Mountain Heights Academy
Website: http://www.mountainheightsacademy.org/
Article: Business Now: Mountain Heights Academy
Mountain Heights Academy
Contact:
DeLaina Tonks
801-725-3396
[email protected]
Mission:
Mountain Heights Academy is putting the focus where it should be – on the student. Our mission is to use innovative technology, service learning, student-centered instruction and personal responsibility to empower students to succeed.
Belief Statements
Location: West Jordan, Utah
Employees:
2 Administrators, 1 Tech Director, and 1 Admin Assistant
2 Guidance Counselors (1.3 full-time) + 1 Counseling Secretary
27 Faculty members (20.3 full-time and lots of part-time folks)
6 Board Members
Awards and Honors:
The following is a very abbreviated list. See below for an additional list of awards.
Phone interview conducted on: 9-17-13
Questions
1. How is your school accredited?
We are accredited by Northwest Accreditation Commission, which is a division of AdvancEd. We are also NCAA approved.
2. Where does funding for your school come from?
It's a tuition-free charter school; so, aside from nominal fees charged at the beginning of the year, there is no cost associated with attendance. As a public charter school, we are funded at just about the same rate as district schools through taxpayer dollars.
3. What is the tuition for your school?
Tuition free
4. Is there an application fee?
Total basic school fees are $135 for a full year.
5. Do you offer financial aid?
We offer need-based fee waivers just as all public schools do.
6. What grade levels do you offer?
We offer grades 7–12.
7. Are there age restrictions?
Our restrictions are the same as those for public schools.
8. What is the current enrollment of the school? How many are seniors?
We have 400 full time and 75 part time students, with 85 seniors. Our students are not usually looking for credit recovery. Per recent legislation in Utah, any brick-and-mortar school must allow students to take up to three courses online if they wish. This allows students who feel they don't have enough access to teachers or classes or have not had a good experience with a teacher or class to have other options.
One of my children is taking a Math class via Mountain Heights. Her teacher fills gaps in the course so that my daughter can better understand. For example, just the other day, the teacher worked with my daughter for 30 minutes to understand a concept that she was having trouble grasping. A lot of what we do is what we call, "just-in-time intervention." We get to students just before they give up and we give them the individual attention they need.
9. Are courses organized in classes with fixed start/stop dates or are they independently paced?
They have fixed start/stop dates that follow the public school schedule, but our classes are asynchronous, meaning they are accessible 24 hours a day.
The content is presented a week at a time and organized in weekly folders. Students always have access to two weeks of material to allow them to work ahead. All work for each week is due Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. However, there is a 24 hour grace period, if necessary, and work can be submitted by 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning without penalty.
Students wishing to accelerate can take advantage of our more rigorous content, Concurrent Enrollment, and Honors courses, or they can take a heavier course load in order to graduate a year early with the Guidance Counselor’s and Director’s permission. For students needing a slower pace, our Basic courses provide additional teacher support and streamlined content so the material can be reviewed on the same time frame as other courses.
10. What requirements do you have for teachers? State certification for high school? Virtual Teacher certification?
The large majority of our teachers are full-time, although we occasionally hire part-time adjunct teachers, all of whom are highly qualified, certified, and licensed.Our teachers have a long list of accolades, including Charter Educator of the Year, three International USDLA Award winners, one of the Top Five Online Teachers in the nation, a Presidential Award Winner, and the recipient of the Governor’s Medal of Excellence in STEM Award.
11. How are teachers paid? Are they paid only when students complete a course? Does that impact the rigor of the course or the strictness of grading?
Our teachers are paid annual salaries at a rate that is higher than surrounding districts. We have a rigorous hiring process that includes performance measurements. For example, for any given posting, we may receive 300 resumes. We ask all of those applicants to build an online lesson with a video. We tell them we will give them the tech tools needed to do that and point them to additional tools and open education curriculum resources. We also require that they choose one standard from a list of 2–3 to incorporate within a lesson. We then get about 30 out of the 300 respond that they are still interested. Out of those 30, about 10 actually complete the assignment. We then review the 10 lessons, see if the instructor is warm and engaging and look at how much time it took them to create the video (using built-in course management tracking software). We also examine how they set up the lesson, asking questions like, Do they do a good job of "chunking" the content? Is the quality and variety of the material effective? We end up with really terrific teachers. We pay them for that and allow them to work from home, and as a result, ours are coveted teaching positions. We only hire highly qualified, certified teachers. Utah is investigating an online teaching certificate; however, we don't feel it's necessary to require that type of certification from our applicants because our hiring process allows us to find the teachers who will be the best fit for our school.
