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Idaho Online Class Requirement For High School Graduation Gets Board Approval

November 7, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

BOISE, Idaho — Education officials on Thursday gave final approval to a plan that makes Idaho the first state in the nation to require high school students to take at least two credits online to graduate, despite heavy criticism of the plan at public hearings this summer.

The measure is part of a sweeping education overhaul that introduces teacher merit pay and phases in laptops for every high school teacher and student.

Proponents say the virtual classes will help the state save money and better prepare students for college. But opponents claim they’ll replace teachers with computers and shift state taxpayer money to the out-of-state companies that will be tapped to provide the online curriculum and laptops.

The rule will apply to students entering the 9th grade in fall 2012. It goes before Idaho lawmakers for review in the 2012 session, which starts in January.

The education board gave the online graduation requirement its initial approval in September after heavy opposition was voiced this summer at public hearings across Idaho. Trustees collected more feedback during a 21-day public comment period last month.

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Minidoka Educators Showcase New Center

November 5, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The service center includes four preschool classrooms and four classes of day treatment for children who face learning challenges. It also houses the district’s gifted and talented, special needs and federal programs, along with the Minidoka Virtual Academy and technology department.

“This is so nice,” said Sandra Miller, director of federal programs.

Miller’s secretaries moved into the new center before she did, working around construction for months.

The move was accomplished in steps that included selling the old Acequia Elementary School and moving the district’s alternative school, Mount Harrison High School, from the current service center site to the south campus of the former Heyburn Elementary School last year.

The center also includes computer stations for parents to use who do not own their own computers.

“It’s nice to have all these programs in one building,” said Heyburn resident Kimberly Santos.

Michelle DeLuna, district business manager and treasurer, said $95,000 of the remodel was funded by the sale of Acequia Elementary. General funds and plant facilities funding also paid for work done so far.

“This is the first time I’ve got to tour the building,” said district Trustee Mark Sanderson. “I’m really impressed. This is going to be well utilized.”

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Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: virtual academy

Online education finds bigger foothold in Idaho

October 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The Pirate Academy’s classes are administered through the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, which connects students with teachers from around the state through its online platform.

The Legislature established the IDLA in 2002 to expand course offerings to rural schools, and enrollment in the online program has grown by about 50 percent every year, reaching about 9,800 this semester, according to Nick Smith, IDLA’s director of education programs.

Smith, a former principal in the Bliss School District, said rural schools such as Notus have been at the forefront of online education in Idaho, and they offer lessons as districts around the state prepare to meet new graduation rules requiring students to complete two online classes to graduate.

After all, IDLA is one of the course providers that districts will turn to as they require online classes.

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Social promotion puts students on rough path

October 17, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Social promotion became an issue for Spokane Public Schools after the administration realized a third of high school freshmen were failing one or more classes at the end of the first semester, officials said.

The school board took a stance to end the practice effective this school year. “As a board, we really talked about the fact that the kids who fail in high school didn’t just start failing in high school,” said Chapin, the school board president. “High school is just part of the continuum.”

The district is taking the approach that “the minute students get off track in middle school there’s going to be intervention,” Chapin said.

Although the district’s budget had to be cut this year, helping middle school students meet academic marks was made a priority.

Individual Credit Advancement Now, or ICAN, requires students who don’t pass math or language arts to stay after school for tutoring. It will involve Spokane Virtual Learning as well as their classroom teacher.

In addition, a new assessment tool tests students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades in math and reading, “so we can catch kids who are falling behind sooner,” Chapin said.

There are also summer school programs to help students catch up in core curriculum areas.

“This is a culture change. Years ago the middle school mantra was ‘nurture the social and emotional,’?” Chapin said. “We’re still doing that, but more.”

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Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: virtual learning

Idaho online class funding would vary widely

October 12, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Tim Hill, the state Department of Education’s finance chief, said, “All of the things in our funding formula are not accidental – they have very good logic as to why they are what they are. There could be some unintended consequences by standardizing things.”

Hill calculated these figures for the 2009-2010 school year, but says they’re a good basis for comparison.

The state’s largest school districts are on the low end for ADA. The Meridian School District gets just $4,843 per high-school student; Boise gets $5,047; and Coeur d’Alene, Lakeland and Post Falls school districts all come in just under $5,000. West Bonner and Lake Pend Oreille schools get $5,770 and $5,338, respectively.

When task force members questioned why those differences should be applied to payments to online course providers, Luna aide Jason Hancock told them, “That’s how the legislation reads. It’s just built around essentially what an ADA is worth … and it is different from district to district.” He said that’s why a subcommittee of the task force is looking into statewide contracts with online course providers, to secure lower rates for smaller districts that are more comparable to what larger districts would pay.

