Virtual high school offers real diplomas

While several public school districts allow students to take classes over the Internet, the new "Insight School of Washington" will be the first in the state to permit students to graduate without having to attend a brick-and-mortar school for part of their education.

The group of business executives, politicians and educators launching the school Monday touted it as an alternative for students who need scheduling flexibility, might struggle in a traditional school or who live in remote areas.

"We do not want our geography to determine our educational and economic destiny," said Quillayute Valley School District Superintendent Frank Walter, whose district in Forks on the Olympic Peninsula will oversee the program and issue diplomas. "This is a new world -- youngsters today are digital natives, and there are students who thrive in that type of environment."

Critics, however, fear online-only schools such as Insight are merely cyber "charter schools." Voters have rejected charter schools three times, most recently in 2004. Critics also worry the online schools will deprive students of the interaction with other teens and adults that makes for a well-rounded education.

"A large part of learning is working face-to-face with a teacher and other students -- and online-only schools don't allow that to happen," said Rich Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association, the state teachers' union. "There's great potential there, but it really should be to supplement traditional education."

Former Gov. Gary Locke, whose 2003 Digital Learning Commons pilot program prompted school districts to begin offering distance-learning classes, said Monday that online high-school courses hold the promise of luring back hundreds of students who drop out of school each year.

"It's a great way to complement our public school system and our private schools," Locke said. "It's a way to reach out to the large group of students who are not in education now."

The more than 200 students enrolled in the school will be able to take a full high-school course load -- from English 101 to advanced placement chemistry to fourth-year Latin -- and will receive a free laptop and printer, as well a stipend to help pay for Internet access. Because the school is public, there will be no tuition; money will largely come from the state, with for-profit Insight subsidizing some of the costs for the first year.

Students will choose one of six academic "tracks," including paths for those who want to take advanced placement courses, those interested in vocational-technical education and those who need a yearlong English-as-a-second-language course.

Like traditional schools, the curriculum will be required to meet state standards, and students will be required to take the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and fulfill state graduation requirements.

The school will have about 30 teachers, who by law are required to hold state teaching certificates. Outgoing state Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, who will serve as the school's executive director, said the school plans to have a student-teacher ratio of about 21 to 1.

Curriculum will be licensed from companies such as Paul Allen's Apex Learning, and will take advantage of the multimedia format. Students in an English course might watch a video in which the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" "confesses" to the murder of a main character, then read text that analyzes the short story. A biology class might virtually dissect a frog. History students might watch online video presentations about World War II, then read accompanying text and view photos from that era.

Texts are often written in a casual style to help kids connect with the material, said Rebekah Richards, the school's director of curriculum and instruction.

To keep students honest, teachers will use software designed to catch plagiarism, and school officials are exploring the possibility of using more advanced technology -- such as voice-recognition software -- to verify students' identities.

The school may eventually create some extracurricular activities for students, such as an online school newspaper or a chess club. But for now, it will lack some of the traditional aspects of high-school life, such as a football team or a prom.

Still, 15-year-old Brandon Brown doesn't feel like he'll be missing out.

"They're going to have chat rooms, so we'll be able to interact over the computer," said Brown, who is homeschooled in Sequim but plans to enroll in Insight this fall with his twin brother, Kevin.

Their father, the Rev. Steve Brown, said he's excited about the online school and hopes it will give his sons a chance to study even more advanced material, but at their own pace -- without being buried with homework. He dismissed the idea that his sons won't get enough interaction with their peers.

"Schooling is for schooling, not socialization," he said. "This is going to give kids more time to socialize, because they aren't having to do as much homework when they get home."

Other school districts in the state have been experimenting for years with offering online classes. One of the oldest, Federal Way's Internet Academy, began a decade ago and now allows students in kindergarten through 12th grade to enroll.

Students can't earn a diploma, but can earn the majority of their credits toward one, Internet Academy Principal Ron Mayberry said. Most of the students enrolled live outside the district, and many are students who are supplementing their education in a traditional school, he said.

Mayberry predicts more schools will begin offering online distance-learning courses, especially since the Legislature loosened the rules regarding the requirements for Internet-based classes and other "alternative learning experiences" last year.

"We're not even coming close to tapping into the potential or the percentages of students who might want to do this," he said.