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Pennsville Memorial High School preparing to launch new Virtual High School program

March 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

After two years of planning, Pennsville Memorial High School staff is now preparing students for the new Virtual High School program expected to start in the fall.

According to Pennsville Memorial High School Principal Matt McFarland, students are currently registering for online courses as part of the VHS program.

“The idea behind the move is to increase our course offerings to Pennsville Memorial High School students,” McFarland said.

VHS was founded in 1996 in Maynard, Mass., as a project for kids in school, according to VHS spokeswoman Carol Arnold.

“It became successful and spun into a non-profit organization,” Arnold said.

Pennsville Memorial High School will join with 676 other member schools throughout the
U.S. and 43 other countries using this program.

“We’re very excited about getting the first year up and running, and know that our students will greatly benefit from possibilities afforded to them through these new course offerings,” McFarland said.

According to Arnold, more than 15,000 students are enrolled per semester, studying a choice of more than 200 elective classes.
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University of Pittsburgh Honors PA Cyber Founder Dr. Nick Trombetta

March 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A committee led by Dr. Trombetta searched for some way to ensure an educational future for these students. Acting upon a clause about technology in the state’s newly enacted 1997 charter school law, and funded with a $25,000 state grant, Dr. Trombetta persuaded his school board to sponsor a K-12 charter school that would allow students to go to school from home by utilizing the Internet and new computer technology.

Expecting 50 students from the region, PA Cyber Charter School drew more than 500 from across the state when it opened in 2000. Enrollment doubled the next year and has climbed every year to a current enrollment of 11,000. The success of PA Cyber re-drew the educational map in Pennsylvania, making school choice an option for every family in the state.

PA Cyber has made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) under the No Child Left Behind Act for three consecutive years. In 2011 PA Cyber earned full accreditation from the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, the nation’s most prestigious accrediting organization.

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Cedar Valley Voices: Online education lacks human component

March 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Iowa legislature is currently debating the role of online schools. A number of questions have been raised and must be answered if we are to proceed down this road.

The first concern is to follow the money. The funding that would go to a local school district and then percolate through the local economy now would go to an out-of-state corporation.

There is also the question of quality. The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow with 10,000 students in Ohio had test scores ranking above just 14 of the 609 school districts in the state. In 2010, barely half its third graders scored proficient or better on state reading tests, compared with the state average of 80 percent.

The Center for Research and Education Outcome looked at results in Pennsylvania, specifically the arguments about individually tailored lesson plans which are provided to teachers who typically have classes of 50-100 students. Susan Ohanian, an educational consultant, created three online student identities and took all the first- and second-grade social studies courses as a research project. When she reported that “Johnny wasn’t getting it,” the answer from K-12 (another on-line company) was “repeat the lesson until you get it right,”

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PA House Considers Funding Changes For Charter Schools

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

State House lawmakers are wrestling with possible changes to laws that govern Pennsylvania’s charter and virtual charter schools.

In the process, they’re hearing from the Auditor General’s office, which reports that the rapid growth of such schools in the state is making things harder for poor school districts.

Deputy Auditor General Thomas Marks told the House Education Committee Tuesday the problem stems from how charter schools are funded, based on the cost of educating a student in his or her home school district, and not the cost of education at the charter.

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Virtual schools face increased attention of politicians, researchers

March 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Recent studies suggesting declining achievement among full-time public virtual school students don’t always distinguish between publicly and privately run schools. Still, the private sector and its two biggest for-profit providers—K12 Inc. and Connections Education—appear to be taking most of the heat.

Some have begun to ask whether those companies have exaggerated student achievement to drive investment. One stockholder even filed a lawsuit in late January against Herndon, Va.-based K12 alleging that the company violated securities law with statements it made about its students’ performance on standardized tests.

Researchers, meanwhile, have warned that virtual public schools run by independent for-profit and nonprofit organizations are growing faster than states can hope to regulate them. They also say that, while virtual schools’ struggles to meet some performance measures may stem from the enrollment of many students who have problems in brick-and-mortar schools and take the virtual alternative as a last resort, those students failing to complete their studies is equally troubling under funding models in which money follows a one-time count of student enrollment from early in the academic year.

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STREAM Academy – Free Cyber Charter School Opens to Students

March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The first of its kind in southwestern PA, and possibly the state, STREAM Academy is innovative, combining the best of traditional cyber charter school courses with innovative and dynamic “On-Location” learning opportunities with business and industry experts at some of region’s top companies. Students will have their choice of six focus areas, called tributaries, which will prepare them for careers in the 21st century global economy.

By stressing projected-based learning, students will have the chance to explore real world problems and learn the critical thinking skills necessary to become tomorrow’s innovators.  Through career-related experiences, students will be prepared to excel in the workforce and contribute to a strong, competitive economy.

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Tight budgets make cyber charter schools easy targets

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In recent months, conversations surrounding the funding of Pennsylvania’s 12 cyber charter schools have reached a fever pitch, not only in Harrisburg, but across the commonwealth.

Though this type of charter school represents the only true public school choice for all 1.87 million K-12 students in Pennsylvania, cyber charter schools have undeservedly drawn heavy criticism and found themselves on the funding chopping block.

While these schools have different needs, cyber charter schools incur similar expenditures as do traditional brick-and-mortar schools and deserve equal funding.

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Santorum’s children went to a cyber charter school

February 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has said some pretty provocative things about public education on the campaign trail recently, declaring that it is not the job of government to educate children but rather the responsibility of parents.

That didn’t stop him from enrolling his children for a time in a Pennsylvania cyber charter school and insisting that taxpayers there pay for it, even though his children lived primarily in another state.

Earlier this month, Santorum told the Ohio Christian Alliance that if he becomes president, he would homeschool his children in the White House. He has homeschooled in the past.

“Most presidents homeschooled their children in the White House. … Parents educated their children because it was their responsibility,” he said.

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Phoenixville Area School District shuffles administrators

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In the past, Garritano worked as an assistant principal at Phoenixville Area High School.

Troy Czukoski, the middle school’s current principal, was named the district’s new Director of Virtual Learning and Student Assessment.

Fegley also made sure to emphasize that theadministrative re-shuffling in the district does not eliminate any positions but will hopefully “strengthen both existing and new programs by providing strong educational leadership in all areas.”

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More foreign language courses to be offered online

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Expanded foreign languages for Chambersburg Area School District students are among changes set for the second year of the Franklin Virtual Academy.

Foreign languages will be offered through the Blended Schools Network Language Institute. Courses will feature 2.5 hours per week of live interactive instruction in addition to 2.5 hours of non-live instruction.

Course offerings will include Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi and French, which are all courses not offered at Chambersburg Area Senior High School. Students can take Spanish, German and Latin by attending daily classes at CASHS.

For the rest of the article, go to More foreign language courses to be offered online

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