12. What are your short-term goals for the school?
Enrollment! Three years ago legislation in the state opened up the market for online education, and so competition is fierce. There are now something like 50 programs. We have to do a lot of marketing and we have to undo some of the bad perceptions gained by experiences students have in other programs. We have the highest completion rate of any of the schools, but we'd like to see that get even higher. We want to increase student engagement, especially with those students who have really struggled to get engaged in education anywhere.
[In response to the question, "Why are there so many online schools in Utah?"]: BYU has a strong Educational Technology program, so they do a lot of outreach and innovation. That has helped lead to a statewide interest in online education. With funding cuts in education and the new legislative action, many school districts are trying to hold onto their students. The industry has helped schools see how this new ed tech thing can drive innovation and help schools solve problem, so the industry has grown in response.
13. What is your long-term vision for the school?
Growth and enrollment. We'd like to see our completion rate be higher and we'd like to serve the students of the state more effectively. We're here because we want to help students. The politics are sometimes a challenge, especially for an online charter, but our goal is to remain focused on the students and do the right thing for our students.
14. Where does your curriculum come from? (Who builds it?)
We build our own curriculum from existing open source content and from teacher-created materials aligned to core standards. We do not use vendor curriculum, with the exception of a couple of classes such as Keyboarding and ACT Prep.
15. How would you describe the philosophy behind your content development?
Student-centered and teacher-centered. We started with open-source content and curriculum designers, and manipulated the open-source content in way to be palatable to the student. But what we learned is that there was a real gap between what the instructional designers were creating and what worked for individual students. By finding the teachers with the skill sets we need, we have educators who can build the content to meet the specific needs of students.
16. Who maintains your curriculum? How involved are your teachers in the course curriculum?
We create all of our own curriculum and empower teachers to have the ability to adjust it based on data. If students miss an important concept, teachers can track that and add additional practice to ensure students have every opportunity for mastery. In short, we have local control whereas the great majority of other online schools and programs purchase curriculum from national providers or are national corporations themselves. Their content is developed out of state and distributed across the country without the simple ability to personalize it to fit the needs of each state or school.
Our teachers have four hours daily of synchronous office hours, so students can connect with them to get help with specific circumstances. The rest of the day our teachers are stalking students, looking at data, and figuring out ways to continuously improve the learning experience for the kids. This teaching model is essential to our success.
17. What LMS do you use?
We use the hosted version of Moodle, which is called Moodlerooms. We have to be able to release our courses as open educational resources, and Moodle allows us to do that. We also rely heavily on the reports that come through Moodlerooms. We have an add-on program called Genius SIS that allows us to pull student data from Moodlerooms and put it in a prettier package. We can share this with parents. Teachers have additional statistics they can monitor to see how students are interacting on a very content-specific level and respond as needed.
18. How involved are your teachers in student interaction? How do they communicate with students (email, chat, phone, face-to-face) and how often?
Our teachers offer four hours of office time where they can connect directly to the students. They use all of those methods mentioned. They also spend additional time reaching out to students who have not taken the initiative to contact them. We also really stress social activities. Everyone must participate in some sort of activity, like yearbook, twice per month. We also host in-person social activities, like a yearly prom. Last year, we had 150 students come to the prom. These events are great because the students meet the teachers and other students. We also have a number clubs, which all have two outings per year. There are lots of opportunities for interaction. We have a twitter feed, and we very much encourage students to add each other as contacts and chat. We want, and stress, student interactions. We've found that it makes a huge difference. We've done some partner activities with other online schools, and we can immediately tell schools that don't allow their students to connect with each other online. Our students know each other and feel more comfortable going up to other students; schools that don't allow chat prevent that kind of social engagement that kids need. That social element makes a huge difference.