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Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: Idaho Virtual Academy

Online class funding would vary sharply among Idaho school districts, under new laws

October 11, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The complicated formula through which Idaho sends state funds to school districts based on ADA, or average daily attendance, has many factors that cause it to vary by district, however. Those include the size of a school district, to reflect economies of scale in larger districts and fixed costs in smaller districts; the distribution of students across different age categories from kindergarten to high school; and the experience level of the district’s teachers and administrators, which also triggers differences in state funding.

The result: For high-school age students, state funding per ADA varies from a low of $4,334 per student per year at the Idaho Virtual Academy, closely followed by the next-lowest Caldwell School District, at $4,757 per student, Vallivue at $4,780 and Kuna at $4,789; to a high of $17,595 per Midvale high school student. The South Lemhi school district gets $17,470 per high school student; Culdesac gets $16,897. (All these figures, by the way, are based on state Department of Education finance guru Tim Hill’s calculations for the 2009-2010 school year, so they’re not the absolute latest, but Hill considers them a good basis for comparison.)

The issue came up at the “Students Come First” technology task force meeting today, as state Department of Education official Jason Hancock demonstrated an example: In Middleton, an online provider would get $191 for a one-semester high school course; if the class costs more, parents would have to make up the difference. Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, who serves on the task force, said, “So I think if I were a provider, I would first concentrate on these districts where this credit is worth a lot more money. I wonder if you’ve explored the idea of a cap.”

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Volunteers leave Deer Flat squeaky clean

September 26, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

CANYON COUNTY — The shores of Lake Lowell got a thorough cleaning Saturday thanks to 67 hard working volunteers.

In support of National Public Lands Day, the volunteers cleared the Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge of more than 60 bags worth of litter. The goal of the clean-up was to prevent animals from eating or becoming trapped in the litter and to maintain the cleanliness of the refuge for visitor use.

Groups from the College of Western Idaho, iSucceed Virtual High School, the Sierra Club and the Treasure Valley Back Country Horsemen participated in the clean-up, alongside individuals, friends and families.

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Idaho ed board votes to require online classes

September 10, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho is a step closer to joining the handful of states that require students to take online courses.

The state Board of Education gave initial approval Friday to a rule requiring high school students to take at least two credits online to graduate, despite heavy opposition to the plan at public hearings across Idaho this summer.

Schools nationwide offer online classes but just three states — Alabama, Florida and Michigan — have adopted rules since 2006 to require online learning, according to the International Association of K-12 Online Learning in Washington, D.C. Proponents say online classes will help save money and help prepare students for college, where many courses are online. Opponents say they replace teachers with computers.

The online rules vary from state to state. Idaho would be the first to require two credits online.

Idaho’s education board drafted the online course requirements as part of new education changes that were signed into law earlier this year with backing from public schools chief Tom Luna and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. Luna wanted students to take up to eight online course credits, but that provision was ditched during the 2011 session of the Idaho Legislature amid opposition from parents, teachers and some lawmakers.

An effort to require students to take four online credits was also ditched.

The legislation that was approved and signed into law instead directed the state Board of Education to draft standards governing the online course requirements. The board directed a subcommittee to decide how trustees would proceed in April and that panel mostly discussed making one or two online credits a requirement to graduate high school.

Most of the opposition was directed at the education changes as a whole not just the online requirements, board spokesman Mark Browning said.

Luna, who sits on the board, lauded trustees for their work on the rule that was approved Friday.

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Filed Under: Home Page, online high schools Tagged With: Online Classes, public schools

The online battlefield

September 5, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Anderson graduated from iSucceed Virtual High School in June and that’s when her lifelong path hit a major roadblock. When she attempted to enlist in the Armed Forces, recruiters said the online degree wouldn’t cut it.

In order to keep her dream alive, Lyndsey enrolled at Boise’s Capital High this fall semester to get a traditional high school diploma this coming January.

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Rule requiring online high school courses advances

August 31, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A rule requiring high school students to take online courses has made its way to the Idaho State Board of Education, despite heavy opposition at public hearings across the state.

A subcommittee of the Idaho State Board of Education voted Thursday to recommend that the full board pass the rule, which would require the class of 2016 — and all students coming after — to take two online courses to graduate.

The 6-2 vote came despite overwhelming opposition from people who testified at seven hearings around the state. Only eight of the 76 people who testified at the hearings or submitted written comments supported the new rule.

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