You are here: Home / Archives for BestOnlineHighSchools.com

‘Virtual’ high school part of CHS curriculum

April 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CARLSBAD — A statewide online high school is in the works for students interested in getting out of the traditional classroom. A project of the Farmington Municipal Schools, the N.M. Virtual Academy is set to begin offering classes next year.

But there’s no need for Carlsbad High School students to sign up, officials said, because the district already offers a virtual high school.

Kelly Barta, Carlsbad Municipal Schools director of secondary instruction, said the school district implemented its virtual high school as a pilot program this year and opened it to a handful of students. The 2012-13 school year will allow more students to participate.

Unlike Carlsbad’s virtual school, the N.M. Virtual Academy will offer individualized programs to students in grades six through 11 next year. The school will expand to offer 12th grade the following year.

“Our virtual education program allows our students to walk across the stage with the graduating class to receive their diploma. They will continue to be Carlsbad High School students,” Barta said.

“Farmington is using the K-12 online program. Our virtual program is the E20-20, an online curriculum that coincides and goes along with our classroom teachers’ instruction. We did not fully implement the virtual high school this year because we wanted to try it out and see how it goes.”

Barta said the pilot program was implemented by the school district to keep students

in school and increase the district’s graduation rate.
“We want to become a 21st century school system to educate and support our 21st century students,” Barta said.

For the rest of the article, go to  ’Virtual’ high school part of CHS curriculum

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: , ,

School of Dreams teaches students more than the basics

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The School of Dreams Academy is giving students and parents choices.

That’s what SODA’s Principal Michael Ogas stresses most about Valencia County’s only state authorized charter school in Los Lunas.

The school, which is home to 15 teachers, 280 students and six computer labs, utilizes a cutting-edge software, or “courseware” program, called Education2020, which provides students with a virtual classroom setting on their computers that teaches them their core classes at their own pace.

The courseware creates a one-on-one experience for students, and since work is completed at a student’s own pace, a student is able to advance to the next grade level if they are able, as well as work on their assignments at home.

And of course, in addition to E2020, each class has a teacher to instruct and help students in person. The courseware is not only aligned to state standards, but national standards as well, meaning SODA students are being educated at a national academic level.

For the rest of the article, go to School of Dreams teaches students more than the basics

 

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page, News, Online High Schools Tagged With:

Their View: Fixing our schools and the money to do it

July 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Paul Gessing finds it hard to believe that “parents and the public are apathetic about improving educational results”. He believes it’s more likely that the government monopoly “stifle[s] choice, lead[s] to a feeling of helplessness and lack of empowerment among parents and their children, and lead[s] to a belief that the best we can do is the status quo.”

Throw in school choice, rigor, competition, technology (online schooling) and an admirable reminder that we focus on the needs of the children and the battle is joined. This would be a good time for you to consult the Sun-News (or pay 50 cents for access to my files) and read both columns before comes the definitive word.

You’re a pretty sharp bunch. You have to decipher the lot of us assailing you from the pages of the Sun-News, but there are still a few of you to whom I feel an obligation to clarify things regarding education. That would be those afflicted by Bill O’Reilly and his ilk, who translate a brief, personal experience in the classroom into a much broader expertise.

For the rest of the article, go to Their View: Fixing our schools and the money to do it

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page Tagged With:

Cash-strapped states consider virtual classes, despite lack of research

January 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“The research is in a very nascent condition right now and it’s well behind what’s getting implemented,” said Means, who is the policy director of SRI International, a non-profit research center. “Things are getting implemented because they seem reasonable to people and in some cases because there’s a kind of a cost saving goal or an access goal for kids.”

Idaho, for example, has offered virtual classes for years because that instructional approach gives kids in its many rural communities greater access to courses. Still, the state has never made such courses mandatory, prior to the present proposal. Only Tennessee, Michigan, and Alabama require students to either take an online course or have an “online experience” in a class to graduate. In New Mexico, students must either take an honors, dual-credit or distance-learning class. That’s still a far cry from requiring kids to take 20 percent of their courses online, which is what is being proposed in Idaho.

For the rest of the article, go to Cash-strapped states consider virtual classes, despite lack of research

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: ,

School Choice Offers Opportunity for the Teaching Profession

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page, Online High Schools Tagged With: , , , ,

Best Online High Schools gets new design

December 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Best Online High Schools has now been updated with a new design and new features. This new version will continue to provide you with the best information available on the Internet about online high schools.

Come take a look!

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page

Their View: Correcting misperceptions of limited government

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

K-12 education is indeed something that government does. It consumes approximately 50 percent of the state budget. The problem is in the results. Barely 50 percent of New Mexico students graduate and many who do graduate need remedial work prior to college (thus driving up expenses in the higher ed system). The Rio Grande Foundation has led the way in proposing a variety of K-12 reforms based on the robust Florida Model which has proven successful in that state. Reform ideas include an emphasis on early reading; school choice, virtual learning, elimination of social promotion, and direct financial incentives for teachers’ whose students excel.

But, there is no reason why government has to actually run the schools. Government could simply provide a regulatory framework for the schools and allow them to be managed privately to serve diverse student needs. Unfortunately, government, for too long has locked us into a costly, one-size-fits-all educational model that was created more than 100 years ago.

For the rest of the article, go to Their View: Correcting misperceptions of limited government

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Online High Schools Tagged With:

State initiative trying to reach high school dropouts

November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Benoit said Graduate New Mexico is funded only through next year. After that, Benoit said, district employees will do their best to make sure enrolled students finish their diploma.

However, he doesn’t know if the program will accept new students. He plans to keep e2020 around and use it to provide remedial and online or dual-credit courses to traditional students.

Portales High School Principal Melvin Nusser said the school staff was working on Graduate New Mexico’s goals even without the initiative.

For the rest of the article, go to State initiative trying to reach high school dropouts

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Online High Schools Tagged With:

Denish, Martinez debate will highlight education challenges in NM

September 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Annual efficiency studies for New Mexico’s 89 local school districts also would help state officials discern “where taxpayer dollars are working and where they aren’t,” Martinez has said.

In the one area involving education that has generated noticeable friction between the candidates Martinez also has said she supports giving students and their families the opportunity of ‘school choice.’ Martinez has defined that as giving families the opportunity to choose whether to attend their neighborhood public school or a charter school, vocational school, or a virtual classroom.

The Denish campaign had another word for Martinez’s position — vouchers, a controversial idea in educational circles.

For the rest of the article, go to Denish, Martinez debate will highlight education challenges in NM

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Online High Schools Tagged With:

New Mexico has new online high schools site

January 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Welcome to yet another state-specific website for online high schools. Brought to you by Best Online High Schools, this gives you information on all that is going on in your state with online high schools.

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, News Tagged With: , ,