Virtual Classrooms

Faced with falling enrollment and a growing budget deficit, United Independent School District is expanding its early college program and preparing to offer a virtual high school program, open to any student in Texas.

With Coursera’s network of university and industry leaders and Udemy’s network of subject-matter experts, the two online learning platforms will create one larger company focused on in-demand skills in fields like AI.

The Louisiana Department of Education is using a five-year $15 million federal grant to connect about 4,500 first- and second-grade students to live video tutors through Air Reading.

Encouraged by a new state law that endorses hybrid and online schooling, Northside Independent School District is looking for a vendor to help start a virtual school next fall.

A Michigan school district approved a $1.1 million contract with Proximity Learning to fill teaching vacancies with virtual educators, to be aided by trained “facilitators” who will monitor and help in the classroom.

Comparing the fall semester before COVID to this fall semester, UND has seen a 60 percent increase in students taking only online courses and a 98 percent increase in students taking both online and face-to-face courses.

Starting next year, Cy-Fair ISD in Texas will offer a fully online school, a program to accommodate scheduling conflicts and advanced courses, and a program with tuition-based courses outside of the regular school day.

An analysis by PennLive found that the state's two largest cyber schools are substantially less transparent than similarly sized traditional school districts, while some smaller cyber charters are even more transparent.

Inundated with parent interest in a virtual schooling option, Commonwealth Charter Academy hasn't been too concerned about transparency or responsiveness in its board meetings, according to some parents and staff.

Some former employees of Commonwealth Charter Academy say they were asked to develop online curricula that could be sold to other states rather than focusing on Pennsylvania's standards and history.

Some current and former staff at Commonwealth Charter Academy said it started to feel more like a business focused on convincing parents to enroll new students than a school focused on their academic performance.

By 2015, for-profit management companies ran a large share of the cyber schools across the U.S., but for Commonwealth Charter Academy, separating from them brought in more money, independence and control over curricula.

Even after the initial pandemic-era rush to cyber charter schools subsided, Commonwealth Charter Academy has continued to grow because many parents are dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Opening this fall, the Colome Cyber Academy will give students individualized learning plans tailored to their goals, intended to meet growing demand for flexibility amid declining enrollment at traditional schools.

Pennsylvania only renews charters of cyber schools that agree to enrollment caps, but those schools can continue to operate without a charter. Some cyber leaders say this approach gives those schools more freedom to grow.

The private, nonprofit, regionally accredited University of the People has enrolled 200 students from Nevada and over 20,000 from the U.S. in tuition-free online programs in fields such as computer science and IT.

Students enrolled in the Granite State Academy Online Program, an alternative program of Prospect Mountain High School hosted by the online education company K12, will begin instruction Sept. 19.

As a result of a lawsuit from Los Angeles public school parents, the district will have to give regular assessments and outreach to students, additional training to teachers, and disaggregated data to the public.