A Senate committee is attempting to defuse a funding dispute between the state-sponsored Florida Virtual School and private online providers. Tuesday, the Rules Committee added an amendment to an online education bill asking the Florida Department of Education to study funding for online courses and to recommend changes by the end of the year. The […]
The news Florida is investigating K12, Inc, the nation’s largest online educator, has created confusion about Florida’s similarly named online schools. The Florida Virtual Academy are schools managed by the for-profit K12, Inc. K12 provides services for 43 Florida school districts. In addition, non-profit groups in many counties have applied to open independent online charter […]
When JP Taravela High school went into the summer break, there were 16 teacher vacancies — three resigned or relocated, 13 retired. Over the summer, five more teachers resigned, according to the school’s principal Shawn Cerra. “I lost four out of the five to the virtual world,” he said. The Broward County teachers left the […]
Yesterday we told you Florida’s fastest growing public school district is… online. About 148,000 students sucessfully completed 303,000 half-credit Florida Virtual School courses this past school year. And PE — as in physical education — is a popular class, according to students. So how do you take PE virtually? There are two half-credit courses: Personal […]
School is canceled for many Florida students due to weather conditions brought on by Tropical Storm Isaac. Students in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, and other counties get to stay home today. But other students in the state never have to leave their homes – or even get out of their pajamas – to attend a […]
Last year, Luis Gonzalez failed freshman English, Algebra and Physical Science. When he starts school later this month, he’ll still be considered a freshman. His school has a different name for it. “They call it a ‘fresh-more,’” he said. “By years I’m a sophomore. But I’m going to have freshman classes.” Gonzalez thought he could […]
The Florida Virtual School remains the largest provider of online courses in the country, according to a new report from Evergreen Education Group. Students enrolled in nearly 260,000 courses through the school in the 2010-2011 school year. Florida trails other states in the number of students enrolled full-time in online programs, but a recently approved […]
Education Week has a nice explainer on how the Florida Virtual School works, including shortcomings in the way the school is funded. The piece also looks at school performance, referencing a Tampa Bay Times story that looked at whether any evidence exists that the school is out-performing district schools. Also worth noting is this follow-up, […]
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