redefinED
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
  • Content
    • Analysis
    • Commentary and Opinion
    • News
    • Spotlights
    • Voices for Education Choice
    • factcheckED
  • Topics
    • Achievement Gap
    • Charter Schools
    • Customization
    • Education Equity
    • Education Politics
    • Education Research
    • Education Savings Accounts
    • Education Spending
    • Faith-based Education
    • Florida Schools Roundup
    • Homeschooling
    • Microschools
    • Parent Empowerment
    • Private Schools
    • Special Education
    • Testing and Accountability
    • Virtual Education
    • Vouchers
  • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Guest Bloggers
    • Ashley Berner
    • Jonathan Butcher
    • Jack Coons
    • Dan Lips
    • Chris Stewart
    • Patrick J. Wolf
  • Education Facts
    • Research and Reports
    • Gardiner Scholarship Basic Program Facts
    • Hope Scholarship Program Facts
    • Reading Scholarship Program Facts
    • FES Basic Facts
  • Search
redefinED
 
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
  • Content
    • Analysis
    • Commentary and Opinion
    • News
    • Spotlights
    • Voices for Education Choice
    • factcheckED
  • Topics
    • Achievement Gap
    • Charter Schools
    • Customization
    • Education Equity
    • Education Politics
    • Education Research
    • Education Savings Accounts
    • Education Spending
    • Faith-based Education
    • Florida Schools Roundup
    • Homeschooling
    • Microschools
    • Parent Empowerment
    • Private Schools
    • Special Education
    • Testing and Accountability
    • Virtual Education
    • Vouchers
  • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Guest Bloggers
    • Ashley Berner
    • Jonathan Butcher
    • Jack Coons
    • Dan Lips
    • Chris Stewart
    • Patrick J. Wolf
  • Education Facts
    • Research and Reports
    • Gardiner Scholarship Basic Program Facts
    • Hope Scholarship Program Facts
    • Reading Scholarship Program Facts
    • FES Basic Facts
  • Search

Course Choice

AnalysisCourse ChoiceCustomizationDemographic ResearchEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

New government report shows ongoing increase in Florida families participating in education choice

Patrick R. Gibbons February 19, 2021
Patrick R. Gibbons

A research arm of the Florida Legislature on Wednesday presented to the state’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Education a detailed 132-page report showing how Florida families are participating in education choice programs.

The report from the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) expands upon the one-page summary produced for the past 12 years by Step Up For Students, the state-approved nonprofit funding organization that helps administer five scholarships for Florida schoolchildren.

OPPAGA reviewed 21 school choice programs, providing detailed descriptions of each program including the number and percentage of students participating. The report provides a county-by-county breakdown of students enrolled in choice programs throughout the state and provides demographic data for most of the choice programs.

According to OPPAGA, 86% of students attend public schools, 11% attend private schools, and 3% are educated at home. Of those public school students, 12% are enrolled in public charter schools.

Overall, 46% of all Florida K-12 students participated in a school choice option. Of the students exercising choice, 69% exercised a public school choice option.

Florida’s public schools, including choice schools, enroll nearly 2.8 million students. Public schools have “grown incrementally” according to the authors, increasing by about 62,000, or 2.2%, over the last five years. Of public school students, 63% are nonwhite; 55% are eligible for free or reduced-price meals; 14% are students with disabilities; and 10% are English language learners.

Charter schools grew 22%, with enrollment growing by more than 58,000 students over the last five years. Of charter school students, 70% are nonwhite; 43% are eligible for free or reduced-price meals; 10% are students with disabilities; and 10% are English language learners.

Home education grew the fastest of the three education sectors, increasing by 27% over the last five years by adding nearly 23,000 students.

Meanwhile, private school enrollment increased by about 52,000 students, or nearly 18% over the last five years. Private schools overall are 50% nonwhite.

Fifty-six percent of students who participate in the Family Empowerment Scholarship program for low-income and working-class families are nonwhite. Forty-seven percent of special needs students who participate in the Gardiner Scholarship program and 55% who participate in the McKay Scholarship program are nonwhite.

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, which serves low-income students, is Florida’s largest private K-12 scholarship program. That scholarship enrolled 113,120 students, up 41% over the last five years. About 73% of these scholarship students are nonwhite.

