Posts
 |
| Photo: Emily Tate |
 |
| Parents and students of Omaha Virtual School at orientation for the new school year. Photo: Wendy Loewenstein |
Nebraska’s first — and, for now, only — virtual school recently celebrated its one-year anniversary and is moving ahead with a number of notable changes to the structure and curriculum based on feedback and lessons learned during the first year.
The Omaha Virtual School (OVS) launched in fall 2016 as a full-time, tuition-free K-8 public school, touting a blended learning environment that is flexible and personalized to each student.
The experiment has not received any help from the Nebraska Legislature, where a bill stalled last year that would have provided funding for virtual schools. Instead, Omaha Public Schools took a gamble on the online program and allotted a portion of its general fund to help get OVS up and running.
“Any time you do something for the first time, especially in a state like ours, it’s ever-evolving,” said Rob Dickson, director of information management services at Omaha Public Schools, in an interview with EdScoop. “The model of a hybrid student today is what a future student looks like.”
During the pilot year, teachers and leaders at the virtual school learned that student success depends largely on the parents — and that they must communicate that responsibility early and often. They also learned that the school's tech-heavy learning environment works quite well as-is, even if not all parents are ready to acclimate to that style of instruction. And, after trying out a number of different blended learning approaches, OVS has tweaked the day-to-day schedule to add rigor and simplify the in-person meetings.
Together, these adjustments have given the virtual school and district leaders confidence to begin thinking about the longer-term trajectory of OVS.
Read more...
Source: EdScoop News
