District Administration - March 2007 - (Page 44)
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EDUCATION is no virtual school, a regional or school-based virtual school
could either develop a locally funded virtual school or try to obtain
legislative funding from its state. Rules vary from state to state, says
Liz Pape, CEO of the Virtual High School in Massachusetts. Course licenses
range from $15,000 per semester for a district to $50,000 for a statewide
license, which would be paid by the regional or schoolba sed virtual
school. This is an improvement over the Wild West that Greg Morse,
chairman of AMDG Inc., fi rst encountered a decade ago. Morse recalls
that when early adopters didn’t have online courses to use, they
launched Web sites that were essentially trading repositories that allowed
administrators to take a course. Then they’d have to submit two of their
own. The systems had no real oversight and featured a variety of writing
methods, so styles could change in the middle of a lesson. Several
companies now provide clear, concise lessons aligned to state standards
and district curricula, depending on the state and district. “There was
a rush just to put some stuff online, and it was welli ntended but
wasn’t getting the job done,” Morse says. “Today it’s much more
sophisticated.” Certainly that’s the world Tom Scullen, superintendent
of the Appleton Area School District in Appleton, Wis., discovered when he
ventured into virtual schools. Thanks to the curriculum quantities for
sale now, administrators can run a high school program with very little
preparation. “We’ve found CONNECTIONS ACADEMY HELP A Minneapolis
mother helps her daughter with a lesson. that private companies are better
prepared than we are to write curriculum,” he says. Districts starting
from scratch would need to budget hundreds of hours to fi nd, for
example, digital library resources online, and then check for broken links
when sites go out of business or move their Web addresses. Indeed, the
initial development of a course is just the tip of the iceberg, Young
says. “All the big publishers that sell curriculum to districts have
armies of people working to keep their digital library sources
constant,” Morse says. Which Curriculum to Use W hen choosing
curriculum, follow these guidelines: • Be sure the curriculum is
accredited by a respected body, such as the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools SACS , the Commission on International and
Trans-Regional Accreditation CITA , or the Global Accreditation Center GAC
. • Be sure the curriculum meets state standards, or at least comes darn
close. “I don’t know any [curriculum] that is 100 percent perfect,”
as state guidelines can be extremely detailed, Morse warns. On the other
hand, states demonstrate at least an 80 percent alignment in a given
content area, so most courses need minute tweaking to meet standards,
Patrick adds. • Follow the 11 guidelines in Southern Regional Education
Board’s Standards for Quality Online Courses booklet published in
November 2006. SREB collects, compiles and analyzes comparable data for
key education issues. The guidelines include such advice as having the
course include a complete overview and syllabus, and having it organized
into units and lessons using multiple strategies and activities to assess
student readiness for its content. • Provide a dedicated team of
professionals to supervise continuity among courses. “They have to know
how to create interactivity and discussion, because they can’t see who
is squirming in their seat, who has their head down, who has their hand
up.” — Gabe Pascarella, assistant director of coordinated studies,
Chesterfield County Public Schools, Richmond, Va. 44 March 2007 District
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - March 2007
Contents
Editor's Letter
Update
Inside the Law
Curriculum Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Friday Night Fever
Creating an Effective Virtual School Program
Hunting for Talent
Multimedia Man
Do These Web Sites Work?
Finding Funds for Student Laptops
Curriculum Crassifieds
Gearing Up for Science Assessments
New Products
Computer Literature
Speaking Out
Principal Opinion
The Online Edge
Calendar of Events
Problem/Solution
Research Corner
District Administration - March 2007
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