Pennsylvania Online High Schools
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EAST CALN — To save money, the Downingtown Area School District wants to launch its own cyber school.
District Superintendent Lawrence Mussoline announced his plan for a cyber school Wednesday at the district’s curriculum committee meeting. The committee and full school board will likely make a decision on how to proceed next month after obtaining more information on how many students may be interested.
For the rest of the article, go to Downingtown Area planning to launch its own cyber school.
Since he was elected in 2002, O’Neill has focused on improving public education, reforming the school funding formula, preserving open space, advancing opportunities for individuals with disabilities and protecting the welfare of domestic animals, his website said.
In this term the representative said he would focus on establishing a virtual school that would level the playing field for students across the state. A virtual school, O’Neill said, would allow students to receive the same educational opportunities via the computer. The Internet would allow students to participate in programs that are not offered at their school or for which there is no teacher available to teach it.
For the rest of the article, go to Bernie O’Neill to continue service in Bucks County’s 29th District
WAYNE, Pa., June 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Thursday, Agora Cyber Charter School, a public cyber charter school, held its fourth graduation ceremony honoring 242 seniors who successfully completed the online high school course requirements and received their diplomas.
Graduation took place at 7pm Thursday evening at the West Shore Evangelical Church and Conference Center in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Approximately 150 of the graduating seniors from around the state attended donning cap and gown.
K12 Inc. Founder and CEO Ron Packard delivered this year’s keynote address to the largest class of students Agora has graduated thus far. K12, the nation’s largest provider of online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school, provides its high quality curriculum and school services to the Agora Cyber Charter School.
The valedictorian speech was presented by Darian Kiger, who will attend York College to major in professional writing with a minor in music. Ms. Kiger was awarded the presidential award scholarship and the dean academic scholarship from York College as well as the shining star scholarship from Agora Cyber Charter School.
“My online studies through Agora enabled me to learn at a pace that was just right,” said class Valedictorian Darian Kiger. ”The internet is the future of schooling. My classmates and I are proud to be pioneers of such an outstanding and innovative educational program.”
For the rest of the article, go to Agora Cyber Charter School Graduates Largest Senior Class.
The Commonwealth Connections Academy (CCA)-Lehighton held its commencement at Penn’s Peak, Jim Thorpe last night. Thirty-one students entered to the music of “Pomp and Circumstance.” Each wore a black gown with a cap and tassel. They looked just like any other graduating class. But CCA graduates have one distinction-many had never even met their teachers in person. That’s because CCA, accredited by the Middle States Association, is free public cyber school, an online school that serves students in grades K-12 with state-certified teachers and full-time licensed school counselors.
Greg Gettle, CCA high school principal welcomed the graduates and their family and friends to the second graduating class from Lehighton. He said that CCA is growing rapidly. Last year there were 104 graduates from four locations throughout Pennsylvania-Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Butler and Lehighton. This year there are 230 graduates. There are 33 from the Lehighton area.
“People wonder what happens to our students after graduation. Just like any other school, we have many 2010 students who have earned scholarships and many are going on to further their educations, some are entering the armed forces and others plan to enter the work field. I think it speaks well of the class of 2010.”
He shared with everyone the good news that starting with the Juniors of 2010, they will be entitled to a $1,000 scholarship, Sophomores of 2010 will receive a $2,000 scholarship and Freshmen of 2010 will receive a $3,000 scholarship upon graduation.
He told the parents of the graduating class of 2010 that they were as much a part of graduation as the graduates and promised them that while they may not be appreciated by their sons and daughters today, they will in years to come.
“The iPad may prove to be a useful tool to put in the hands of cyber school students,” said Dr. Nick Trombetta, CEO and founder of the 9,000-student Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.
Dr. Trombetta attended the Apple Education Leadership Summit 2010 in Dallas, Texas, April 21-23.
“We attended the summit to begin a conversation with Apple about educational uses for the iPad,” said Dr. Trombetta. PA Cyber administrators have begun to experiment with the iPad and to look at apps – customized applications – that could put educational resources literally at a student’s fingertips. No iPads have yet been placed with students.
PA Cyber is uniquely positioned to experiment with the iPad because the school’s size, flexibility, experience and culture allows it to adapt more quickly than traditional schools to new educational methods and advances in technology, said Dr. Trombetta.
Dr. Trombetta said PA Cyber, like Apple, is a leader and innovator. The first statewide K-12 public cyber charter school in Pennsylvania, PA Cyber in its 10 years of existence has pioneered online educational methods, systems and the use of new technology. For instance, the school has converted nearly 100 percent to customized consumable textbooks that students keep, saving staff time and shipping expense while encouraging textbook content to be continually updated.
Downloadable digital versions of textbooks for more than 150 PA Cyber online courses – about two-thirds of the school’s course catalog – already have been created, though at this time PA Cyber has chosen to continue providing printed textbooks, according to Dr. Trombetta. Downloadable to a student laptop computer or mobile devices such as the iPad, digital versions of both custom and standard textbooks are available through arrangements such as per-student license agreements with publishers.
“The iPad already contains a lot of the technology we use now to deliver instruction, along with other innovative features which could help students to learn,” said Dr. Trombetta. He said PA Cyber staff will meet soon with Apple representatives to continue the school’s look at the iPad.
This week’s focus school is Penn Foster High School. It seemed a reasonable choice to choose the school that had the longest history of serving students in the United States. Take a read!
Best Online High Schools link: Penn Foster High School
Address: 925 Oak Street, Scranton Pennsylvania 18515
Accredited: Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools
Snippet from listing: Earning your high school diploma at home with Penn Foster is convenient, affordable, and accredited. Since there is no set class schedule, you study when and where it’s convenient for you. You work at your own pace. There’s no one to rush you or hold you back. And while you’ll work independently, you’re never alone. Expert instructors and support staff – dedicated to helping you complete your coursework – are just a phone call or an e-mail away.
Something to consider: Penn Foster has been around for over a hundred years (since 1890). You don’t last that long without having a sense of what you are doing and what it takes for students to achieve. The school accepts both teens and adults and, importantly for many of you, the program is self-paced.
Penn Foster High School
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