Online charter school for grades 7-12! The future is now!

[jpgray]

http://www.blueskyschool.org/about-us/

Hooray for state money--you can enroll free in MN. Am I wrong to be slightly terrified of this given the huge scams University of Phoenix and its ilk have been running with online education, to say nothing of the misallocation of state dollars, the potential for fraud, or the weirdness of middle school without a classroom? How does one do lab experiments?

edit: There is a need here to be filled, surely--an alternative to a GED for adults being one of them. So no cry of "evil evil evil" from me, but having experience with MN non-profits, I can't help but feel weirded out by this.

[madrchsod]

1. learning is when one has a forum to exchange knowledge and opinions with their peers

i`m just dumbfounded...that anyone would think this is a good idea

[exboyfil]

9. My youngest took Life Science I correspondence

this summer from North Dakota Center for Distance Education instead of at her Junior High. The NDCDE course was unquestionably better (and our Junior High is a Blue Ribbon school). Far more was expected of her in her NDCDE course than in the course at the JH. She took finals in both her class (got a 90) and to test out of the JH (96).

In her JH Life Science I and II sequence she will never see evolution. The NDCDE did a great job with this subject. Her NDCDE taxonomy section was much more detailed than what she saw in Life Science II at the JH. She went into far more detail on DNA and RNA and cellular activity in the NDCDE course.


Her NDCDE course did not cover Ecology which the JH course would cover, but she listened to some Modern Scholar lectures on this subject and studied their online notes.

Our JH tries to put four semesters of Science into three semesters. A semester of Life Science in 7th grade, about 2/3s of a semester of Life Science in 8th grade, and the remaining 1/3 semester and a semester for Earth Science. The other semester is taken up with Health (which my daughter also took from NDCDE).

Some of NDCDE LIfe Science II (Anatomy and Physiology) is done in 6th grade in the elementary. While my daughter did not take Life Science II from NDCDE, it is my impression that NDCDE would do this topic with more detail than her elementary school course.

The NDCDE course was so much better, I am planning, once Life Science is over this month, to start my daughter in NDCDE Biology extending this year long course over almost two years (Nov, 2010-Aug, 2012) while she takes her Earth Science and Physical Science from the JH. This will allow her to take Anatomy and Physiology/Microbiology as a 9th grader. I will still need to get permission to allow her to do this. I never asked for permission for the first course, and they forced my daughter to take a test proving aptitude. It is fortunate that the did, since it strengthens my point about taking the Biology class.

I don't know anything about BlueSky, but NDCDE offer serious courses. A typical High School schedule would cost me under $4K/yr. Obviously, the state would have much more buying power and could get this cost down further.

As for labs, a Sheep pluck can be bought for under $20. I plan to get one to supplement the required dissection work for my daughter. She wants to be a doctor.

[sammytko]

11. Several of my online courses require that we exchange ideas in a forum

I've taken spanish, biology, math, history on-line thru san antonio college and texas A&M system.

High school kids in my small town are already enrolled in dual college courses. They will have completed many of their basics by the time they graduate.

And its not that it is easy, they are just required to know so much more in high school that college is a breeze.

And this is Texas - the land of the horrible TEKS. Yes we have issues, but they have always been there. I went to college in 1978. I remember my first english comp course. Sat next to a girl who proudly told me she had been the validictorian of her class. She flunked first few essays til she got it right.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Oh, goody! A chance to go to school without ever leaving the house or seeing my friends!

What teenager wouldn't love that?

[The Straight Story]

3. My daughter is homeschooled through an online charter

With the exception of 1st grade she has been in the same school and is in 4th grade now and doing quite well.

She has all the books, science supplies, art supplies, etc she needs. The program is k-12.

[jpgray]

4. I'm not about to judge anyone for their decisions on schooling

It just seems like every sense of community once encouraged by our institutions is being eroded, replaced by increasing isolation. I don't pretend that's true in every individual case, but it does seem to be a trend.

[The Straight Story]

5. My sister home schooled all 3 of her kids

And they have tons of friends, met up with other kids for co-ops and were active in church (youngest graduates next year). They have more friends than I did growing up and they also got along with kids of all ages since they were not stuck being just kids their own age.

