Powered by Real Times Media
www.AtlantaDailyWorld.com
June 19 - 24, 2014
Volume 86 • Issue 45
Virtual Academy to Address Atlanta’s Dismal Graduation Rates By Terry Shropshire Georgia educators’ and legislators’ egos were flattened like two flat tires when the U.S. Department of Education released new figures on U.S. high school graduation rankings in 2011. The proud state’s puffed out chest caved in when it learned it ranked near the very bottom of graduation rates — and was, by far, the worst state when it came to graduating its students in four years among all Southeastern states. The state’s fragile reputation was further diminished after the infamous Atlanta testing scandal. Georgia is now attempting to pick up the shards of its fractured ego with new and innovative educational tools designed to improve results across the board. The city of Atlanta educational leaders, in particular, have unveiled its inaugural Atlanta Virtual Academy in 2014. The AVA programs are designed to allow students and their families flexible learning options to meet their educational needs, help boost test scores and, most of all, get more kids strolling across the stage on time with smiles on their faces and diplomas in hand. If Georgia was red-faced with embarrassment at the released statistics, Atlanta’s numbers were downright hideous. Nearly half of its students are failing to graduate on time, prompting the school system to leverage the power and attraction of the Internet as a way to reverse the disturbing trend. The AVA is not seen as the panacea to heal all educational ills. But officials are hoping that the program will help Atlanta Public Schools steadily ratchet its abominable 51 percent graduation rate upward. Something had to be done. The graduation numbers released by the feds were highly embarrassing. Only two states — New Mexico and Nevada, plus the District of Columbia — were lower than Georgia. Worse, the findings place the state
graduation rates far lower than the rates of its neighbors Mississippi (75 percent) or Alabama (72 percent), according to the Department of Education. Georgia’s new graduation rate is much lower than the nearly 81 percent rate state officials had touted in the past. Eugene Walker, school board chairman in DeKalb County, the third largest school system in Georgia, was mortified by that result “That’s totally unacceptable,” he said. “It always surprises me when Georgia is lower than Mississippi and Alabama in anything. It not only surprises me, it disappoints me because we’re much more forward looking.” With Atlanta’s numbers flashing like neon signs at midnight, it makes people wonder why the school was slow to get with internet technology. While Atlanta’s online program is the newest in Georgia, similar computer-based courses have been offered for years throughout the state and surrounding school districts including Gwinnett, DeKalb, Cobb, Henry, Cherokee and Rockdale counties. Now that the program has been implemented in Atlanta, students and parents should expect the following: • The online courses mirror the teachings of brick-andmortar schools, with regular assignments, video lectures, group discussions and tests. • Teachers will be available to answer questions. • Course software will enable instructors to monitor whether they are spending enough time online. • There is an expectation that students will log between 20 and 24 hours a week for a class during the summer, and somewhere between 12 and 15 hours a week during the longer semesters in the regular school year. Observers should be patient and not expect an immediate spike in test scores and graduation right away, implores Tracy
Gray, a managing director for the American Institutes for Research. “Technology is like putting a piano in the room and expecting everybody to be (Frederic) Chopin,” Gray told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.“Unless teachers know how to use the technology and the students have the necessary support they need to master the course content, then it can only go so far.” Besides, the Department of Education’s own research reveals that online classes are about as effective as brick-andmortar classes. Christina Clayton, director of instructional technology for the Georgia Department of Education, which oversees the Georgia Virtual School, says about 20,000 students are expected to enroll in the state’s online courses, with about 8,000 of them seeking to recover credits from classes they’ve previously failed, and the rest taking new courses. Two developments make the AVA an encouraging foray into online education. According to the Athens Banner-Herald, “about 88 percent of students enrolled in the state’s credit recovery classes achieve passing grades,” Clayton said. Instructional content in online courses is aligned with state standards, and students must pass end of course tests to prove their knowledge. “Students who have previously failed traditional classes tend to do well in online classes because they’ve already studied the content once,” added Gwinnett Online Campus Principal Christopher Ray. “It’s almost like an independent study,” Ray explained. “You get out what you put into it. If you’re doing the work and working with a teacher, doing the assignments, you’re going to be successful.”