Fair 52° F

Home > Archive > Apr 3, 2008

Virtual Education an Option for WCSD Students
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
Washington County School District is striving to be right on the cutting edge these days when it comes to education.
For the past few years, a new educational alternative for elementary and middle school-age children has been gaining steam locally and across the state in WCSD's Washington Online School.
“It's really a hybrid of a public school and a home school,” Laura Belnap, Washington Online School director, said.
A program offered through the Washington County School District, Washington Online School bridges the gap between home school and public school, giving parents one more option when it comes to educating their children.
“We believe in offering as many options as we can for kids and their families,” WCSD superintendent Max Rose said.
Washington Online School implements Web-based curriculum developed by a company called K12 Inc. Through Washington Online, parents with students in grades kindergarten through eighth can educate their children at home, using the online curriculum and resources as their guide. In contrast to home-schooling alone, schooling through Washington Online gives parents the advantage of school district resources, financing and support as they educate their kids.
“If more parents knew what kind of support was there and how easy it is to use the curriculum, I think more people would use it,” parent Kalleen Campbell said.
Campbell, a local stay-at-home mom, has two children enrolled in Washington Online. Before joining in with WCSD's Internet-based alternative, she had tried her hand at home-schooling but said she felt lost when it came to directing her kids' education on her own.
“When I was just starting to home-school, I thought, 'You know, I don't know what I'm doing,'” Campbell said.
“One reason I did want to home school,” she went on to say, “was because I felt like I was doing all the homework and all the hard work, and the teachers were having fun with my kids, so I thought, 'You know, I'll just do the fun stuff, too.'”
Director Belnap had similar reasons for home-schooling when she elected to teach her kids at home many years ago.
“My very number-one reason I home-schooled for 14 years was because I wanted time with my children,” she said.
Whatever parents' reasons for educating at home, WCSD desired to help support that decision and give them assistance and guidance to do so. The school district has opened Washington Online School to the entire state, as well, so kids anywhere in Utah can be educated through the Washington County School District's program. There are around 150 local participants, and statewide, there are about 600.
Parents have many reasons for educating their kids through Washington Online. One local boy is keeping up with his studies through Washington Online as he pursues an acting career in Los Angeles. Another student is a professional skier, and yet others are pursuing gymnastics endeavors. One student's family is taking a six-month business trip to Beijing, so Washington Online was a way for the child to stay caught up in school while he's away.
Whatever the individual circumstances, the common denominator for many Washington Online students is that traditional public school isn't a good fit for them. Homebound kids, kids with learning challenges, kids who are gifted or accelerated and kids who are struggling are ideal potential candidates for online school, according to the K12 Inc. Web site (www.k12.com).
“It's a very out-of-the-box concept,” Washington Online secretary Brooke Brown said.
Children starting out in Washington Online take placement exams to find out where they are in various subjects, and then curriculum and supplies appropriate to their levels are provided. Students are free to work at their own pace, so gifted students can work at an accelerated pace, and students who are struggling can take their time to master concepts being taught.
“The goal is for my child to understand,” Campbell said. “It's not to satisfy somebody's attendance record or somebody's curriculum record; it's to satisfy me that my child knows that concept.”
Students participating in Washington Online are enrolled through the Washington County School District, so their parents don't have to pay tuition or foot the bill for books or supplies. Funding comes from state monies just as for any other public school, and Washington Online receives weighted pupil unit funds to pay for supplies and teacher salaries. Parents have to mark daily attendance for their children in the online system, and the school district receives daily membership attendance funds for that attendance, as well.
So Washington Online is a public school, it's just not a physical public school, Brown said.
However, the program is funded separately from public school, Rose said. Each participating family receives a parcel of books and school supplies at the beginning of the year – a 110-pound parcel, to be exact.
“They send you everything,” Campbell said. “If we have a science experiment with grass seed, they send me the grass seed. It is so much fun – (the kids) absolutely love it. There's clay and there's paint and there's goggles and there's graduated cylinders and balances and tons of books. They love it! They go through everything. They have so much fun with it.”
“It's like Christmastime when it comes,” Washington Online teacher Gloria Kelly said.
From mathematics to art, all the required grade-level curriculum is included in the K12 program.
A Washington Online teacher is required to check in regularly with parents to make sure students are progressing and offer support when it is needed, but the parents are the primary “learning coaches” for their kids. Throughout the year, online students are required to complete the same state testing as their classroom counterparts.
While some parents worry about the social aspects of home-schooling their children, there is a great deal of interaction among the Washington Online parents, students and faculty, and Campbell said her kids are by no means lacking in social interaction with other kids.
Regular activities are made available through Washington Online for parents and students. Physical education outings, field trips, book clubs, music groups and social activities are just a few of the opportunities provided to give kids social interaction and optional learning experiences with their peers. Parents also get a chance to visit, support each other and compare notes during these activities.
The Washington Online facilitators utilize many community resources for their students, Belnap said. The local 4-H program, the Utah State University Extension Office, Dixie State College and the St. George Recreation Center are just a few of the facilities regularly used.
Though Washington Online may not be for everyone, it's another alternative in the school district's repertoire to give parents more options for educating their kids, Rose said.
“It's just a great choice for schooling at home,” Belnap said.
For more information about Washington Online School, including registration for the upcoming school year, visit k8edu.washk12.org, email lbelnapsprint@earthlink.net or call 673-3553, extension 375.

---