The public-school program enrolling the highest percentage of minorities is Jeb Bush’s Opportunity Scholarship program, with 74% of students being nonwhite. The Opportunity Scholarship allows students in the lowest performing public schools to enroll in higher performing public schools. Prior to being struck down by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006, that program provided scholarships for students to attend private schools as well. At the time, 86% of the students were nonwhite.

The program with the fewest minorities is Florida Virtual School, with 42% of its students being nonwhite. FLVS is also one of the few choice programs that have been shrinking, with enrollment declining by 9% over the last five years.

Among the other interesting findings, OPPA noted that:

·       Charter schools are the most popular alternative public school enrolling 323,385 students

·       Specialized public school programs were the second most popular option with 208,644 students enrolled in magnet schools; 185,699 students enrolled in career and professional academies; and 178,162 students enrolled in admission selective programs for gifted children.

·       Accelerated programs such as Advanced Placement, Dual Enrollment, Advanced International Certificate Education and International Baccalaureate have grown to a combined 366,101 students, up 22% from 300,224 students just five years ago.

·       Miami-Dade County Public Schools has three times as many students attending magnet schools as the next highest county, Orange.

February 19, 2021 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedHomeschoolingMicroschoolsParental ChoiceSchool Choice

redefinED’s best of 2020: You better start swimmin’ for the times they are a-changin’

Matthew Ladner December 24, 2020
Matthew Ladner

Editor’s note: During the holiday season, redefinED is reprising the “best of the best” from our 2020 archives. This post originally published July 20.

Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you

Is worth savin’

Then you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’

 — Bob Dylan

We at redefinED and others have been writing for years about the rise of the micro-school movement. Five years ago, an article in Wired magazine, titled The Techies Who Are Hacking Education by Homeschooling Their Kids, discussed the rise of homeschooling in Silicon Valley, quoting Jens Peter de Pedro, an app designer from Brooklyn:

“There is a way of thinking within the tech and startup community where you look at the world and go, ‘Is the way we do things now really the best way to do it?’ If you look at schools with this mentality, really the only possible conclusion is ‘Heck, I could do this better myself out of my garage!’”

Matt Kramer, CEO of the Wildflower Foundation, which supports a network of micro-schools, told Education Next in 2017:

“We’ve seen a 30-year decline in teacher satisfaction to an epically low level. Micro-schools offer a creative new way of thinking about teachers acting like social entrepreneurs.”

You didn’t need to be a soothsayer to see this was going to get much bigger.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if, 5 to 10 years from now, everyone looks at this and thinks, ‘That grew a whole lot faster than I thought it could,’” observed Andy Calkins, deputy director of the Next Generation Learning Challenges, in the same article. “There is a slice of the market that is not being served by public education. They’re saying, ‘The public schools don’t work, [and] I can’t get into the charter schools.’”

Simply visiting a few of these schools is enough to convince you that they would grow. They’re fun, but their approach to the education equity issue is just as obvious.

Step Up For Students’ director for policy and public affairs Ron Matus gave us multiple examples of how Florida micro-schools are leveraging scholarship programs to allow disadvantaged students to access teacher-led micro-schools (see here and here). These education innovators have created a path for the micro-school movement to proceed in an inclusive and diverse fashion.

And then the pandemic struck, slamming the pedal to the metal.

The Washington Post reported last week in an article titled, For parents who can afford it, a solution for fall: Bring the teachers to them:

Fed up with remote education, parents who can pay have a new plan for fall: import teachers to their homes. This goes beyond tutoring. In some cases, families are teaming up to form “pandemic pods,” where clusters of students receive professional instruction for several hours each day. It’s a 2020 version of the one-room schoolhouse, privately funded. Weeks before the new school year will start, the trend is a stark sign of how the pandemic will continue to drive inequity in the nation’s education system. But the parents planning or considering this say it’s an extreme answer to an extreme situation.

And this weekend, education writer JoAnne Jacobs shared a post from a Berkeley, California, mom that read in part:

If you are not a parent/in a mom’s group, you may not be aware that a kind of historic thing is going on right now. This week, there has been a tipping point in Bay Area families looking to form homeschooling pods. Or maybe ‘boiling point’ might be a better term.

