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Money motivates school districts to feed desire for online curriculum

June 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Public schools across Pennsylvania are learning a valuable lesson from privately owned cyberschools: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Since the first cyberschools became chartered by the state nearly a decade ago, more than two dozen public school districts have established online curriculum to compete.

“Our mantra is: our students, our teachers, our curriculum,” said Jeff Taylor, director of curriculum and assessment for the North Hills School District, which has 21 full-time and about 50 part-time cyberstudents.

“Online education is here. You can’t just stick your head in the sand. Clearly, there are students who have the need for that type of delivery, and it certainly behooves us to meet our students’ needs.”

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New programs, policies welcome students as classes begin

September 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This fall, the district will open its own cyber-charter school, the Ephrata Virtual Academy.

Previously, Ephrata paid tuition to cyberschools outside the district for students choosing to take online courses.

The tuition savings are expected to exceed start-up costs for the new program, district officials said.

Ephrata also is revising its alternative education program at Washington Educational Center.

Because of a change in status on the state level, the school now must provide 990 hours of instruction per year to each student.

Previously, students could learn at a much slower pace.

To comply with the instructional time requirement, WEC students will attend classes at the school and complete online courses outside of school.

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Cost of cyber charter schools going up as popularity increases

August 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One-third of Tuscarora’s cyber students currently attend Pa. Cyber School, one of the largest in the state with an enrollment of around 9,000. Pa. Cyber School also has 42 students enrolled from Chambersburg Area, 14 from Shippensburg Area, 10 from Greencastle-Antrim and eight from Waynesboro Area.

Statewide, about 27,000 students are enrolled in 11 cyber schools, which Fred Miller, communications coordinator for Pa. Cyber School, said is about 1 to 2 percent of the entire student population of Pennsylvania.

Miller said that families who choose to enroll their students in a cyber charter school usually fall into one of three categories. Some families that come from smaller school districts with less course elective offerings will sometimes choose a cyber school because they offer a broader range of classes to take.

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