Sean C. Morgan
If the School Board agrees, District 55 is likely to have an online school operational by next school year and possibly by June.
A staff committee is developing a recommendation for the School Board, said Supt. Don Schrader. The committee grew out of a contractual requirement that the district work with teachers on distance learning programs. If it impacts teachers’ jobs or impacts them financially, it must be bargained.
“We want to bring back students that are residents of our district but are attending somewhere else,” Schrader said. He said the program will be challenging and rigorous – built to meet the needs of all students.
“There’s no substitute for being in front of a highly qualified teacher,” he said, but online education can also work with parents who are motivated.
Oddyseyware is in use by students primarily for credit retrieval and alternative education.
ZACH GILL works to turn Derick Turituri of Crater in the 285-pound final at Reser’s
The School District already has an online program, using Odysseyware. Some 150 to 160 students access it during at least one class.
The curriculum is used primarily for credit recovery and alternative education, Schrader said.
Six students, who do all their work at home on-line, come to the school to test, and that’s the model Sweet Home Online will use, Schrader said. The students won’t need to go to school to do their online work.
Teachers remain involved in the program and must sign off on the work.
“It’s a lot easier than doing it in a traditional classroom,” said Jessica “Jinx” Keel, a freshman. “You can work at your own pace. You go faster on the things you know already and take extra time on things you need to learn.”
She is taking all of her classes on Odysseyware except choir, she said, and is attempting to graduate earlier.
She said the on-line classes have fewer people and “it’s a lot easier to get one-on-one time with the teacher.”
High school social studies teacher Nancy Ellis researched Odysseyware and brought it to Sweet Home High School about five years ago. For the past couple of years Eric Stutzer has led the program.
Credit retrieval used to be done on paper, Ellis said. Scoring was handled by hand.
Ellis said she decided there had to be a better way.
“We’ve got the Internet. There’s got to be something better.”
So she started looking at what other schools were doing. She found that schools were happy with Odysseyware.
“Many kids would not have graduated from high school at all,” Ellis said. Now, it’s helping five to 10 students per year to graduate.
“This gives so much flexibility to what we do,” she said. “It allows us to do scheduling we couldn’t before.”
It’s self-paced, she said, and if a student works hard, he or she can push right through, Ellis said. She recalled a student taking a core math class and a math class in credit retrieval at the same time to get back on track to graduation.
Ellis said she doesn’t like online classes for language arts and English, though. “Obviously, they’re going to improve reading skills. Writing, however, is a process. Writing is a problem.”
And students tend to write like they text or use Facebook, Ellis said. It doesn’t allow for classroom discussions or the teamwork aspect of education.
“Who are you going to discuss anything with?” she asked.
Answers to online questions are “recall” types of answers, she said.
People who are already involved should be involved in planning it, and she and Stutzer have been, she said. “I want kids to make it to the finish line. I think online education can definitely fill a need.”
The online committee is looking at a variety of possible online curricula, Schrader said. Among them is Acellus.
“It’s highly qualified teachers that put together a program of videos that take you through the learning objectives,” Schrader said. Students watch videos and are tested periodically. When they show mastery, they move on to the next video. If they do not, they return to previous videos.
A draft proposal recommends Acellus Learning System and Connections Learning, which is used by a number of Oregon schools, including Scio’s charter school. Schrader said the committee is also exploring Oregon Virtual Education.
Schrader does not expect the online school to impact teachers, he said. “We’re trying to get kids back.”
He’s looking for students who are attending online at other districts, home-schooled students and others.
Teachers of record may even receive duty pay, he said.
After finishing the committee process and training, Schrader said the district will pilot the school for awhile.
“As far as offering it, we can start it at any time,” Schrader said. “We’ll have it going next school year for sure. I think we’ll have kids online by spring.”
In the committee’s draft proposal, the mission is to meet the needs of all students by providing nontraditional options for access to high quality instruction while providing the comprehensive services other online programs can’t offer.
The curriculum will be based on the Common Core State Standards, with local qualified teacher and student services support, including special education, talented and gifted programs, athletics, music and other extracurricular activities.
Under the draft proposal, students, a guidance counselor and plan coordinator would build a personal education plan based on the online program selected by the district.
Kindergarten through sixth grade would use Connections Learning. Grades seven and eight would use Acellus, and the high school would use Acellus or Odysseyware.
Support for students and parents would be offered by phone, email or at school Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. To 6 p.m. And on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Odysseyware and Acellus require students to be assigned an adviser-coordinator. That function would be provided by a licensed teacher.
For example, Stutzer, who is highly qualified in science and social studies, works with students using Odysseyware . While other teachers would serve as the teacher of record to give grades and score work samples, Stutzer would remain the contact person directing the learning plans.
While attending Sweet Home Online, local students would have more localized support, more transferable credits, computer lab access in the evening, on-site programs after school, extracurricular programs, a combination of online and traditional programs available, free and reduced lunch to those who qualify and special needs assistance.
Ellis said that, despite the drawbacks, she’s “really glad” that the district is taking steps to develop an online school.
“I do think we need to have conversations about where the gaps are.”