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Virtual Charter Academy gains initial approval

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Cabarrus County Board of Education granted preliminary approval to the application submitted by North Carolina Virtual Charter Academy in a 5-2 vote at its business meeting on Monday.

The application will now be sent to the State Board of Education for approval.

This was the third time the board discussed the application.

If it is approved at the state level, the virtual charter school would be based in Cabarrus County and would enroll students statewide.

It would have North Carolina-certified teachers, and students would have online and hardcopy school materials, said Joseph Chisholm, vice president of school development for K12, Inc., a technology-based education company that provides curriculum, who presented at the board’s business meeting in December.

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Virtual charter company gets pushback in Western N.C.

January 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cabarrus County didn’t give the warmest welcome to a virtual charter school company that‘s hoping to use the Western North Carolina county to slide into the larger North Carolina’s education market.

The company, K-12, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), wants the school district (which is located just outside of Charlotte) to sponsor an application to the N.C. State Board of Education to open up the state’s first virtual charter school. Then, the company (operating under a yet-to-be created non-profit in order to comply with state laws) would enroll students statewide, siphoning off money from various school districts and sending Cabarrus County a cut of the money their trouble . (Read our investigative article from December to learn more about K12 in North Carolina).

The company hopes to have 2,750 students within a few years, at a cost of $18 million to taxpayers for a quality of education that critics have said is questionable and puts profits before children.

The Cabarrus County School board held a meeting Monday, and several board members questioned why the company wanted to enter the state’s market through them, according to the Concord Independent Tribune.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual charter company gets pushback in Western N.C.

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Summer school classes move online

July 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The days of Guilford County Schools students ambling to class to relearn polynomials or literary genres while their friends hit the beach during the hottest days of the year are over. At least this summer.

For the first time, the district will not offer face-to-face instruction in classrooms this summer. Instead, most students who need to pass a class or exam will complete their work at home, the library or wherever they can access the Internet. The online-only approach, piloted at Northern High School last year, will help the district shrink its summer school budget from roughly $438,000 to $86,000.

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School cuts offset funding shortfall

June 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

CHAPEL HILL – The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board unanimously approved about $350,000 in recommended local budget reductions Thursday night to offset a shortfall in state funding.

The district faces a total state funding decrease of about $6.2 million after the General Assembly passed its budget. Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the budget, but the General Assembly was able to override her veto.

The district will face $3.4 million in discretionary cuts (an $827,830 increase over the previous year). Many of the items covered under those cuts have not been funded in the past, so there would be little impact on operations. There were also $450,000 in cuts to N.C. Virtual Public Schools and the More at Four program.

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MasterMind Prep Introduces “Next-Generation” Live Online Tutoring

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MasterMind Prep Learning Solutions has introduced “next-generation” Live Online Tutoring to help students anywhere in the world improve reading, math and SAT prep skills in the comfort of their own home. Students and tutors see, hear and learn together in real time using webcams, headsets and digital writing pads in a virtual classroom on a computer, tablet or smartphone.

“We think personal attention and feedback from a live tutor is critical to the learning process, and students tell us they feel like they are in the same room with the online tutor,” said Doug Haynes, founder and president of MasterMind Prep. “With the rise in gas prices and busyness of life, live online tutoring at home is also very convenient for families.”

Tutors at MasterMind Prep teach in interactive virtual classrooms powered by Cisco® WebEx® so they can share documents or web-based curriculum from their screen, work problems on a digital whiteboard, write or ask students to write on the screen, and get feedback by polling or instant chat. Students can learn on any computer, tablet or smartphone including iPad®, iPhone®, Android® and Blackberry®.

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Big Ideas Offered To Cut School Budget

May 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

That sort of cross-school system consolidation isn’t seen in North Carolina – but it has begun happening in other industries. The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer now share sports and legislative reporting teams.

Daniels suggested eliminating dues for professional organizations (an employee making $80,000 or $100,000 a year can afford them). He also suggested offering credit-recovery and summer school classes online, something that might work.

Daniels’ argument for combining departments with other school systems was his funniest. “I know that Greensboro and Guilford County have discussed a similar proposal from time to time.”

For the rest of the article, go to Big Ideas Offered To Cut School Budget

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Appalachian holds Russian language institute for high school students in July

May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

High school students who have been studying Russian online through the N.C. Virtual High School have an opportunity to attend a two-week institute at Appalachian State University focusing on the Russian language and culture.

Appalachian’s 2011 StarTalk North Carolina Student Summer Institute in Russian will be a two-week, residential immersion Russian language and culture program held on campus July 18-31. The residential immersion program will help students further develop their oral, reading and writing skills. In-class and out-of-class activities will center on the theme of Discover the World of Russian Fairy Tales and connect it with the art and music of Russian culture.

Directed by Assistant Professor Irina Barclay, the program is made possible by $83,554 in funding from the U.S. National Security Agency’s StarTalk program, which is part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) begun in 2006. StarTalk is designed to increase the number of Americans learning, speaking and teaching critical need foreign languages that aren’t widely taught in the United States. Russian, Chinese and Arabic are among those the NSA considers critical need languages.

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Welcome to Virtual High

April 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The challenge, many say, is finding the right mix of technology and human contact, freedom and discipline.

In 2006, CMS launched the Performance Learning Center, where about 100 students take online classes at a north Charlotte school. It’s aimed at kids who struggle in traditional settings, and many students say the personal attention from teachers and small, family-like clusters of classmates is part of what motivates them.

Hawthorne, an alternative school in east Charlotte, already focuses on flexible scheduling and individualized coursework. The e-Learning Academy offers the greatest degree of individual freedom yet – which can be a plus or minus.

For the rest of the article, go to Welcome to Virtual High
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NC House panel approves charter school expansion

April 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Democrats complain that the plan would undercut public schools because the measure does not require the alternative schools to prevent segregation into majority white and minority schools. The House minority also says provisions allowing virtual charter schools have few guidelines.
Republicans have moderated an earlier stand by adding transportation and meal requirements for new charter schools.

For the rest of the article, go to NC House panel approves charter school expansion

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New Hanover school system chief points to strengths, areas that need work

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Markley mentioned four new initiatives coming to the district: increasing use of North Carolina Virtual Public High Schools, a business advisory council for the schools, a finalized district strategic plan and a site that will allow parents to track a child’s grades.

“We have a model of a four-year high school. Why is that the only model?” he asked. “We’re pushing more college courses into high school so kids can walk out with college credit hours. When you think about it, if a kid can graduate in three years, why stop him? If they need a fifth year, that’s OK too.”

For the rest of the article, go to New Hanover school system chief points to strengths, areas that need work

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