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— Minnesota’s online schools have quietly persuaded county prosecutors to accept an expansive view of the state’s outdated truancy law and use the courts to reel hundreds of cybertruants back to class, but both prosecutors and educators agree the makeshift arrangement can’t last.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Minnesota online schools coax prosecutors to go after truants despite outdated law

December 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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.

To catch online truants, Bender and her colleagues in online schools in Minnesota use mathematical formulas that compare the hours spent on online lessons and academic progress. The formula allows for high achievers who work quickly, while catching students who are just going through the motions.

Bender has been key to spreading the interpretation, both in her current job and previously at the smaller Wolf Creek Online High School in Lindstrom. She runs a web site, mnonlinetruancy.weebly.com, has written on the subject for a trade journal and presented it Nov. 10 at the annual conference of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. She said she has also put 3,500 miles on her Honda Civic since January working on truancy issues in counties throughout the state.

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Editorial: Learning from a landmark report

September 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Two years after Minnesota overhauled charter school oversight, a new report is raising important questions about whether the state Department of Education has the staffing and the vision to ensure that another education innovation — online schooling — is serving the best interests of students and the state.

The report, released last week by the respected Office of the Legislative Auditor, focuses on the growing number of K-12 students who take classes online instead of in a traditional classroom. The report from auditor Jim Nobles and his staff could not be more timely.

Minnesota is currently home to 24 state-approved online schools, 16 of which allow students to enroll full time. The number of students taking classes on their computers is burgeoning. In just four school years (2006-07 to 2009-10), Minnesota saw a doubling in the number of students taking courses on a part-time basis from online schools. At the same time, full-time online enrollment “more than tripled,” according to the report.

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Audit flags dropout rates, scores at online schools

September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Even as they surge in popularity, online schools in Minnesota are troubled by high dropout rates, poor math scores and inadequate state oversight.

That’s the conclusion of a state audit released on Monday that shows how the virtual schools, whose full-time enrollment has tripled in recent years, are faring.

It’s unclear why many online students are falling short academically, said Legislative Auditor James Nobles, adding, “We need to find out, is there anything more we can do for these students?”

During the 2009-10 school year, Minnesota’s full-time online students finished only 63 percent of the courses they started. Just 16 percent of those in high school were proficient on state math tests, compared with 41 percent in the same grades at schools throughout Minnesota. And fully one-quarter of the 12th-graders dropped out by the end of the school year, vastly more than the 3 percent of all students who did so statewide.

Advocates of online learning point out that many students are already behind academically when they enroll. “The majority of the students that come to us were struggling in their previous school, and they’ve come to us as an alternative,” said John Huber, head of Insight School of Minnesota, an online high school guided by the Brooklyn Center School District.

State guidance of online schools is also a problem, the audit concluded. The Department of Education, short-handed, has done little to oversee online schools or clear a longstanding backlog of applications to start new programs, the report found.

The report, requested by legislators, comes as the popularity of online learning is growing. Roughly 12,000 K-12 students — about 1.5 percent of Minnesota’s student body — took courses from state-approved online schools last year. The number of part-time students in online schools has nearly doubled in the past four years, and the number of full-time students has more than tripled.

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Sharing administrators helps school districts in Minnesota save money

July 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Four years ago, West St. Paul launched a new alternative high school program right on its border with Inver Grove Heights. The 70-student school is run by Intermediate District 917, of which the three are members, and it offers something older alternative programs didn’t: technical education classes for college credit.

Principal Dan Hurley said the school allows each district to keep students who might have dropped out or left for online schools — and taken per-pupil state dollars with them.

“Those kids would just disappear,” Hurley said. “Every option they were leaving for, we now offer.”

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Reader’s view: Duluth school district mute about new ideas

February 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Years ago, when online schools were becoming popular, I approached the Duluth schools and suggested they look into the possibility of establishing such a school in order to keep money within the district. We had been home-schooling our own brood since 1990, and as a former paid educator with eight teaching credentials in three states, I offered assistance. My father had been the director of instructional resources in a major school district in California, so I did have a clue about the

logistics of “distance” learning, as it was called back then, even if the distance was marginal.

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Gym class online? Schools stretch with new offerings

September 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The courses, in subjects from animal science to journalism, are springing up in an era when new technology permeates schools. Web-based college courses are increasingly common, and more K-12 students are enrolling full time in online schools. Even in traditional classrooms, many teachers post assignments, notes and videos on class websites.

“If these resources are available [online], it then begs the question, ‘Does the student really need to come to class, for this part of the class?’ Maybe not,” said Steve Massey, principal of Forest Lake Area High School, which has launched several hybrid courses. “There’s no doubt students are living in an online world.”

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