For all those text-messaging teens with video-streaming personal Web pages, Missouri’s education department is trying to keep pace.

A state-managed virtual public school is coming to a cyberspace near you — pending the governor’s approval.

The Missouri House on Tuesday approved a bill that would direct the state to start offering online courses in July 2007. The bill cleared the Senate last month.

Teachers in some districts already provide online courses and know the opportunities, and the perils, that lie ahead.

For the right students, an online course can expand intellectual horizons, said Kevin Whaley, a Winnetonka High School history teacher who also teaches a U.S. history course online to 16 North Kansas City students.

His concerns about how successful his class could be fell aside as soon as students began filling up the online discussion boards.

“The students begin answering questions among themselves,” Whaley said. “Students who might be embarrassed to ask questions in class get over those barriers. You can tell they’re really thinking a lot about it.”

Missouri, according to Education Week’s annual Technology Counts survey, would join 22 other states that provide a public virtual school. The Kansas Department of Education does not have a state virtual school, but does audit and register available online programs.

The Missouri bill requires that teachers in the virtual school be certified by the state. The school would be measured by the same Missouri Assessment Program tests as other public schools and by the benchmarks set through the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The school would be made available to any student in the state who is under 21, including students in private or home schools, said Bert Schulte, Missouri’s deputy commissioner of education.

Although it probably would be possible for students to complete their schooling online, Schulte said, planners anticipate that the virtual courses most often will supplement regular class schedules.

Students homebound because of illness or a disability could get classes they need. Gifted students would be able to move ahead more easily to a more challenging curriculum. A small district unable to provide a specialized course could offer online alternatives.

The state would limit enrollment to about 500 students the first year, Schulte said, with $2.6 million in state funding. The school would expand to 750 in the second year and 1,000 the third year.

For students enrolled in a public school who take virtual courses, their home district would receive 15 percent of the per-pupil state allocation, and 85 percent would fund the virtual school, according to the bill. The parent of a student not enrolled in a district could declare a district to receive the 15 percent funding. Otherwise, 100 percent would go to the virtual program.

The bill also requires that the state not develop just one curriculum, but offer others as well.

Although many have flourished in his online class, Whaley said, he recognizes that virtual classrooms aren’t for everyone.

Students have to be self-starters and self-motivated, he said.

In the second year of the North Kansas City “e-campus,” said the program’s director, Leigh Anne Knight, some 30 students are sampling from four course offerings.

And when counselors are quizzing interested students, she said, they make sure students understand they must commit to the same amount of time they would spend in a regular classroom.

Although the virtual school is designed to open more opportunities for alternative classrooms, Brad Haines of Missouri’s Families for Home Education said the state shouldn’t expect participation from many families who have chosen home schooling.

Home schoolers have for years been using the Internet to purchase from a wide variety of curriculums, and using e-mail networks to share ideas. State curriculum, online, is still state curriculum — something most home schoolers don’t want, he said.

The virtual school also isn’t for “the kid who wants to stay home and do nothing,” said state Rep. Brian Baker, the bill’s co-sponsor.

“It is an intensive program to try to reach those kids who have needs,” said Baker, a Belton Republican.

The bill, which passed the Senate 31-0, passed the House 136-20 and now goes to Gov. Matt Blunt. A spokesman for Blunt said he supported the concept but was still reviewing the bill.
First glance

■ A bill awaiting the governor’s signature directs the state to offer online courses.
â–  Some districts offer such courses independently.

The Associated Press

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Online Education. Tags: Associated Press, Bert Schulte, Brad Haines, Brian Baker, Department of Education, e-mail networks, Education News, Kansas City, Kansas Department of Education, Kevin Whaley, Leigh Anne Knight, Matt Blunt, Missouri, Missouri House, online alternatives, online class, online course, Online courses, online discussion boards, Online Education, online programs, personal Web pages, Senate, Student, United States, Winnetonka High School, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.