Cyber schools established outside of brick and mortar establishments have seen growth in recent years, prompting the efforts put forth by Spring-Ford Area School District, Phoenixville Area School District, Boyertown Area School District and Pottstown School District.

In his presentation on Boyertown’s cyber school initiative, Superintendent Dion Betts outlined two motivations for the program: to recoup some of the money lost when students go to other programs outside the district and to provide a better cyber program than what the current cyber school programs provide.

For the rest of the article, go to School districts think outside the classroom to compete with charters

Commonwealth Connections Academy is a leading virtual public charter school that serves students in grades K-12 from across Pennsylvania. Commonwealth Connections Academy was the sole virtual school to qualify and participate in this year’s National Competition, and is also the only virtual school to place within the top three nationally in the four-year history of the Real World Design Challenge.

An annual and nationally recognized program, the Real World Design Competition is sponsored by a public-private partnership (including partners such as Cessna Aircraft and NASA Langley Research Center) with the goal of increasing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and providing students access to real world engineering experiences. This year, 45 total states, independent states, and territories participated in the Challenge, while 30 total teams moved on or participated in the National Competition.

For the rest of the article, go to Commonwealth Connections Academy Team Becomes First Cyber School Finalist at National Engineering Challenge

The board voted unanimously to hire Allan Berkhimer as the new principal of the Saltsburg Middle/High School and to appoint Holly M. Hall to a vacant Region III board seat.

Berkhimer will receive a starting salary of $77,500 through the 2012-13 school year, prorated to the number of days worked. His first day at the Saltsburg school will be determined by his release date at the Shade-Central City School District in Cairnbrook, where he has been employed as a junior/senior high school principal for the last five years.

He previously served as a social studies teacher at the senior high and junior high levels in the Hollidaysburg Area School District. He also completed three years of active duty with the U.S. Army, serving stateside as a specialist in an air defense artillery unit.

Berkhimer will succeed Tom Trunzo, a former Saltsburg teacher and coach and Marion Center High School principal who returned from retirement on an interim basis after Saltsburg’s previous principal, Eric Kostic, left for another position.

School board President Ed Smith said Berkhimer “stood out among three excellent candidates.”

Berkhimer said he was attracted to the opening at Blairsville-Saltsburg because of the district’s “very contemporary and progressive approach to education.”

He referred to the district’s recent successful launch of its own virtual academy, to compete with cyber charter schools that have been attracting some students away from traditional public schools. The district also has approved an agreement with Apple that will provide an iPad 2 tablet device for each student in grades 9-12.

For the rest of the article, go to Blairsville-Saltsburg hires principal, appoints director

On March 9, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, the Frontier school laid off its entire teaching staff. For the past month, the PDN reports, classes have been suspended and Frontier’s 85 students have been hanging around at home, unsure of what the future holds.

News of the faculty implosion at Frontier comes within hours of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly jobs report — a document that seems encouraging until you look past the headline.

The unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent in March, according to the report issued Friday — a continuation of the very gradual decline it’s been on since September. But analysts believe that number is dwindling because more and more job seekers aregetting frustrated and abandoning their search, thereby falling out of the ranks of the officially “unemployed.”

And many of the new jobs added in March were low-paying positions in the food services industry – not the kind of work that will drive a broader economic recovery.

For the rest of the article, go to Frontier Virtual Charter High School Fires Entire Teaching Staff

Saucon is one of a number of Lehigh Valley schools trying to stem the flow of money out of the district to charter schools and to entice students back with the promise of a district diploma.

Superintendent Sandra Fellin is proposing a multifaceted program that in addition to creating a cyber high school would allow students to make up credits for courses they’ve failed, attend summer school online and bring in new electives.

Fellin presented her plan to the school board Tuesday after months of research and it was well received.

For the rest of the article, go to Saucon Valley School District exploring online classes

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,”

For the rest of the article, go to Cedar Valley Voices: Online education lacks human component

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.

For the rest of the article, go to PA House Considers Funding Changes For Charter Schools

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.

For the rest of the article, go to Tight budgets make cyber charter schools easy targets

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.”

For the rest of the article, go to Phoenixville Area School District shuffles administrators

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