11/15/09

The group are on their way to Austin for the Virtual School Symposium for two days, getting ready to connect with other schools and people from all over the world. I'm really excited about the journey of the online courses for our students at Highland Park. I'm glad our teachers decided to go through the training with Debbie and Region 16 to get the full impact of what it takes to be an exemplary teacher for online courses. The conference will give me a hands-on sense of what is expected from administration and our district as we venture out with these online courses. This conference will build strong relationship between this team as we learn the rigor and depth of this Virtual School Network.

11/16/09

7:00-8:00 -I went to a newcomers to Virtual School Network session. Meeting people who were new the online training just like me. There are many people and schools who have some or lots of experiences with virtual online training. I was very impress with the of among states and countries who are attending this coference.

Reflection: In all the sessions I went to today, the success of online courses are center around accountability, budget, administration buy-in, teachers buy-in, students and parent buy-in. If teachers are trained properly and students and parents understand the commitment to online

courses, there is a strong possibility that the program will succeed.

10:30-11:30- the session I attended was Accountability for Online Programs in a Public School System. It was a round table format in which states and schools talked about how and who is held accountable for the success of their online program.  The presenters were from Chartered Schools of Colorada and  Colorada Department of Education.  They talked about their vision for the online courses in Colorada; students proformance before and during their time on an on-line courses; who creates the curriculum; parents involvement; background checks about staff before hiring them for the online course; budget; quality online program; growth scores of students during the online program; local and state mandated assessment and timeline for students in the online courses. Does online courses help with AYP and help student pass state assessment tests?  This session cover these questions as teachers and administration voice their concerns about online courses. 

1:45-2:45-Red and Green lights: Using Data to Support Credit Recovery Students...the presenters were from Michigan.  Michigan Virtual School supports Michigan ISD's  inthe field of credit recovery. Michgan have 537 ISD's and MVS services 560 schools using  online courses. There are some schools who have large number of students using online courses for credit recovery. There success rate is average. Schools who have small number of students in credit recovery seems to have a larger success rate. In 2008-2009-Michigan services over 3,582 students in their virtual school online program for credit recovery.  Over 2,500 students took at least one online course under the Michigan virtual online school. Michigan online school only provided online courses for these ISD's; it was up to individual schools to decide if students got credits for these classes according to their policies, grades and attendance. Michigan ISD's paid for students going to Michigan Virtual School for credit recovery. If students became a discipline problem for MVS, they simply sent them back to their home school. AYP is a problem in Michigan as it is for all states. In 2006, Michigan pass a law that states every students must experience an online course before they graduate from the Michigan ISD's.  In Michigan as of 2011-this will be the first class to graduate with every student having an virtual online course. Students in middle school are also experiencing online course too in Michigan.