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DENVER (CBS4) – State lawmakers got a lesson in online schools on Thursday.
About 1,000 people rallied at the Capitol to talk about the benefits of learning from home over the Internet.
Students even set up classrooms to talk about the flexibility of online learning.
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For the 2002-2003 school year, nearly 2,000 students in Colorado were getting their education online. In the 2010-2011 school year, more than 15,000 local students were enrolled in online schools.
“You don’t see people as often, it takes some trying to see your friends, but other than that it’s pretty much the same as normal school,” John Harhai, a senior at Colorado Connections Academy, said. “You do work, you’ve got to manager your time, so it’s not all that different.”
Colorado’s online school students are taught by licensed local teachers. The state has 22 multi-district online schools and 12 single district programs.
For the rest of the article, go to More Colorado students attending online schools
Catholic high school education has returned to Pueblo after a 41-year absence.
St. Therese Catholic School started an online high school program in the fall, building on the school’s 11-year-old pre-school-eighth-grade program.
“We’ve had a number of people over the years that have been looking for an alternative for their kids at the high school level,” said John Brainard, St. Therese principal. “They want their child to continue to be in a faith-filled environment.”
This fall, Brainard decided to pilot an online high school program at the St. Therese building.
The program is the first Catholic high school in the city since the Diocese of Pueblo closed all Catholic schools in 1971.
St. John Neumann, a private pre-school-eighth-grade Catholic school, was opened in 1977 and St. Therese, also a pre-school-eighth-grade school, opened in 2000.
Based on parent request, Brainard said he decided to expand the St. Therese program to high school by implementing an on-site, online curriculum for students in grades 9-12.
Currently, there are four students enrolled in the high school program, three freshmen and a junior.
The students take classes at St. Therese through the accredited online Catholic Schools K-12 Virtual program.
“This is really an online version of our school here,” Brainard said of the Internet program.
“Last year alone 16 states passed legislation related to online learning. We’re expecting just as many this year,” she said. “It’s about access, it’s about quality and it’s about creating new learning models.”
Patrick says right now 33 states allow full-time online learning programs. 55 percent of all public school districts offer online classes or online learning programs.
Last fall some of Colorado’s full-time online schools came under scrutiny for poor student performance, high dropout rates and inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.
For the rest of the article, go to Online K-12 School Leaders Discuss Policy ‘Roadmap’
The state Board of Education is tightening the screws on cyber-schools that critics say have been fleecing the state by collecting money but delivering sub-par education to an ever-increasing base of students who get their instructions online rather than in a classroom.
According to an AP article in December, more than 14,000 Colorado K-12 students are expected to be taught online this year. Private companies that run these cyber-schools—some of which are for-profit—recruit students as young as kindergarten age and they receive the same per-pupil rate from the state as traditional schools that teach kids face-to-face; Colorado is expected to spend about $85 million this year teaching kids online.
But a 2010 Board of Education report shows much of this money is spent with little oversight or accountability, making state officials wonder if taxpayers are getting what they’re paying for. According to the AP, the Board of Education found that test scores for online students are below average, dropout rates can be as high as 50 percent and—in one instance—the student-to-teacher ratio was as high as 317 to 1. Online schools are paid by the state for the entire school year, even if a student drops out after registration enrollment is tallied on Oct. 1.
For the rest of the article, go to Online schools to get more state oversight
The number of private companies operating full-time online K-12 schools in Colorado and other states continues to grow. Meantime, student performance is declining. That’s according to a new report by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado.
In Colorado, online K-12 schools came under scrutiny last fall for poor student performance and millions earned by for-profit companies. Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer has said he plans to introduce legislation to keep a closer watch on the state’s online K-12 schools.
For the rest of the article, go to Report Finds More Virtual K-12 Students Are Falling Behind
A new report finds that even in a tough economy, companies that are contracted to manage charter schools and other public schools are expanding.
The report out Friday is by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.
It says that much of the growth is in the area of online learning, known as “virtual schools.”
For the rest of the article, go to Report: Education management sector expanding
2. Among all news stories, a three-part series titled Troubling questions about online education drew the most page views in 2011. A joint project of EdNews and the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network, the articles were based on an analysis of state data that showed half of Colorado’s full-time online students wind up leaving their virtual programs within a year – and they’re often further behind academically than when they started. On a national level, The New York Times also took a look at virtual schools.
3. Election coverage of school board races in Douglas and Jefferson counties was a hit, perhaps because the campaigns receive little coverage elsewhere. We get the message – there are great stories outside of Denver that deserve attention.
For the rest of the article, go to Wednesday Churn: Welcome back
This trend has alarmed the usual suspects, including the teacher unions who see online education as a threat to their monopoly. But teachers who are involved in virtual schooling are enthusiastic about its power to give kids a leg up.
One, Kristin Kipp at Colorado Virtual Academy in Jefferson County, says she has found that she got to know her high school students more through their steady stream of texts, emails and phone calls. “My constant message in an online classroom is, ‘I see you. I know you’re there.’ So kids are constantly getting messages from me saying, ‘Hey, your grade went up 5 percent this week. Congratulations; keep up the hard work.’”
For the rest of the article, go to Learning online
There are few choices parents will make that are more important than how to educate their children. That is why it is essential that they actually have a choice in the first place.
Online schools should remain a valid option in our public education system.
After my oldest struggled in a traditional school, I explored other public options for my second child. For us, having the option of a public online education has made a world of difference.
Thousands of other Colorado families make use of public online schools for a wide variety of reasons. Their children have been freed from a host of bad influences or obstacles to their ability to excel academically.
For the rest of the article, go to Guest Commentary: Online schools play essential role
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