Cyber Schools Could Expand Under Reforms OK'd By Michigan Senate
Berkley School District superintendent, Oakland Schools chief among those in public education urging caution.
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The Michigan Senate on Thursday passed a package of bills that could expand the use of cyber schools that allow students to do more learning at home.
The six bills passed 20-18, and are the latest in a wave of sweeping changes to education in Michigan since the summer. The bill package passed Thursday eliminates restrictions on statewide cyber schools and the number of students who can earn academic credits by learning via Internet. The bills also eliminated a requirement that these students also had to be enrolled in a public school.
“Cyber schools are another option we have in reforming our education system in Michigan so that we are meeting the varied needs of all of our students,” bill sponsor State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, said. “These schools provide a free, public education to students that can be tailored to address each child’s strengths and weaknesses while providing increased one-on-one communication with a teacher.”
But local public education officials are less than enthused.
Berkley School District Superintendent Michael Simeck warned Thursday during his State of the City address that the bill would allow for-profit, out-of-state cyber schools to drain resources from local school districts. In addition, Simeck said, the schools are not required to have locally elected boards, which means many of them have no accountability to residents.
"This is a 'solution' for urban districts being applied to everyone across the state," he said. "I want to encourage you to get involved. You can make the difference."
Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie L. Markavitch also encouraged parents to lobby their legislators not to support the sweeping reforms in a podcast posted on the Oakland Schools website earlier this month.
In her 12-minute video, Markavitch warns of consequences that can’t be foreseen without proper research.
“Reform means change, and although no one ever intends to make things worse, the wrong reform and the wrong change can do just that,” she said. “There’s little evidence that those proposing reforms have even studied the research.”
She said she believes the changes seemed based more on ideology rather than on proven results, and quoted two studies about successful reforms in other countries.
Colbeck said there’s no evidence current students at cyber academies are lagging behind.
“Currently, students in Michigan’s two cyber schools are performing as well as or better than the statewide average for the MEAP test,” he said.
Cyber schools must be approved by the superintendent of public instruction and are governed by independent, nonprofit boards, school district boards or public charter school boards, according to a news release from the senate offices. The classes are held to the same certification standards, curriculum requirements and testing requirements as other public schools in Michigan.
The bills now go to the State House for consideration.
Berkley Patch editor Leslie Ellis contributed to this report.
Leslie Ellis
5:25 pm on Friday, October 28, 2011
Do you think eliminating restrictions on cyber schools will help or hurt the quality of education in the Berkley School District?
Easydude
6:37 pm on Friday, October 28, 2011
State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton needs a reality check. I think at this point this Patty has damage his political career. Most students have a hard time getting to high school let alone have a book, paper, pencil or even studied for a quiz or exam. Students can now use their cell phones to take pictures of the exam from their computers and pass the answers on to their friends via stay at home apps...lol
I have to wonder, how the colleges are handling this insult to education. Lets not forget those who will take the class for you...and pass a test for $$$$.$$$$. Thanks, Patty Boy..
Leslie Ellis
8:09 pm on Friday, October 28, 2011
Easydude, asking whether cyber schools properly prepare students for college is a great question to raise! Readers: What do you think?
Libby Turpin
11:52 am on Saturday, October 29, 2011
The issue isn't cyber schools. It is students taking classes online, which colleges have implemented long ago. High schools need to start offering online curriculum too, in order to better prepare students going off to college.
Cyber schools will come. Don't know how fast, but they are being pushed for economic and academic reasons. Both reasons have valid points, for the positive and negative, that are deep rooted and need to be considered before passing judgements. Personally, I think Berkley Schools needs to spend more of their energy implementing an online learning program instead of spending their energy fighting against them. BSD needs to research different online learning opportunities, companies like Virtual High School, Florida Virtual, Virginia Virtual, Michigan Virtual. They need to research which one of these programs would enhance their current curriculum by reaching out to AP students, students with disabilities, students who want to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning. They need to begin training their own staff to become online teachers, which will help their teachers become better teachers by implementing BEST practices.
Overall, online learning is not for everyone, but why limit our curriculum? Why not better prepare students for the digital world they will meet in college and the work place?
Leslie Ellis
12:10 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011
Interesting points, Libby! Thanks! Could you expand a little bit upon what some of the pros of online learning are and how it can benefit students? As an educator, what do you see as the cons?
Leslie Ellis
12:12 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011
It also would be good to hear your thoughts on how these types of programs can be implemented without compromising local school districts (for example, if an out-of-state cyber school attracts Berkley School District students, which in turn means the district loses those funds?).
Libby Turpin
3:48 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011
First, online learning is not for everyone. An online class requires self discipline and strong reading skills; not everyone will be successful in an online class. Therefore, online classes will not replace a traditional classroom.
Online schools allows school districts to offer a wide array of courses. For example, 5 students want to take AP World History. A district will not run a class for only 5 students, but they can let them take it online. Now, the student has a wider array of courses to establish a personalized curriculum that will aid their future.
Likewise, an online class requires students to take ownership of their own learning, which is an essential tool for students to develop. Online students prove themselves as self-motivated and highly disciplined students, traits many teens need to practice.
Libby Turpin
3:58 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2011
Second, online courses can replace teachers. Normally, a high school teacher has 100-150 students per semester. An online teacher usually has 200 students. That is quite a difference. Yet, if a school district is proactive, using online courses as a marketing tool to get a wide array of courses and attract more students into their district, then this could not pose a problem. Furthermore, if a school district jumps at the chance of having their teachers as the instructors, then you are not sending your students out of the district.
Plus, remember,online courses aren't replacing traditional schools but being used to enhance traditional school's curriculum. A typical online student will have a reduced schedule, maybe coming in an hour later or only having a half day schedule. Therefore, the student would still be enrolled in the district, taking online courses offered by the district, where the district is still responsible for their seat time, even if their online teacher is in Florida. This means a district would not be losing money on students not being enrolled in traditional classes.
Lianne Mathie
1:12 pm on Sunday, October 30, 2011
I think it's a great tool but the whole community needs to be aware of all the elements of on-line education. I put this link on before but I think it's a eye opening program everyone needs to see.PBS Frontline did it earlier this year, we have to be careful that professional educators and experts are in charge of these programs.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/