More state districts add online education
- Some laud it, others say students' learning
options aren't increasing
In the continued march toward more online learning,
a growing number of school districts throughout
the state are looking into opening virtual schools
-- with at least three more possible this fall.
They would join the dozen that exist in the
state, including ones in Kenosha and Monroe
that opened this year, according to the state
Department of Public Instruction.
In addition, one of the schools -- the Grantsburg
School District's virtual high school -- is
poised to expand via a partnership with Insight
Schools Inc. that will allow it to market its
offerings statewide.
"It's really been great for our students,"
Grantsburg Superintendent Joni Burgin said.
"So we're just taking it up a notch."
The number of options for elementary and secondary
students interested in virtual learning, which
allows students to take courses or attend school
over computers, is expected to increase further
in the future -- although perhaps not to the
levels of higher education's expanding online
market.
"Really, the sky's the limit in terms
of possibilities," said Sharon Derry, a
professor of educational psychology and learning
sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
who has studied online instruction. "This
is a trend that is going to be increasing and
growing, and it's really difficult to predict
what the schools of the future are going to
look like."
But even as more school administrators, parents
and students in Wisconsin embrace virtual schools
and other online learning possibilities, some
officials said the growth in providers doesn't
necessarily expand the options open to students.
Few local schools are able to develop their
own courses, instead contracting with providers,
some of which are linked to other districts
in the state.
Planners of the Janesville district's virtual
school, which could open to 20 students this
fall, are exploring a partnership with the Kiel
and Appleton districts, which purchase curriculum
from the Florida Virtual School and Virtual
High School.
A School Board member in the Stevens Point
district, which has applied for a state grant
to help plan a virtual school, questioned whether
such moves are motivated more by trying to prevent
money from leaving districts than by giving
students options. A number of districts have
lost state aid when students residing in those
areas have opted to enroll in some of the virtual
schools that have been marketed statewide.
"I just see these people buying this Edison
kind of curriculum -- Edison light -- and putting
their faceplate on it," Stevens Point board
member Mark Ptak said. Edison is a nationwide,
for-profit management company that has been
contracted to run public and charter schools.
Kris Diener, principal of iQ Academies at Wisconsin,
a statewide virtual high school that the Waukesha
district started in 2004-'05, agreed that the
new schools are mostly expansions of existing
programs through new partnerships.
She said she welcomed the competition.
"I don't think the competition endangers
us," said Diener, whose school enrolled
about 700 students this year. "I think
it gives us choices. And Wisconsin needs choices
to succeed."
One of those choices could be Honors High Online,
an expansion of the virtual offerings from the
Northern Ozaukee School District, which started
Wisconsin Virtual Academy in 2003 to serve students
in elementary and middle-school grades.
'It's not for everyone'
The school is to cater to ninth- and 10th-graders
this fall, focusing on college preparation and
using a curriculum developed by or contracted
for by K12 Inc., the online company that former
U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett started.
Virtual schools find far more acceptance today
than they did four years ago, when they were
first getting started in the state, Northern
Ozaukee Superintendent William Harbron said.
"I still, from my own viewpoint, come
from the perspective that it's not for everyone,"
Harbron said. "There are definitely students
that need to be in that brick-and-mortar situation
and need to have that type of experience."
But Diener said that given the prevalence of
online learning in post-secondary institutions,
there are also advantages to having students
experience some sort of virtual schooling while
in high school.
According to Eduventures, an industry research
company, about 1.5 million of the nation's 17
million to 18 million college students are enrolled
in online courses. That doesn't count so-called
hybrid courses, which mix face-to-face instruction
with online learning.
