Online learning considered at US school

This article is from Virtual College

Online learning is being considered by a school in the US that is hoping the introduction of technology into the classroom will curb future losses in enrollment figures for the facility.

Yuma Elementary School in Arizona is looking into e-learning and has made a submission of an application to become a state-approved online instruction provider as a result.

Duane Sheppard, associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, explained the process remains firmly in the planning stage at the present time.

University of Charleston: How we cut tuition by 22%

This article is from CNN Money
By Blake Ellis

After seeing enrollment decline for the first time in a decade, the University of Charleston, in West Virginia, slashed tuition by 22% for the upcoming school year hoping to entice more students.

The school, which currently has 1,006 undergraduate students, employed a series of initiatives to afford the cut, including reducing its financial aid, sharing professors with colleges in the region and graduating students early. As a result, tuition for new students will be $19,500 per year beginning in August -- down from the current rate of $25,000.

Fraser Institute's BC Elementary School Rankings Show Which Schools Improving, Falling Behind in Academics

This article is from Market Watch The Wall Street Journal

The Fraser Institute today published its annual British Columbia elementary school performance report, showing which schools across the province have improved, or fallen behind, in terms of reading, writing, and math over the past five years.

"Our report card is the only objective, reliable tool that parents have to compare the academic performance of their child's school over time and to that of other schools in their community," said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.

"The Fraser Institute's school report card is the only source for long-term, provincewide school performance data that helps parents monitor the performance of their child's school and help educators identify key areas for improvement in their classrooms."

The Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2012 highlights school success stories in every corner of the province, from Sooke to Sparwood. For example, Burnaby's Montecito Elementary School, where ESL students account for 38.5 per cent of total enrollment and the average parental income is less than $37,000, ranks among the top 10 per cent of elementary schools BC-wide in academic achievement. Sparwood's Frank J. Mitchell Elementary School, where the average parental income is almost $20,000 below the average for all schools, ranks among the top 15 per cent of elementary schools in the province.

The 20 schools showing the fastest academic improvement over the past five years includes 11 public schools where parental incomes are below average. At one of these schools, ESL students account for 57.2 per cent of the total student population; at another, 11 per cent of students are special needs. The complete list follows.

"This shows that academic excellence is possible in every school, regardless of the personal and family circumstances of its student population. Without provincewide testing and the Fraser Institute report card, measuring academic improvement and identifying success stories like these would be impossible," Cowley said.

"But the teachers' union doesn't want parents to be able to compare schools based on how well they're doing academically. That's a great disservice to parents, and most importantly, to British Columbia's children."

The Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2012 rates 860 public and independent elementary schools across the province based on 10 key indicators using data from provincewide testing, known as the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), mandated by the BC Ministry of Education.

The report card also includes key contextual information about each school, including parents' average income, the percentage of ESL students, and the percentage of special needs students. Results of the report card are available in an interactive and searchable format or as a free PDF at www.compareschoolrankings.org .

Data contained in this year's report card also shows that 18.4 per cent of FSA tests written in 2011 scored below provincial expectations, down from 20.1 per cent in 2010.

"While there has been some improvement over the previous year, almost one in five FSA tests written by BC elementary school students still failed to meet the provincial standard for learning. As always, the teachers' union wants to prevent the public from hearing about that. Are they afraid that parents and taxpayers will demand better?" Cowley said.

Parents have shown great interest in the report card since its inception in 2003. Last year alone, 604,000 individual school reports and school comparisons on BC elementary schools were downloaded by parents and others from www.compareschoolrankings.org . A 2008 COMPAS poll of more than 1,000 BC parents found overwhelming support for the BC Ministry of Education's provincewide testing policy and for the idea that parents should be able to use the results of those tests to compare schools.

"Education is a top priority for British Columbians, and the Fraser Institute report card is the only source for impartial, provincewide data that shows whether schools have improved or declined in terms of reading, writing, and math over the past five years," Cowley said.

"If the teachers' union has its way, parents will be left in the dark about whether BC schools are meeting basic academic standards. Allowing the public to see whether schools are getting better or worse in terms of academics is the only way to ensure that students' needs are being put first. We need provincewide testing to make sure that happens."

Free Webinar by Elliance Addresses Higher Education Marketing Enrollment Strategies

This article is from chron.com 

Will Google’s recent Search Plus Your World changes impact how potential online and distance students find online programs? That's one of the many higher education marketing questions to be answered in the webinar "Breakthrough Marketing for Driving Online Program Enrollment" at 2 p.m. ET, February 9, 2012.

This webinar, hosted by Elliance, will help universities understand the relationship between social media, search engine optimization and digital public relations and teach how to coordinate all of their online marketing efforts to reach potential students. The webinar will deal specifically with the fastest growing segment of higher education: distance learning.

According to a survey by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments. As excitement for online learning continues, universities need new strategies to market their programs.

"Everything online is converging, " explained Abu Noaman, Elliance's CEO. "This has changed the way potential students find schools."

Elliance has helped universities throughout the country with their higher education marketingneeds. This webinar will combine industry insights with case studies to discuss launching new distance-learning programs, competing with market-leading brands, expanding your reach to new national or international markets plus other topics.

There is no charge for this webinar but participants must register in advance. To learn more, visit http://www.elliance.com/webinarfeb9

About Elliance

Elliance, a digital marketing agency, leverages search engines, social media, websites and email/surveys to ignite customer demand and orchestrate conversions. Past and present clients include Duquesne University, Saint Leo University, St. Edward's University, Pepperdine University, Black Box, Miller Welding, R.J. Lee Group, and many others. 

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.”