Sound niche? It’s actually insanely involved and completely transformational on a lot of levels. Essentially, within the span of the last 48 hrs. or so, thousands of parents (far and away mostly moms because that’s how these things work) are scrambling through an absolute explosion of Facebook groups, matchups, spreadsheets, etc. to scramble to form homeschooling pods.

These are clusters of 3-6 families with similar aged (and sometimes same-school) children co-quarantined with each other, who hire one tutor for in-person support for their kids. Sometimes the tutor in question is full time and sometimes part time/outdoor classes, depending on the age of kids and individual circumstances … Suddenly teachers who are able to co-quarantine with a pod are in incredible demand.

This is maybe the fastest and most intense PURELY GRASSROOTS economic hard pivot I’ve seen, including the rise of the masking industry a few months ago. Startups have nothing compared to thousands of moms on Facebook trying to arrange for their kids’ education in a crisis with zero school district support.

I swear that in a decade they are going to study this because I have never seen an industry crop up and adapt so fast. Trends that would typically take months or years to form are developing on the literal scale of hours.

The writer goes on to acknowledge the equity elephant in the room: Only families with means are going to participate in this trend, absent programs to assist disadvantaged students:

The race and class considerations are COMPLETELY BONKERS. In fact, yesterday everything was about people organizing groups and finding matches; today the social justice discussion is already tearing these groups apart. For one thing, we’re looking at a breathtakingly fast acceleration toward a circumstance where educational access and stratification is many times more polarized even than it already is.

Distance learning is hell on all children. Suddenly high-income families are going to all supplement it with quarantine pods and private tutoring, and low-income families will be stuck with no assistance for 8 yos who are supposed to be on zoom for 5 hrs. a day. This is on top of already not having a way to work with children stuck at home, and being more exposed with “essential” jobs.

For another, the most obvious solution to this, i.e. individual family clusters scholarshipping disadvantaged kids into their pods, doesn’t even work at scale because there is a high correlation between kids who can’t afford tutors and kids in families where strict distancing rules just aren’t an option. None of us have any idea where this is going to go. All possible actual solutions require government-level intervention beyond what school districts can do, and that’s clearly not going to happen. I don’t even have a kid the right age, but I’m volunteering in some places around this and the situation is just … a really major story.

A major story indeed.

What can be done? Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt included scholarships in the use of federal emergency aid. More governors should follow suit. Moreover, states need to allow K-12 funding to follow children now more than ever.

In the meantime, you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone. The age of K-12 self-reliance is here. Forced by harsh circumstances, it has arrived while our ability to include equity remains tragically limited.

December 24, 2020 0 comment
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedParental ChoicePodcastPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

revisitED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill follows up with Florida Virtual School president and CEO Louis Algaze

redefinED staff October 7, 2020
redefinED staff

On this episode, Tuthill catches up with the educational leader who became FLVS’ president and CEO in July 2019. Since the two last spoke in May, Florida’s fully accredited online public school district has seen an increase of 3,700 students and now fulfills more than 200,000 part-time flexible course requests statewide and beyond.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/FLVSUpdate_EDIT.mp3

Tuthill and Algaze discuss what has worked thus far for FLVS as well as improvement opportunities that will allow the school to continue providing virtual instruction for the great number of families who want it. Algaze also reflects on his surprise at the last-minute jump in the number of families interested in virtual classes even after school districts reopened with in-person instruction.

“It is all about choice. Wherever parents want to put their kids is what we are trying to help accommodate.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       How FLVS’ rapid expansion in the wake of COVID-19 is progressing so far

·       What FLVS staff members are hearing from families about online learning experiences

·       How FLVS’ competency-based model is being incorporated into the more rigid district education model and what that could mean for the future

·       How FLVS is focusing on developing instructional materials for school districts so they can fluidly serve students moving back and forth from virtual to in-person learning

LINK MENTIONED:

Florida Virtual School Online Learning and Training Community

To hear Tuthill’s earlier podcast with Algaze, click here.

