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Virtual Schools Provide the Power of Choice
By Elizabeth Kanna, contributing editor-at-large, Homeschooler Network
When Russian-born Wimbledon Champion Maria Sharapova was asked by the
press how she continued to impress everyone she met with her literacy
and ability to speak fluently and intelligently, she promptly told them
she was a student at a virtual high school in the United States. The
ability to continue her academic education while she swept tennis
tournaments across the U.S., culminating in a stunning victory at
Wimbledon in July, is a testament to the power and inherent flexibility
of virtual schools. Virtual schools provide parents and children, from
Oregon to New York and across the globe to Russia and other countries,
with access to world-class curricula, myriad teachers, and support, just
about anytime and anyplace. Most importantly, virtual schools provide
the power of choice.
 The "common school movement" that Horace Mann, Henry Barnard and other
reformers created in 1852 did not provide families with many choices.
These new public schools were for the training or educating of future
factory workers. One hundred and fifty years later, parents have more
options available to them for their child's education: public schools,
homeschooling, charter schools, homeschool charter schools, magnet
schools, private schools, and virtual schools.
Today's virtual school movement has its roots in distance-learning
programs and correspondence schools dating as far back as 1929, when the
University of Nebraska started distance-learning high-school courses.
The new "virtual school" movement underway in the United States is
fueled by a technology-rich society, a motivated and literate population
of parents, and visionaries in education, technology, and business.
Today there are very few paper-based and snail-mail correspondence
programs in virtual education; children everywhere can attend a virtual
public school at home. Virtual access gives children online curriculum
opportunities like "traveling" with Robert Ballard, the scientist who
found the R.M.S Titanic, and "visiting" remote locations around the
world via the latest satellite and streaming media capabilities.
Like most technology-based products and services in use today, virtual
schools, courses, and supplemental programs will continue to improve in
usability, power, and speed. For now, the power of technology-delivered,
virtual educational programs adds to the options parents can investigate
as they make a difficult decision with life-long implications: how their
child will be educated.
Are Virtual Schools a Type of Homeschooling?
The answer to this question depends on the virtual school. While most of
the learning happens in the home with virtual schools, many of them are
public schools without doors. Students who register with a public
virtual school are counted as public-school students, not homeschoolers,
in their state. These public virtual schools collect ADA (average daily
attendance), just like the neighborhood brick-and-mortar school. They
offer a standards-based curriculum; require attendance keeping, frequent
assessments, and progress reports; and comply with mandated state
testing. Some virtual schools or programs are tuition-based, and a
parent can choose to use an entire grade's work or supplement in math,
driver's education, foreign language, history, and other subjects. A
high-school student can participate in make-up and credit programs to
enhance their high-school experience.
In the homeschooling world, children who attend conventional schools,
either public or private, are considered to be receiving a "traditional"
education. "Traditional homeschooling," on the other hand, has typically
indicated a family using varied approaches and curricula to have their
children learn at home (outside the auspices of a public school). Many
traditionally homeschooled children use private distance-learning or a
tuition-based virtual school for all or part of their homeschooling
career.
Is a Virtual-based Education for Everyone?
Like any school, curriculum, or program, virtual schools work for some
families and not for others. Public virtual schools have the same
requirements and regulations that brick-and-mortal schools do, along
with the support of a credentialed teacher; detailed, standards-based
rich lessons; continual assessment; and supplemental learning resources.
Some families choose a virtual school because they believe it combines
the best of both worlds: the flexibility and individualized instruction
inherent in traditional homeschooling, joined with the support and
accountability of a public school.
Families facing educational choices need to research all options
thoroughly. They must examine their educational priorities in order to
determine which features best support their goals. Most importantly,
they must decide which method best serves their child's unique needs and
talents.
Maria Sharapova's passion is tennis, so her academic training needed to
be adjusted to work within the confines of her intense tennis training
and playing schedule. A virtual school has helped her continue to learn
while she reaches for her dream.
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Virtual academies: Home-schoolers take classes in cyberspace, The
Reporter (CA), November 17, 2004 – Anthony and Avery Speel attend school
in their bare feet, in a brightly decorated room with a calico cat named
Abigail.
Online ed shouldn't be off limits, The Denver (CO) Post, November
11, 2004 – Choices generate competition. Competition creates a better
product. Kin Griffith, executive director of the state's largest online
school, Colorado Virtual Academy, is providing a much-needed alternative
to traditional public education.
Virtual high school a popular alternative for independent students.
February 24, 2005, OLD LYME, Conn. -- Chelsea Finn and Marissa Ross,
both juniors in high school, are part of a small group of students
taking courses in the Virtual High School on the Internet.
An evaluation of a virtual high school. This evaluation of a
virtual high school determined that achievement in online courses was
equal to or better than achievement in regular high school courses.
Implementing Online Secondary Education.
Virtual
Schools are the Future. Pennsylvania
currently has 5,100 children enrolled in cyber charter schools. The
state leads the nation in cyber charter school innovation -- and
controversy. Cyber charter schools offer students a flexible
well-researched on-line curriculum that is accessible at all times and
is not constrained by a physical building. Since cyber charter schools
do not have high capital costs in terms of physical infrastructure, they
can invest most of their resources into curriculum research and
development and into hiring talented teachers. These schools have the
potential to provide an array of new educational options to students
offering almost complete flexibility to children served best by a
custom-tailored curriculum.
Virtual Schools are the Future
Virtual High School Legislation. Local
high school students could access a whole new academic world under a
bill passed by state legislators. The "Georgia Virtual High
School" would allow students to take advanced courses online. The
program will be available to public, private and home-schooled students,
but public school pupils will have a priority in the program.
The McDuffie Mirror Online
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