“Our goal is to help schools and districts to improve student achievement. The Plato Virtual Academy is an important step forward in doing that,” said Jamie Candee, Plato Learning vice president of product and marketing. “We are here to partner–not compete–with educators to meet the needs of 21st century learners.”

For the rest of the article, go to Plato Launches Virtual Academy

Now Petersburg offer engineering, architecture, art history, and veterinary science, among other classes. Sue Hardin, the school’s English and Spanish teacher, says that she facilitates advanced placement classes for student in some Northeastern schools, as well as that Oklahoma, Washington State, Switzerland, Venezuela and even China.

For the rest of the article, go to With virtual platform, Alaska high school reverses decline

“With this event, Anchorage residents are continuing an important discussion about the benefits of educational freedom for children and families,” said Andrew Campanella, vice president of public affairs for National School Choice Week. “To ensure that every child receives an effective, quality education, discussions like these are important for every community across our country, and we are very happy that Anchorage residents are using National School Choice Week to discuss the importance of educational options in Alaska.”

For the rest of the article, go to News: Anchorage, Alaska Hosts National School Choice Week Event

But, it needs to grow up. And fast. As online learning approaches the knee of the exponential curve, we can’t ignore it as just a small tangential sandbox. With 200,000 full-time virtual students nationwide and growing, it is core to the system now and we need to treat it that way.

In a new brief my partners Gene Glass and Kevin Welner, of the National Education Policy Center, articulate many of the current problems in the P-12 online learning space. There are serious, documented quality concerns and in some cases a near total lack of traditional accountability and oversight. The Washington Post this morning provided a good summary. The abuses are appalling and could cause a national backlash against the use of online learning in the P-12 learning system.

For the rest of the article, go to Time for Virtual Schooling to Grow-Up

The editors of the fifth edition of Technology Counts 2002: E-Defining Education, praised the growth in online classrooms, but warned that the quality of such programs must be monitored.

“E-learning is poking holes in the walls of the traditional American classroom and giving students unprecedented access to challenging course and academic material,” says Virginia B. Edwards, the editor and publisher of Education Week. “But there are still problems and unanswered questions about this way of teaching and learning. And one of the chief concerns is ensuring the quality of online courses.”

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Schools, E-Learning, Sweep The States

Blended learning, where students take both online and live classes, and online learning have dramatically increased in the past few years as more and more schools provide online classes for credit recovery, summer school and to offer subjects where there is no available on-site teacher. The Los Angeles Times reported that LA Unified school district has gone from just 300 students using online credit recovery last year to over 2,500 this year. According to Clayton Christensen, author of Disrupting Class, “In the year 2000, roughly 45,000 K-12 students took an online course. In 2009, more than 3 million K-12 students did.”

For the rest of the article, go to VirtualEDU.org Offers Online High School & Middle School Classes for Under $50 a Month

As technology changes and evolves, the world of education and teaching will undoubtedly change. Teachers across the country must stay ahead of the curve.

Although some teachers and the unions see school choice as foreboding for the public school outlook, school choice encompasses empowerment for the parent to choose an environment that employs teachers in all arenas. A new era has been ushered in for education. Once limited to rigid traditional school terms and schedules, teachers are employed in traditional public schools, charters, private schools, religious schools, and online schools just to name a few. Educators will in turn have choices themselves when deciding when, where and how to teach kids.

For the rest of the article, go to School Choice Offers Opportunity for the Teaching Profession

The racket in the big bay of the UAS Sitka campus is a construction class. They’re building a kayak shelter for neighboring Mt. Edgecumbe High School. The actual construction in this building is all but over. The spaces campus director Jeff Johnston is showing me will be occupied in November.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual education spurs UAS Sitka building boom

Mr. Packard added, “I am also excited about our partnership with Middlebury College, Middlebury Interactive Languages. The first online language courses from this venture, beginner French and Spanish for high school students, will be available in pilot programs this Fall. In addition, we are making progress with the integration of our acquisition of KC Distance Learning and we look forward to serving more states, schools, school districts and students with their online curriculum.”

For the rest of the article, go to K12 Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Results

“Our elders have told us that we need to document their knowledge. But not just that, we need to find ways of imparting their knowledge through the schools,” said Jana Harcharek, director of Inupiaq education with the district.

To help do that, the district brought up consultant Jay McTighe, who specializes in the field of curriculum mapping and alignment and co-authored several books on the topic.

For the rest of the article, go to North Slope educators plan Inupiaq curriculum