OWASSO, OKLAHOMA — Dozens of students in Owasso are taking advantage of the World Wide Web to get their education.

The district is in its second year of offering a virtual high school where students take classes online.

“Right now I’m working on a vocabulary assignment for my chemistry class,” said Emily Locker, a student.

Emily is taking four classes this semester. She’s one of 63 Owasso students enrolled in the district’s virtual high school.

For the rest of the article, go to Owasso Students Enrolling In ‘Virtual’ High School

The state Board of Education placed White Oak School District on probation Thursday after raising concerns that of the more than 970 students enrolled in White Oak, only 51 actually attend classes at the rural northeast Oklahoma school.

The rest of the students live throughout the state and have transferred into White Oak’s virtual school, which is run by the Virginia-based online education provider K12.

State schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett said her concern was that taxpayer money was going to White Oak for the 920 virtual school students, and she wanted to make certain the students were achieving academically.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual school in Oklahoma barely obtains accreditation

Oklahoma County Judge Patricia Parrish ruled this morning that the state Education Department must fund a virtual online charter school that is the first of its kind in the state.

However, Parris also ruled that while the online charter school should serve as its own district, it can accept transfer students only during the open transfer dates — a period that already has lapsed for this school year.

Epic 1 on 1 Charter School sued the state for refusing to issue it a school number required for funding.

For the rest of the article, go to Oklahoma County judge rules state must fund online charter school

OKLAHOMA CITY — A judge ruled Monday morning that the Oklahoma State Board of Education must assign Epic One, a virtual charter school, a code.

That code will allow the charter school to receive funding and enroll students. The virtual school plans to begin operations on Sept. 1.

For the rest of the article, go to Judge: Online Charter School Should Get Funding

Epic 1 on 1 Charter School will be the first of its kind in Oklahoma if the startup school wins a lawsuit Monday forcing the state Education Department to fund the 400 students that have enrolled in the school to date.

Epic is a nonprofit group founded by Ben Harris, the former president of Advanced Academics, a Bricktown-based online education company.

Harris’ school would be unique in not being associated with a particular school district, but rather being a public school, privately operated and funded with state dollars. Students from anywhere in the state could transfer to the free school and take classes online.

For the rest of the article, go to Oklahoma charter school faces Epic fight

The sign out front says World Won for Christ, but in the virtual world, this would be an Epic charter classroom.

“I’m not happy with the education that they’ve been provided,” says parent Marla Crawley, describing the public school system, and on hand at a press conference/protest rally against the state department of education for throwing a roadblock up to an online school she had enrolled her two kids at, Epic, the first of it’s kind in the state.

For the rest of the article, go to Online School Battle

“Virtual schooling in state should get a closer look” (Our Views, Aug. 1) calls for additional state oversight of online education. As an organization dedicated to helping kids graduate and succeed, we welcome transparency and accountability but caution against the creation of artificial barriers that will limit student options.

While online learning isn’t for everyone, it’s an effective option for students who aren’t served well in traditional settings and for students whose health or family situation might keep them from attending a traditional school. Online programs are attracting previously homeschooled students back into the public school system. Children can’t enroll in virtual schools without their parents’ consent and involvement, and parents are actively involved in monitoring their student’s academic progress.

For the rest of the article, go to Online learning regulation sufficient

A new state law is expanding the possibilities for online students.

Sam Pool attends Advanced Academics, an online school.

He’s getting ready to start his senior year, but he won’t be walking into any classrooms; instead he’ll simply log on.

Sam, who is mildly autistic, has been going to school online for 3 years and is thriving.

Pool says, “I get to learn at my own pace which is wonderful.”

Rather than go to a traditional brick-and-mortar school, Sam communicates with teachers through a virtual classroom.

For the rest of the article, go to Online students see opportunities in new law

Technology opens a virtual world of learning opportunities for Oklahoma’s students, whether they’re looking to advance beyond what a local school offers or because the traditional classroom setting hasn’t worked well. But it also opens a not-so-virtual can of worms.

That has become obvious as state education officials try to sort out whether to accredit a tiny, financially struggling school district so desperate to survive that the community voted earlier this year to close the high school. The question now isn’t so much about whether the White Oak district in Craig County can provide a quality education for the remaining local students — expected to number about 70 in the coming school year — in prekindergarten through eighth grade. The focus is the other 839 students the school district wants to serve online.

Are students online for six hours — the required length of a school day? How can first-graders stay on the computer that long? Are students full time or supplementing homeschooling? Are parents at home monitoring the children?

For the rest of the article, go to Online education in Oklahoma deserves closer look

Online learning — whether that’s an entirely virtual high school system that hands out diplomas or a single course in Spanish — has emerged from the “fringe of education to the heart of it,” said the keynote speaker at the Online Leadership Summit this week.

“When kids sit in a classroom and they are handed a textbook and they can look out the window and know that, that is not how information is distributed in the world, you know we have an antiquated system,” said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning at the Skirvin Hotel Thursday.

Her comments were to a room of about 60 school superintendents from across the nation who came to Oklahoma City to learn the latest national and international trends in Internet based education.

For the rest of the article, go to Online education discussed at Oklahoma City conference