It was more like a community and parents had no choice but to be involved since they were also the teachers.

Some charter schools suck, so do some public schools (some think I am against public schools because when I see stories about them doing something stupid I post them, guess that means I am against dems, obama, christians, etc because I post stories not always flattering about them either).

I like something called choice - from how to school to where to get a drink and smoke to most things in life. Keep the govt out of my business and have them spend more time watching the corps/wall st. Keep schools local and get the feds out of them and take their testing with them - people worry that corps are buying up the education system? Well hell, they bought the feds, then dangled money to states and got them used to the money, then started taking control of the schools - the big businesses have been doing it all along through federal dollars and the local schools have been losing control for some time.

Only reason we are using the charter versus straight home schooling like my sister did is they give us all the books, materials, computer, and internet for free.

[jpgray]

6. The problem isn't the choice, it's the waste

I'll give you an example. Another non-profit I'm familiar with offers section-8 housing and the like to Minneapolis's immigrant population. These are people who don't know the system, and have a desire to stick together. This makes them ripe for abuse. Their deposits aren't returned, their apartments aren't maintained, the property managers avoid their calls and refuse to meet with them, they're shunted into depressed areas of the city, etc. And with all this, the non-profit charges the state a rent price for these apartments that would get you into some of the nicest apartments in the nicer neighborhoods of the city.

When people don't know they're getting screwed, or voters don't know the state is paying a premium rate for average or deplorable service, there's a problem. But it only seems to be identified as a problem these days with wholly public institutions. The private ones tend to skate, but hold lots of self-aggrandizing fundraisers while some Somali woman goes without heat in -20F weather. It's not that they're laughing about her while they pour champagne, they choose to be insulated from what actually is going in their organization.

There is a serious problem of oversight, and a compulsion to exploit the state into paying exorbitant fees for substandard services. The efficiency of the private sector in hoovering up state money without providing commensurate services should not be underestimated. That system will treat some individuals well enough, but the bang for buck factor disappears when you consider the -community-, who as a whole lose out when state money is inefficiently spent.

Ideally, we would work together to demand improvements, rather than immediately think "give me the option to abandon these assholes to their fate." That's where the isolation comes in.

[JCMach1]

8. Same here... and for some kids interactions becomes part of the problem

... read bullying, etc.


My middle school and HS daughters attend K12. Of course we are in the UAE, so for us it was a question of finding a quality American Curriculum School. The British Curriculum was just not doing the job.

[Capitalocracy]

7. You think there will be lab experiments in the future?

If you told me today that in 50 years we would have one single teacher per grade teaching over broadband to kids at home across the entire nation... well, I wouldn't call you crazy.

[donco6]

10. We have an online charter in my district.

Connections Academy. There are a lot of reasons for kids to take online classes. We've had kids who were sick who couldn't leave home, or who were competing in the Olympics training in Colo Spgs, or who live high in the mountains and can't drive all the way to school. The way it's set up here - I think it's OK. They meet with us just like any other school. We visit their location to go over their school improvement plans, scores, talk with their staff. Their kids have to log on and keep up with daily lessons or they get called by the teacher. There are all sorts of flags built in for kids who aren't doing their work - more than we have in the brick-and-mortar school. They get audited on this for their pupil count, so they are very scrupulous about it.

They're not on their own like some charters are - they welcome the oversight and respond to it. In fact, they hated being treated that way in their old district because they didn't have any "thought-partners" to turn to when they had a problem. They participated in Homecoming. We count their kids on our pupil count and they appear as our district kids. They're only funded at an online school rate, and they don't get capital funding.

Of all the online schools I've seen, I'm really pretty impressed with them.

On the negative side, they don't take high-needs special ed, but they do take moderate needs. They have teachers all over the state who visit kids in centers to administer evaluations or screenings and deliver services. It's quite a set-up. They do the same thing for the state-wide testing windows.

They don't take Spanish-speaking kids - so that's not a good thing. They really don't take all comers.

PS. One thing I really admire about them is they NEVER EVER denigrate regular public schools - not in their ads, not in person. They know they fill a niche. So I respect them for that.