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A bill that expands online learning opportunities to Florida’s elementary school-age children is going to Gov. Rick Scott.
The bill (HB 7063) received final passage Friday in the Senate on a 36-3 roll call. It passed in the House on Tuesday.
The Florida Virtual School would be allowed to expand part-time course offerings to children in kindergarten through third grade.
For the rest of the article, go to Bill expanding Fla. virtual learning goes to Scott
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), a technology-based education company, is the largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online education programs for students in kindergarten through high school in the U.S. K12 provides its curriculum and academic services to public and private online schools, traditional classrooms, blended school programs, and directly to families. K12 has provided over 2 million courses – core subjects, AP(R), world languages, credit recovery, and electives – to more than 200,000 students worldwide. Over 90 percent of parents surveyed are satisfied with the K12 program and agree that their children have benefited academically with K12. Students graduating from K12 (R) virtual schools have been accepted to hundreds of higher education institutions including many of the nation’s top-ranked colleges and universities. K12 is accredited through AdvancED, the world’s largest education community. More information about K12’s solutions for schools and districts can be found at www.k12.com/educators.
For the rest of the article, go to Kaplan K12 Learning Services and K12 Partner to Maximize College Preparation
After previously rejecting about a dozen charter school applications, the Orange County School Board on Tuesday approved two charters for Fall 2012.
One will add elementary grades to the A-rated Orlando Science middle/high school.
The other would give one charter to Mavericks Charter Schools, which operates a school in Osceola that has an incomplete rating for failure to test enough students.
For the rest of the article, go to Orange board OKs two charters, rejects two
Link-Systems International, Incorporated (LSI) is a privately held technology services and content development company that has been dedicated to providing student success and student retention solutions since 1995. LSI’s core technologies include a very flexible online tutoring/teaching platform, an online grade book, an online algorithm engine with metadata and workflow capabilities, and an online business intelligence/data mining technology designed to provide real-time alerts regarding student/school/teacher performance, attendance, and other metrics. LSI’s core services include content development, consulting, and online tutoring through our NetTutor® brand. LSI customers include K-12 publishers, higher education publishers, virtual high schools, higher education institutions, technology companies, and joint programs dedicated to providing online educational content to members of organized labor and their families.
For the rest of the article, go to Link-Systems International and SUNY Partner in Support of Sharing Technology and Academic Resources New York (the STAR-NY Consortium)
William Mattingly dreams of heading to college by way of Springstead High.
That dream was deferred when Mattingly got into a fight with another student last year at Powell Middle School. Now 16, he’s playing catch-up at Endeavor.
Like the rest of his Endeavor peers, Mattingly took an online diagnostic test that was then used to create a customized learning plan on software called Compass. The system includes video and animated tutorials with audio to keep students engaged. During a unit on the Founding Fathers, for example, characters in powdered wigs and tailcoats flash across the screen.
There are clear advantages to the Endeavor model, Mattingly said.
“The teachers help more,” he said. “And you’re more focused on your work.”
Mattingly also recognizes the need for another key trait. Take his favorite subject, math, for example.
“To do it on the computer, you have to have self-discipline,” he said.
Encouraging students who don’t have that discipline is one of the primary roles of the teachers, said Rushton, a 35-year-old veteran teacher who started his career in inner-city Miami and worked at STAR last year.
“Kids who are motivated, they zip right through,” Rushton said. “If you’ve got tail draggers, we have to push them a little bit.”
Hard work pays off, though. Endeavor is on an eight-period day, one more than regular schools, so high school students can earn eight credits during the day and more if they enroll in virtual school and work at home.
“If they’re behind and are committed to catching up, they can,” Dill said.
For the rest of the article, go to Endeavor Academy’s sweeping changes show signs of success
The Greer twins were less than halfway through first grade when Hunter’s growing frustration with learning to read caught their parents’ attention.
Charlene and Kurt Greer talked to his teacher and tried to help at home before asking that Hunter be tested to see if something was getting in the way of his progress.
Their request denied, the Greers soon pulled both boys out of their North Carolina school. Charlene Greer — a certified teacher — took over their education. Private testing later confirmed Hunter has dyslexia, a learning disability that makes reading more difficult.
