Virtual High School
Website: http://thevhscollaborative.org/vhs-full-time-online-program http://thevhscollaborative.org/
Articles: Q&A With Jeffrey Elliott of the VHS Collaborative
Virtual High School Offering Full-Time Program
Contact:
Amy Michalowski
Director of Academic Affairs
[email protected]
The VHS Collaborative
Maynard, MA 01754
phone: 978.450.0414
Mission/Belief Statements/Overarching School Philosophy:
The mission of The Virtual High School Collaborative is to develop and deliver standards-based, student-
centered online courses that increase educational opportunities and 21st century skills, and to provide
professional development to educators that expand the scope and depth of their instruction.
Our Beliefs:
Vision:
Our vision is to be the global leader in online education by working collaboratively with middle and high schools to offer the highest quality courses for students and teachers.
Location: Maynard, MA
# of staff: Admin/Teachers and FT/PT:
Awards:
Interview conducted 10-22-13
Questions
1. How is your school accredited?
VHS and VHS courses are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Education and the Northwest Accreditation Commission. VHS member schools are accredited by their local accrediting agency, and participating member schools have agreed to give credit to VHS courses as either core courses or electives. In addition, many VHS courses have NCAA initial-accreditation. Additional information can be found here: http://thevhscollaborative.org/resources/faq#are_vhs_courses_accredited
2. Where does funding for your school come from?
The VHS member school pays for our full-time program unless it a home school situation, in which the parents pay.
3. What is the tuition for your school?
$3500 per year
4. Is there an application fee?
No.
5. Do you offer financial aid?
Not generally.
6. What grade levels do you offer?
9–12 for full time program. Our supplemental program has a small (10 course) set of middle school enrichment courses and a number of our high school courses are offered to gifted and talented middle school students. Additional information is provided in our catalog.
7. Do you have age restrictions for your programs?
Our school general serves students who are eligible to enroll in their local school district. Middle school students are eligible for some of our high school offerings, as listed in our course catalog.
8. What is the current enrollment of the school? How many are seniors?
12 full time students – 2 are seniors. The supplemental program has approximately 9000 enrollments for the fall 2013 semester.
9. Are courses organized in classes with fixed start/stop dates or are they independently paced?
Our courses are offered on a scheduled, asynchronous basis, meaning that students are expected to complete a certain set of assignments each week, but there is not a specific time during the day when they are expected to logon and complete their work. The VHS course calendar can be found on the VHS website.
10. What requirements do you have for teachers? State certification for high school? Virtual Teacher certification?
All VHS teachers are highly qualified, 85% hold a master’s degree, and they average 15 years of teaching experience. All have completed a rigorous, graduate-level training program prior to being allowed to teach a VHS course. See more at: http://thevhscollaborative.org/vhs-full-time-online-program#sthash.rByDoPMO.dpuf
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?
Because of our unique collaborative relationship, the vast majority of VHS’ 400+ teachers remain employees of their local school district and are not directly employed by VHS. They teach a VHS class in lieu of one of their face-to-face courses. When demand exceeds our teacher capacity, VHS does contract with additional teachers who are paid based on enrollment at the end of the first week of their VHS class. Compensation is not directly tied to student outcome.
12. What are your short-term goals for the school?
Ensuring the full-time program is providing partner schools what they need to serve their students. Our supplemental program is has successfully served schools and students since 1996. We are still growing this program and are always seeking means to improve our offerings and support for our students and schools.
13. What is your long-term vision for the school?
We'd like to add diversity in our full-time course offerings, such as more options for language requirements; more levels; etc. Expanding our full-time program while staying true to our educational philosophy is important.
14. Where does your curriculum come from? (Who builds it?)
Our content is teacher developed with support of VHS staff. We have worked with teachers in our professional development courses to create and refine content since 1996. Our teachers act as subject-matter experts and VHS staff members ensure that the course meets the iNACOL standards for Quality Online Courses. We also align our courses to the National Content standards or Common Core standards as appropriate. Some of our core courses use ebooks, but generally speaking we don’t purchase curriculum.
15. How would you describe the philosophy behind your content development?
Our courses are engaging and highly collaborative, with weekly, content-related discussions and many opportunities for group work and community-based learning. We design organized, clear lesson documents and attempt to provide multiple opportunities for students to explore content and express their understanding of course material. Courses contain a variety of rubric-based assessments where students can demonstrate mastery of the required course material.
16. Who maintains your curriculum? How involved are your teachers in the course curriculum?
VHS content is on a periodic review cycle. VHS Curriculum and Instruction Coordinators work collaboratively with the teachers of a particular course to examine course content and make improvements to the course on a regular basis. Teachers have many avenues by which they can provide feedback to the Curriculum Coordinators and request changes to the curriculum (updated links, improved activities, clarifying instructions, etc). Course design and maintenance is an activity which builds on the strong relationships built between VHS staff and faculty.
