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Virtual school offers a new avenue to learning
By MICHELE MILLER, Times Staff Writer
For Greta Zindel, school doesn't stop when the final bell rings at Pasco High in Dade City. It's not unusual for the high school junior to pass in her assignments on the weekends. On the other side of the county is Patrick Hood, a senior at Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, who sometimes turns his work in, via e-mail, at 2 a.m. While Greta and Patrick attend different high schools, the two are classmates. Both are enrolled in a Latin I course at the Florida Virtual School. Although online learning is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, it is a increasingly popular option for homeschoolers and self-motivated students like Greta and Patrick who want to take classes not offered at their traditional high school. Others go that route because they face scheduling problems or need to retake a course they have failed. Florida Virtual School also is an option for independent learners such as Erin Printy, who wants to bank college credits by taking advanced placement classes. Because her family is planning to move to North Carolina this summer, Erin, a Mitchell High School senior, is taking two AP classes online so she can graduate a year early. "There's the problem with transferring to a different state that might have different graduation credit standards," said Erin, who also wants to graduate with her friends at Mitchell. For Mitchell classmate, Stephanie Wetzel, the appeal of online learning is freedom. Her class, Personal Fitness, requires her to keep a log of her assignments that includes weightlifting and stretching and cardiovascular exercises she does at a local gym. "I like that you have the option of doing things indoors -- or outdoors, when the weather is cooler," says Stephanie, a senior at Mitchell. Students benefit through FVS, but so does the school district. It receives $776.70 from the state for each student who earns a 3 or higher on AP exams, whether they take those classes at their home schools or through the Florida Virtual School. However, students who think online classes are watered down versions of classroom learning should think again. "If you think it's going to be easy, you're probably going to fail," said David Fury, a senior at Mitchell High who takes an AP Art History Class online. "If anything it's more rigorous," said Julie Scarcliff, a guidance counselor at Pasco High School. "I'm very impressed with them. They send us letters if a student is falling behind, and they're very conscientious about sending grades immediately." "It's a wonderful program," said William Askew, guidance counselor at Mitchell High School. "The type of students I normally recommend are self starters -- students who work independently, need very little additional help and want an extra challenge." Students have to be able to type, set their own learning pace and stick to it and engage in online discussions with a taskmaster like Steve Reeves, who teaches AP Art/History out of an office in his Orlando home. "I had my pride hurt when I first started," said Mitchell High School senior Christopher Belt, a merit scholar semifinalist who garnered a biting e-mail from Reeves for his first essay. "Yeah, I beat Chris up pretty badly -- but now he's really writing great stuff," said Reeves, "There are people in the education business that will accept good work. I only accept great work." Sixty-five courses are offered through the FVS, which was established in 1997 in Orange County with limited funds and 77 students, said FVS Executive Director Julie Young. "We had to literally go to the schools and say, 'We need to find a few kids we could try this on,"' Young said. "We set out to create a different learning experience than the traditional classroom. This was just one more avenue to success for those kids." Since then, the Florida Virtual School, accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Commission of International and Trans-Regional Accreditation, has grown rapidly. During the 2001-2002 academic year, the $6.9-million state funded program enrolled some 8,200 students. FVS is now staffed with 45 full time teachers and roughly 50 adjunct teachers, said Young. In order to meet future projected growth, she said, the school is exploring offering positions to certified teachers out-of-state who are interested in acquiring their Florida certification. This year, 127 Pasco County students are taking classes through the Florida Virtual School. Many more would likely sign up, if they were able. The concept of online learning has proven so popular that classes often fill up within hours on registration day. "When it's registration time I tell my kids to go online the minute after midnight," said Pasco High counselor Scarcliff. "The problem is some of our students go in (to FVS) to log in now and may or may not get the course they want," said Jay Feliciani, Supervisor of Instructional Technology for the Pasco County School District. That has Pasco County following the lead of Broward and Hillsborough County school districts, who have franchised from FVS their own online virtual schools. "They (Broward and Hillsborough) had such a large need, being such large districts, that if we took (all of their interested students) we would have to eliminate our students from the rural areas," said FVS's Young. During the 2003-2004 school year, Pasco County will pilot its own virtual school program by offering an AP Physics and AP Spanish class. Although the district will pay a service fee to the online service provider, the teacher training and course content for the program would be provided by the Florida Virtual School, Young said. "It's a very good model to follow," said Feliciani, who is overseeing Pasco's pilot program with Bob Dellinger, Supervisor of Curriculum and Instructional Services. Feliciani, whose daughter Courtney took a FVS geometry course a couple of years ago, has personal as well as professional insight when it comes to the program. "The classes are very good -- quite challenging," said Jay Feliciani, adding that it also helps alleviate classroom crowding, gives students access to more courses and is also somewhat of a solution to a teacher shortage since, for instance, one AP physics teacher could serve many students attending different schools. "This is a blended style of course delivery, which is what we're going to have to do to meet the needs of all our students," Jay Feliciani said. Blended learning is a concept that definite appeals to David, the Mitchell High senior. "I like the online class because it's pure learning, but I still like the interaction of regular high school classes," David said. "I'd like to do both. I'd like to take half my classes at school and half my classes on Virtual High School."
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