“Through a virtual partnership, if they are enrolled in a virtual school but at least attend one of their classes at the high school campus,” said Bart Swartz with Greenbush Education Services. “so let’s say five of their classes are virtual, and they attend one campus class. Then that school district has the opportunity to allow them to participate in activities in the district.”

Tonganoxie district officials say enrollment will begin in August.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual classroom gives students a 21st century education

Ruskin’s “Virtual Learning Environment” was dedicated a few months ago, and now many different classes can use the equipment as it applies to their curriculum.

Since the school began the program, students have made a video for wellness and nutrition education. An English class has used it for taping a Shakespeare piece.

For the rest of the article, go to Class pictures

They’ve warned that open-ended transfers could result in overcrowded suburban classrooms and bankrupt city schools. They’ve predicted that a quirk in the aid formula could force some small rural schools to close.

Some wealthy St. Louis County districts have their state funding basically frozen at an earlier level. Thus, if no formula change passes this year, they could escape cuts, with other school districts — which are predominantly poorer — bearing the burden of the underfunded formula.

As for the rest of the omnibus bill, Dieckhaus said he lumped expanded charter schools, virtual schools and tax credit scholarships into the package because they are part of the Turner fix and would help accommodate the thousands of students who want out of failing city schools.

While the St. Louis Public Schools have made academic strides, Dieckhaus said children shouldn’t have to wait for the district to regain accreditation. That, he said, is expected to take three more years.
For the rest of the article, go to Efforts to fix Missouri’s school aid formula, transfers appear knotted — again

For the rest of the article, go to Cunningham Proposes School Accreditation Fix

International e-learning consumers, by contrast, are approaching American virtual providers because they represent not an alternative to traditional American education, but an extension of it.

For the rest of the article, go to U.S. Virtual Ed. Companies Court Global Clients

Whether the reshaping of schools passes — and whether the St. Louis Public Schools win approval to sponsor two charter schools this fall — is now up to the Missouri legislature and the state Board of Education. State Sen. Jane Cunningham, the Chesterfield Republican whose bill would bring about the most drastic changes, says if lawmakers don’t act to settle what has become known as the Turner case, the courts will.

Her bill, introduced Thursday and set for a hearing next week, would go much further than just the provisions addressing Turner. It would include these changes to Missouri education law:

• Establish the Passport Scholarship Program, to grant financial assistance for students up to the age of 21 who live in unaccredited public school districts for use at a non-public elementary or secondary school. Taxpayers could contribute to a qualified educational assistance organization and claim a tax credit for what they give.
• Allow an accredited school district or cooperative association of accredited districts to sponsor or operate a charter school in or for an unaccredited district.
• Remove the two-year waiting period between the time a district loses accreditation and the time the state may take it over; under the bill, the takeover could happen immediately after accreditation is lost.
• To change the current Turner situation, require an unaccredited district to pay tuition and transportation for resident students to attend an accredited district in an adjoining area. Receiving districts could establish criteria for how many students they would accept, based on the availability of “highly qualified teachers in existing classroom space.” Receiving districts would not have to include the test scores of transfer students in their assessments for up to five years.
• In what is called the Hinson Plan, after the superintendent of the Independence School District outside Kansas City, require that if a district outside St. Louis or St. Louis County loses accreditation, surrounding accredited districts must divide up its territory, annex it and draw up new attendance boundaries.
• Direct the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish a clearinghouse to help students in unaccredited districts transfer to an accredited district, a charter school, a virtual school or a nonpublic school using a Passport scholarship.
• Require student performance to be a factor in teacher evaluations.
• Give school principals the right to select teachers for their schools who have shown they are qualified and effective.

For the rest of the article, go to Proposals could bring dramatic changes to Missouri schools

She plans to file a bill that reflects the testimony she heard during the Committee’s hearings. For her, that means seeking legislative approval for private schools to accept students living in districts that have lost accreditation. She says, “…we certainly have excellent ones out there who are willing to take these children and provide them an excellent education, and the other advantage that they noted to us was they’re in the city, or very near the city, so we would not have to spend the money and the time transporting the students out to county districts.”

She also anticipates lawmakers considering the expansion of charter schools, encouraging surrounding school districts to open their own charters in the St. Louis City Limits, expanding online virtual school options for parents who want that to help meet the needs of the number of students who will seek transfer.

For the rest of the article, go to Private school options considered for unaccredited districts’ students

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.

For the rest of the article, go to Online High Schools Attracting Elite Names

At Eureka High School and Lafayette High School, students are using this technology to take calculus II through Wildwood Community College. Next semester, they will have the opportunity to enroll in calculus III.

For the rest of the article, go to Rockwood classes offered by virtual method

Schweich (right) said the attendance changes may have helped Patrick Henry meet progress requirements under the No Child Left Behind act and could have resulted in the school receiving extra money.

In a low-key response to the findings, Adams said that “the data speaks for itself.” He said the district has done internal audits on schools for attendance and test scores and not found any other examples of such manipulation of the figures.

Asked if he was surprised to find out about what was going on at Patrick Henry, he replied:

“What surprised me is that we weren’t aware of it.”

Adams said that academic achievement had been rising at the school and because such improvement often is the result of higher attendance, he did not realize the figures had been inflated. He also said that the school had had some virtual classes, and he thought that some increase in attendance could be attributed to that component.

For the rest of the article, go to Downtown elementary school principal inflated attendance figures, audit finds