19. How much professional development do your teachers receive?
I was just thinking about this yesterday. There is a gap between what is going on in the research arena and what is actually happening in schools. It's very important to us to get together and share information and discuss what works and doesn't. So we have several in-person sessions every year--we have a full day workshop before school begins, a retreat in January, and we physically meet once per month. We want to stay cutting edge, so we ask teachers to contribute to the research base--they share studies and present to the group. We also go to conferences. For instance, every year we take 5–6 teachers to iNACOL. By rotating, everyone gets a turn to have that experience. If a teacher finds himself or herself to be struggling with something, we will get additional resources. We also have a mentorship program in which a teacher is mentored for the first three years. We really stress communication between teachers--our discussion forums and monthly in-person meetings help facilitate. Our teachers are our experts, and what we do works because it is individualized. An in-the-box approach to professional development won't work because it is not tailored to the needs of our teachers.
[In response to the question, has your school allowed teachers who might have otherwise left their rural communities stay where they are?]: Three of our teachers live in rural communities and this opportunity has allowed them to stay in the community and retain a healthy salary and schedule.
20. Describe the application process for students.
Students can complete an enrollment application at any time, although it is better to apply early. All students who have submitted an application by the end of an enrollment period will have an equal chance to be accepted in a random lottery for that period. The first lottery is conducted in the early spring with additional lotteries run weekly as necessary. Once all slots have been filled, any additional lotteries will be held to determine priority on the waiting list. Students will find out within two weeks of the lottery period during which they applied if they have been selected. Those who are not selected will be placed on a waiting list in order of their lottery result and will be notified accordingly.
21. What are the most common challenges your students face?
Believing what we tell them! They often can't compute at first that our teachers are truly here to help. It's only after the teachers hunt them down and give them the help they need that they begin to understand that their individual needs matter. We've had parents say, "It sounded too good to be true, but it IS true." So many have been in poor educational situations that they have low expectations. What we offer truly is the "kitchen table" tutoring that students need, but getting them to overcome the barrier of they way they think it will work is a challenge.
Students also struggle with not getting to see their friends in person as regularly. The technology is different for many, so that can be difficult. But we have a training for students at the very beginning and do a lot of hand holding. Students get help.
22. What are the biggest challenges your school faces?
Enrollment; statewide marketing. Some of our parents call us the "best secret in Utah." It's not easy to get the word out. We also come up against parents wanting for their students what they had--like the Friday night football experience. The socialization element is a tough hurdle to overcome because even though we know what we offer works, people perceive that online education prevents socialization. But if you think about it, most of the time in a traditional school, students only had those 5 minute passing periods to really connect during the day anyway. Our situation is not that different, but it does require a different mindset and focus. We have to get the message across that there is tremendous value in time well spent.
23. How do your students compare to those in brick-and-mortar schools? (statistics on graduation rate, college acceptance, SAT/ACT/AP Scores, etc.)
Mountain Heights Academy (formerly known as Open High School of Utah) is #31 in the 50 Best-Scoring High Schools in Utah (out of 140+) based on CRT scores. The state of Utah has an online school that has a course completion rate in the 30 percent range. Mountain Heights Academy has a completion rate of 75%. You can take a look at the 2012 Annual Report (under the Open High School of Utah name) for supporting data. Even our part-time Statewide Online students perform significantly better than students in other online schools.
24. How would you describe the students who attend your school? Honestly speaking, what would you say brings most of your students to your school? Is it their option of last resort?
Our students come from all backgrounds and shapes and sizes. We've had an Olympic athlete, a pro-baseball player, actresses, and other students who are fitting their education around a profession. We've also had students who were bullied, or felt the system wasn't serving their needs. Some didn't like the dress code of their traditional school, or they travel a great deal, or they simply don't want to be in school every day. Others don't engage in education, and are coming to us under pressure. What we've seen is an upside-down bell curve. Many of our students are high performing now, but weren't before.
