The quick growth of virtual online, or internet based high schools is being spurred forward by a tragic drop out rate in traditional schools. These alternative online schools are providing a safety net for those fleeing public schools.
We have different data from different cities, and states, but it is all quite scary. In California, records are being broken for the lowest rate of HS graduation in 10 years. The city of Detroit, sadly, only graduates one quarter of the students that enter high school. This is intolerable.
Apparently "No Child Left Behind" has become a drop out engine. The program that was intended to give every child a good education, is instead filtering children by race, social status, and economic privilege. It is the same old story. The advantaged kids prosper, and the disadvantaged kids get left out. The vicious "high stakes testing" is the man behind the curtain.
State exams determine whether a child will graduate from high school or not, and determine if they advance through grades. Holding a child back in school is demoralizing. Holding a child back more than once almost guarantees that he will not make it to high school graduation.
Our own story is unique, but has similarities to many others. My step daughter is up against a wall. She wants to drop out. In her early years she was failed twice due to her English. At that time, she was newly arrived from Vietnam, and was slow catching up with her new language.
I think that well funded schools should be able to provide good tutoring rather than failing her. She finally did catch up, and was doing great. Actually, she did so well that she made her high school honor roll. Tragically, however, right after making the honor roll she failed the state exams. Her school was failing her.
I realize that grade inflation is part of the problem. That still meant that she was getting the maximum that the school could give, and it was not sufficient. At this point, she was looking at a third failure. There was also a big question as to whether the school would be able to help her prepare for retakes of the exams. It was decision time.
We decided to enroll my step daughter in an INTERNET high school. We picked a school that is self paced, and can be done "anywhere, any time". In a program that is self paced, each lesson will be worked on until mastered, before advancing to the next one. Actually, this is the way school should be, in an ideal situation.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. We learn different things at different rates. Any classroom of kids contains a large spectrum of learners. Giving a standardized test at a predetermined time is unfair. The concept of some "standardized" child is erroneous.
Finding a suitable virtual school was difficult. I found that some of the schools were hugely overpriced. For example, one school charged $1000 for each quarter credit. There are some free online schools, but they are state sponsored and used the same testing. That wasn't what we wanted.
After many days of research, we picked a school with strong challenging courses, good accreditation, and moderate pricing. I spent extra time investigating the accreditation.
You will certainly do your own research online. It is a tedious process, however, since there are more than two hundred schools listed. Avoid the phony schools that don't require any coursework. You will waste your money, and may even get accused of fraud in court.
We have different data from different cities, and states, but it is all quite scary. In California, records are being broken for the lowest rate of HS graduation in 10 years. The city of Detroit, sadly, only graduates one quarter of the students that enter high school. This is intolerable.
Apparently "No Child Left Behind" has become a drop out engine. The program that was intended to give every child a good education, is instead filtering children by race, social status, and economic privilege. It is the same old story. The advantaged kids prosper, and the disadvantaged kids get left out. The vicious "high stakes testing" is the man behind the curtain.
State exams determine whether a child will graduate from high school or not, and determine if they advance through grades. Holding a child back in school is demoralizing. Holding a child back more than once almost guarantees that he will not make it to high school graduation.
Our own story is unique, but has similarities to many others. My step daughter is up against a wall. She wants to drop out. In her early years she was failed twice due to her English. At that time, she was newly arrived from Vietnam, and was slow catching up with her new language.
I think that well funded schools should be able to provide good tutoring rather than failing her. She finally did catch up, and was doing great. Actually, she did so well that she made her high school honor roll. Tragically, however, right after making the honor roll she failed the state exams. Her school was failing her.
I realize that grade inflation is part of the problem. That still meant that she was getting the maximum that the school could give, and it was not sufficient. At this point, she was looking at a third failure. There was also a big question as to whether the school would be able to help her prepare for retakes of the exams. It was decision time.
We decided to enroll my step daughter in an INTERNET high school. We picked a school that is self paced, and can be done "anywhere, any time". In a program that is self paced, each lesson will be worked on until mastered, before advancing to the next one. Actually, this is the way school should be, in an ideal situation.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. We learn different things at different rates. Any classroom of kids contains a large spectrum of learners. Giving a standardized test at a predetermined time is unfair. The concept of some "standardized" child is erroneous.
Finding a suitable virtual school was difficult. I found that some of the schools were hugely overpriced. For example, one school charged $1000 for each quarter credit. There are some free online schools, but they are state sponsored and used the same testing. That wasn't what we wanted.
After many days of research, we picked a school with strong challenging courses, good accreditation, and moderate pricing. I spent extra time investigating the accreditation.
You will certainly do your own research online. It is a tedious process, however, since there are more than two hundred schools listed. Avoid the phony schools that don't require any coursework. You will waste your money, and may even get accused of fraud in court.
About the Author:
Ed Desmond is home schooling his daughter the simple way with a virtual high school. If you would like a affordable priced alternative now offering full $1000 off tuition please follow this link to National High School. Don't reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
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