Virtual charter to get 2nd look

Board delayed vote, wanted information

State education officials will review the proposal for a new charter school based in Lincoln for the second time later this month, said the man proposing the school.

“It’s different,” said Frank Holman, director of the proposed charter school. “It’s an innovative program. They had some questions. They wanted some clarification.”

Holman, former superintendent for Lincoln Consolidated School District, anticipates a committee will look at his application next Tuesday, then it will return to the State Board of Education’s agenda in January. The stateboard put off a scheduled vote on the charter school proposal in November to give Holman time to answer questions from the department.

“It’s mostly clarification,” Holman said.

Holman plans an openenrollment charter school for up to 500 students in the eighth through 12th grades who would log in daily on a computer, meet with teachers through videoconference technology such as Skype, receive and turn in assignments online, and learn by working on projects with teams of students. Students typically would not attendclass in a building but could work from home or while traveling, he said.

He has described his school as a “blended virtual” model because while most of the interactions would be through technology, rather than face to face, the students would be under the daily supervision of a teacher.

Studies by the U.S. Department of Education have found that student achievement is about the same whether a student is in a physical classroom or learning through a virtual setting, said Patrick Wolf, endowed chair in school choice in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Online instruction has existed for at least 10 yearsfor students in kindergarten through 12th grade, though online courses have been delivered on a small scale, Wolf said. Momentum started growing within the past year, especially in education models that blend online courses with support in the classroom from trained teachers.

“We’re starting to see some new policies crafted and new organizations focus on making that high quality,” he said.

The state board tabled its vote on the application to give Holman more time to respond to questions from the Arkansas Department of Education.

Department officials had about a dozen more questions about the proposed charter school, Holman said. He had responded to all of the remaining questions as of Friday and anticipates thedepartment’s Charter Review Council taking a second look at the application next Tuesday.

At the November meeting, Commissioner of Education Tom Kimbrell told the state board he would prefer for Holman to have written agreements with public school districts and education service cooperatives that would provide a physical location, as needed, for testing or tutoring services. The department’s Charter Review Council also had questions about how the charter school would track student progress.

Holman said he has identified prospective locations for testing, but he would need to know where teenagers who enroll in his school live before proceeding.

“It’s also premature before you’re approved to getany signed memorandums of understanding,” Holman said. “Our goal is to have kids not have to travel very far.”

Holman also answered questions about his plans for an electronic learning management system, which would track students’ grades, their academic progress, provide reports and assist with curriculum. He plans to contract with a company to provide the system.

America’s Charter School likely would draw most of its students from Benton and Washington counties, but students could enroll from any part of the state, Holman has said.

He is targeting his school toward students who have dropped out of school, students who school at home and those who need more flexibility than a traditional school offers.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/11/2012

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