Now Petersburg offer engineering, architecture, art history, and veterinary science, among other classes. Sue Hardin, the school’s English and Spanish teacher, says that she facilitates advanced placement classes for student in some Northeastern schools, as well as that Oklahoma, Washington State, Switzerland, Venezuela and even China.

For the rest of the article, go to With virtual platform, Alaska high school reverses decline

The new schools are Epic One on One, which received $5.8 million; Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, $1.9 million; and Cherokee Immersion Charter School, $465,179, records show.

Each December, school districts statewide are notified of adjustments made to their July state aid allocations because of changes in student enrollment and other factors during the first nine weeks of the school year.

For the rest of the article, go to Three new charter schools to get millions in Oklahoma funds

Likewise, Tulsa Met-Franklin, an alternative education school for middle school and junior high students, saw its dropout rate increase from 5.3 percent to 19.5 percent, but its enrollment also spiked 51.5 percent, from 132 to 200 students.

Larry Smith, assistant superintendent for school accountability, told the board that the effort to help at-risk students succeed is worth any negative reflection on TPS’ dropout rates.

For the rest of the article, go to Tulsa Public School dropout rates spike

At both fairs, administrators, counselors, teachers, department chairs and students from all nine of the district’s traditional high schools, as well as one alternative education high school and the TPS virtual school, will be on hand to provide information and answer questions.

Brochures and other materials will also be available, providing details about curriculum, magnet programs and schedules.

For the rest of the article, go to TPS to host all-district high school fairs

Students drop out of school for a variety of reasons ranging from lack of parental support to getting behind on their credits and losing hope of being able to graduate Farmer said.

“Every student’s situation is different. We have to make sure these kids know there are alternatives to dropping out,” he said.

Sallisaw High School has nearly a 98 percent senior graduation rate, Farmer said.

“Once we get them to their senior year we have a very good chance of seeing those kids graduate. That is why we are very pro-active and look at every alternative we can to get the students into their senior year,” he said.

For the rest of the article,  go to Farmer delivers good news

The state school board backed off some new rules for online classes Thursday, after local school boards complained they would cut into funding for students at brick and mortar schools.

The rules would have required schools to pay for students to take lessons online, and provide teachers to oversee the program.

Virtual schools and online classes are an increasingly popular option for students, but there’s always been a clear division of funding between local, publicly supported schools – and their online counterparts.

The state board of education changed that to requiring local schools offer, and pay for online instruction for any student who wants it.

“And we all believe in online education and that should be available and we ought to be responsible for those dollars and accountable for those results. This was very rushed without an opportunity for input, none of us had the opportunity for input,” said Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard. Superintendent.

It’s called the Supplement Online Course Program. It requires districts to allow students to take up to 5 hours of daily online instruction. Students spend the 6th hour physically at school.

For the rest of the article, go to A Reality Check For Oklahoma ‘Virtual’ Schools

While most virtual school advocates in the past may have focused on gaining exposure for their programs, they should shift toward emphasizing accountability and transparency in those programs to a community at-large becoming more aware of virtual education, the panel said. And despite some recent negative press about online schooling’s benefit or lack thereof, they agreed that many virtual providers are doing this.

“When these programs started, they started out of a point of pain,” said Andy Scantland, the vice president of sales and marketing for Advanced Academics Inc., the Oklahoma City-based provider of public and private online programs, and a sponsor of the report from the Evergreen Group of Durango, Colo. “As a result, there wasn’t a lot of measurability or a lot of accountability. I think that’s changed a lot, and the report reflects that.”

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Education Sees Shift to Accountability

For the rest of the article, go to Online Schooling Seeing Explosive Growth in Oklahoma

Siano said that for the past three years Norman schools have been using a variety of vendors to provide online education programs with the goal of giving students a broad array of options for both catching up and excelling academically.

The goal is to move to a blended learning environment in Norman that allows student to go from virtual courses that allow flexibility to traditional classroom settings, where students get the benefit of face-to-face interaction with a teacher.

For the rest of the article, go to Norman named pilot site for national virtual learning program

Right now the virtual school, which is has a “classroom” inside Promenade Mall, has about 150 students from Tulsa. Enrollment just got underway and officials expect to see around 300 to 350 students on-line by the end of the semester.

For the rest of the article, go to TPS virtual program seeing record enrollment