Course Choice

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
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.

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.

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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
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.

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

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Coronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoiceSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

COVID-19 sparks virtual school growth in Florida, elsewhere

redefinED staff
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.

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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
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.”

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Commentary and OpinionCourse ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedPodcastSchool Choice

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

redefinED staff
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.

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

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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
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.

 

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Commentary and OpinionCourse ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedHomeschoolingMicroschoolsParental ChoiceSchool Choice

The 1960s leftist rationale for education choice is rising from the dead

Doug Tuthill
Doug Tuthill

As I talk with parents and educators who are struggling to create safe and effective learning options for their students, I’m taken with how many are revisiting the left-wing education reformers of the 1960s. Names like John Holt, Ivan Illich, A.S. Neill, and Paulo Freire are coming up so often that it feels like I’m back in graduate school.

It appears the 1960s leftist rationale for education choice is making a comeback.

A student columnist at my high school newspaper in 1971 introduced me to the radical ideas of educator John Holt.  Holt inspired me to make improving public education my life’s work.

After working as an elementary and middle school teacher in the 1950s, Holt concluded that schools undermined children’s natural desires to learn, so he began promoting a form of homeschooling he called unschooling. Holt described the relationship between unschooling and student learning in his two most famous books, “How Children Fail” (1964), and “How Children Learn” (1967).

Unschooling aims to tap into children’s natural curiosity and desire to learn through authentic life experiences. Holt saw schools as artificial environments that undermine children’s natural desires to learn through exploration and play. Some of the current surge in homeschooling and micro-schools reflects Holt’s idea that learning should occur in more natural environments.

A recent New York Times column on educating children during this pandemic referred to the recent growing popularity of Ivan Illich’s concept of deschooling. Like Holt, Illich also felt that schools were artificial environments that stifled children’s innate desires to explore and learn. As the Times columnist observed:

“Deschooling’s core principles — that education should be self-directed rather than compulsory, that human growth and curiosity cannot be quantified and that children learn best in natural environments and mixed-age groups — have gained some recognition in recent years. But the idea of truly communitarian, noncompulsory, family-centered approaches to education were largely limited to the radical fringe of pedagogy. A lot has changed in six months.”

A.S. Neill’s 1960 book, “Summerhill,” is enjoying renewed popularity with families creating learning pods, micro-schools, and homeschool cooperatives. Consistent with Holt and Illich, Neill believed education should be centered on each child’s innate internal motivation to explore and learn. He created the Summerhill School in England to implement his beliefs that schooling should be less coercive and more democratic and child centered. Neill believe that schooling should be customized to fit the child instead of molding the child to fit the school.

Many education reformers today were directly or indirectly influenced by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. His 1968 book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” was, and continues to be, must reading for anyone wanting to understand the politics of government-mandated education. While Holt, Illich, and Neill wrote about how the coercive and stressful nature of schooling negatively impacts students, Freire built on this analysis to explain how governments often use schools as instruments of social control and political oppression.

Freire promoted a liberation or critical pedagogy that empowers students and families to take control of their education and use it to attain greater political and economic freedom. While most parents exercising education choice today have not read Freire’s work, their motivations for asserting greater control over their child’s education increasingly reflect Freire’s ideas on the dangers of centralized, command and control public education systems.

Like many education choice advocates, I support the more democratic, child-centered approach to education that Holt, Illich, Neill, Freire, and others were promoting in the 1960s. But scaling up an education system capable of meeting the unique needs of each child is a daunting task, which is why most schools today still employ a one-size-fits-all, assembly line approach to teaching and learning.

This horrific pandemic has given families and micro-communities a unique opportunity to assume more control over how their children are educated. We need to give these families and their communities the support they need to be successful. Perhaps the hopes of the 1960s idealists will be realized and a more natural, child-centered way of educating our children will soon become the new norm.

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Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceStudent VoicesTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

Student commentary: I graduated from a virtual school that provides a blueprint for online learning

Special to redefinED
Special to redefinED

Maya Washburn found a refuge at Florida Virtual School, where she was able to satisfy her hunger for knowledge and curiosity and explore new ideas.

Editor’s note: This post from Florida Virtual School graduate Maya Washburn first published on Project Forever Free, a platform of brightbeam. You can read a redefinED story about Washburn here.

The COVID-19 pandemic that forced scores of public and private school students out of their classrooms and into online learning has had predictably uneven results given that so many were in uncharted territory. I was fortunate: For the last four years I have been a full-time online high school student studying at Florida Virtual School (FLVS), from which I graduated in May.

