Posted on 08/08/2011 8:05:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Online high schools have given athletes and performers a way to keep up with their studies without giving up what they love. Recently, other students have begun to give these schools a try. A new crop of university-backed, virtual high schools is changing this emerging field.
Stanford University, George Washington University, Indiana University, and the University of Missouri have all launched online, diploma-granting high school programs over the past few years, and several other four-year universities offer online classes to high school students.
A degree from Indiana University High School won't ensure a student gets accepted if he or she applies for admission to IU, but a name-brand high school degree certainly doesn't hurt when a student is applying to colleges.
"Students doing online programs have to take their studies as seriously as they would if it was a brick and mortar school," says Bari Norman, a former admissions officer at Columbia University who now runs Expertadmissions.com, a consulting company that helps students apply to college. "There's not much regulation of [online high schools], so everyone has to look at them a little more carefully. Some programs have a good reputation, but the key is finding something that's reputable."
Norman says Stanford and Brigham Young University are known to offer solid, accredited virtual high school programs. And a brand new program at George Washington looks promising, she says.
GW ran a 16-student, pilot high school during the spring, which will expand to accommodate about 150 students this fall. The selective application process may help prepare students for college. "It's very much like a college application," says Barbara Brueggemann, the school's dean. This summer, select students took a communications class taught by a university professor and got to know their classmates during a 10-day summer program at the school's campus in Washington, D.C.
Although students who attend GW's high school won't be given preferential treatment if they apply to the university, Brueggemann says ideally some will go there for college. "A student finding the right fit is the most important thing," she says. "The hope is that some of our students will choose and be accepted to George Washington.
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New Trend: Online Diplomas....
Isn’t that thoughtful. It’s for the chil’ren. Whatever is avante guarde, “trendy”. No absolutes and no formation in anything nearing tradition. (Not that today’s modern classroom offers that either.)
This may be an opportunity for home-school families where States are giving them hell about accreditation.
Great idea for home schoolers.
Stanford charges 3,200 a course or 14 800 per year to do their courses online.
They have to do the final in a classroom setting under supervision. Otherwise I can see massive fraud in this one.
“Isn’t that thoughtful. It’s for the chil’ren. “
Despite your cynicism, it’s a great idea. High school is so useless these days that a good alternative would be welcome.
bfl
Whoa!
You can buy all the textbooks you need for much less.
If you challenged the exams at these schools, it might set you back a few hundred on each exam. But if you passed, you’d get credit through these schools and the diploma would look good on your wall.
I also checked my provincial coorespondence, which used to be very cheap and they are almost a grand a course as well.
High school is so useless these days that a good alternative would be welcome.
&&&
I agree — and I am a former high school teacher.
We looked into some of those programs, but our kids ended up taking classes at the local Community College. We had them enrolled at a 'distance' high school to which I sent their work for the teachers to credential. The school accepted the transcripts of their college work, and I sent transcripts of the work they'd done at home. We had their SAT results sent directly to that school.
When they'd completed all the courses required for college acceptance, they received their high school diplomas. Both got into the colleges of their choice, and even got scholarships.
Cyber education. Cyber diploma. Same illiteracy.
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