Summer School Week: Classes with ‘Virtually’ No School

Julia took the class through Connections Academy to get ahead in school.

She believes being self-motivated is a must.

“You have to force yourself to sit down, and do the work on your own and set dates and time yourself and limit yourself, and plan.”

Parents are encouraged to help; however, Jill believes the student can handle the class on their own, especially because she says teachers are so easily accessible.

Connections Academy is just one accredited school that offers courses. Ohio Virtual Academy is another.

Online credit recovery is something that is being done in school now.

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CCYL recognizes Class of 2011

COSHOCTON — Coshocton County Youth Leadership conducted a graduation reception April 20 in the Grace United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall to honor the Class of 2011, the 17th class to graduate from CCYL.

Karen Brown, of the Leadership Coshocton County Board of Directors, presented a certificate of completion plaque to each class member. Class members represented Coshocton, River View and Ridgewood high schools and Ohio Virtual Academy.

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Disappointed WHS French students go to board

“I’ve been told that the state would help us out if we get to rock bottom. Well, we’re not going to get to rock bottom,” said Sexton.

As a last resort, WCS will utilize the online Virtual Learning Academy in order to offer French to WHS students, Sexton said.

The Virtual Learning Academy will provide students, at no cost to the students, an opportunity to hear a teacher speak French. However, it is not interactive and there would be no back-and-forth between teacher and students in the process of learning, the superintendent said.

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Poor-performing e-schools a waste of Ohio’s money, critics say

With five of the state’s seven largest e-schools posting graduation rates lower than that of the state’s worst traditional public school district, and six of seven rated less than “effective,” a liberal policy group said yesterday that the state is wasting money on the poorly performing online schools.

“There are decent e-schools out there,” said Steve Dyer, a former lawmaker who researched the report for Innovation Ohio. “The question is, why does the system allow such bad ones to exist?”

Innovation Ohio noted that in 2003 the state Department of Education developed 27 pages of standards for e-schools that lawmakers never implemented.

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Class Bias, Class Size and Online Learning

Despite all the spin, there is little or no evidence of positive results for online learning, as a New York Times article pointed out a few weeks ago. And there are lots of counter-examples that should make us worry:

  • Agora Cyber Charter School, an online charter school run by K12 in Pennsylvania, failed to make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and had to send a letter to parents announcing its mandated “improvement” efforts.
  • The Columbus Dispatch has concluded that five of the seven largest online schools in Ohio have graduation rates lower than those of the state’s worst traditional public school district; six of the seven were rated as less than “effective.”
  • An annual report of for-profit education management organizations concluded that only 30 percent of virtual schools met AYP as compared to 55 percent of “bricks and mortar schools.
  • The Pentagon refuses to recruit students into the military who have graduated from online schools, since their academic standards are so low.

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Charter charges

Moreover, the study says, online charter schools cost the state twice as much per pupil as traditional public schools. It notes that lawmakers still have not adopted standards for online schools the State Board of Education developed in 2003. The group calls the electronic schools “an outrageous taxpayer ripoff.”

The schools’ operators condemn the study as an “incomprehensible … partisan attack.” They claim that failed charter schools operated by nonprofit groups cost the state plenty when they closed. They might explain why their schools should not be closed as well.

To its credit, the Kasich administration says it opposes the House amendments. That is ample reason for the Senate to remove them when it takes up the budget.

But a better approach would be for Governor Kasich and lawmakers to postpone their needlessly large and rapid expansion of charter schools and school vouchers until public-school funding across the state is stabilized.

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Report rips Ohio’s e-schools for poor performance and graduation rates

Ohio has about two dozen e-schools — essentially online charter schools — most of which are set up by districts for their own students. However, nearly 30,000 students attend the seven statewide e-schools included in the Innovation Ohio study. Five of those had graduation rates of 54 percent or less.

“I think it’s fair to say that Ohio’s e-schools are a disaster,” Innovation Ohio spokesman Dale Butland said Thursday at a news conference. “Why doesn’t Ohio simply shut these schools down?”

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Budget expands school voucher programs

• Expands community schools’ rights to buy or lease school district buildings not being used. Cincinnati Public Schools owns multiple buildings that have gone vacant due to reconstruction or consolidation. This measure might limit the district’s options when it wants to put them on the market.

• Keeps a cap on online schools. Kasich had wanted to remove that cap, but the House wants it in effect until the General Assembly can set operational guidelines for those schools. About 27 of Ohio’s 300 charter schools are online schools. Enrollment at those so-called e-schools rose 7 percent between the 2008-2009 school year and the 2009-10 school year, compared to only a 1 percent rise at brick-and mortar charter schools.

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Connections Education, Leading Virtual Education Provider, Wins Multiple 2011 International Distance Learning Awards

The company’s Connections Academy virtual public school division was honored with one of the USDLA’s top awards:  the “21st Century Award for Best Practices in Distance Learning” in the preK-12 category, for the quality and overall excellence of its virtual education model.  Raymond M. Lambert, seven-year Superintendent of Ohio Connections Academy, was recognized for his significant contributions to the distance learning field, taking home honors for Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning” in the Online Technology/PreK–12 category.  Finally, Connections Academy’s Earth Science course won a “Best Practices Award for Distance Learning Programming” in the PreK-12 category.

“As a premier organization for the entire distance learning profession, we are honoring Connections Education as a leader in the industry,” said Dr. John G. Flores, Executive Director of USDLA. “Connections Education, with its high quality Connections Academy virtual school model, stand-out educators and innovative curriculum has raised the bar of excellence for distance learning.  We are truly honored by Connections Education’s contributions to the distance learning industry.”

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Exploring education options

The public event is being held by the Riverbend Homeschoolers to enlighten families as to what is available in the way of alternatives to regular classroom instruction by way of homeschooling and/or virtual e-school. At the fair there will be programming and displays geared to educating the community on what homeschooling is all about, how it is handled by parents, and what is available now in the way of virtual schooling.

There will be displays of the work of local homeschoolers along with materials on curriculum, and catalogs from various home schools. Attending will be a representative from Connections Academy, a virtual e-school, along with representatives from local private schools to discuss the programs and services they offer and answer questions from parents attending.

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