Idaho Online High Schools» virtual schools

Virtual school company faces lawsuit

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:56:04 +0000

A national company that operates two virtual schools in Idaho faces a class-action lawsuit from Investors.

The suit was filed in federal court in Virginia.

Investors claim the company, called K12, gave false and misleading statements about student performance on standardized tests.

They claim, as a result, K12′s stock traded at artificially inflated prices.

K12 operates and provides curriculum to the Idaho Virtual Academy online school and the iSucceed Virtual High School in Idaho.

“K12 disputes the claims made by this private law firm and will vigorously defend itself,” K12 Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Jeff Kwitowski told KTVB.com. “As with any public school, test scores are publicly available.”

State Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said the department had no comment on the specific lawsuit because it is not related to any school in Idaho.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual school company faces lawsuit

Can States and School Districts Cut Costs Through Digital Learning?

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:47:19 +0000

Digital learning represents wide-open terrain for K-12 education reform. Several states — Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Michigan and Minnesota — require students to take an online course to receive a high school degree. Twenty-seven states have established statewide full-time virtual schools since the first opened in 1997 in Florida, according to a report by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, an indication of virtual education’s growing appeal.

As with all innovations, though, there is always a question of cost for providing such new technologies, especially when states are providing less per-pupil funding.

A study released last week by the Education Center of Excellence at the Parthenon Group (commissioned by the conservative education think tank, the Fordham Institute) suggested that the costs of digital learning could be significantly less than more traditional modes. The authors cautioned that its findings must be interpreted with some caveats: costs vary across digital education platforms and different entities pursue online learning for different reasons (cost-savings versus enhanced offerings, for example).

For the rest of the article, go to Can States and School Districts Cut Costs Through Digital Learning?

Virtual education boom hits the states

admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:18:10 +0000

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.”

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual education boom hits the states

States Eye Standards for Virtual Educators

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:32:42 +0000

In Idaho, the state is moving toward a mandate that online teachers have additional training to teach in a solely virtual environment. Most online teachers in Georgia must pass a professional-development course in virtual instruction. And many virtual schools in other parts of the country require that their cyber educators complete professional development aimed specifically at teaching in an online environment.

Yet many states and education groups still have not addressed the issue of teacher quality for the online classroom. And dissenters say added requirements for cyber educators could exacerbate existing teacher shortages, and even be detrimental to teacher quality.

For the rest of the article, go to States Eye Standards for Virtual Educators

Focus on Education

admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:56:16 +0000

Academic—Our goal is continuous improvement. We have made improvements each year in each academic area that is tested. We cannot be content with the status quo on the ISAT. I believe our reading scores will improve this year, and frankly, I am a bit surprised because they are currently so high. I believe math and language usage results will also climb. We will continue our push to raise standards and expectations because we want our students to be competitive in whatever arena they choose.

Economic—We anticipated the drop in revenue for 2010-2011 and have already started planning for 2011-2012. We are in a position that we can absorb a 5 percent legislative holdback should it occur. However, as noted above this also means that passing our supplemental levy is imperative. Working in the state of Idaho is a particular challenge around funding.

Competition—The competition for students continues as the Sandpoint Charter School and virtual schools continue to grow. However, I believe we can be more aggressive in our marketing. This part of our work has improved this year. However, I also will be asking the Board of Trustees to reconsider the transportation component of our support. We are one of only two public school districts transporting students to a charter in our state. I believe this needs to change.

For the rest of the article, go to Focus on Education