In the past weeks, judges, legislators, parents and school district staff throughout Wisconsin have created a lot of buzz around virtual charter schools. Meanwhile, the Madison Metropolitan School District quietly, but proudly, launched a long-awaited and much-needed program named Madison Virtual Campus (MVC) that has avoided the virtual school controversy through careful and thoughtful planning.
MVC is not an online school, but rather is a group of online educational options that serve students and staff across the district. The district recognizes that high school students sometimes have learning needs that may not fit the typical school attendance model.
For example, high school students are now able to register for up to two online high school courses at any time during a school year. To assure success, online students are guided and supported by online teachers at each of the district’s high schools.
4 thoughts on “A Discussion of Madison’s Virtual Campus”
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Okay. So why did we not hear about this until years after it was initially proposed, and why is it not being very well ‘advertised’ or truly explained even now? And why can my middle schooler who is daily subjected to verbal harassment and weekly to physical assault, not allowed to take on-line classes that would remove the pressure to dumb himself down so he doesn’t appear too annoyingly smart to his more frustrated classmates? He also has special education needs due to social communicative disabilities and sensory defensiveness. So, why force him to change classrooms six-plus times per day in a crowded middle school filled with noisy and aggressive (and sometimes purely hateful) kids twice his size?
Don’t get me wrong – I like the sounds of this. I just don’t knwo how well it is going to work if kids still have to attend a full-day of school in their school buildings to take these classes, and where on earth they are going to have access to the computers necessary for them. Are they meeting in the computer labs? If so, then what about the computer and technology classes that would otherwise have met there at those times? Will these on-line classes be meeting for several different on-line classes/subjects at once with one teacher (presumably in a computer lab)? If so, then is that teacher a teacher in those subject areas (or that area), or someone who can help if there is a computer technology problem during their working time for the class?
I have more questions. I hope you can forgive my ignorance on this, since I have not had time to read up on any past posts on this here either, and see little to nothing about it on the district website.
Is it a compelling enough reason for a student to be allowed to take an on-line course, that they have no academic peers who are willing to work with them in small-group labs or projects in the ‘standard’ class (whether they are forced to do all of the wor, or allowed to do none of it, in a standard class)? If so, then how and when do they get a chance to do any labwork (or project work of some kind) that they would have done in a regular classroom? Do they have to travel to another school in the district to take these courses? Can they work on them from home? In fact, while we are on that subject, can regular students currently access their documents and ongoing work from school that is stored under their student ID number on the district intranet, from home? Because if my son can work on his careers and technology coursework from home while he is currently stuck at home with either the flu or a major case of stress-induced vomiting due to conditions at his school, he would be happy to do it. As it is, when he is ill or simply too afraid to go to school, he gets further behind every class period, and puts himself under even more stress to “catch up” when he is back, and misses more instruction time while he is trying to find out what he just missed.
Yes, I am ticked. But these are also serious questions. I am not “just” blowing off steam. Do kids who could benefit from this have to hear about it directly from an involved and knowledgeable principal or learning coordinator? What about students new to the district, or even to their particular high school? And what happens if and when their families have to change schools in the middle of the year?
Who are the high school teachers at the four area high schools? Are these teachers certified in the content areas for which they “guide and support”?
To “Middle School Parent”: Sounds like your son has Asperger’s. If so, I can offer suggestions based upon personal experiences on specific things you can do within the MMSD to help him succeed. Feel free to contact me privately to discuss this matter confidentially.
My son does indeed have AS, Janet. I can imagine exactly why you would have gathered that from my post!
The problem is, he does have an IEP and we take the meetings and set up very seriously, but then “options” such as these on-line classes are not brought up because no one knows about them, or knows how they work, or knows if they can be done at any school or just a high school, or whatever. He was allowed to take an on-line math class in sixth grade, but the regular math tecaher had no idea how to do anything with it, and proceeded to grade him based on the limited sixth grade work he was doing with the class in CMP, when he was taking on-line pre-algebra and early algebra. I am not kidding. This kid was working over a year ahead of schedule on-line, and the math teacher gave him B’s because he did not even know how to look at his online course, acivities, and assignments. When I mentioned that to someone else who would know, they as much as told me that he was lying, because he HAD to be trained on it, it’s just whether or not he paid attention or felt it was worthwhile – both of which he obviously did not.
And I would repeat my questions from before, except that obviously, no one is going to answer them. I also would like to know the answer to HS Teacher’s question above. Are these ‘guide and support’ teachers certified in every area they would “guide” the virtual courses for?