K-12 online schools gear up in Iowa

This article is from DesMoinesregister.com 

Officials launching Iowa’s first two full-time online public schools for kindergarten through 12th-grade students say they face the same challenge: Families are unsure of how online education works.

To help answer questions, officials with the Connections Academy and K12, two national companies partnered with districts to start the new schools, are in the middle of a series of meetings with families in the Des Moines area.

Officials from both companies are showing curriculums to parents and explaining how online education systems work.

“There’s a lot about full-time virtual school that is still kind of mysterious to people,” Allison Bazin, a spokeswoman for Connections Academy, said.

Connections Academy will open its first Iowa school, called Iowa Connections Academy, in the fall in a partnership with the CAM Community School District (Cumberland, Anita, Massena) in Cass County. The company currently operates virtual schools in 23 other states.

Another virtual school opening in the Clayton Ridge Community School District will be operated by K12 and will be called Iowa Virtual Academy. Iowa will be the 30th state in which the company operates virtual schools.

While online public schools remain a mystery to many, representatives from both companies say their full-time online students get a full school day, complete with clubs, activities and field trips.

Gov. Terry Branstad, in his reform efforts, has pushed for more online learning for students. Proponents of online or virtual learning say it will allow smaller districts to expand their course offerings.

Using an online education system, students will log on each day and receive live lessons, similar to a webinar, from the school’s Iowa-licensed teachers. After-school activities available at Iowa Connections Academy range from chess club to a student newspaper.

All Iowa students are able to open-enroll in the virtual schools; both Iowa Connections Academy and Iowa Virtual Academy are public schools within their respective districts.

The virtual schools also give another option to home-schooling families in the state, Steve Pelzer, superintendent of the CAM district, said.

“They’re interested in having a curriculum backed by Iowa-licensed teachers available to them on a daily basis,” Pelzer said.

With the potential increase of traditional home-schooled students signing up in the virtual academies comes a possible increase of money coming in to the two districts. However, Pelzer and Allan Nelson, superintendent at Clayton Ridge, said that making money played no role in the districts’ decisions.

Under the state’s open-enrollment law, if a student outside the CAM or Clayton Ridge district enrolls in one of the virtual schools, the home district is billed for the expense.

Further, any home-schooled student within the two districts who enrolls in one of the virtual schools will earn the district the full per-student funding from the state. Currently, home-schooled students only earn their school districts 30 percent of the funding brought in by a full-time student who is enrolled in the district.

Though money will be coming to the two districts, both superintendents say their districts will keep only administrative fees. CAM will keep 3 percent of the funds; Clayton Ridge will keep 3.5 percent.

The emphasis, both say, remains on offering more options to students and families across Iowa.

“For some families, if they’re able to be involved more with their children throughout the day … that’s a lifestyle choice,” Nelson said. “These tend to be students and families who chose the virtual school.”