ANY TIME, ANY PLACE
After 10 years, Florida Virtual School has muted customary critics of school choice
Florida education has seen the future, and it�s become a virtual reality.
The Florida Virtual School celebrated its 10th birthday last fall, bringing online curriculum to 31,000 students in grades 6 through 12. As a campus without walls or borders, FLVS (flvs.net) is attracting a growing number of enrollees from outside the Sunshine State.
Shaving brick-and-mortar expenses while expanding academic choice, FLVS is filling the gaps in the old-school model, offering 100 courses ranging from art history to world geography, including hard-to-get specialty subjects like Latin (I, II and III), AP macroeconomics and Marine Science Honors.
All are taught by regionally and nationally certified faculty who lead computer-based classes of no more than 25 students, each of whom receives one-to-one instruction.
The savings for Florida come from a unique state-funding model that reimburses FLVS only after a student successfully completes a course. At $1,054-per-earned credit, the virtual school is more accountable and cost-efficient than its conventional counterparts, whose amortized budgets can run $25,000 or more per pupil.
Beyond Florida, FLVS courseware is used by licensing agreement in more than 30 states, including Nevada.
Out-of-state class rates are $375 per semester (AP courses tack on an additional $25), for a full-curriculum cost of under $5,000. This is substantially less than a typical private school and offers substantially more resources than most home-school parents could ever provide on their own.
�The motto is �any time, any place, any path, any pace,�� says Bill Tucker, chief operating officer at Educational Sector, an independent education think tank based in Washington.
While virtual learning is nowhere close to replacing conventional schools � FLVS awards transferable course credits, not diplomas � technology is driving a structural revolution in education that�s supplementing and enriching academics in America. At a time when this country�s public schools are struggling fiscally and scholastically, the demand for cyber campuses is growing.
In 2001, Florida Virtual School students completed fewer than 10,000 courses. In 2006, that figure swelled to 68,000 classes. Nationally, more than 700,000 students are taking online classes, doubling the figure of just three years ago.
Contrary to popular perceptions that online learning is only for brainiacs, Florida Virtual School�s student body is increasingly diverse � and successful. Some 49 percent of pupils are eligible for reduced-price lunches at their neighborhood school. More than 70 percent of the lowest-scoring quartile of students scored gains in reading, earning the program an �A� in Florida�s school grading system.
Since FLVS functions primarily as a supplement to traditional schools, it isn�t saddled with building classrooms, cafeterias and football stadiums, or funding �resource� officers and multi-layered administrators. But by peeling off students, the cyber school is incrementally defraying those public-education costs as it grows.
Because the cyber system is open to all, customary critics of school choice, such as the Florida Education Association, have been muted. Indeed, Barbara Stein, online coordinator for the National Education Association, acknowledges that computer-driven curriculum can actually be �much more one-to-one intensive� for both teachers and students.
Of course, old schoolmarms harp on the necessity to �socialize� students. This is a valid concern, yet the standard, one-size-fits-all educational experience (think: socialism) isn�t for everyone. For families that don�t appreciate the condom-based sex education, crowded campuses, multicultural indoctrination and the distraction of over-hyped team sports, a little distance (learning) can be a good thing.
Like the �real world,� the virtual school provides a richly diverse alternative to youngsters who want to work faster � or slower � than what�s arbitrarily dictated by the standard curricular calendar. By customizing instruction to a particular pupil�s interests, FLVS can kindle a spark in those who might otherwise slip through the cracks.
With barely two-thirds of America�s high-school students graduating �on time,� there�s never been a better time, or greater need, for places like Florida Virtual School. Happy birthday � and many more to come.
