You are here: Home / Archives for BestOnlineHighSchools.com

Texas Connections Academy to hold information session

May 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Texas Connections Academy will hold an information session about public schooling for the 2012-13 school year at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 21, at the Cy-Fair College Branch Library.

The information session is geared toward parents who are interesting in learning how virtual public school, offered tuition-free, can meet their children’s educative needs. Interested families will get to meet with children currently enrolled in the school and their parents.

Participants will learn the family’s role in the education process and discuss how to organize their homes to provide effective schooling atmospheres and how to manage time when more than one child is enrolled in the program. The information session will include information on field trips, arranged by TCA’s community coordinators, as well as extracurricular activities.

For the rest of the article, go to Texas Connections Academy to hold information session

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

New Report Urges Online Learning Expansion in Texas

March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Texas Public Policy Foundation would like to see Texas follow Florida’s lead in increasing access to virtual schools.

A report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation suggests that virtual education and blended learning both present the opportunity for cost savings and academic gain in Texas.

“At the K-12 level, the potential of virtual education is enormous,” said the report’s author, James Golsan. “Through the use of technology, students in rural districts would have access to the same educational resources as students in more populated areas. Familiarization with technology could prepare students for the work force more quickly.”

While there is some concern about the ability of existing traditional institutions to convert to blended learning facilities, it’s a popular model for new start ups. Virtual education is already a success story in Florida and the TPPF wants Texas to follow Florida’s lead.

For the rest of the article, go to New Report Urges Online Learning Expansion in Texas

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

Education on the Cheap

March 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In the past few years, school districts and charter schools have increasingly subcontracted out certain operations to either Connections Academy or K12, Inc. In many states, lawmakers embraced the idea, which promised to bring private-sector efficiency to education. Online education also offered an idyllic image: Kids can take classes anywhere, at times that work for them. Students with special needs can have tailor-made classes.

But poor student performance has plagued these programs. The K12 virtual academies in several states show high “churn” rates—students enrolling and then leaving the schools. According to some reports, teachers sometimes teach up to 70 students, which delivers bigger profits but poor test scores. The increased scrutiny has left some lawmakers concerned about the policies around online education and less eager to expand existing programs. That’s a big problem for companies that rely on public dollars for a big portion of their profits.

For the rest of the article, go to Education on the Cheap

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

Virtual High School offers students choice, flexibility

December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Housed within Spring Branch ISD’s Academy of Choice are classrooms without walls, learning spaces where time management skills and analytical skills take on equal importance.

The Virtual High School offers Spring Branch high school students free access to locally developed online courses, and into a statewide network of courses that are available for a fee.

The idea is to provide students the flexibility for “any time, any place” learning, and access to courses that might not fit into a student’s daily schedule, or might not be offered in a particular semester — or at a particular campus.

“It’s all about opportunity and choice,” said Joyce Roberta Miller-Alper, a longtime teacher in Spring Branch ISD and a former Texas teacher of the year.

Courses are designed with the same rigor as traditional courses without the traditional classroom parameters. There is still material to be read, research to be conducted and assignments to be completed and graded.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual High School offers students choice, flexibility

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

Online Educators Gaining Both Classes and Critics

October 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Texas has had a state-operated virtual school network since 2007. Schools have long been able to offer online courses, either with curriculum developed in-house or through private providers. In 2007, the Legislature passed a series of laws that created a framework for sharing courses across districts and put a financing mechanism in place.

Through the Texas Virtual School Network, two dozen school districts, community colleges and universities offer online courses in which students across the state can enroll. To develop the curriculum, the districts can subcontract with private companies, universities or even other districts. (The New York Times Company is a majority owner in Epsilen, an online education company that provides services to the Texas Virtual School Network.)

For the rest of the article, go to Online Educators Gaining Both Classes and Critics

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

Virtual home schooling catches on

September 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Home schooling is seeing some major changes. This new information age is allowing K-12 students to get public education in their own homes, often tuition-free, by ways of “virtual learning.”

Back to school time for the Henry household means new supplies, but the same classroom.

Elizabeth Henry, 12, and Timothy Henry, 10, are students of Connections Academy, a virtual K-12 public school. It’s an emerging option for parents who want kids schooled at home, but not necessarily home schooling.

“It literally exists without the traditional classroom environment, but it has everything that a traditional school would have,” said Barbara Dreyer, Connections Academy president.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual home schooling catches on

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, News Tagged With:

Online public school relieves traditional-school pressures

August 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Going back to school is tough, but it gets a little easier when you don’t have to change out of your pajamas.

Rockwall 15-year-old Brittany Short and her sister, third grader Julianna, go to school without ever leaving the house. They are students in an on-line public school called Texas Connections Academy.

“Instead of going to the neighborhood school for classes, they are in their own home environment or anywhere that the students can connect to the internet,” said Texas Connections Academy teacher Victoria Thiebaud.

For the rest of the article, go to Online public school relieves traditional-school pressures

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

Fort Worth firm agrees to stop running online schools

June 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Operators of the Fort Worth-based Advent Harvest Academy Corp. have agreed to stop running what state officials called a diploma mill.

This month, Mike Martin of Benbrook and Teri Lynn Tout-Dennis of North Richland Hills reached an agreement with the Texas attorney general’s office to stop issuing high school diplomas or equivalency certifications through their online high schools called Sunrise, Longhorn and Bluebonnet. The two did not admit any wrongdoing but must pay $40,000 in fines and court costs, according to the agreement.

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

Hardin High School Summer School

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Summer School courses will be offered through the Texas Virtual School Network, which is a consortium of online courses. The courses are monitored through certified teachers across the state of Texas. The teacher of the online course is fully responsible for assignments, assessments, and grading.

For the rest of the article, go to Hardin High School Summer School

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

Hardin High School Summer School

June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Summer School courses will be offered through the Texas Virtual School Network, which is a consortium of online courses. The courses are monitored through certified teachers across the state of Texas. The teacher of the online course is fully responsible for assignments, assessments, and grading.

Students will be able to access the online course from any computer with internet access and will be required to attend the high school lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. All tests must be completed in the high school lab and proctored by a high school faculty member.

For the rest of the article, go to Hardin High School Summer School

Filed Under: BestOnlineHighSchools.com, Home Page Tagged With:
« Older Posts