High School Online Learning Update

Since our pilot online learning program began in February 2012, we have served 60 students. Between those 60 students, 109 courses have been attempted for a total of 19.75 credits earned. Many student are taking more than one online class - 16 of whom have completed 27 courses. The objective of this online pilot program was to serve the students who have already failed a class in the traditional setting. It was designed as a credit recovery program for these students. Some of these students have failed their traditional class more than once. Of those students who were previously failing in the traditional setting, they are now passing and/or have completed 93% of their online classes.

I am incredibly pleased with the success of this program. As a strong proponent of an online component to high school education (I spoke of this in an earlier post), I would like to see it expand to more students - even one day, making it a graduation requirement. It's important to state that online learning cannot replace the traditional setting. Also, approaching online learning as a cost-saving tool is a dangerous avenue. There are significant costs associated with online learning, such as, software, licensing, hardware, and staffing. Furthermore, online learning should be used as a tool in conjunction with the traditional setting. For most students, the traditional setting is what works best for them. As technology becomes more and more integrated in our daily lives, this type of exposure can only benefit the student.

Vincent Merola
Board of Education