25. Does your school provide virtual clubs or opportunities for students to meet physically?
In addition to a rigorous academic program, students can also apply to be a peer mentors, members of the yearbook staff, National Honor Society, and even run for class officer positions. We host a variety of clubs, such as History Club, Fitness & Health Club, European Culture Club, and an Art Club. We also encourage each student to participate in service learning projects, such as making earthquake kits for elementary school children, sending treats to troops, volunteering at the Food Bank, reading to elementary school children, and much more. Any student who completes 25 hours of service per semester will be eligible for the President’s Volunteer Service Award at the the Gala at the end of the school year.
The Parent Organization, Class Officers, and Service Learning Program provide students with 1–2 opportunities per month to get together in person for activities. Past activities include, The Magic Flute at the Utah Opera, Lagoon Day, Fall Dance, Game Nights, Pizza Parties, Book Drive, Food Drive, Antelope Island Field Trip and Clean-up, Breakfast at the Capitol, Field-trip to the Animal Shelter, tour of Welfare Square, volunteering at the Utah Food Bank, Ice-skating, and our traditional Gala at the end of the school year.
Regional Activity Coordinators can also choose to host smaller events closer to home based on interest and number of students participating. Additionally, there is constant collaboration online as students are working on assignments. Within our secure system, students can see when other students are online and they can choose to IM, email, video conference, or chat with them if they wish. They also contribute to class discussion boards and work on group projects through the use of 21st century collaborative technology tools.There is also an internal social network and even prom to allow students to socialize and form friendships. We also encourage our students to participate in programs like orchestra and seminary as well as sports at their local high schools.
26. How would you describe the teachers attracted to online teaching?
Our school provides the best of both worlds for teachers and students. Our teachers get that, and they want to work here. Most are professionals who, because they can work from home, really get to manage both family and work in a way they couldn't before.
27. How would you say your teachers compare the online teaching experience to the F2F teaching experience?
We've surveyed our teachers and two quotes that seem to represent the majority opinions are: "You have broken me and I won't be able to return to a brick-and-mortar setting where I don't have the ability to gather data like I do in an online setting" Our focus is heavily data driven. Teachers are skeptical at first, but have really come to see how much looking at the data allows them to create personalized instruction that can make all the difference in learning for the kids.
The other quote is,"You'll have to pry my laptop out of my cold, dead fingers!" Many of our teachers comment that they could not go back to a traditional school environment. On the surveys, we had a few 7s on a scale of 1–10 with 10 being the most satisfied, but most were 10s. Our teachers say they feel empowered and they feel like they are really giving something valuable to the students.
28. Examples of universities that have accepted your students?
We just had our first graduating class last year. We started with 9th grade, then added 10th, and then 11th and 12th. Our grads ended up at schools all over Utah and beyond. One is at Berkeley--they are all over!
29. Could you recommend a couple of students I could interview about their experiences?
Testimonials
She collected the following student interviews for me via email responses: Amanda O.; Julianne O. C. Matschull; Lily M.
30. What other online high schools would you recommend I interview?
I will send you some names--there is one school in Australia that is interesting and the Georgia Virtual School is a good one as well. [For the record, researched Georgia Virtual School, but it is a supplement program, not a degree-granting program.]
Additional Awards:
Article: Business Now: Mountain Heights Academy
Mountain Heights Academy
Contact:
DeLaina Tonks
801-725-3396
[email protected]
Mission:
Mountain Heights Academy is putting the focus where it should be – on the student. Our mission is to use innovative technology, service learning, student-centered instruction and personal responsibility to empower students to succeed.
Belief Statements
- We believe that all students should have an education tailored to their specific needs, regardless of ability or disability.
- We will prepare our students for the modern, technology driven world.
- We believe in a flexible, constantly evolving curriculum based on best practices and current research.
- We believe in personal responsibility and self advocacy.
- We believe that service learning, ethics, and community involvement are vital to student achievement.
- We believe that students, parents, and teachers are all part of the educational team.
- We believe in sharing our open education resources with students, parents and teachers alike across the world.
