School districts find advantages to operating their own online instructional programs

Virtual schools may be one way school districts can level the playing field for their students.

Several dozen districts around the country are attempting to do just that. These districts are harnessing the Internet as simply another way to meet the changing needs of their own students, as well as students from other districts. Virtual schools and online courses for precollegiate students are popping up in the smallest and the largest of places.

While some school districts choose to purchase courses generated by outside companies or lease content from existing online schools, a few districts are building their online programs from the ground up, writing their own courses and training their own teachers to create a program all their own (See related story, page 28)--from a pilot project with just three science courses to a well-heeled program that offers a total of 94 courses, with 600 students enrolled in an average of three courses each.

Exactly how many public schools and school districts are creating and operating online programs is unknown, according to Von Pittman, director of the Center for Distance and Independent Study at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who says the rather substantial startup and ongoing expenses may be a limiting factor.

"It is my impression that many of them have underestimated the cost of setting up an infrastructure, including student services," he says. "And I do not think that most school districts understand that maintenance of an online program is very expensive."

Still, Pittman says, school districts will find advantages to developing their own curricular materials for their students' online courses rather than relying on statewide agencies or proprietary companies.

"Teachers licensed in the appropriate states, developing materials congruent with those used in the classrooms of their districts, will do a better job," Pittman says. "Their work will not be as slick as that of some of the proprietary outfits, but it will have more integrity, in terms of their, the school district's, mission. Proprietary outfits must work on a one-size-fits-all basis. They can make their products attractive to local school districts only by keeping the cost down. That means mass production.

"My advice would be that school districts take a very hard look at the options. And perhaps they would be well served to engage disinterested consultants who know the ins and outs of online course development," he says.

"But however they proceed, everyone involved should understand that distance education is not cheap. Online education has some advantages, but economy is not one of them. Done well, it is quite expensive."

The School Administrator looked at the efforts of five school districts to develop their own program of online course offerings, allowing them to share just how and why they did it as well as the successes they are experiencing.

For those districts, leveling the playing field in education is no longer an unattainable dream but a reality.

Basehor-Linwood Virtual

The Basehor-Linwood Virtual Charter School in Basehor, Kan., started in 1997 as a way for the growing number of families with home-schooled children to connect with an accredited curriculum, certified support staff, textbooks, resource materials and a computer.

The virtual school functions as a charter school within the Basehor-Linwood School District. Today it serves about 375 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and offers 49 courses.

The 30 teachers who run the virtual classes must attend a two-week summer training workshop before they can teach an online course. These staff teach full time at traditional schools during the day and communicate via e-mail and phone with their virtual audience after regular school hours. They hold office hours in a chat room where students can ask about assignments or discuss topics with classmates.

The teachers receive $4,000 per online course in supplemental pay.

While 90 percent of the students are home-schoolers, the virtual school has expanded its reach and now enrolls students from traditional schools throughout Kansas and beyond who want to advance their studies, who were expelled from their local schools or who are pregnant or experiencing health problems that make attendance difficult.

The Virtual Charter School rents district-owned textbooks to students for a one-time charge of $40 and provides each family with a computer for a $20 rental fee for use while the child is enrolled in the program. Students outside the state pay $150 per course per semester.

The school last year received $3,700 per student from the state and operated on a $1.38 million budget.

VCS offers core courses, including algebra, biology, U.S. and world history and even physical education, "Students learn about activities, sports, rules, regulations and are tested on them," Brenda DeGroot, the virtual school's director, says. "They have to log the time they spend in actual activities. They may go to a gym, lift weights, do aerobics or sky diving, snow skiing, swimming, horseback riding, etc. It is wide open for P.E."

The Virtual Charter School also offers elective courses such as art, child care, computer keyboarding, business and independent living.

DeGroot says when the district first looked at the possibility of providing online instruction, administrators decided that Basehor-Linwood educators should write their own courses rather than tap into the offerings of other groups.

DeGroot, formerly an assistant principal and athletic director at Basehor-Linwood High School, says involving local teachers in course development ensured better buy-in and aligned the curriculum with the state's academic standards. "If you buy a packaged program, you have to go in and tweak it," she says. "There's a lot of work aligning it with what you are doing."

Basehor-Linwood Superintendent Cal Cormack says having his teachers develop the online courses from the ground up significantly benefits the Virtual Charter School.

"Our staff has great insight into the need for and the process of alignment as a result of their ongoing work with the VCS," he says. "Had I been given the option three years ago to purchase a curriculum that met our needs, I would have. However, I didn't have that option and I think the necessity of developing it ourselves has had a very positive impact on the district. We are fortunate the option (of purchasing content) was not available to us."

Clintondale Virtual

Clintondale Virtual High School, located in a small school district northeast of Detroit, was originally intended to be an adult education program.

But school officials decided to develop a comprehensive virtual high school so students who needed to make up credits or wanted a stiffer academic challenge could have the opportunity to learn in a different way. So after three years of planning, the school got its start in January, says Lynn Michaelson, program director.

All 20 courses now offered by the virtual school are the same as those at the traditional high schools in the 3,332-student Clintondale Community Schools in Macomb County, Mich. The school serves students in grades 9 to 12 but plans to gradually add grade levels down to the 3rd grade. Course offerings will be expanded slightly.

Twenty-five students enrolled in the school's inaugural semester last spring. Michaelson says she doesn't know how many were home-schooled. Clintondale students must complete their online coursework within 18 weeks, and courses are open to any students in or out of the district.

The virtual school's chat rooms include a "white board," which allows the teacher to demonstrate concepts (such as solutions to mathematics problems). Teachers can use PowerPoint presentations or pull up a Web site for the class to view. This is done in real time and viewed by all the students simultaneously. The chat area also allows a teacher to have pre-assigned groups of students interact live for projects, panels or discussions. Discussion boards, similar to Internet forums, feature ongoing dialogue threads that allow students to exchange information and opinions.

Clintondale teachers write all course syllabi, Michaelson says.

"We haven't ruled out purchasing content from vendors but we wanted to meet all the benchmarks for the state," Michaelson says. "Course development is very time consuming and at the point when we started there was no content our there. We may have to resort to that when we start going into electives, when we start expanding our course choices. ... At this stage of the game we would love to develop our own.