17. What LMS do you use?
We have used Desire to Learn (D2L) since 2010.
18. How involved are your teachers in student interaction? How do they communicate with students (email, chat, phone, face-to-face) and how often?
VHS teachers are expected to be very involved with the students in their class and use a variety of tools to communicate with their students. Every student has a private thread where they can have private conversations with their teacher. Course discussion boards include forums where students can ask clarifying questions or request additional support on an assignment. Our Instructor Responsibilities require that teachers respond to questions within 24 hours, M-F. Teachers use D2L’s chat tool for synchronous conversations within D2L and some use Google hangouts for video conferences.
19. How much professional development do your teachers receive?
All VHS teachers complete an 8-week, graduate level course before they teach a VHS class. This program includes 6 weeks in a cohort-based methodologies course and 2 weeks of self-paced LMS training. Teachers are also provided with many opportunities for added training via office hours, webinars, and smaller, self-paced, training courses. All new VHS teachers have a 1-1 faculty advisor who evaluates their progress on a weekly basis; reviewing their engagement in class discussions, the type of feedback they are providing on student work, ensuring they are meeting instructional standards, and offering suggestions to streamline their work. All VHS teachers (new and veteran) receive support and content-specific training from their Curriculum Coordinator via department meetings, office hours, and webinars on specific tools or strategies.
20. Describe the application process for students.
As mentioned, we work directly with schools to enroll students in appropriate online courses.
21. What are the most common challenges your students face?
The biggest challenge for many students is understanding that collaborative online learning is a significant (though rewarding) experience. Time management can present a challenge for students, since some students think online courses will be easier than their brick-and-mortar classes. We stress the importance of their learning community and clearly outline expectations on participation and communication in a class.
Online learning requires a great deal of independence and self-motivation, which are great skills to develop and which will ultimately be very useful to students in college and beyond. In an online course environment, students can be challenged to develop strong written communication skills and learn how to self-advocate in an online course, which can be uncomfortable at first, because students don’t have a face-to-face relationship with their teacher.
22. What are the biggest challenges your school faces?
We believe in offering personal, hands-on service to our students and schools. Continuing to offer a highly supportive, standards-based, quality program is our focus.
23. How do your students compare to those in brick-and-mortar schools? (statistics on graduation rate, college acceptance, SAT/ACT/AP Scores, etc.)
We believe VHS students do very well compared to those in brick-and-mortar schools. VHS has met or exceeded the AP pass rates each year. We do not track SAT or ACT scores because students remain enrolled in their brick and mortar 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?
The full-time program is in its infancy – this year we have a number of students who aren’t able to enroll in their brick-and-mortar school due to health or educational issues and a student pursuing a careers in ballet. I don’t believe our students use VHS as an option of last resort, but rather seek the flexibility that can be provided to them with online courses taken in cooperation with their local school.
25. Does your school provide virtual clubs or opportunities for students to meet physically?
Not at this time.
26. How would you describe the teachers attracted to online teaching?
The vast majority of our teachers are also working in a face-to-face school part of the day or are former VHS teachers who are now retired and working with us. We do not employ any full-time teachers whose entire teaching job consists of VHS classes. I believe our teachers enjoy the flexibility and challenge of teaching online and they transfer the skills from their VHS experience in their face-to-face teaching as well. Most of our teachers appreciate the opportunity to teach interesting elective courses—in our supplemental program many of our courses are a fun and unique extension of core content.
27. How would you say your teachers compare the online teaching experience to the F2F teaching experience?
All of our teachers are surveyed at the end of each academic year. Many comment that they've been able to pull skills from their online teaching experiences into the brick-and-mortar classroom. Many state that online courses take longer to teach than an equivalent face-to-face class. I think it’s a fallacy that online teaching is easier--it's simply not true. Our teachers confirm that creating a vibrant online community takes time, but they are comfortable with the commitment because they see the value in our model. Teachers find that our courses are fun departures from what they've been teaching in the classroom. When they participate in our program they have the opportunity to teach one of our 200 unique, sometimes quirky, courses. They enjoy this opportunity to broaden their teaching horizon.
28. Examples of universities that have accepted your students?
Full time program is new – no data to answer this question at this time.
29. Could you recommend a couple of students I could interview about their experiences?
I can look into it!
30. What other online high schools would you recommend I interview?
No recommendation at this time.
Articles: Q&A With Jeffrey Elliott of the VHS Collaborative
Virtual High School Offering Full-Time Program
Contact:
Amy Michalowski
Director of Academic Affairs
[email protected]
The VHS Collaborative
Maynard, MA 01754
phone: 978.450.0414
Mission/Belief Statements/Overarching School Philosophy:
The mission of The Virtual High School Collaborative is to develop and deliver standards-based, student-
centered online courses that increase educational opportunities and 21st century skills, and to provide
professional development to educators that expand the scope and depth of their instruction.