Location: West Jordan, Utah
Employees:
2 Administrators, 1 Tech Director, and 1 Admin Assistant
2 Guidance Counselors (1.3 full-time) + 1 Counseling Secretary
27 Faculty members (20.3 full-time and lots of part-time folks)
6 Board Members
Awards and Honors:
The following is a very abbreviated list. See below for an additional list of awards.
- eSchool of the Month by eSchoolNews, a national magazine
- ‘Best of State’ Charter School in 2012 and ‘Best of State’ Curriculum in 2011 and 2013
- U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan held up Mountain Heights Academy as a shining example of how technology is transforming education.
- Mountain Heights Academy teacher Amy Pace received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.
- eCybermission National Winners with a team winner in the 2012 National Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competition
Phone interview conducted on: 9-17-13
Questions
1. How is your school accredited?
We are accredited by Northwest Accreditation Commission, which is a division of AdvancEd. We are also NCAA approved.
2. Where does funding for your school come from?
It's a tuition-free charter school; so, aside from nominal fees charged at the beginning of the year, there is no cost associated with attendance. As a public charter school, we are funded at just about the same rate as district schools through taxpayer dollars.
3. What is the tuition for your school?
Tuition free
4. Is there an application fee?
Total basic school fees are $135 for a full year.
5. Do you offer financial aid?
We offer need-based fee waivers just as all public schools do.
6. What grade levels do you offer?
We offer grades 7–12.
7. Are there age restrictions?
Our restrictions are the same as those for public schools.
8. What is the current enrollment of the school? How many are seniors?
We have 400 full time and 75 part time students, with 85 seniors. Our students are not usually looking for credit recovery. Per recent legislation in Utah, any brick-and-mortar school must allow students to take up to three courses online if they wish. This allows students who feel they don't have enough access to teachers or classes or have not had a good experience with a teacher or class to have other options.
One of my children is taking a Math class via Mountain Heights. Her teacher fills gaps in the course so that my daughter can better understand. For example, just the other day, the teacher worked with my daughter for 30 minutes to understand a concept that she was having trouble grasping. A lot of what we do is what we call, "just-in-time intervention." We get to students just before they give up and we give them the individual attention they need.
9. Are courses organized in classes with fixed start/stop dates or are they independently paced?
They have fixed start/stop dates that follow the public school schedule, but our classes are asynchronous, meaning they are accessible 24 hours a day.
The content is presented a week at a time and organized in weekly folders. Students always have access to two weeks of material to allow them to work ahead. All work for each week is due Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. However, there is a 24 hour grace period, if necessary, and work can be submitted by 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning without penalty.
Students wishing to accelerate can take advantage of our more rigorous content, Concurrent Enrollment, and Honors courses, or they can take a heavier course load in order to graduate a year early with the Guidance Counselor’s and Director’s permission. For students needing a slower pace, our Basic courses provide additional teacher support and streamlined content so the material can be reviewed on the same time frame as other courses.
10. What requirements do you have for teachers? State certification for high school? Virtual Teacher certification?
The large majority of our teachers are full-time, although we occasionally hire part-time adjunct teachers, all of whom are highly qualified, certified, and licensed.Our teachers have a long list of accolades, including Charter Educator of the Year, three International USDLA Award winners, one of the Top Five Online Teachers in the nation, a Presidential Award Winner, and the recipient of the Governor’s Medal of Excellence in STEM Award.
11. How are teachers paid? Are they paid only when students complete a course? Does that impact the rigor of the course or the strictness of grading?
Our teachers are paid annual salaries at a rate that is higher than surrounding districts. We have a rigorous hiring process that includes performance measurements. For example, for any given posting, we may receive 300 resumes. We ask all of those applicants to build an online lesson with a video. We tell them we will give them the tech tools needed to do that and point them to additional tools and open education curriculum resources. We also require that they choose one standard from a list of 2–3 to incorporate within a lesson. We then get about 30 out of the 300 respond that they are still interested. Out of those 30, about 10 actually complete the assignment. We then review the 10 lessons, see if the instructor is warm and engaging and look at how much time it took them to create the video (using built-in course management tracking software). We also examine how they set up the lesson, asking questions like, Do they do a good job of "chunking" the content? Is the quality and variety of the material effective? We end up with really terrific teachers. We pay them for that and allow them to work from home, and as a result, ours are coveted teaching positions. We only hire highly qualified, certified teachers. Utah is investigating an online teaching certificate; however, we don't feel it's necessary to require that type of certification from our applicants because our hiring process allows us to find the teachers who will be the best fit for our school.
