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High School Online Credits Now Mandatory in Virginia
Governor McDonnell has signed into law a new bill making an online course mandatory for all students entering ninth grade from the 2013-14 academic year.
Virginia is to join several other states in requiring students to take an online class in order to meet graduation requirement. Governor Bob McDonnell, committed to expanding virtual education, has said that the requirement will help prepare students better for the 21st Century job market.
The measure is becoming increasing popular, with Alabama, Florida and Michigan all adopting rules over the last few years that mandate some online learning. Students in Idaho entering the ninth grade this fall will be required to take two online courses if they wish to graduates. Advocates of online education consider it a natural step to take in preparing students for the increasingly technological world that awaits them after school; however teaching unions are less than enthusiastic, with the Idaho Education Association complaining that these measures disregard parental choice.
Governor McDonnell has made education reform a priority during his term and has declared a commitment to raising teacher standards and quality while expanding educational options. In addition to preparing graduating students for the workplace, mandatory online credits will also prepare teachers and families for the shift taking place in education and make them more amenable to additional online education options in the future.
The governor signing this new law in Virginia comes at a time when six more virtual school providers have been approved by the Virginia Department of Education.
“By contracting with virtual schools or online providers, Virginia’s school divisions can broaden the array of courses they offer, reach out to more nontraditional students and provide more educational options for families,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said in a statement.
The new providers are Accelerate Education, American Virtual Academy, Cambium Education Inc., Glynlyon-Odysseyware, Proximity Learning Inc. and PLATO Learning Inc.
The new requirement for an online class will apply to students who start the ninth grade in the 2013-14 academic year.
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April 12th, 2012
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Comments
Dig a little deeper and follow the money trail.
Politicians do not pass legislation because they care about education.
You got it, sir! Follow the money… And follow the board of directors and consultant trails, while we’re at it. And the charter school connections. And the book-publishing deals. … Nothing wrong with online learning. But I don’t trust school bureaucracies to be transparent, to monitor implementation or results appropriately, or to ensure best practices are followed. Or not to reinvent wheels at taxpayer expense.
Actually, I think they are doing this as a money-saving measure too. Just because someone evil shadowy consortium of businesses supports this, doesn’t automatically make it a bad idea.
The problems with online classes is in the details. What classes are available online? Is the student able to progress through the course at the student’s speed? Some students will complete the course significantly faster than most of the students while other students will take a significantly longer length of time. Are the online classes available year around?
If you’re really interested, I bet there is some information in the links in the article. Consider it your first introduction to self-directed online learning!
On the whole, online learning is not equal to face to face learning. Too often online learning involves reading lessons and doing assignments. In the best situations student are required to participate in activities such as this, engaging in online discussions of a topic or a reading, and some teachers who teach traditional classrooms also require both. My daughter’s astronomy teacher (college) last term required each student create and post to the blog, while also responding to the blogs of classmates. The class also met thrice weekly. This was a good use of the computer in learning, adding to the value of the course, rather than simply replacing the teacher.
I find that online course requirements being promoted in states boil down to $$$. Firstly, online learning companies are making a killing, and most are private sector, so this transfers more of our education dollars from the public to the private sector, which is the goal of a certain faction in America today. (Consider the white paper produced in the late 1990s by an investment bank announcing that public education, then, amounted to a $4 billion dollar per year industry, with growth projected to become more like $7 billion per year.) Secondly, this is convenient way to reduce the paid teaching staff, replacing the teacher with a machine, or through assigning a larger group of students to a single teacher. This again depersonalizes teaching.
“My daughter’s astronomy teacher (college) last term required each student create and post to the blog, while also responding to the blogs of classmates.”
I’m sorry but this to me is exactly the problem with technology in education. This is a time-waster by a teacher who wants to have some hip “futuristic” component to his class and doesn’t really care if it contributes anything. Astronomy is not philosophy. How is keeping a blog advance knowledge in this subject? How does commenting do the same? If the professor is looking for some make-do work, he can just set the students to clapping erasers to the same general benefit.
You don’t have to look for conspiracies. There’s a report released once or twice a year that polls the needs of the educators that private business can fill. This isn’t done on the sly or with the idea of some kind of cloak-and-dagger purposes. As a matter of fact, I think I read a write up about the latest edition on this site a few days ago.
And I gotta ask, what “value” did this blog thing add to the class? I noticed you were particularly nebulous about it.
[...] Idaho entering the ninth grade this fall will be required to take two online … Read more on educationnews Posted in Online LearningTagged Latest, Learning, News, [...]
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[...] High School Online Credits Now Mandatory in Virginia “The contracts with virtual schools or Online Provider, Virginia School Departments can use the array of courses they offer to extend, reach out to other non- -traditional students and offer more educational opportunities for families, “Superintendent of Public … Read more on educationnews [...]
The Georgia legislature also just passed SB 289 which requires an online course to graduate — so that brings the total number of states with such a requirement to six (VA, ID, FL, MI, AL, GA).
Republican Governors….
Online course to graduate…..
ALEC……
Wonder if there might be a connection between the above mentioned?…..
The Governor is assuming that all areas of Virginia can support this online class requirement but he is incorrect. There are several rural areas of Virginia where families can not get high speed internet because it is simply not offered. So therefore, students will have to get this class online while at school. First of all teachers don’t have the time now to teach everything that is in the regular curriculum to students so if you take time away to allow students to do their online class how is all of the SOL information supposed to be taught. Secondly, some of the rural schools barely have the technology equipment and bandwidth to operate their computer labs let alone adding more students trying to take online classes. The Governor needs to realize that all Virginia students do not live in metropolitan areas where internet capabilities are at their fingertips.
I didn’t see any information on whether students can be excused from the requirement based on hardship like you describe. I hope it would be there.
Good idea. But like every thing else, the details have not worked out. (lke the funding of, schedules, subjects….)
[...] 04/27/2012, in K-12 related, legislation / legislatures, online learning, by Daniel Christian High School Online Credits Now Mandatory in Virginia – from educationnews.org by Governor McDonnell has signed into law a new bill making an online [...]
The details of this bill and the delivery of online learning need to be examined prior to determining if this is a prudent decision that can benefit students.
Economics indeed drive these decisions.
There are examples of beneficial online educational experiences and providers.
There are examples of disasters or of instances providing dismal education and providing income for someone.
Online learning has to be well-designed and selected to meet the needs of learners for pinpointed instructional goals.
Will this level of selectivity be part of the process?