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.

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’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.