LETTERS

Virtual High School a supplement to traditional classroom instruction

Posted 1/26/16

To the Editor:

On Jan. 7, Matt Bower posted the article, “Virtual high a choice for students,” which announced the school committee’s approval of the use of Virtual High School (VHS) …

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LETTERS

Virtual High School a supplement to traditional classroom instruction

Posted

To the Editor:

On Jan. 7, Matt Bower posted the article, “Virtual high a choice for students,” which announced the school committee’s approval of the use of Virtual High School (VHS) courses.

As president and CEO of VHS, speaking on behalf of our team, we are thrilled to partner with the students, parents, teachers and administrators in Warwick! In the past several years, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policies and practices driving customized learning in the K-12 education space. Many state, district, school, and classroom leaders have recognized the great promise in online learning and statistics show a steady enrollment growth in virtual courses and online learning. This is certainly true for The Virtual High School (VHS, Inc.). We began in 1996 with a cohort of 30 schools, and our collaborative has since expanded to more than 600 schools!

This is a pivotal point for Warwick. As your partner we can promise that VHS virtual courses will give Warwick students quality curriculum options and choices that enhance what is available within their local curriculum. We will work closely with school faculty and administration to help ensure students taking VHS courses have the necessary on-site support to maximize their effectiveness in their online classrooms.

I thought it would be helpful for me to take a moment to clear up some misconceptions that may exist regarding The Virtual High School (VHS) and its partnership at Warwick.

VHS is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1996 by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education – we were the first online high school program in the U.S. and we were created to supplement (not replace) schools.

The standards used by VHS in its courses are the National Education Association (NEA) standards for online learning. The NEA created their standards for quality online learning based on the VHS model.

VHS is accredited and courses are cohort-based and require student-teacher interaction – they are online classrooms, not independent studies.

VHS provides instruction for students but we also provide instruction to on-site mentors at the local school so students have on-the-ground support while taking online classes.

We provide teachers (who remain employed by their local schools) with education that helps them learn to teach online and also helps them with face-to-face teaching. Teachers learn with and from one another, share best practices, and expand their learning. This is graduate-level training and we get wonderful feedback from teachers about how it helps them both in their classroom teaching and online.

And finally, VHS has 22 college board-approved AP courses and our pass rates exceed the national pass rates – a great measure that shows how VHS courses help prepare students for the AP exam. We’re pleased that we can provide Warwick students with such a large variety of high-demand courses to supplement current Warwick offerings.

Going forward, education will occur in a variety of forms and will continue to evolve to fit each student’s unique needs. I believe one of the greatest impacts in the foreseeable future will be from the use of online education as a supplement to traditional classroom instruction.

Carol Ribeiro, President & CEO

The Virtual High School (VHS, Inc.)

Comments

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  • Justanidiot

    Virtual High School would be good for the district. We have plenty of teachers who have been phoning it in for years and this will make it so they don't even have to get out of their jammies not to teach.

    Tuesday, January 26, 2016 Report this