from the editors
Virtual School Succeeds
But can we be sure about the students?
As the visitor approaches the handsome new quarters of
schools. They get their state per-pupil funding whether a stuFlorida Virtual School near Orlando’s Valencia Community Coldent stays or drops out, passes or flunks. lege, nothing tells him that he is about to enter the nerve cenSome competition between the virtual school and district ter of one of the state’s largest schools. The four-story, rectanschools persists. If a student takes two semesters’ worth of virgular, well-windowed structure is devoid of markings save for tual courses, it costs the district one-sixth of the state’s per-pupil the massive number 2145, presumably the structure’s address, allocation. But Florida Virtual can save districts headaches by not an estimate of the year virtual eduoffering replacement courses if a district cation is to be fully realized. loses a physics teacher or can’t afford to Florida Virtual can save Walking out of the second-floor eleoffer an elective course. So the virtual districts headaches vator, one enters a football-field-length school’s course enrollments have soared waiting area with a single, if very substanabove the 150,000 mark. by offering replacement tial, desk visible down near where a virOne of the school’s most popular courses if a district loses courses—physical education—is required tual goal post would stand. As the day progresses, one moves from one capaof all high school students, but is one that a physics teacher or cious office to another, all decked out some do not wish to pursue via the school can’t afford to offer with large, well-appointed work stations locker room. The course emphasizes good an elective course. and sizable meeting areas that enjoy the health practices. Students report their Sunshine State’s prized natural resource. health objectives, exercise and eating Florida Virtual School is clearly doing very well (see “Florida’s habits, and changes in pulse and weight. The course appears to Online Option,” features, page 12). have provided one student with the incentive to lose 80 pounds. So well that the visitor is regularly informed that the furEvery effort is made to make sure the academic work nishings have been donated and the school’s lease costs less than submitted is the student’s own. Students take tests throughthe rent once paid for cramped quarters within the Orange out the course period, and they write essays and papers. County school system. These are electronically scanned to check and see if material Florida Virtual’s success is no accident. Its chief executive was copied from another student paper or from something officer, Julie Young, has constructed an energetic, dedicated team on the Internet. Teachers grade and give feedback on assignwho watch the clock no more closely than does the inner core ments, and they call students at least once a month, and of an entrepreneurial Internet start-up. The school’s mission much more frequently if distress signals are detected. An is carefully crafted to fit in with—not fight with—that of honor code is given heavy emphasis. Florida’s school districts. The school offers courses that are not Only one barely perceptible fly can be found in the virtual available at district schools, or that do not fit well into a stuointment: As elsewhere in American education, but even more dent’s schedule, or that a student has to take for a second time. so when teacher and student are physically separated, it is not Florida Virtual also offers instruction to home schoolers. always easy to detect whether students have mastered the mateBut it eschews any hint of social conservatism in favor of a rial. Apart from those in Advanced Placement or other courses progressive-style approach that frees students from the subject to an external exam, only a small portion of the total, prison of the bell and clock. Students are even given a fourstudents take no proctored examinations. But without such week grace period during which they can withdraw from a exams, the teacher in the end must infer just how much is being course without penalty. learned. May both virtual and district schools learn how to surFlorida Virtual does not collect any state dollars if a student mount this challenge well before the year 2145. withdraws or does not earn at least a D. If that is not much of — Paul E. Peterson a standard, it beats the one Florida imposes on its district
MISSION STATEMENT In the stormy seas of school reform, this journal will steer a steady course, presenting the facts as best they
can be determined, giving voice (without fear or favor) to worthy research, sound ideas, and responsible arguments. Bold change is needed in American K–12 education, but Education Next partakes of no program, campaign, or ideology. It goes where the evidence points.
www.educationnext.org
S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 / E D U C AT I O N N E X T
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