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Independent students go virtual

May 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

More than 15,000 K-12 students are enrolled in full-time virtual schools in California, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. That doesn’t include thousands of students who take one or more online courses offered by K-12 school districts.

School districts in the Victor Valley and throughout California are expanding online offerings as they compete with statewide virtual alternatives.

This fall, Snowline Joint Unified School District is launching the first full-time virtual program that will teach students in grades K-12 under the umbrella of a local district. Enrollment is now open for the new program, which will have a home base at the former Desert View Independent School site in Phelan.

“It’s a wave of the future and it’s another option for kids,” Snowline Virtual School Administrator Chad Brooks said. “Some kids in today’s age just can’t sit in the classroom six, seven hours a day.”

Victor Valley High School is in the second year of its virtual “school within a school.” Through the blended program, online students can take some of the school’s traditional electives, join clubs and even participate in athletics, with several students in this year’s program on the football team.

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Online Students Hold Virtual Town Hall

April 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How does a virtual school take field trips? It borrows from the corporate world and hosts a teleconference, of course.

Capistrano Connections Academy is an online K-12 charter school through Capistrano Unified School District that opened in 2004. It allows students to “attend” class via their home computers.

So it recently hosted Q&A sessions with two local politicians the same way.

“It interests me what is happening in our country and how the people who are put into power are handling it,” said Austin Cuevas, a 17-year-old junior who lives in Mission Viejo.

In March, students “met” Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, and earlier this month, they talked with state Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel.

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TEMECULA: Meeting Monday on virtual school

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Temecula Valley Unified School District will host a Monday meeting to discuss the upcoming Temecula Virtual School.

The school will open at the beginning of next school year, allowing online participation from students worldwide. The meeting will cover enrollment procedures, whether the school is the right environmental for a child, a typical day and how the school will work.

For the rest of the article, go to TEMECULA: Meeting Monday on virtual school

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Juan Bautista de Anza Online Charter School Opens Student Resource Center in Desert Shores

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Desert Shores Resource Center, located off Highway 86 between Coachella Valley and El Centro at 228 Desert Shores Rd. in Desert Shores, opened in January 2012. Students can complete coursework in the state-of-the-art computer lab or receive individualized tutoring at the center, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“Now in its third year, Juan Bautista de Anza Online Charter School continues to aggressively expand its program offerings to serve area high school students looking for a high-quality virtual school,” said Dr. Sandra Thorpe, executive director. “The school’s new Desert Shores Resource Center will give students in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys a true blended-learning environment that combines rigorous online courses with in-person mentoring and tutoring opportunities.”

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Online explosion takes hold in Ripon schools

February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

California Connections Academy @ Ripon will open as a public charter school in the fall, becoming the latest in an exploding array of online options in the area.

It will join this year’s online startups — Turlock Unified’s eCademy Charter at Crane and Modesto City School’s Modesto Virtual Academy — as well as current district online programs and at least a dozen independent charters.

Online schools have, it appears, gone viral.

The Ripon charter was granted by Ripon Unified School District in January; the school will serve kindergartners through graduating seniors.

Though its home district is in San Joaquin County, it is eligible to sign up students from all adjacent counties as well: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Sacramento, Santa Clara and Stanislaus.

Ripon Unified Superintendent Louise Johnson said the district did its homework before granting the charter and sees it as partnering with the online group. The district will provide some arm’s-length oversight, but the charter school will manage its own finances and answer to its own board of directors.

“We were very favorably impressed,” Johnson said. “The program is quite interesting because they have a mix,” she said, listing online webcasts, real-time classes in which students interact with the teacher and classmates, and traditional work.

The district’s enrollment is stable, Johnson said, and she sees the charter as attracting home-schoolers and students who were using other online options.

“I think the instructional program is solid and if I’m going to have students in a virtual school, I want the instruction to be that solid,” Johnson said.

For the rest of the article, go to Online explosion takes hold in Ripon schools

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Group wants local charter school shuttered

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The California Charter Schools Association, a professional group serving nearly 1,000 California charter public schools, called Thursday for the closure of 10 charter schools not meeting its standards, including California Virtual Academy at Kern.

To meet the association criteria for charter renewal, schools must have operated for at least four years and achieved at least one of the following: an academic performance index score of at least 700, three-year index API growth of at least 50 points, or exceed performance compared to similar schools statewide.

The 10 charter schools do not meet the criteria, according to the association. California Virtual Academy at Kern, a 300-student online school chartered through the Maricopa Unified School District, has an index score of 679, which is a decrease from years past, and ranks among the bottom tier compared to similar schools, according to state data.

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The Buzz: California ballot proposal aims to boost access to online education

November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For public school students in California, where you live usually determines where you can learn. To David Haglund, that’s not right.

This month, Haglund, principal of the Riverside Virtual School, an online independent study program run by the Riverside Unified School District, introduced a statewide ballot initiative that would give students unrestricted access to publicly funded courses – wherever they are.

For the rest of the article, go to The Buzz: California ballot proposal aims to boost access to online education

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Greenpacket gives modems to support e-learning in schools

November 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of the word’s leading providers of WiMAX internet broadband has backed the e-learning revolution by providing modems to help students use online education services.

Greenpacket, the world’s third largest supplier of WiMAX, which has a comprehensive portfolio of award-winning offerings and product expansions, has awarded a supply of its pocket modem MF250 to academic institutions in California, as part of the state’s digital textbook initiative.

The first batch of the MF250[s]? will benefit students, teachers and parents in Kings County School Districts and encourage them to use more e-learning facilities.

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Online High Schools Attracting Elite Names

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

PALO ALTO, Calif. — In June, about 30 seniors will graduate from a little-known online high school currently called the Education Program for Gifted Youth. But their diplomas will bear a different name: Stanford Online High School.

Yes, that Stanford — the elite research university known for producing graduates who win Nobels and found Googles, not for teaching basic algebra to teenagers. Five years after the opening of the experimental program, some education experts consider Stanford’s decision to attach its name to the effort a milestone for online education.

“This is significant,” said Bill Tucker, managing director of Education Sector, a nonpartisan policy institute. “One of our country’s most prestigious universities feels comfortable putting its considerable prestige and brand behind it.”

As the line between virtual and classroom-based learning continues to blur, some see Stanford’s move as a sign that so, too, will the line between secondary and higher education. Several other universities — though none with the pedigree of Stanford — already operate online high schools, a development that has raised some questions about expertise and motives.

About 275,000 students nationwide are enrolled full time in online schools, according to Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Most of these are free public charter schools, but colleges — private and public — have begun to get into the business as well.

The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the University of Missouri have awarded diplomas to about 250 and 85 students, respectively, annually for the last several years. The George Washington University Online High School opened in January.

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Charter school on horizon for Coronado

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

CORONADO — A new breed of charter school may soon find its way to the Coronado Unified School District.

The school board voted 5-0 Oct. 20 in favor of allowing the district to apply for Palm Academy to become a charter school. The school, tentatively named Coronado Academy, would implement a “brick and click,” or hybrid, style of learning, with students attending school physically and virtually. Most courses would be online but students will use physical lesson materials, offline tools, and will meet face to face with their instructors.

Felix said a lot of districts across America have schools with the same idea and the Coronado school would be in the same vein as High Tech High and iHigh Virtual Academy in the San Diego Unified School District.

For the rest of the article, go to Charter school on horizon for Coronado

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