Virtual Schools Click With Parents

By CATHERINE DOLINSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 13, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Nut products in a school lunchroom can send 6-year-old Holly Bates into anaphylactic shock. It's not even safe for the Tampa girl to sit in class near children who have been munching nuts. That's why, for a second year, Holly will attend Florida Connections Academy, a full-time "virtual" school that she reaches from her home computer.

Online learning was a last resort, said Holly's mother, Polly Bates - and she couldn't be more pleased with the results.

"The curriculum is unbelievable," said Bates, a former schoolteacher for Hillsborough County. "Holly could have taken introductory Spanish in kindergarten - she'll probably take Spanish I this year - and I think they have put in Mandarin Chinese. It would astound you, the progress these children make."

Both Connections Academy and Jacksonville-based Florida Virtual Academy, the state's other full-time online school, earned their first "A" grades this year, a result of their students' performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The news wasn't so rosy for traditional public schools. This year, the number of Florida schools that received A or B grades from the state fell by 136, while the number of D or F schools rose by 159.

So what are virtual schools getting right?

"The students have a lot more individual contact with their teachers, and a lot more parent involvement," said Jean Miller, director of the Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice at the state Department of Education. "They're in a safe environment, learning at their own pace."

With that comes a more tailored approach to teaching, said Patty Beitler, principal of Florida Virtual Academy. Teachers give struggling students more attention, she said, and guide parents and students to learning exercises that best match their abilities. "What sets us apart is that we are mastery-based."

Experts Question Socialization

Skeptics ask, what's the trade-off?

"A big part of school is interacting with other students," said Barbara Stein, manager of the 21st Century Initiatives at the National Education Association. "At virtual schools, many do not have a model where children are truly interacting on a daily basis."

Some students who have opted out of a more social school setting appear to be in the greatest need of socializing skills, she added.

Socialization is indeed the main concern that Tonya Beddow hears about schools like Florida Virtual Academy, which her three sons will attend this year. But the Brandon mother said she is confident that school outings, combined with church and community activities, keep her children at least as well-adapted as children in traditional schools.

"My kids know that if they ever want to go to a public school, we'll talk about it," she said. "I don't ever want them to feel like they're stuck at home."

Florida contracted with for-profit companies, Maryland-based Connections Academy and K12 Inc. in Virginia, to launch two full-time, kindergarten through eighth-grade pilot programs in 2003-04. Enrollment has since grown from the initial 500 per school to 940, a cap that state lawmakers set annually. Total funding for both schools this school year, which begins Aug. 20: about $9.5 million.

There is no full-time virtual high school, though the Florida Virtual School offers individual courses for older students.

Attendance is free, and enrollment is open to any Florida child who qualifies to enroll in a public school. Some who enroll are actors or other child professionals; others opt for virtual learning because course offerings are limited where they live. Some have health reasons that keep them out of traditional schools. Together, the online academies will serve 105 students from Hillsborough County this year.

Class work varies among the grades but generally mixes paper, book and computer work. Both academies also organize student field trips and use technology such as Internet chat rooms and microphones to enable students and teachers to interact online.

Students work for hours daily with their "learning coach," usually a parent, along with an online teacher. Heavy parent involvement - something that often eludes traditional public schools - is a commonly cited reason for success.

"It is a huge commitment," said Beitler, principal of Florida Virtual Academy, which employs teachers who work from home across the state. In kindergarten through second-grade, "the requirement is to be working on the curriculum for four hours a day, with parents driving the lessons almost 90 percent of the time. In middle school grades it's almost 50 percent of five hours per day, plus planning."

Home Schools In Virtual Clothing?

Stein, from the NEA, questioned to what extent such programs are home schooling in disguise.

Stein, who has helped draft standards for online education nationwide, said neither she nor the NEA objects to them. But an excess of parent involvement raises concerns about quality and accountability. "There are concerns about deputizing whoever happens to be at the kitchen table as a teacher."

Florida's online academies are "very different" from home schooling, Miller said. "In the virtual school, all teachers are certified in the state of Florida. You have a teacher confirming what students are mastering."

Four years ago, Beddow was considering home schooling for Tanner, her oldest son, when she discovered Florida Virtual Academy. Her main reason for enrolling her three children in the virtual school rather than nearby Cimino Elementary - also an "A" school - was a desire to spend more time with them.

Like Bates, Beddow cannot compliment her children's online curriculum enough. "Even for kindergarten, it teaches them history and science, which I don't think they get in traditional public schools," she said.

Bates noted that the schools send students a computer and printer if they need them. "You don't have to be affluent," she said.

Rep. Shelley Vana, D-West Palm Beach, said she has heard doubts that virtual school is a valid option for low-income families. With so much work demanded of parents, she said, only those who can afford to stay home can truly take advantage. "Low-income parents may have to work two or three jobs."

But enrollment data show that at least some low-income families find a way. According to Florida Connections Academy staff, 49 percent of their students come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Vana, a former biology teacher and president of a teachers union, now oversees her district's science curriculum. "The science portion of me says we shouldn't turn our backs on different kinds of education," she said. "It might be the way we do things in the future."

But oversight and accountability remain concerns. "It's hard to tell who's really doing the work," she said. "Did the parent do it? Did the child do it?"

State Trusts Parents Not To Cheat

Trust is a factor, agreed Tom Herdtner, principal of Florida Connections Academy. "I like to think everyone will do the right thing, because it's for their child."

But teachers can use computer programs to detect plagiarism, he said. The FCAT, taken in a secure setting in a student's local school district, will reflect students' levels of mastery. And this year, Connections will dispatch staff at the start of the semester to give diagnostic tests to students in-person. Unlike at the Virtual Academy, Connections Academy teachers usually work out of the company's Orlando office.

Don Gaetz, head of the state Senate's Education Pre-K-12 Committee, lauded the online schools' recent FCAT performance. He agreed with Vana that accountability remains an issue but faulted what he described as the state's outmoded model for school funding.

State funding is what makes schools accountable, and Florida bases its funding formula on the time each student spends in a classroom, said Gaetz, R-Niceville, a former school superintendent. That hurts all students by ignoring the fact that they learn at different paces, he said. It also means lawmakers must treat virtual schools differently.

"We have to disenthrall ourselves of 'seat time' as the only way to measure education," he said. "If we can find a better way to oversee and provide quality control, that will give us the strategies we need for real accountability of virtual education."

ON THE INTERNET:

•Florida Virtual Academy: www.flva.org

•Florida Connections Academy: www.connectionsacademy.comand click on "Find A School"

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@tampatrib.com.