12. What are your short-term goals for the school?
Enrollment! Three years ago legislation in the state opened up the market for online education, and so competition is fierce. There are now something like 50 programs. We have to do a lot of marketing and we have to undo some of the bad perceptions gained by experiences students have in other programs. We have the highest completion rate of any of the schools, but we'd like to see that get even higher. We want to increase student engagement, especially with those students who have really struggled to get engaged in education anywhere.
[In response to the question, "Why are there so many online schools in Utah?"]: BYU has a strong Educational Technology program, so they do a lot of outreach and innovation. That has helped lead to a statewide interest in online education. With funding cuts in education and the new legislative action, many school districts are trying to hold onto their students. The industry has helped schools see how this new ed tech thing can drive innovation and help schools solve problem, so the industry has grown in response.
13. What is your long-term vision for the school?
Growth and enrollment. We'd like to see our completion rate be higher and we'd like to serve the students of the state more effectively. We're here because we want to help students. The politics are sometimes a challenge, especially for an online charter, but our goal is to remain focused on the students and do the right thing for our students.
14. Where does your curriculum come from? (Who builds it?)
We build our own curriculum from existing open source content and from teacher-created materials aligned to core standards. We do not use vendor curriculum, with the exception of a couple of classes such as Keyboarding and ACT Prep.
15. How would you describe the philosophy behind your content development?
Student-centered and teacher-centered. We started with open-source content and curriculum designers, and manipulated the open-source content in way to be palatable to the student. But what we learned is that there was a real gap between what the instructional designers were creating and what worked for individual students. By finding the teachers with the skill sets we need, we have educators who can build the content to meet the specific needs of students.
16. Who maintains your curriculum? How involved are your teachers in the course curriculum?
We create all of our own curriculum and empower teachers to have the ability to adjust it based on data. If students miss an important concept, teachers can track that and add additional practice to ensure students have every opportunity for mastery. In short, we have local control whereas the great majority of other online schools and programs purchase curriculum from national providers or are national corporations themselves. Their content is developed out of state and distributed across the country without the simple ability to personalize it to fit the needs of each state or school.
Our teachers have four hours daily of synchronous office hours, so students can connect with them to get help with specific circumstances. The rest of the day our teachers are stalking students, looking at data, and figuring out ways to continuously improve the learning experience for the kids. This teaching model is essential to our success.
17. What LMS do you use?
We use the hosted version of Moodle, which is called Moodlerooms. We have to be able to release our courses as open educational resources, and Moodle allows us to do that. We also rely heavily on the reports that come through Moodlerooms. We have an add-on program called Genius SIS that allows us to pull student data from Moodlerooms and put it in a prettier package. We can share this with parents. Teachers have additional statistics they can monitor to see how students are interacting on a very content-specific level and respond as needed.
18. How involved are your teachers in student interaction? How do they communicate with students (email, chat, phone, face-to-face) and how often?
Our teachers offer four hours of office time where they can connect directly to the students. They use all of those methods mentioned. They also spend additional time reaching out to students who have not taken the initiative to contact them. We also really stress social activities. Everyone must participate in some sort of activity, like yearbook, twice per month. We also host in-person social activities, like a yearly prom. Last year, we had 150 students come to the prom. These events are great because the students meet the teachers and other students. We also have a number clubs, which all have two outings per year. There are lots of opportunities for interaction. We have a twitter feed, and we very much encourage students to add each other as contacts and chat. We want, and stress, student interactions. We've found that it makes a huge difference. We've done some partner activities with other online schools, and we can immediately tell schools that don't allow their students to connect with each other online. Our students know each other and feel more comfortable going up to other students; schools that don't allow chat prevent that kind of social engagement that kids need. That social element makes a huge difference.
