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Bill proposes state council to examine virtual schooling in Maryland

March 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“It’s time now for states and districts to really begin an aggressive effort to provide all students with a challenging, personalized, collaborative learning environment,” said Sara Hall of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a policy organization that focuses on the dropout rate.

Technology can boost the instructional process, especially for students with special needs, she said.

Amy Sparks of Rosedale in Baltimore County said two students in her family have graduated from a private virtual school.

Sparks, vice president of Emerging Minds of Maryland, a nonprofit group that advocates online learning, said the General Assembly passed a bill in 2010 giving counties “a nudge” to create virtual schools, but little has happened in two years.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen until there is a council that looks at what can we do to create a quality virtual school,” said Bonnie Wesselhoff, also of Baltimore County.

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Principal: Why I’m marching to ‘save our schools’

July 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We are awash in market-based school reform. From virtual schools and profit-generating charters to sort and select evaluation policies for teachers, so-called reformers gleefully push business solutions down onto our schools. The cheerleaders of market-based change believe that only the fierce competition of capitalism can create great teachers and smart kids. Test scores are the bottom line profits. Don’t fix a school; shut it down instead. Let the kids and staff scramble. The school is a bad business deal, nothing more. Losses must be cut.

They will tell you that today’s schools are artifacts of the old factory model ready to be discarded. They forget to mention that the factory itself was once a marketplace reform. Isn’t it market policies that have stretched the gap between rich and poor wider than it has ever been? Yet, we are told that it is the ways of the market that will close the achievement gap.

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93% of Parents Give Connections Academy, Leading Virtual School Provider, Top Marks for Eighth Consecutive Year

July 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Connections Academy, a leading national provider of high-quality, highly accountable virtual public and private schools in the U.S. for students in grades K–12, continues to get high marks from parents, results of a recent survey show. In its 2009-2010 Parent Satisfaction Survey, an overwhelming 93% of parents gave the overall Connections Academy (CA) program an “A” or “B” grade. 2009-2010 marks the eighth consecutive school year that at least 90% of CA parents graded the virtual schools so highly – and recommend CA to other parents.

This strong vote of support from CA parents reflects the program’s continued success, even as more CA schools are in operation — and serving more students — than ever. Connections Academy has operated its national network of virtual schools since 2002, and has grown by double digits each year since then, thanks to booming demand for its high quality, highly accountable virtual schools. CA served approximately 25,000 full-time students during the 2009-2010 school year. In 2010–2011 the Connections Academy public school network will span 18 virtual K–12 schools in 17 states, and its nationwide private school, National Connections Academy, will serve students throughout the U.S.

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