Sean C. Morgan
School District 55 Supt. Don Schrader anticipated a larger enrollment in the district’s new online school this year, but a growing number of students in the bricks and mortar schools are tapping into other online programs to supplement and assist in their educations.
The district has 10 high school students enrolled in Sweet Home Online, called SHO 2.0, using Odysseyware, the program used for credit retrieval at Sweet Home High School, Schrader said. Five are taking some classes online and some in the physical building. Seven
elementary and junior high students are enrolled in SHO using Connections, the same program used by the Oregon Connections Academy in Scio.
At Sweet Home High School, 203 students are actively using online programs, including credit recovery, Schrader said, and even more are using online programs in the classroom, including IXL, the Khan Academy and MobyMax.
The district is expanding staffing for the programs, with a .8 FTE, to work as a teacher of record, Schrader said. The district has been using substitutes to handle the work.
Much of the work requires teachers to manage the classes, and in some cases, they must grade papers, particularly in language arts.
The Connections program includes teachers of record, software assistance and advisers, Schrader said, but Odysseyware requires local teachers to serve as teachers of record.
Online students also have the opportunity to visit the schools twice weekly to physically meet with teachers.
In the Connections program, the lower grades are probably 10 percent online, Schrader said. The rest is curriculum provided to families. In the higher grades, more of the material is handled online.
“Parents have to really sign on,” Schrader said. They serve as learning coaches. “It’s not just sit them down in front of the computer and forget about them.”
The work is rigorous, Schrader said. Some of the online honors courses are more difficult than the classroom versions.
Some students have signed up for the online classes and gone back to the physical school, Schrader said. Their family support wasn’t ready. Students who have the parental support and resources have been successful.
Some students are highly motivated and do well, while others are not as easily motivated, he said. “It’s not for everybody.”
Springfield School District started with about 60 students online last year, Schrader said, and it ended with about 30.
Sweet Home students have been enrolling in online programs outside of Sweet Home for a few years, especially in Scio and Portland.
“We’re hoping to capture kids who are leaving the district,” Schrader said. The district also was looking for home-schooled students. One group of home schoolers ended up switching to Odysseyware with Central Linn School District.
The district has been partially successful. Many families are looking at programs their friends have recommended, and those families often go ahead and enroll in the program outside of Sweet Home although they are using the same online programs as Sweet Home. And students already enrolled in those outside programs remain enrolled in them.
The district has been enrolling students who have been planning to leave, Schrader said. In one case, a parent was unaware that Sweet Home has an online school this year. Once they learn about SHO, they go ahead and enroll here. The parent wanted to keep her student in the district, but she wanted to use an online school.
Once they’re in another program, it’s difficult to get students to switch back, Schrader said.
“I think it’s going to grow,” Schrader said. “What we offer for somebody in our online program is local resources.”
Students can have lunch in the district, Schrader said. They can attend band classes or participate in athletics. They have access to PE classes, counselors and teachers.
“If they’re in our program, they get all of the resources we have,” Schrader said.
In the meantime, Schrader and school officials are using online technology everywhere they can find a way. On a $200,000 technology grant, Foster School has been using IXL and Kahn Academy and laptops widely available to help with math in classrooms for a couple of years. Oak Heights students are using MobyMax this year to help in all subject areas. They can use those resources at home after school for additional help and practice.
Schrader and teachers are meeting and sharing ideas. In one session they share apps that can be used to help out in the classroom.
One free app he recently shared may be used to build lessons online.
Junior high students are able to use iTunes University for lessons in almost any subject, Schrader said. They can go home and work through lessons. They can do projects they’re working on at home.
“I think parents should have choices,” Schrader said, and online technology is providing more choices.
At a conference, a speaker said that “technology is a terrible master, but it’s a good servant,” Schrader said. “Foster has made it a good servant.”
Part of Foster’s success in meeting the state standards may be tied to its use of technology, Schrader said.
He visited a kindergarten class this year to find five children using computers while others worked with teachers and assistants, blurring the line between online education and bricks and mortar classrooms.
Schrader would like to see that line blurred more across the district, with wireless connections available for anyone anywhere at any time and laptops as ubiquitous as pencil and paper, he said. “It’s going too slow for me,” but the district’s technology team is doing an “awesome” job trying to get there.