19. How much professional development do your teachers receive?
I was just thinking about this yesterday. There is a gap between what is going on in the research arena and what is actually happening in schools. It's very important to us to get together and share information and discuss what works and doesn't. So we have several in-person sessions every year--we have a full day workshop before school begins, a retreat in January, and we physically meet once per month. We want to stay cutting edge, so we ask teachers to contribute to the research base--they share studies and present to the group. We also go to conferences. For instance, every year we take 5–6 teachers to iNACOL. By rotating, everyone gets a turn to have that experience. If a teacher finds himself or herself to be struggling with something, we will get additional resources. We also have a mentorship program in which a teacher is mentored for the first three years. We really stress communication between teachers--our discussion forums and monthly in-person meetings help facilitate. Our teachers are our experts, and what we do works because it is individualized. An in-the-box approach to professional development won't work because it is not tailored to the needs of our teachers.
[In response to the question, has your school allowed teachers who might have otherwise left their rural communities stay where they are?]: Three of our teachers live in rural communities and this opportunity has allowed them to stay in the community and retain a healthy salary and schedule.
20. Describe the application process for students.
Students can complete an enrollment application at any time, although it is better to apply early. All students who have submitted an application by the end of an enrollment period will have an equal chance to be accepted in a random lottery for that period. The first lottery is conducted in the early spring with additional lotteries run weekly as necessary. Once all slots have been filled, any additional lotteries will be held to determine priority on the waiting list. Students will find out within two weeks of the lottery period during which they applied if they have been selected. Those who are not selected will be placed on a waiting list in order of their lottery result and will be notified accordingly.
21. What are the most common challenges your students face?
Believing what we tell them! They often can't compute at first that our teachers are truly here to help. It's only after the teachers hunt them down and give them the help they need that they begin to understand that their individual needs matter. We've had parents say, "It sounded too good to be true, but it IS true." So many have been in poor educational situations that they have low expectations. What we offer truly is the "kitchen table" tutoring that students need, but getting them to overcome the barrier of they way they think it will work is a challenge.
Students also struggle with not getting to see their friends in person as regularly. The technology is different for many, so that can be difficult. But we have a training for students at the very beginning and do a lot of hand holding. Students get help.
22. What are the biggest challenges your school faces?
Enrollment; statewide marketing. Some of our parents call us the "best secret in Utah." It's not easy to get the word out. We also come up against parents wanting for their students what they had--like the Friday night football experience. The socialization element is a tough hurdle to overcome because even though we know what we offer works, people perceive that online education prevents socialization. But if you think about it, most of the time in a traditional school, students only had those 5 minute passing periods to really connect during the day anyway. Our situation is not that different, but it does require a different mindset and focus. We have to get the message across that there is tremendous value in time well spent.
23. How do your students compare to those in brick-and-mortar schools? (statistics on graduation rate, college acceptance, SAT/ACT/AP Scores, etc.)
Mountain Heights Academy (formerly known as Open High School of Utah) is #31 in the 50 Best-Scoring High Schools in Utah (out of 140+) based on CRT scores. The state of Utah has an online school that has a course completion rate in the 30 percent range. Mountain Heights Academy has a completion rate of 75%. You can take a look at the 2012 Annual Report (under the Open High School of Utah name) for supporting data. Even our part-time Statewide Online students perform significantly better than students in other online schools.
24. How would you describe the students who attend your school? Honestly speaking, what would you say brings most of your students to your school? Is it their option of last resort?
Our students come from all backgrounds and shapes and sizes. We've had an Olympic athlete, a pro-baseball player, actresses, and other students who are fitting their education around a profession. We've also had students who were bullied, or felt the system wasn't serving their needs. Some didn't like the dress code of their traditional school, or they travel a great deal, or they simply don't want to be in school every day. Others don't engage in education, and are coming to us under pressure. What we've seen is an upside-down bell curve. Many of our students are high performing now, but weren't before.
