Salisbury Township School District is considering starting its own online school in an effort to win back students who left to attend cyber charter schools and to offer more courses to students who attend its brick-and-mortar schools.

The online school, tentatively called VAST, or Virtual Academy Salisbury Township, would be operated in conjunction with the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit’s proposed Virtual Learning Program, which hopes to enlist other member school districts.

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Pennsylvania boasts a robust charter school system that includes cyber charter schools; the Education Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC, which provides an average scholarship of $1,000 to low-income families who want their children to attend private schools; and rules that allow parents to teach their students at home.

The key is to improve education options, said Ken Kilpatrick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, which represents charter schools in the state.

“It’s families making a choice about what school will give my child the best educational future,” Kilpatrick said. “Competition is forcing districts to think about how they can improve.”

For the rest of the article, go to Educational choice in Pa. expands, but vouchers remain out of reach

The Centennial School District spends about a half million dollars each year to send local youth to cyber charter schools, according to the state, and the district could save a significant portion of that by having its own online program.

That was the message Monday night from the the director of Bridges Virtual Education Services, who made a presentation to the school board’s education committee.

“There are over a dozen cyber schools in the commonwealth today, and more and more students … across the United States are selecting online learning. … There is a growing trend across the United States,” said Chris Harrington, the former director of technology and head of cyber education for Quakertown schools.

For the rest of the article, go to Centennial Committee Hears Advantages of Online Courses

Davare agreed that vouchers are similar to payments made by a school district for a student attending a charter school.

“There is no distinction,” he said. “The voucher is a total state subsidy except for the transportation costs. We don’t oppose cyber charter schools. What we do oppose is the funding. It should be based on what it costs to operate the school.”

The presence of children in the household mildly changed the opinions of the adult respondents to the survey. Adults with public school children opposed the proposal by 60 percent; adults with children in private schools opposed the proposal by 64 percent and adults with no children in the home opposed it by 67 percent.

For the rest of the article, go to Poll: Majority of Pa. residents oppose school vouchers

The group of superintendents, curriculum directors, and teachers learned how NNDS develops its courses, how a student is assessed, and how an online course is taught.

To demonstrate, the seminar was held at one of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School’s offices in Midland, Pennsylvania. The largest cyber-charter school in Pennsylvania, PA Cyber is a leader in online learning and a client of NNDS. During lunch, attendees had the chance to meet with PA Cyber teachers and observe a virtual class.

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Instead of hopping on a school bus this September, an estimated 27,000 students across Pennsylvania flipped open their laptops and entered the virtual classroom of one Pennsylvania’s 11 cyber charter schools or one of a growing number of public school districts offering their own virtual academies. In southeastern Pennsylvania alone, at least 16 public school districts began offering a cyber option this September.

“There is a growing movement in school districts across Pennsylvania to come up with alternatives to cyber charter schools,” said Dr. Alan Slobojan of the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU). “School district virtual academies fill the gap between brick and mortar public schools and cyber charter schools by providing online classes to attract students back to their local school districts (from cyber charter schools).”

For the rest of the article, go to More Students Are Using the Information Highway as Their Route to School