“It will take an effort, since the competition is becoming more and more fierce for grants,” Stroder said.

The superintendent said the decision to update computers follows a recent update to the school’s data infrastructure funded by the $500,000 E-Rate grant the district received last year. The new data lines, coupled with new computers, would allow the district to better utilize the Texas Virtual School Network, that students at Ingram began enrolling in earlier this year.

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“We use iNACOL’s standards to review [online teachers'] professional development and make sure it reinforces a high level of online teaching,” said Barbara B. Smith, the project director of the Texas Virtual School Network, which vets online courses used in the state. “We’re finding many of the state virtual schools are standardizing around them.”

The “National Standards for Quality Online Teaching”Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader from iNACOL were first released in 2008 and were updated this year. They embraced the “Standards for Quality Online Teaching” published by the SREB and also reviewed other online-teaching guides such as the National Education Association’s “Guide to Teaching Online Courses” and the Ohio Department of Education’s “Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession.”

For the rest of the article, go to Ed. Groups Outline E-Teacher Quality Guidelines