Mo. virtual school reopens enrollment

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Missouri's new virtual school is up and running for the first time this month, despite bumps along the way, including hundreds of students who signed up to attend but didn't follow through.

Missouri's virtual instruction program, known as MoVIP, allows elementary and high school students around the state to take classes online using the Internet.

School officials said Thursday they have reopened enrollment, because the program now has spots to accommodate more students. There are 1,800 students currently taking part, with room for as many as 400 more this school year.

"The flight has taken off, but I'm telling everyone to keep their seat belts on. We'll have some turbulence this year. You can't get around that," said Curt Fuchs, Missouri's virtual school director.

"We're growing by the hour right now," he said.

The program has $5.2 million in funding for this fiscal year. The hope is that the online school will appeal to a broad array of students, from those who are home-schooled to some who have been ill, have discipline problems or desire courses that their local school district doesn't offer.

The first year of the program does not include classes for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Program organizers, who worked quickly to make classes available to students, didn't feel they could successfully introduce K-12 programs all at once.

The state hired two contractors to run the program -- Connections Academy, of Baltimore, to handle the elementary courses and Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville to manage the high school curriculum.

So far, the first days of the virtual school are not unlike the first days in a brick-and-mortar school building, said Bruce McLaughlin of Highland, Ill., principal of the MoVip high school.

"We don't have kids looking for lockers," he noted. Officials are fielding a lot of questions from families, trying to sort out aspects of how the programs work online or how to make sure their kids are meeting state and school district requirements.

Abi Svoboda, 17, of the St. Louis suburb of University City, is a home-schooled student. She enrolled in American government, Latin and Web design classes through MoVIP, and is looking to add an online English class. She also takes a pre-calculus class at a community college.

Svoboda said she logs onto MoVIP five days a week and has flexibility in her schedule. Her college pre-calculus class, for instance, is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So, she might devote more time on Tuesdays and Thursdays to MoVIP.

She has teachers for the online classes, but also an academic coach, who will reach her by phone or e-mail if they see electronically that she has gotten behind in her work.

She does her class readings online. Teachers have "office hours," set times when their students can reach them by phone or electronic messaging. Full-time instructors must be available to students 30 hours a week, Fuchs said. Students can also communicate with one another electronically.

"Something that's been a little bit of an adjustment is that our Internet server is not always reliable," Svoboda said.

With two weeks of classes thus far, she had a day of technical problems that were tied to her home computer, not the program's technology. She can go to the public library or use a friend's Internet connection as a backup option.

It was hard for her to say how the new educational experience is going. She hasn't had a quiz yet, she said. Part-time teachers grade and correct student assignments within 24 hours, Fuchs said.

Svoboda said she's probably online about four hours a school day when she's studying from home. It can be a little isolating, but she regularly socializes and works outside the home.

Fuchs said about 30 percent of students in the program are full-time, the others take a class or two to supplement their education.

Fuchs said program organizers are still resolving issues about the best ways to communicate with students, but seemed please with the virtual school's progress.

"It's been a crazy start, but it's going really well," he said.

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On the Net:

Virtual School: http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/movip/