Educators around the nation looking for ways to improve their online learning would be wise to consider learning from FLVS.

Florida Virtual School sounds like a new concept, but it was founded in 1997 as the country’s first statewide K-12 virtual public school. FLVS, which is based in Orlando, operates as its own school district.

Over its two decades, FLVS students have successfully completed nearly 5 million semester courses, and not just in the Sunshine State – it has served students in all 50 states as well as more than 100 countries and territories around the world. Today, FLVS offers more than 190 courses, from core subjects to electives, and is available to full- and part-time students from public, private, charter and homeschool backgrounds.

FLVS’s funding is determined by successful course completions rather than time spent in a seat. That gives students, teachers and parents the flexibility to customize instruction to each student’s needs. Its graduates perform as well as or better than other students in Florida and the nation in most Advanced Placement course exams.

Count me as one of its many success stories.

Maya Washburn graduated from Florida Virtual School in May.

I enrolled in FLVS as a ninth-grade student trying to rebuild my education. In elementary and middle school, I sat quietly in brick-and-mortar classrooms with so much to say, yet I remained silent for fear of being ridiculed by classmates, and sometimes even teachers. I chose FLVS eager to begin a new, improved educational journey where I could thrive on independent, personalized study. My best work in elementary and middle school was when I was free to complete assignments on my own. It was the work done in class, surrounded by the distracting chatter of classmates and the sharp ring of the school bell, that held me back. 

FLVS became my refuge. Each day, I satisfied my hunger for knowledge and curiosity to explore new ideas, all while being cheered on by my ever-supportive teachers and administrators. I discovered new facets of myself, and my passions. 

I was independent, but not isolated. I had frequent one-on-one meetings with my teachers, who guided me academically and personally. For example, after seeing that I was placed in an Honors Pre-Calculus course my senior year, I initially shied away. I was excited to expand my mathematics expertise, but foggy memories of past math struggles in middle school led me to believe that I didn’t truly belong in the honors course.

After sharing my concerns with my instructor, she encouraged me to look through the course material, tackle some practice problems, view lesson recordings from the past school year, and treat the first week as a sort of “trial week” before I fully committed. I was comforted that my teacher believed I was more than capable of handling the course even before it began. If I had signed up for it in a traditional classroom setting, I don’t believe I would’ve received the personal attention that boosted my confidence and helped me succeed. In this case, I might have even ended up dropping the course.

Having teachers believe in me even before I believed in myself has made a world of difference.

Although learning from home, I still enjoyed many of the same extracurricular activities as the typical high school student does. I participated in six of the more than 50 clubs FLVS offers: Student Council, Mega News Network (which I helped found), National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, Virge Literary and Arts Magazine, and Glee Club. These clubs regularly meet both online and face to face, which has helped cultivate a hands-on connection with my peers.

Nothing speaks to the value of FLVS’s flexibility more than my extended travels in Europe with my mother. During the six weeks in the fall of my junior year spent exploring and learning in Norway, Sweden, England, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia, I never missed a beat of leading Student Council meetings, completing my coursework, and reporting for the Mega News Network, all while reviewing it with my homeroom teacher. My classrooms became trains, ferries, coffee shops, restaurants, hotel rooms, and even campsites. All I needed to maintain my studies were my laptop and a reliable WiFi connection. 

When geography and time do not hinder tests and club meetings, the opportunities for education are virtually limitless. FLVS shows how robust remote learning can be, and how it can be tailored to meet the individual needs of students without sacrificing teacher support and a social life.  

Educators have the summer to ponder how to re-open schools amid COVID-19 concerns. Many proposals include models that combine brick-and-mortar attendance with remote instruction.

Meanwhile, a recent USA Today poll found that 6 in 10 parents say they would be likely to pursue at-home learning options instead of sending their children back to their brick-and-mortar school this fall.

Nearly a third say they are “very likely” to do that.  They will need more than hastily assembled lessons streamed on Zoom.

While FLVS has benefited me, I understand that virtual school may not be the perfect fit for everyone. I had a friend who started FLVS with me our freshman year, but she soon returned to a brick-and-mortar classroom because she discovered she learned best in that environment. Education involves finding
what works best for your learning style and applying that to your everyday life.

For students whose full-time needs aren’t being met by traditional methods, or who need a part-time supplement to their traditional school, FLVS offers a blueprint on how remote learning can succeed.

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