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Catholic high school returns to Pueblo

February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.

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Online schools to get more state oversight

January 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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

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Report Finds More Virtual K-12 Students Are Falling Behind

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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

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Virtual Schools

December 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As of 2011, all school districts serving Teller County now have online schools.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 55 percent of all school districts in the nation offered some form of distance or online learning in 2009-2010. The majority of these were in the country’s Central and Western regions and involved smaller rural districts similar to those in Teller.

In Colorado, according to a June 2011 report from the Colorado Department of Education, 45 of the state’s 178 school districts are certified to offer multi-district, full-time single-district or part-time single-district online programs. Colorado jumped on the virtual-school phenomena in 2007 when legislators created the Colorado Department of Education’s Unit of Online Learning.

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Virtual schools are booming as states consider warnings

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

DENVER — More schoolchildren than ever are taking their classes online, using technology to avoid long commutes to school, add courses they wouldn’t otherwise be able to take — and save their school districts money.

But as states pour money into virtual classrooms, with an estimated 200,000 virtual K-12 students in 40 states from Washington to Wisconsin, educators are raising questions about online learning. States are taking halting steps to increase oversight, but regulation isn’t moving nearly as fast as the virtual school boom.

The online school debate pits traditional education backers, often teachers’ unions, against lawmakers tempted by the promise of cheaper online schools and school-choice advocates who believe private companies will apply cutting-edge technology to education. Is online education as good as face-to-face teaching?

For the rest of the art6icle, go to Virtual schools are booming as states consider warnings

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Virtually Educated

December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I always thought that the only kids getting their entire public schooling online were in the hospital, living in the Alaskan tundra, or pursuing a career as a singing orphan in the road company of “Annie.” Not so. There are now around 250,000 cyberschool students in kindergarten through high school and the number is growing fast.

If I had managed to envision a lot of students going to school online, I’d have imagined them being home-schooled by a diligent middle-class parent. But, lately, the target seems to be low-income families. Andy Berke, a state senator in Chattanooga, Tenn., says that when an educational company named K12 Inc. held a meeting to publicize its online taxpayer-funded academy, it chose “one of the poorest neighborhoods” in his district. In Pennsylvania, where K12 runs a statewide online charter school called Agora, you can go to the Web site and watch Head of School Sharon Williams explain about “online learning as an alternative to a violent in-school experience.”

O.K., here is my first question: Does full-time online learning really work for disadvantaged kids who may be alone at home all day?

Kevin Welner of the University of Colorado did a review of all the information available on this and, in fact, on the entire question of how well full-time online learning works for kids in elementary through high school. The answer was: nobody knows.

“The most detailed study is a couple of blog entries,” he said.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtually Educated

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LETTERS: Thanks for school choice; No to ‘live it up!’; A stand-up guy; and more

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year where we sit back and give thanks for the blessings in our life. As a parent, I’m very thankful for school choice.

My son, J.D., is now a freshman in his 7th year with Colorado Connections Academy, an online public school that has met his learning needs in ways that his previous school couldn’t. He is able to work at his own pace, in an environment that is conducive to his learning style. Attending a cyber-school has allowed him the time he needs to master skills he’s struggling with, and the flexibility to move ahead in areas in which he excels. As a parent and learning coach, I work every day with J.D.’s teachers to help him be the best student he can be. We are in constant communication with his teachers and know they are never more than a phone call, email, or online class away.

For the rest of the article, go to LETTERS: Thanks for school choice; No to ‘live it up!’; A stand-up guy; and more

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Editorial: Right call on auditing online schools

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We’re glad to see a nonpartisan state budget analyst take up the call for an examination of online schools. It’s a good idea that ought to be pursued.

Last week, a state audit committee killed a request to examine the efficacy and finances of the state’s online K-12 schools. The debate was bogged down by politics, since the main proponent of the audit was state Senate President Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat who is running for Congress against Republican incumbent Cory Gardner. The committee voted along party lines, and that, seemingly, was that.

This week, a staffer for the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee brought up the matter again, saying it would be appropriate to look at per-pupil funding levels as well as student achievement and retention.

Previously, media outlets including The Denver Post had pointed out problems with the system. As education funding grows ever tighter, it is the state’s duty to make sure money is spent wisely.

For the rest of the article, go to Editorial: Right call on auditing online schools

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OUR VIEW: State’s money must follow students (poll)

October 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When a student abandons an online school, the online school often keeps the state tuition cash. Colorado bases school funding on a single enrollment count. Once the count has been taken, the money is allocated and belongs to the school even if students soon thereafter.

That means another school ends up with former online students, but not the tuition.
The administration of Colorado’s largest online public school, Colorado Virtual Academy, agrees that online schools should not keep the money.

“Colorado should move away form a school-funding model based on a single-count date to a better model, such as an average daily membership,” said Jeff Kwitowski in a statement to The Gazette’s editorial board. He’s the vice president for public affairs for K12, the curriculum provider for Colorado Virtual Academy.

For the rest of the article, go to OUR VIEW: State’s money must follow students (poll)

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Online Schools Take Tax Money But Fail Many Students

October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Millions of tax dollars go to private corporations to run online schools, which often have poor academic performance records, a CALL7 investigation found.

CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski exclusively obtained internal records from one online school, Insight School of Colorado, showing only 21 percent of students were passing classes at the time and on average students spent less than four hours a day at the online school.

For the rest of the article, go to Online Schools Take Tax Money But Fail Many Students

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