Going to school online

When Janet Webber’s three youngest children head to school, they don’t meet up with the yellow buses rolling through their Cumming subdivision.

Instead Roni, the seventh-grader, spreads books across the kitchen table and logs onto the computer. Webber leads her other two children —- a first- and third-grader —- upstairs, to a sunny room with two desks, a laptop computer and bookcases filled with textbooks.

The three kids spend the next five hours or so completing lessons designed by the Georgia Virtual Academy. The online charter school started in 2007 and has quietly become one of the largest public schools in the state. It teaches about 4,400 elementary and middle school students from 163 of the state’s 180 school districts.

Internet-based schools have popped up across the country in the past few years because of improved technology and changing education laws. As of January, there were 173 virtual charter schools teaching about 92,000 students in 18 states, according to the North American Council for Online Learning.

Nationally, little research has been done on the effectiveness of such online schools. They’re just too new.

But Roni, 12, has no doubts about her school.

“I do everything else on the computer, so why not go to school that way?” she said.

For the Webber children, the computer is their classroom.

They download assignments. They occasionally talk with teachers over the phone and through e-mail, but they do most of the work on their own or with help from Mom. They complete assignments on the computer, but they also read textbooks, write in workbooks and conduct experiments. Like other public school students, they take state exams, such as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.

Unlike other public school students, Webber’s children don’t compete with 25 or more classmates simultaneously for their teacher’s attention, their mother said. She’s also not wondering if their teachers move through lessons too slowly or too quickly.

Charter schools are supported with taxes, but are exempt from many traditional public school rules. In exchange for this freedom, they are supposed to develop innovative programs and improve student achievement.

The Georgia Virtual Academy receives about $3,100 per student in state money but no local money. That puts the academy’s per-pupil funding between one-third and one-half the amount some metro school systems receive.

The school finished last year with a deficit of about $600,000, and principal Matt Arkin expects the school will finish in the red again this year. K12 Inc., a curriculum company behind the school, provided additional money to cover the deficit, he said.

The statewide school got going after Georgia amended its charter school law in 2005 to clear the way for online programs. Several education companies applied to start online charter schools, but their applications were denied by local school boards, said Andrew Broy, who oversees charter schools for the Georgia Department of Education.

Then K12, the nation’s largest online curriculum provider, paired with an existing state-approved charter school, the Odyssey School, a small brick-and-mortar school in Newnan. The State Board of Education approved an amended version of the Odyssey School’s application in 2007 to include the Internet-based program.

The online school took off. Organizers expected up to 1,000 students that first year, but more than 2,400 enrolled. About 45 percent of the first year’s students were previously home schooled, Arkin said. This year about 39 percent of the kids have home school backgrounds.

The online students can attend school from their homes, but they’re not counted among the state’s nearly 40,000 home schoolers. Instead, the virtual academy pupils are considered public school students because tax dollars pay for their education. Home school families, on the other hand, spend their own money to buy teaching materials, hire instructors and other educational needs.

There’s another important difference: Home school parents pick what their children learn, while students in the virtual program must follow the academy’s curriculum.

Before the school year started, parents of the virtual academy students received boxes of textbooks, work sheets, microscopes and other items. Parents got scripted lessons and teacher guides so they can help their kids. The school provided free laptops and Internet access to any family that expressed financial need, Arkin said.

The academy and other online schools face their own challenges. Georgia’s school can’t afford art, music or foreign language classes. In other states, opponents of the online schools say they take resources from traditional schools and put too much faith in kids’ abilities to learn from computers.

Also, Broy said, Georgia school leaders are worried about Georgia Virtual Academy students’ test scores. About 74 percent of the online school’s eighth-graders failed last year’s CRCT math test, compared to about 38 percent for the state.

“We have substantial concerns about how students are doing, particularly in math,” Broy said. “Our principal concern is student achievement, and this school must be prepared to answer a lot of questions.”

The school’s charter contract is up for renewal in the spring.

In an attempt to improve test scores, Georgia Virtual Academy created CRCT-prep programs students can take online, Arkin said. Some parents, especially those who previously home schooled, didn’t understand the tests were mandatory and important, he said.

“We are a different model than what you would find in a brick-and-mortar school, but we are effective,” Arkin said. “Our children learn and they get the support they need.”

Webber says she wants her children to get more from school than instruction in math, English, science and social studies, so she’s paid for her kids to take pottery and gymnastics lessons elsewhere.

The school started clubs for students to join online, and teachers have organized monthly field trips, but that doesn’t replace daily social interactions. So Roni hopes to go to her neighborhood public high school when she reaches ninth grade, in part so she can spend more time with others her age.

Still, Webber believes that for now, online classrooms are the right place for her children.

“There are some things we had to give up, but for me it was worth it to have more say in how my kids are learning,” Webber said. “Is this for everyone? No. But it works for us.”

Georgia Virtual Academy students

About 4,400 students attend the Georgia Virtual Academy, a statewide online charter school for elementary and middle school students. The students come from 163 of the state’s 180 districts, including most of the systems in the metro area:

District ..Number of students

Atlanta ….45

Cherokee ..140

Clayton….217

Cobb ……269

Decatur……5

DeKalb ….374

Fayette ….49

Fulton ….257

Gwinnett ..517

Henry……172

Marietta….12

Source: Georgia Virtual Academy.