DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. (AP) — This fall, 27,000 Pennsylvania students are attending virtual classrooms through state cyber schools.

“There is a growing movement in school districts across Pennsylvania to come up with alternatives to cyber charter schools,” said Alan Slobojan, director of Career, Technical and Customized Education for the Chester County Intermediate Unit. “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.”

Pennsylvania’s 11 cyber charter schools and public school districts that offer their own virtual academies, and in the southeastern area of the state, at least 13 public school districts will begin offering a full-time cyber option to residents of their districts this September.

Alan Slobojan oversees the intermediate unit’s Brandywine Virtual Academy, which was started in 2006 as an alternative to full-time cyber charter schooling, giving individual students the opportunity to take one or two courses online for credit recovery or summer school flexibility.

According to Slobojan, over the past five years, the academy has evolved into an alternative to cyber schools, combining virtual education with school district services, such as an official school district diploma, individualized access to district teachers and guidance counselors, and participation in co-curricular and extracurricular activities. This has come to be known as blended learning, with students able to take classes at the middle or high school along with online classes.

“There is ample evidence that blended learning is growing nationally, not only for economic reasons but also because of the benefits for students as they move forward in life to college or a career,” said Slobojan. “We recognize that online learning is the key to lifelong learning.”

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