October 7, 2020 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionCourse ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedFundingParental ChoicePodcastSchool Choice

podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews East Carolina University’s Kevin Currie-Knight: (Part 2)

redefinED staff September 16, 2020
redefinED staff

In the second of a two-part discussion, Tuthill talks with a teaching assistant professor and leading thinker on “unschooling,” or self-directed learning. Tuthill and Currie-Knight discuss the public education marketplace and the dichotomy between choice opponents’ growing concern about monopolies from companies such as Google and Amazon while ignoring the lack of innovation that occurs in public education, a monopoly of its own capturing 90% of America’s students.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Kevin-Currie-KnightPT2-EDIT.mp3

Currie-Knight notes that the largest disparities among groups occur in the legal and education systems. Yet for all the attention progressives pay to revolutionizing the legal system, he points out, they appear unwilling to acknowledge the need for revolution within the country’s education system.

“We’ve waited long enough for government to prove to us they can desegregate schools … if we give (families) the option of disconnecting their school from their ZIP code, there’s every reason to think we’ll get more integration in schools.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       The history of public-school funding and how funding has created a marketplace where the supplier controls most of the consumer spending

·       How efficient markets drive innovation and why public education is not an efficient market

·       The pernicious myth leveled by choice opponents that choice is intended as a vehicle for segregation, ignoring the rich history of choice support from the left

·       The conflict of interest of government-funded schools teaching children about the government

LINKS MENTIONED

Living by Learning Podcast

September 16, 2020 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Coronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoiceSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

COVID-19 sparks virtual school growth in Florida, elsewhere

redefinED staff September 10, 2020
redefinED staff

Online learning providers nationwide are enjoying unprecedented enrollment increases as families seek more education choice for their children amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a story published today in Education Week.

Virtual school providers cite a variety of reasons for the success they experienced even before COVID-19: comprehensive learning management systems, experienced teachers, and an emphasis on live teaching.

An additional reason for their success at this particular time, according to EdWeek, is longevity. The article points to Florida Virtual School, the nation’s first statewide online public school, as an example. Founded in 1997, FLVS’ enrollment is up 54% year over year for its individual online course offerings and 64% for full-time programs.

The creative vision of founding president Julie Young and her team, who grew FLVS from an Internet high school with 77 enrollments, has grown into a diversified, worldwide organization serving more than 2 million students in 50 states and more than 100 countries worldwide. Today, FLVS offers more than 190 courses, from core subjects such as English and algebra to electives such as guitar and photography. Available to both full- and part-time students, FLVS welcomes students from public, private, charter and homeschool backgrounds.

Like other virtual providers, FLVS ramped up to meet expected demand, hiring 320 new instructors and upgrading its servers over the summer. The expansion was made possible following Florida Board of Education approval in April of FLVS’ request to spend $4.3 million to boost capacity.

You can read the full Education Week story here.

September 10, 2020 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Catholic SchoolsCoronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceEducation ChoiceFaith-based EducationFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipNewsParental ChoicePrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceTechnology and Innovation

Catholic virtual school offers options to families seeking online faith-based education

Lisa Buie September 10, 2020
Lisa Buie

Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Virtual School curriculum includes core subjects including reading language arts and math, religion and theology, Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses as well as electives.

When Susana Moro was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia nearly four years ago, a faith-based virtual school in South Florida allowed her daughter to stay home with her mom while keeping up with her schoolwork.

“She felt very comfortable and loved the classes,” said Moro, who underwent a successful bone marrow transplant and is now healthy. Her daughter, who had been a sophomore at Immaculata-LaSalle High School, did so well at Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Virtual School that she opted to stay and graduate, Moro said.

Since then, Moro’s younger daughter enrolled in the Catholic virtual school as an eighth grader to take a high-school level Spanish class.

And now, during the coronavirus pandemic, the school is helping families in Florida and beyond who want an online Catholic education for their children, although school leaders stress their goal is to complement in-person Catholic schools rather than compete with them.

“We expect most of these students to return to their brick and mortar schools,” principal Rebeca Bautista said. 

Founded in 2013 when it served only a handful of students, the Catholic virtual school was created to support traditional Catholic schools by allowing high school students to take courses that were not available on campus, get remedial instruction and bank extra credits, as well as serve those whose participation in sports or other activities required frequent travel.

Earlier this year, the school added kindergarten through fifth grade, bringing its enrollment this year to about 800. Most students attend part time.

“Our mission is to ensure that Catholic education is not only on the cutting edge but setting the pace and establishing new educational models to inspire students to maximize their God-given gifts resulting in transformation,” Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, wrote in an announcement letter to families when the school opened. The letter stressed it was important that “all Catholic schools keep pace with the demands of the 21sth century.”