Our Beliefs:
- VHS believes that student-centered online courses can be designed and delivered to promote a high quality, collaborative learning environment where student exchange and interaction is a valued component of the instructional process.
- VHS believes that education need not be limited by barriers of time, place or availability; and that online learning should offer students the benefits of highly-qualified faculty and an innovative curriculum made up of diverse, exciting learning opportunities in a global classroom.
- VHS believes that online teaching should enhance, rather than replace, traditional classrooms to provide solutions for schools needing an expanded curriculum, teachers seeking the latest skills, and students looking to stay competitive through cutting-edge, quality instruction.
- VHS believes that the goals of education are advanced best by putting value and service first, and that a collaborative network of schools can become part of an abundant and generous educational community that promotes the affordable sharing of professional resources.
Vision:
Our vision is to be the global leader in online education by working collaboratively with middle and high schools to offer the highest quality courses for students and teachers.
Location: Maynard, MA
# of staff: Admin/Teachers and FT/PT:
Awards:
Interview conducted 10-22-13
Questions
1. How is your school accredited?
VHS and VHS courses are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Education and the Northwest Accreditation Commission. VHS member schools are accredited by their local accrediting agency, and participating member schools have agreed to give credit to VHS courses as either core courses or electives. In addition, many VHS courses have NCAA initial-accreditation. Additional information can be found here: http://thevhscollaborative.org/resources/faq#are_vhs_courses_accredited
2. Where does funding for your school come from?
The VHS member school pays for our full-time program unless it a home school situation, in which the parents pay.
3. What is the tuition for your school?
$3500 per year
4. Is there an application fee?
No.
5. Do you offer financial aid?
Not generally.
6. What grade levels do you offer?
9–12 for full time program. Our supplemental program has a small (10 course) set of middle school enrichment courses and a number of our high school courses are offered to gifted and talented middle school students. Additional information is provided in our catalog.
7. Do you have age restrictions for your programs?
Our school general serves students who are eligible to enroll in their local school district. Middle school students are eligible for some of our high school offerings, as listed in our course catalog.
8. What is the current enrollment of the school? How many are seniors?
12 full time students – 2 are seniors. The supplemental program has approximately 9000 enrollments for the fall 2013 semester.
9. Are courses organized in classes with fixed start/stop dates or are they independently paced?
Our courses are offered on a scheduled, asynchronous basis, meaning that students are expected to complete a certain set of assignments each week, but there is not a specific time during the day when they are expected to logon and complete their work. The VHS course calendar can be found on the VHS website.
10. What requirements do you have for teachers? State certification for high school? Virtual Teacher certification?
All VHS teachers are highly qualified, 85% hold a master’s degree, and they average 15 years of teaching experience. All have completed a rigorous, graduate-level training program prior to being allowed to teach a VHS course. See more at: http://thevhscollaborative.org/vhs-full-time-online-program#sthash.rByDoPMO.dpuf
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?
Because of our unique collaborative relationship, the vast majority of VHS’ 400+ teachers remain employees of their local school district and are not directly employed by VHS. They teach a VHS class in lieu of one of their face-to-face courses. When demand exceeds our teacher capacity, VHS does contract with additional teachers who are paid based on enrollment at the end of the first week of their VHS class. Compensation is not directly tied to student outcome.
12. What are your short-term goals for the school?
Ensuring the full-time program is providing partner schools what they need to serve their students. Our supplemental program is has successfully served schools and students since 1996. We are still growing this program and are always seeking means to improve our offerings and support for our students and schools.
13. What is your long-term vision for the school?
We'd like to add diversity in our full-time course offerings, such as more options for language requirements; more levels; etc. Expanding our full-time program while staying true to our educational philosophy is important.
14. Where does your curriculum come from? (Who builds it?)
Our content is teacher developed with support of VHS staff. We have worked with teachers in our professional development courses to create and refine content since 1996. Our teachers act as subject-matter experts and VHS staff members ensure that the course meets the iNACOL standards for Quality Online Courses. We also align our courses to the National Content standards or Common Core standards as appropriate. Some of our core courses use ebooks, but generally speaking we don’t purchase curriculum.
15. How would you describe the philosophy behind your content development?
Our courses are engaging and highly collaborative, with weekly, content-related discussions and many opportunities for group work and community-based learning. We design organized, clear lesson documents and attempt to provide multiple opportunities for students to explore content and express their understanding of course material. Courses contain a variety of rubric-based assessments where students can demonstrate mastery of the required course material.
