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What ALEC bills might we see next session?

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Today, lawmakers are struggling mightily to bring the current legislative session to an end. While they do so, let’s take a look ahead to next year’s session.

When the 2013-2014 Legislature convenes next year, among other pro-business measures we are likely to see a push for the further expansion of for-profit online schools, laws allowing school districts to opt out of state standards and regulations, a law limiting the state attorney general’s ability to sue on behalf of citizens, a bill calling for the repeal of requirements that energy companies generate a certain amount of power from renewable sources, a loosening of pipeline regulations and — a rerun from this year — a bid to lower taxes on “less risky” smokeless tobacco.

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Bill would allow online driver’s ed for home-schoolers

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Nestled in the fine print of the omnibus transportation bill pending before the state Legislature is a provision allowing home-schoolers to sign their kids up for online driver’s education. And dozens of commercial digital driver-training programs already operating in other states are poised to start schooling Minnesota teens in cyberspace.

As far as political alliances go, the love affair between home-schoolers and for-profit online education companies would seem about as sweet as it gets.

Since the goal of home schooling often is keeping kids out of public schools, the advent of the virtual school is a major boon. Sweeter still: When the cyber-academy is a charter school, with taxpayers picking up the tab for everything from hardware to curriculum.

Indeed, presidential also-ran Rick Santorum got into trouble several years ago when it was revealed that he had moved out of the state where a public school district paid a cyber charter $100,000 to home-school several of his children.

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Minnesota Virtual Academy holds Chaska talent show

April 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Minnesota Virtual Academy (MNVA) held the school’s annual social event, “MNVA’s Got Talent” at the Chaska Community Center on March 27.

The MNVA is a tuition-free online public school associated with Houston, Minn. public schools. Minnesota Virtual Academy is the largest online K-12 school in Minnesota and has delivered more than 75,000 courses to students state-wide since its inception in 2002, according to an MNVA press release.

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ALEC and corporate fingerprints are all over national push for online learning

March 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If it passes, Minnesota will become one of a handful of states to mandate student participation in online learning, which is, to put it mildly, a booming industry in search of customers.

Consider, for example, Tennessee’s adoption last year of the Virtual Public Schools Act, model legislation created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the super-secretive, super-conservative group which has birthed much of the nearly identical anti-labor legislation that has swept through statehouses nation-wide over the last two years.

Yes, ALEC has made appearances in this space, too, but we think the best primer is the one produced by the education advocacy group Parents United. Corporations, foundations and think tanks pay thousands of dollars to join ALEC, which charges lawmakers — most of them Republicans — $50 a year to join.

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BlueSky Online Charter School seeks a fresh start after legal fight to stay open

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

BlueSky Online Charter School won the battle with the Minnesota Department of Education to stay open. Now, it’s looking to rebuild its reputation and reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in fiscal losses.

“We would like to focus on the fact that this is a complete win,” said Cindy Lavorato, attorney for BlueSky. “Right now, we are exploring the possibility of bringing a motion to recover attorneys’ fees.”

The investigation may be over, but it is clear both sides still disagree about the facts in the case.

Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius ruled late Thursday that the embattled West St. Paul-based charter school could stay open because the state did not prove the school had a “history of major or repeated violations.” Her ruling, however, also supports state education officials’ findings that the school did not meet curriculum standards and graduated students illegally.

“As educators, community members and parents, we must hold high expectations for all schoolchildren in Minnesota,” Cassellius wrote. “Alternative delivery of education services does not excuse strict adherence to this mandate.”

Charlene Briner, Cassellius’ chief of staff, said the state’s investigation is now closed unless new issues arise.

“As you can see, it was a very close case,” Briner said. “It is clear from the evidence that BlueSky did in fact graduate students in 2009 and 2010 who had not met graduation requirements. It is also clear that BlueSky did not

provide sufficient support to demonstrate all benchmarks were covered in their curriculum.”

BlueSky leaders continue to dispute those claims.

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Can States and School Districts Cut Costs Through Digital Learning?

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Digital learning represents wide-open terrain for K-12 education reform. Several states — Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Michigan and Minnesota — require students to take an online course to receive a high school degree. Twenty-seven states have established statewide full-time virtual schools since the first opened in 1997 in Florida, according to a report by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, an indication of virtual education’s growing appeal.

As with all innovations, though, there is always a question of cost for providing such new technologies, especially when states are providing less per-pupil funding.

A study released last week by the Education Center of Excellence at the Parthenon Group (commissioned by the conservative education think tank, the Fordham Institute) suggested that the costs of digital learning could be significantly less than more traditional modes. The authors cautioned that its findings must be interpreted with some caveats: costs vary across digital education platforms and different entities pursue online learning for different reasons (cost-savings versus enhanced offerings, for example).

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Getting to the national skating championships took a commitment

January 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Although virtual schooling could be isolating, Rita keeps in touch with friends she made at Chippewa Falls Middle School. She also has made new friends in Minnesota’s figure-skating circles.
Skating at her level also requires a financial commitment from her family.
Coaching costs $78 an hour, and then there is paying for ice time and sending food with Rita for the week, Arleen said.
Her mom previously made her skating outfits, but reaching the national stage warrants the $600 shimmering lime-green custom-made dress she will wear at the upcoming championships.
Both Rita and her mother said the best way to deal with living apart during the week is to not dwell on time she is away from her parents and four siblings. They keep in touch as many modern families do: by cell phone.

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WAPS proposes some virtual classes for next year

January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Next year, students at Winona Senior High School may be able to attend some classes from the comfort of home — or anywhere with a computer and an Internet connection.

Principal Kelly Halvorsen presented the Winona Area Public Schools board Thursday with next year’s course proposals, some of which included new hybrid classes that would allow students to enroll in courses with an online component.

The classes would utilize software called Moodle — a virtual learning environment that can be used to instruct fully online classes or to enhance a traditional classroom setting, among other applications. Some high-school teachers currently use the software to engage students in discussion on online forums, Halvorsen said. So far, students have responded enthusiastically.

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Virtual Schools Face High Truancy Rates

December 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Chronic absenteeism isn’t only found in traditional classroom settings. Virtual schools are using formulas to identify online slackers, but the system has faults.

Online education has lots of perks and benefits for students in high school and college, and for the most part, virtual classroom settings are successful. However, online education is not for every student. Highly motivated students tend to the be the most successful, but what about the mediocre student or the student who lacks motivation?

Minnesota’s online school truant officers have devised a mathematical formula that identifies the highly motivated students with high completion rates versus those students who are just going through the motions. Like students who don’t show up to class, the online student who doesn’t log in daily is more likely to dropout.

Habitual truancy laws are clear with absenteeism in face-to-face instruction but the law become sketchy in an online environment. Legal experts question how online attendance is tracked.

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Online schools go old school to nab cyber-truants

December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s online schools have quietly persuaded county prosecutors to accept an expansive view of the state’s outdated truancy law and use the courts to reel hundreds of cybertruants back to class, but both prosecutors and educators agree the makeshift arrangement can’t last.

It’s important work, school officials say, at a time when enrollment in online schools is soaring, but so are dropout rates. Online students made up a disproportionate share of truancy cases last year, and virtual schools worry about a backlash against their industry if they are perceived as havens for slackers.

“It is very easy to become truant in online,” said Stacy Bender, dean of students at Minneapolis-based Minnesota Virtual High School, which has 1,300 students spread throughout the state. Unmotivated students can just stop logging in and then lie about it to their parents and within two weeks, they are truant, she said.

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