Brianna Millison some one-on-one help with an online course in etiquette, to supplement her family and consumer science class.

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Column: Can technology fix education?

October 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

More than half the states already have virtual high schools. Florida Virtual School, the first and largest state-run online school in the country, offers more than 100 courses to students throughout the United States and more than 40 foreign countries. One study estimates the school has saved Florida taxpayers some $38 million during the past four years.

The classroom that does not embrace technology is becoming progressively out of touch with the way America’s children learn and interact at home and away from school.

Of course, we can’t let technology become the distraction many educators fear. We don’t want kids texting or engaging with friends on Facebook when they’re supposed to be studying. There need to be guardrails.

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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.

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25 schools take advantage of UNL’s virtual scholar’s program

September 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Austin Becker would have signed up for physics in his senior year at Madison High School except for one problem: He would have been the only one in the class.

The northeast Nebraska school couldn’t afford to offer a class to one student, so Becker was out of luck until his guidance counselor saw an email about a Virtual Scholars Program offered through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Independent Study High School.

Now Becker, who’s considering studying engineering in college, will take the class online.

“We had been trying to figure out some way for him to get physics,” science teacher Patrick Kratochvil said.

The school has offered physics in the past, but this year, Becker was the only student with the prerequisites.

“He would definitely have succeeded, but the school can’t afford to have one student in a class,” Kratochvil said.

Becker is among students from 25 Nebraska high schools who will take online courses for free through UNL’s independent study high school as part of a one-time scholar’s program announced last month in conjunction with a partnership to create a so-called virtual high school.

The tuition-based independent high school was created in 1929. Usually, classes cost between $200 and $300, depending on the cost of books.

NU President J.B. Milliken said he hoped offering 50 courses tuition-free to Nebraska high schools could generate and gauge interest in the online courses.

The scholars program was the first effort of the virtual high school partnership. The partnership is designed to pull together existing resources and figure out a funding system to give students in rural areas online access to advanced placement and high-level math, science, technology and engineering classes. Officials also want to give students in urban areas opportunities to make up credits needed to graduate.

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74 students enroll in Neb. pilot for online school

September 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most of the schools whose students will be participating in the pilot program are small and in rural parts of Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska already offers online courses to 300 high school students through its virtual school. Many of them are home-schooled, pursuing early careers as athletes or performers or are living abroad, according to the school’s website.

The pilot program is an extension offered to students enrolled full-time in a public school. While the university usually charges tuition for its online classes, it won’t for those enrolled in the pilot program.

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September 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Becker is among students from 25 Nebraska high schools who will take online courses for free through UNL’s independent study high school as part of a one-time scholar’s program announced last month in conjunction with a partnership to create a so-called virtual high school.
The tuition-based independent high school was created in 1929. Usually, classes cost between $200 and $300, depending on the cost of books.
NU President J.B. Milliken said he hoped offering 50 courses tuition-free to Nebraska high schools could generate and gauge interest in the online courses.
The scholars program was the first effort of the virtual high school partnership. The partnership is designed to pull together existing resources and figure out a funding system to give students in rural areas online access to advanced placement and high-level math, science, technology and engineering classes. Officials also want to give students in urban areas opportunities to make up credits needed to graduate.
Announced in August, the partnership includes the University of Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Education, Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications.
The university got 74 applications from 25 mostly rural Nebraska high schools — more than the program was offering — but officials decided to accept all of them. The total cost to the university is about $20,000, said Barbara Wolf Shousha, the independent study high school director.
“We were extremely excited by the response,” she told the NU Board of Regents on Friday.
The studies include 14 math courses, five science courses and 18 world language courses. Students will take advanced placement courses in calculus, English literature and composition, U.S. History and environmental science.
Many of the schools that applied for courses had not used the independent high school before, Shousha said.
Terri Gross, the Madison High School guidance counselor, said this was the first time Madison had done so. Students do take online courses through a national program offered through the Educational Service Unit, for which the school pays a fee.

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Population shifts, demographic changes pose challenges for Nebraska educators

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Education Department’s unsuccessful bid for a chunk of the federal “Race to the Top” money included a proposal to spend about $20 million on a virtual high school, an idea touted by Gov. Dave Heineman.

Breed said even without the federal money, there is “clear support for the expansion of our efforts” and an announcement concerning the virtual school in the coming weeks. He declined to elaborate.

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