16. Who maintains your curriculum? How involved are your teachers in the course curriculum?
VHS content is on a periodic review cycle. VHS Curriculum and Instruction Coordinators work collaboratively with the teachers of a particular course to examine course content and make improvements to the course on a regular basis. Teachers have many avenues by which they can provide feedback to the Curriculum Coordinators and request changes to the curriculum (updated links, improved activities, clarifying instructions, etc). Course design and maintenance is an activity which builds on the strong relationships built between VHS staff and faculty.
17. What LMS do you use?
We have used Desire to Learn (D2L) since 2010.
18. How involved are your teachers in student interaction? How do they communicate with students (email, chat, phone, face-to-face) and how often?
VHS teachers are expected to be very involved with the students in their class and use a variety of tools to communicate with their students. Every student has a private thread where they can have private conversations with their teacher. Course discussion boards include forums where students can ask clarifying questions or request additional support on an assignment. Our Instructor Responsibilities require that teachers respond to questions within 24 hours, M-F. Teachers use D2L’s chat tool for synchronous conversations within D2L and some use Google hangouts for video conferences.
19. How much professional development do your teachers receive?
All VHS teachers complete an 8-week, graduate level course before they teach a VHS class. This program includes 6 weeks in a cohort-based methodologies course and 2 weeks of self-paced LMS training. Teachers are also provided with many opportunities for added training via office hours, webinars, and smaller, self-paced, training courses. All new VHS teachers have a 1-1 faculty advisor who evaluates their progress on a weekly basis; reviewing their engagement in class discussions, the type of feedback they are providing on student work, ensuring they are meeting instructional standards, and offering suggestions to streamline their work. All VHS teachers (new and veteran) receive support and content-specific training from their Curriculum Coordinator via department meetings, office hours, and webinars on specific tools or strategies.
20. Describe the application process for students.
As mentioned, we work directly with schools to enroll students in appropriate online courses.
21. What are the most common challenges your students face?
The biggest challenge for many students is understanding that collaborative online learning is a significant (though rewarding) experience. Time management can present a challenge for students, since some students think online courses will be easier than their brick-and-mortar classes. We stress the importance of their learning community and clearly outline expectations on participation and communication in a class.
Online learning requires a great deal of independence and self-motivation, which are great skills to develop and which will ultimately be very useful to students in college and beyond. In an online course environment, students can be challenged to develop strong written communication skills and learn how to self-advocate in an online course, which can be uncomfortable at first, because students don’t have a face-to-face relationship with their teacher.
22. What are the biggest challenges your school faces?
We believe in offering personal, hands-on service to our students and schools. Continuing to offer a highly supportive, standards-based, quality program is our focus.
23. How do your students compare to those in brick-and-mortar schools? (statistics on graduation rate, college acceptance, SAT/ACT/AP Scores, etc.)
We believe VHS students do very well compared to those in brick-and-mortar schools. VHS has met or exceeded the AP pass rates each year. We do not track SAT or ACT scores because students remain enrolled in their brick and mortar 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?
The full-time program is in its infancy – this year we have a number of students who aren’t able to enroll in their brick-and-mortar school due to health or educational issues and a student pursuing a careers in ballet. I don’t believe our students use VHS as an option of last resort, but rather seek the flexibility that can be provided to them with online courses taken in cooperation with their local school.
25. Does your school provide virtual clubs or opportunities for students to meet physically?
Not at this time.
26. How would you describe the teachers attracted to online teaching?
The vast majority of our teachers are also working in a face-to-face school part of the day or are former VHS teachers who are now retired and working with us. We do not employ any full-time teachers whose entire teaching job consists of VHS classes. I believe our teachers enjoy the flexibility and challenge of teaching online and they transfer the skills from their VHS experience in their face-to-face teaching as well. Most of our teachers appreciate the opportunity to teach interesting elective courses—in our supplemental program many of our courses are a fun and unique extension of core content.
27. How would you say your teachers compare the online teaching experience to the F2F teaching experience?
All of our teachers are surveyed at the end of each academic year. Many comment that they've been able to pull skills from their online teaching experiences into the brick-and-mortar classroom. Many state that online courses take longer to teach than an equivalent face-to-face class. I think it’s a fallacy that online teaching is easier--it's simply not true. Our teachers confirm that creating a vibrant online community takes time, but they are comfortable with the commitment because they see the value in our model. Teachers find that our courses are fun departures from what they've been teaching in the classroom. When they participate in our program they have the opportunity to teach one of our 200 unique, sometimes quirky, courses. They enjoy this opportunity to broaden their teaching horizon.
28. Examples of universities that have accepted your students?
Full time program is new – no data to answer this question at this time.
29. Could you recommend a couple of students I could interview about their experiences?
I can look into it!
30. What other online high schools would you recommend I interview?
No recommendation at this time.