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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 K-12 School Leaders Discuss Policy ‘Roadmap’

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“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’

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Report: Education management sector expanding

January 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.”

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Wednesday Churn: Welcome back

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.

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Learning online

January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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

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Guest Commentary: Online schools play essential role

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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.

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Making the news in 2011

December 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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.

For the rest of the article, go to Making the news in 2011

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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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Paint Valley school board to meet today

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Agenda items include accepting a donation of real property and directing the superintendent to “take commercially reasonable steps in connection with the donation,” approval of a David Meade Massie grant application and approval of an agreement of participation between the school district and Jefferson County ESC Virtual Learning Academy.

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Virtual schools booming, while states mull warnings about lack of oversight

December 18, 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.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual schools booming, while states mull warnings about lack of oversight

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