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Money concerns drive technology reforms in Idaho schools
The details are no joke, however. Other committee members who work for the state-funded Idaho Digital Learning Academy are concerned that for-profit vendors will claim their students. IDLA is partly staffed by Idaho teachers supplementing their incomes.
Meanwhile, task force members like Cliff Green, regional vice president for the for-profit Insight Schools, see opportunity.
“It’s been hard to come into a state and compete with subsidy,” Green said, referring to IDLA. “Now, whoever has the best product will win.”
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Online charter school helping dropouts, others earn high school degrees
Since Breland turned 18, her life has been what she describes as a roller coaster. She was married at 18 and pregnant at 19. Now 20, she is in the process of a divorce. She’s moved multiple times to different states and now resides with her family in Hansen, but through all of the changes she’s had the stability of education.
Breland found iSucceed Virtual Charter School in spring 2009, after she dropped out of a traditional, public school. Three years after she started taking online courses through the free virtual high school, Breland proudly took her diploma home last Saturday.
The charter school was formed in 2008 to help Idaho dropouts continue their education, and caters to a diverse set of students. Some are young single parents, athletes who must keep rigorous training schedules or students with an illness that keeps them at home or in the hospital. The school started small with only 13 graduates, but has grown to Saturday’s graduating class of 80 students, 16 of whom call south-central Idaho home.
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Opinion: Improving education through technology
Many of our universities offer high school students online courses that qualify for both college and high school credit. Students enrolled in online classes can easily graduate from high school with a full semester or two of university credits, giving them both an educational and financial incentive to continue their schooling. Brigham Young University-Idaho has recently been authorized to expand its Pathway Program, offering online courses to students around the world, including concurrent enrollment classes for high school students.
The Idaho Digital Learning Academy provides high-quality online courses to students starting in the seventh grade. Each virtual classroom has a real-time teacher and principal to assist the participants.
Classes may qualify for university credit or simply supplement the local curriculum.
For instance, when Glenn’s Ferry High School lost its Spanish teacher, the 14 students in the class were able to continue through an online course taught by a real Hispanic instructor.
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Idaho Virtual Academy honors graduates
BOISE – The Idaho Virtual Academy honored 79 2011 graduates at three regional ceremonies on May 31 and June 1 and 2.
On May 31, the Virtual Academy hosted its first graduation ceremony of the year in Ammon. The ceremony featured a student speech by Alan Bulmahn, who plans to attend Weber State University and major in business.
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Idaho Virtual Academy Commemorates the Graduation of the Class of 2011
BOISE, Idaho, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Idaho Virtual Academy (IDVA) honored 79 students as the graduating class of 2011 at three regional ceremonies on May 31, June 1, and June 2.
On May 31, IDVA hosted its first graduation ceremony of the year at 6 p.m. at Hillcrest High School Auditorium in Ammon. The ceremony featured a student speech by Alan Bulmahn, who plans to attend Weber State University and major in business.
The second IDVA ceremony occurred on June 1 at 6 p.m. at NNU Brandt Center in Nampa. Rachel Munson addressed her peers as the 2011 Valedictorian. Rachel plans to attend Idaho State University and major in nursing and graphic design. She was awarded the Buick Achievers Scholarship, IDVA Academic Scholarship, ISU Leadership, Academic, Honors & First-Year Involvement Scholarships, and the West Valley Medical Center Scholarship.
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Virtual education boom hits the states
Many states are increasingly learning the same lesson. A combination of higher proficiency standards and tighter budgets are prompting school officials to look more closely than ever at online education. In recent years, several states have put forward plans to expand the reach of virtual schools. Most prominent is Idaho, where state Superintendent Tom Luna wants to require students to take online courses in order to graduate.
“Budgets are being cut,” says Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. “We can’t do more with less by continuing to do the same thing we’ve always done.”
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Idaho Education Reform: Apples For Teachers?
It wasn’t Popkey’s story alone that informed the protestors’ conspiratorial suspicions. Days earlier, the Associated Press exposed a too-cozy relationship between the Idaho’s philanthropic Albertson Foundation and Virginia-based K12 Inc., a private education company that donated nearly $30,000 to Luna’s last campaign. The Albertson Foundation had been donating millions to the Idaho Virtual Academy, an online school that bought much of its curricula from K12. Meanwhile, the foundation chairman and Albertson’s supermarket heir Joseph Scott runs a private investment firm, Alscott Inc., which recently profited $15 million from the sale of its stock in—you guessed it—K12. In other words, the charity was funneling money to an education company that it also owned stock in, boosting profits for both in a clear conflict of interest.
“Those may be some of the most troubling allegations of all,” Cronin said. He is also troubled by the way the reforms were originally crafted. In the wide-ranging proposals, only a small wage-related portion was negotiated beforehand with representatives of the teachers’ union.
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Local High School Requires Online Courses
SUGAR CITY, Idaho — As legislators consider superintendent Tom Luna’s education reforms in Boise, one local school is ahead of the curve when it comes to technology.
It was fast fingers for Ali Garrett as she logged onto the Idaho Digital Learning Academy on Tuesday morning for her health occupation class.
“I personally think online classes are good for everyone,” said the junior.
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