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.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual high school online proposal off to good start

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.

For the rest of the article, go to 25 schools take advantage of UNL’s virtual scholar’s program

“A virtual high school is a way to expand learning beyond the traditional school day and school year,” Heineman said.

He called the plan “an important education initiative that will significantly impact the future of education in Nebraska.”

The announcement follows three failed efforts to get federal or state funding for creation of a virtual school.

Nebraska has been rejected twice for federal Race to the Top education grants. The state’s applications included proposals for a $20 million virtual high school.

For the rest of the article, go to Governor proposes a virtual high school