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Question: Can students use online high schools in a foreign country?

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The actual question that came to me this week was: I have a son who lives in Singapore. Can he study in an online school and gain admission into a US university?

For a question that is only two sentences, there are a number of factors that come into play here. First off, the easy answer to this question is yes. Well, probably yes. Some things that you will want to address, though:

  1. Is the online high school accredited by a U.S. regional or national accreditor? You will want to be particularly careful with this requirement because there are indeed fake accreditors. While there a few online high schools that are deemed acceptable to U.S. universities and are not accredited, it is best to avoid this issue. Why? Because you are already looking for special dispensation (that whole living abroad thing). No reason to give them further reasons to reject you.
  2. Does the online high school have a history of sending its students to universities? People earn online high school diplomas for a variety of reasons. Some online high school are more “college prep” than others. Some online high schools provide lists on their websites of colleges to which their graduates have been accepted. This is worth exploring.
  3. Which online high schools are good choices if you are living abroad and want to eventually go to a U.S. university? Certainly online high schools that are related  to  universities  are  good  choices. That being said, there are other schools that have long histories of sending students off  to  university.
  4. Have you done your due diligence? Select a few possibilities based on these priorities and call potential universities. With regard to online high schools, you will likely find some universities that care, some that do not, and many that are somewhere in the middle. It’s best to know where your universities of choice land on this issue.

So really what I am saying is, yes, it can work out for your son (and for others), but it’s important to do your homework first. Don’t assume based on this blog post alone that everything will work out. Make sure you understand the issue.

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Get your school in the book!

November 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

I am in the final stages of creating the database that will be used for the second edition of our online high schools book. If you are an online school, high school or not, please send us an email for possible inclusion in this book or other books to be published in 2012.

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Free Online High Schools #1

October 3, 2011 By 3 Comments

Over the next week or so, I am going to tell you what you need to know to find and use a free online high school. And here we go:

#1: Which state do you live in? Seems a simple question, but free online high schools vary considerably by state. Some states have none and others have more than you can imagine. You need to know where you live. :-)

 

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Which is the best online high school?

September 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This must be the most common question that I receive. Unfortunately, it is also the question that is the most difficult to answer. Can I give you an answer? Sure, but first you need to tell me:

  1. In which state do you live?
  2. Do you prefer working in groups or alone?
  3. Are you able to pay to attend?
  4. Are you comfortable with technology?
  5. Do you prefer to do more of your work online or off-line?
  6. Is your preference for 100% online or is some face-to-face acceptable?
  7. How much interaction do you want with other students?
  8. How much interaction do you want with teachers?
  9. Will you need additional support in order to be successful?
  10. How available are your parents to support your efforts?

And on. And on. And on and on. You get the point.

Importantly, even if I had the answers to all of those questions, I still could not tell you the name of the best online high school. What I might be able to do is tell you the name of the best online high school for you.

And that should be more than enough. Because, of course, unless you are doing a study of online high schools, you really only need to know which is the best option for you.

All of that being said, I am going to showcase a few schools this week to give you an idea of what is available out there.

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New School Alert: Scholars Online

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you are in the market for a quality Christian online high school with rigorous curriculum and solid use of technology, you should check out Scholars Online.

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Does my state have online high schools?

February 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Thanks for asking! Yes, almost all states do. As it happens, we own all 50 of the state online high schools sites. On those sites, we provide regular information about online high schools on a state level.

So how are they different from this site? Good question. Those are primarily news sources for what is happening with online high schools within that state.

Would you like to see those sites?

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

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Blended learning on the rise

January 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s a typical weekday, and Leah Rogers is greeting students as they arrive at school. She hasn’t seen any of these kids in a while, because they haven’t set foot in the building for a week … but that’s by design.

Rogers is acting head of the Chicago Virtual Charter School (CVCS), an innovative school that is a cross between a traditional school and a virtual one: Students work online from home four days a week and come to school for the fifth.

In a typical school environment, all students in a classroom have to learn the same thing at same time. But at CVCS, students can work on material at their own pace, and educators can tailor their instruction to each student individually to fill the gaps in that child’s knowledge.

“In a traditional setting, students are at the mercy of the teacher, who decides how fast they’re learning [and] how much time they have to spend on the subject,” Rogers said. “We give those who ‘get it’ faster the ability to move on.”

Although students are working from home most of the time, they appreciate the chance to come to school one day a week to see classmates and their teachers face to face. The occasional face time is like an anchor that keeps them from drifting too far off their course of studies, supporters say.

CVCS is one of a growing number of schools that have adopted a blend of face-to-face and online instruction, an approach that appears to be paying off: Despite serving many poor and minority students, the school made Adequate Yearly Progress in 2008 and 2009 and has posted considerable gains in both reading and math, becoming one of 147 public schools in Illinois to win an Academic Improvement Award.

For the rest of the article, click here.

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