He and his brother Gunnar, who now live in Ormond Beach, are 15 and in their first year of high school. Their mother still oversees their education at home although they depend primarily on Florida Virtual School online courses for the curriculum.
The twins are among a growing number of home-schooled students in Volusia and Flagler counties, a trend that reflects what’s happening across Florida and around the nation.
For the rest of the article, go to Home schooling increases in Volusia, Flagler counties
A new study is sounding alarms at the quick expansion of virtual education programs in states like Florida, saying for-profit companies are pushing states to offer full-time virtual instruction paid for by state tax dollars with little research on the quality of these programs.
The study, written by two professors at the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and released Tuesday, highlights a number of emerging problems with the growth of online learning.
Serious questions
The study raises questions about the quality of virtual education, such as the lack of supervision, as well as the financial motivations of for-profit companies that have pushed state legislatures to expand virtual instruction.
“Private corporations, most of which are for-profit, have recognized a huge potential market in virtual schooling,” wrote the study’s authors, who urge states to more closely examine how much they pay for virtual instruction.
Florida has long been at the forefront of virtual education. There is the state-backed Florida Virtual School, which offers full-time and part-time virtual classes paid for by taxpayer dollars and each school district in the state is required to offer virtual classes, either through its own program, the Florida Virtual School, or private companies.
And this year, a new state law requires all public high school students to take an online course prior to graduation as well as allow charter schools to offer full-time “virtual” classes.
For the rest of the article, go to Study finds flaws in virtual education
Because schools of education, with a few exceptions, have been slow to offer programs to develop virtual instructors, many of the nation’s leading online schools have, for more than a decade, crafted homegrown online and blended professional development.
And with the flexibility offered by the online classroom, instructors who also have face-to-face experience sometimes say the continuous, embedded professional development now in vogue is easier to achieve—be it in collaboration with colleagues, correspondence with advisers, or participation in supplemental education—in an online setting.
So it’s perhaps not surprising that, as more instructors from brick-and-mortar schools are seeking professional development online, virtual schools are exploring how to become providers to teachers as well as students.
“I think, really, we’re going to see us reaching out into more markets,” said Mary Mitchell, the director of professional learning at the 123,000-student Florida Virtual School, or FLVS, which is based in Orlando. “It doesn’t just have to be for virtual teachers, but it’s virtual, and it’s cost-effective. It can be entire districts, entire states.”
For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Schools Offer PD Programs for E-Teaching
Many people who choose to homeschool do so because they have lost faith in the public school system, some homeschool for religious reasons, and others do it to help children who have fallen behind or to challenge those who are academically advanced. Whatever the reason, the choice to homeschool can often leave parents wondering, ” Can I do this?” or ” Do I want to do this?” and even, “Do I have to teach everything?” The short answer is that homeschoolers now have many options to choose from.
Public school at home is one option that is becoming increasingly popular. The Georgia Cyber Academy has been up and running for several years now and offers online learning as a public charter school. Curriculum is provided, and teachers are in their home offices holding lessons online and grading portfolios. Georgia Connections Academy was just approved this year and is a similar virtual school. Curriculum is provided through Connections, and teachers teach from an office near Suwanee, on Meadow Church Road in Duluth. Parents are labeled as Learning Coaches, but teachers are available for help and resources. As public schools, students do have to take the state mandated tests such as the CRCT. For those not wanting to pick curriculum and needing the support, a virtual school is an option.
For the rest of the article, go to Homeschooling is Full of Options
The company is also offering the families enrolled a “netbook-style laptop” for $150, access to free digital-literacy training, and free Internet-security software. However, the program would only aid students who qualify and who are in the Comcast service area.
In Florida, which is kicking off its own statewide requirement for an online-learning credit with this year’s freshman class, there’s no shortage of online options, says Mary Jane Tappen, the deputy chancellor for K-12 curriculum, instruction, and student services for the Florida Department of Education. The state boasts the nation’s largest online school, the Florida Virtual School, which served 122,000 students during the 2010-11 school year, and individual districts in the state often offer their own virtual courses as well.
For the rest of the article, go to States, Districts Move to Require Virtual Classes
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