25. Does your school provide virtual clubs or opportunities for students to meet physically?
In addition to a rigorous academic program, students can also apply to be a peer mentors, members of the yearbook staff, National Honor Society, and even run for class officer positions. We host a variety of clubs, such as History Club, Fitness & Health Club, European Culture Club, and an Art Club. We also encourage each student to participate in service learning projects, such as making earthquake kits for elementary school children, sending treats to troops, volunteering at the Food Bank, reading to elementary school children, and much more. Any student who completes 25 hours of service per semester will be eligible for the President’s Volunteer Service Award at the the Gala at the end of the school year.
The Parent Organization, Class Officers, and Service Learning Program provide students with 1–2 opportunities per month to get together in person for activities. Past activities include, The Magic Flute at the Utah Opera, Lagoon Day, Fall Dance, Game Nights, Pizza Parties, Book Drive, Food Drive, Antelope Island Field Trip and Clean-up, Breakfast at the Capitol, Field-trip to the Animal Shelter, tour of Welfare Square, volunteering at the Utah Food Bank, Ice-skating, and our traditional Gala at the end of the school year.
Regional Activity Coordinators can also choose to host smaller events closer to home based on interest and number of students participating. Additionally, there is constant collaboration online as students are working on assignments. Within our secure system, students can see when other students are online and they can choose to IM, email, video conference, or chat with them if they wish. They also contribute to class discussion boards and work on group projects through the use of 21st century collaborative technology tools.There is also an internal social network and even prom to allow students to socialize and form friendships. We also encourage our students to participate in programs like orchestra and seminary as well as sports at their local high schools.
26. How would you describe the teachers attracted to online teaching?
Our school provides the best of both worlds for teachers and students. Our teachers get that, and they want to work here. Most are professionals who, because they can work from home, really get to manage both family and work in a way they couldn't before.
27. How would you say your teachers compare the online teaching experience to the F2F teaching experience?
We've surveyed our teachers and two quotes that seem to represent the majority opinions are: "You have broken me and I won't be able to return to a brick-and-mortar setting where I don't have the ability to gather data like I do in an online setting" Our focus is heavily data driven. Teachers are skeptical at first, but have really come to see how much looking at the data allows them to create personalized instruction that can make all the difference in learning for the kids.
The other quote is,"You'll have to pry my laptop out of my cold, dead fingers!" Many of our teachers comment that they could not go back to a traditional school environment. On the surveys, we had a few 7s on a scale of 1–10 with 10 being the most satisfied, but most were 10s. Our teachers say they feel empowered and they feel like they are really giving something valuable to the students.
28. Examples of universities that have accepted your students?
We just had our first graduating class last year. We started with 9th grade, then added 10th, and then 11th and 12th. Our grads ended up at schools all over Utah and beyond. One is at Berkeley--they are all over!
29. Could you recommend a couple of students I could interview about their experiences?
Testimonials
She collected the following student interviews for me via email responses: Amanda O.; Julianne O. C. Matschull; Lily M.
30. What other online high schools would you recommend I interview?
I will send you some names--there is one school in Australia that is interesting and the Georgia Virtual School is a good one as well. [For the record, researched Georgia Virtual School, but it is a supplement program, not a degree-granting program.]
Additional Awards:
Name
Charter Educator of the Year President's STEM Award recipient Best of State Curriculum Development Top Five Online Teachers eSchool of the Month eCybermission Gold Medal Best Practices Awards for Distance Learning Programming Gold Medal Best Practices Awards for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Silver Medal Best Practices Awards for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Best of State Charter School Governor's Award for STEM Teaching ABCTE Utah Teacher of the Year Outstanding Young Educator of the Year ISTE Emerging Leader - International Award given to seven of the Outstanding Young Educator award winners. Best of State - Curriculum Development |
Description
Sarah Weston Amy Pace Open High School of Utah Amy Pace Open High School of Utah Jess + 4 students Laura Hansen Amy Wadsworth Jessica Mordecai Open High School of Utah Amy Pace Sara Layton Ashley Webb Ashley Webb Open High School of Utah |
Date
June, 2010 Dec., 2010 June, 2011 Sept., 2011 June, 2011 April, 2012 May, 2012 May, 2012 May, 2012 May, 2012 Nov., 2012 Feb., 2013 March, 2013 April, 2013 May, 2013 |