In many ways, it’s a tribute to the resilience and determination of the educational establishment that it’s taken this long for a school district to even consider offering completely online classes:
Fairfax County schools could become the first in the Washington region to create a virtual public high school that would allow students to take all their classes from a computer at home.
No sports teams. No pep rallies. No lockers, no hall passes. Instead, assignments delivered on-screen and after-school clubs that meet online.
It’s a reimagination of the American high school experience. And it’s a nod to the power of the school choice movement, which has given rise to the widespread expectation that parents should have a menu of options to customize their children’s education.
Of course, it might not just be simple willingness to allow more choice on the part of the school district … there might be other pressures being applied:
Dozens of younger students have left Fairfax schools for the public Virginia Virtual Academy, the first statewide full-time virtual program. Open to any Virginia student in kindergarten through eighth grade, it is run by a Herndon firm — K12 Inc., the nation’s largest operator of public virtual schools — and enrolls nearly 500 students.
First in Virginia, perhaps. Not the first ever.
My 17-year old son attended a virtual school up to grade 9. Grades 10-11 were at the public school, he’ll do his senior year back at the virtual school.
My 20-year old daughter did grades 11-12 in virtual school.
The school is run by a school district in Freedonia, open to enrollment from kids across the state.
Comment by Brian Dunbar — April 16, 2012 @ 00:13