The Catholic virtual school is fully accredited by the global non-profit accreditation organization Cognia and uses only teachers who are certified to work in Catholic schools. Powered by Florida Virtual School, the state’s 23-year-old online public school, it has infused Florida Virtual School content with Catholic faith and values perspectives, such as prayers before classes and references to God and church teachings. The virtual platform also includes theology courses that school leaders developed from scratch.

“We have ability to edit the content and enrich it,” said Marcey Ayers, director of special programs in the Office of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Miami. “They know that it’s a Catholic course they are taking.”

Like other virtual schools across the country, Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Virtual School has received more attention as families flocked to online education after COVID-19 forced campus shutdowns. Over the summer, the school got 10 to 12 calls a day from families seeking options. As the pandemic continued into August, the Catholic virtual school stepped up for traditional Catholic schools.

It offered them the use of their courses, taught by fully certified Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Virtual School teachers, as an online option for students not ready to return in person. It also offered its online curriculum to traditional schools’ faculty so they could deliver customized online lessons.

“Being able to offer this virtual school was really a blessing to us,” said Todd Orlando, principal of Bishop Kenny Catholic High School in Jacksonville. The school pivoted to distance learning in the spring, but when it became apparent the pandemic would continue into the new school year, leaders decided it would be more efficient to let a virtual school handle the virtual option than to require its faculty to teach both formats simultaneously.

“We are a brick-and-mortar school. We are not a virtual school,” Orlando said. “These people know what they’re doing.”

He added that school leaders also were attracted to the fact that Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Virtual School courses reflect the church’s teachings.

“We wanted a Catholic option for our families,” he said. “We realized their curriculum mirrored ours in each and every way. It’s been a positive and smooth transition for us.”

Of the 1,264 students enrolled this year at Bishop Kenny, 44 chose the virtual option.

Families with students who receive state scholarships including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship can take classes through the Catholic virtual school during the pandemic as long as they are enrolled in a brick-and-mortar Catholic school, thanks to the waiving of a state rule that had required scholarship recipients to be taught primarily in person.

(Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog, is the state’s largest administrator of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students.)

“It’s been an odd year,” Bautista said, explaining that most of the inquires she received over the summer came from families who had children with underlying health conditions or who lived with elderly relatives. Other calls came from international families planning to move to the United States but whose visas got delayed due to the pandemic. Other families wanted the chance to watch how campus re-openings went before committing to sending their children back.

“Some families made it very clear their intention was to only enroll for the first semester,” Bautista said. “They are hoping by January or the end of the first quarter they can go back to campus. Some said they might do a whole year and have a virtual year.”

That’s fine with her. The virtual school operates on a semester system, has a pool of part-time certified teachers, and is used to being nimble. They also see their primary purpose as supporting traditional Catholic schools.

“If a school calls and says, ‘This is an issue that we have, can you help us,’ 99.9 percent of the time, we say, ‘Yes, we can,’” Bautista said. “We don’t have a minimum enrollment. If one student from one school needs Algebra I, we can offer it.”

 Virtual school leaders want to ensure continued growth by raising awareness and offering new programs, such as recently launched theology classes for adults. COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for Catholic schools to extend their reach, especially as people become more comfortable learning online, Bautista said.

“We’re expanding our marketing for the school to reach everyone,” said Ayers, the special program director for the archdiocese. “We are going to meet the needs of all students – not just gifted or special needs students, but all students.”

September 10, 2020 0 comment
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Commentary and OpinionCourse ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedPodcastSchool Choice

podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews ‘unschooling’ expert Kevin Currie-Knight: Part 1

redefinED staff September 9, 2020
redefinED staff

In the first of a two-part discussion, Tuthill speaks with a premier thought leader on self-directed learning, also known as ‘unschooling.’ Currie-Knight, a teaching assistant professor at East Carolina University’s College of Education, supports education based on intrinsic motivation, or learning based on a child’s interests, which differs from more traditional education based on extrinsic motivation centering on grades and transcripts.

https://www.redefinedonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Kevin-Currie-KnightP1_EDIT.mp3

Tuthill and Currie-Knight discuss Currie-Knight’s work with Pathfinder Community School, a learning environment in which children self-direct their instruction. They also discuss how unschooling often is dismissed as a privilege of the rich, an irony considering the critique most often is leveled by opponents of education choice.

