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DoDEA plans to expand virtual school offerings

Some military children will be able to enroll in a full-fledged, diploma-granting virtual high school in the 2010-11 school year, Department of Defense Education Activity officials said.

DoDEA is developing 33 courses and revising 11 others for the virtual school. Officials are still working out details on who will be able to enroll, but eligible students will include those who are transitioning between DoDEA schools, between DoDEA schools and civilian schools, and, possibly in the future, between civilian schools in the U.S., said Patricia Riley, DoDEA’s chief of distance learning and virtual school.

The virtual high school will offer access to courses to students who, for example, lack needed course work in transitioning from one school to another, are ill and unable to attend school, or are accompanying their parents to an area without DoDEA schools, Riley said.

DoDEA has offered virtual courses since 1986 in its current distance learning program to meet needs of students in small or isolated schools where certain courses weren’t available — for example, if there were not enough students for an Advanced Placement physics class.

All students enrolled in virtual courses do so through a Defense Department school. These courses will still be offered, but the program will expand. Course enrollments per semester currently number 525 to 550, with some students enrolling in more than one course.

Riley said DoDEA Director Shirley Miles has indicated she wants to expand the virtual school course work to middle school and upper elementary school children.

To meet the needs of military students in South Korea, and to prepare for the comprehensive virtual high school, a virtual “hub” will open this fall at Camp Humphreys, with four teachers.

Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, was one of the key people who came to Miles asking for more education offerings in South Korea as more military families move there on accompanied tours, Riley said.

A virtual hub in Weisbaden, Germany, began operating last fall and will expand this fall from four teachers to six and an assistant principal, Riley said. Like teachers in brick-and-mortar schools, those in the virtual schools must be certified in at least two subject areas, giving the school system more flexibility to meet students’ needs.

Each of DoDEA’s three regions, which includes its stateside schools, will have a virtual hub. Before spring 2010, officials expect to pin down the location of the hub for the stateside Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools and begin planning for staffing and materials.

Hubs bring teachers into the region so they can be in the same time zone as the students for more real-time interaction, though there will continue to be some cases in which students are taught by teachers in other regions.

Although the hubs will be in three locations, they will be part of one virtual school, said Terri Marshall, principal of the virtual school for DoDEA.

The distance learning school’s courses are accredited as part of DoDEA’s overall program. But as the virtual high school becomes a diploma-granting entity, officials are applying for accreditation through the Commission on International Trans-Regional Accreditation.

School officials are developing the 33 courses in core content areas for the full virtual high school — math, science, social studies, and English/language arts, along with electives such as fine arts and physical education, Riley said.

While the courses will be for grades nine through 12, middle school students can enroll in some, such as math and foreign language courses.

“We want to make sure the course work mirrors what we offer in brick-and-mortar schools,” Riley said. “It will be based on DoDEA standards, customized based on best practices and the needs of DoDEA students.”