“If you give kids freedom over their learning, expect them to be doing things all the time. At some point they’re going to learn things … People will be surprised at how tenaciously kids learn when they have a reason to.” 

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       Self-directed learning and how kids figure out what they need to know

·       What self-directed learning looks like on a day-to-day basis

·       Changing two century-old perceptions on how children learn

·       How COVID-19 has shifted education perceptions

·       Criticisms of unschooling and their origin

LINKS MENTIONED:

Living by Learning Podcast

Self-Directed Education and the Changing Shape of Knowledge

Agile Learning Centers

September 9, 2020 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
Coronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFamily Empowerment ScholarshipFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipGardiner ScholarshipNewsSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

Florida Virtual School to offer online course content, platform use to private schools

Lisa Buie September 3, 2020
Lisa Buie

Florida Virtual School is partnering with Step Up For Students to provide educational solutions for private schools as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into the 2020-21 school year.

 

Florida private schools seeking online learning options for students who are not ready to return to campus just got a lifeline from one of nation’s leaders in virtual education.

Florida Virtual School, the state’s 23-year-old public online school district, recently announced it would make its roster of 190 courses available for purchase by private schools that participate in state scholarship programs such as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program for lower-income students and Gardiner Scholarship program for students with unique abilities, both of which are administered by Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog. Offerings range from classes for kindergarteners through 12th graders.

“Florida Virtual School is excited to partner with Step Up For Students to provide educational solutions that meet the needs of Florida’s private schools during these challenging times,” said Louis Algaze, president and CEO of Florida Virtual School.

This is not the first time the online school has come to the rescue of Florida’s students. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic that fueled a rush to online learning last spring, the nonprofit K-12 school spent $4.7 million to boost its capacity, allowing it to serve 2.7 million students in district, charter and private schools.

“It is our priority to help all students stay on track with their education and to partner with Florida schools and school districts to quickly support them with additional resources,” Algaze said. “We want to play our part to provide a coordinated, seamless education for all learners, kindergarten through high school.”

The partnership allows private schools to choose between two options. They can buy access to the Florida Virtual School system, pre-loaded with FLVS courses, for their instructors to teach online to their students, or they can buy the use of the platform to use other courses or create their own content that their teachers can use for online classes. (The first option requires a minimum of 25 students.)

School administrators also may choose between two teacher training programs: a self-paced guide or a live group webinar.

Because each school’s own faculty will be teaching the classes, there are no restrictions on the number of courses each student who receives a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship or Family Empowerment Scholarship may take.

Nine schools signed up as of Wednesday, and several others have expressed an interest.

“We want to expose our students to online learning and give them the opportunity to engage in online learning,” said Steve Hicks, vice president of operations for Center Academy, which operates nine campuses in Florida and one in Georgia for students with learning differences.

The school opened its first campus in 1968 with a vision to offer a specialized, full-day program for students who were falling through the cracks at their district schools.

“We could see the advantages, especially for courses we don’t typically offer in a small school,” said Hicks, who also serves as president of the Coalition of McKay Scholarship Schools and treasurer of  the Florida Association of Academic NonPublic Schools.

He said state law requires students who are working toward a standard diploma to take an online class as part of the curriculum.

“Florida Virtual School is our go-to organization for that,” Hicks said, adding that the courses would be especially good for students who want to learn foreign languages other than those taught on campus.

The program also will allow Center Academy to broaden its offering of electives.

“We want to offer things kids are interested in,” Hicks said. “This provides some guided support. It’s a real incentive for private schools.”

The online experience also provides good preparation for Center Academy students who plan to attend college, which often requires more blended learning.

Hicks said that about 60 to 70 percent of students have returned to campus as the numbers of COVID-19 cases decline and distractions of home prove challenging to some students who may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or are on the autism spectrum.

He nevertheless sees a deeper partnership with FLVS as a good way for private schools to stretch their resources and continue to attract students.

Some schools, including his own, are losing teachers to district schools in the wake of a significant increase in the minimum salary Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law for public school teachers this year. The legislation puts Florida in the top five nationally for teacher pay.

 

September 3, 2020 1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS

© 2020 redefinED. All Rights Reserved.


Back To Top