The superintendent of the New Jerusalem School District in rural Tracy has opened a new online school through a partnership with the private company Advanced Academics, one where someone could earn a high school diploma without stepping foot in a classroom.
Teachers answer questions and instruct students out of an office in a shopping center on Grant Line Road. Aside from the cubicles, which are decorated with sports memorabilia or photos of loved ones, the place is pretty plain office space.
Thoming said the online school — called Delta Pacific — offers an alternative for students who might not learn best in a classroom. So far, he said, about 150 boys and girls in the 771-student district are logged in. Kids in the sixth through 12th grades in San Joaquin County, or any contiguous county, can enroll at Delta Pacific and become New Jerusalem students.
Something had to be done to shake up the status quo of today’s education, Thoming said. He added that many other school districts — such as those in Patterson, Salida and Lodi — have asked him about how the online school works.
Thoming recalls talking to a math teacher in an out-of-state district who also thought the way education works now might not be best for every student. While New Jerusalem has healthy test scores, Thoming said he empathized with that teacher, who wanted something more for his students.
“He was told that 40 percent of (his) kids are going to fail the first year of algebra, but that’s OK, because they’ll just take it again next year,” Thoming said. “He said, ‘Wait a minute, you’re telling me, as a teacher, I’m going to get a D? That’s as good as I can possibly get, and that’s OK?’
“It didn’t make any sense to him, and it doesn’t make any sense to me, either.”
Tracy Unified School District has a similar online setup through Kaplan — called Kaplan Academy of North Central California — which also launched this year.
Tracy Unified spokeswoman Jessica Cardoza said students in the same grade range and regions as at New Jerusalem can earn a diploma online from the state-funded charter school.
About 100 students are enrolled at Tracy’s school now, Kaplan spokesman Matt Given said. While the school is not a Tracy Unified campus, he said, the district does have oversight and gets about $350 per online student from the state.
Delta Pacific will bring in about $975,000 for New Jerusalem, Thoming said. Advanced Academics will receive 45 percent of that, 40 percent will pay salaries for eight teachers and the district will keep the rest for overhead costs.
The school’s teachers said students get the same kind of education if they were in a normal classroom, including electives and Advanced Placement courses.
While the online students can’t yet take part in New Jerusalem or Delta Charter High School extracurricular activities, such as baseball, Thoming said the district is gauging student interest and might have something next school year. Kaplan’s academy offers some clubs, Given said, but not sports.
New Jerusalem students can take a mix of online and on-campus classes or take the whole curriculum online. If they find one way doesn’t suit them, they can switch at the end of the semester.
For foreign language courses, the district has a contract with PowerSpeak. Through that company, a student can work through Spanish, French, German, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin or Russian translations over the phone. Students also record spoken homework assignments through PowerSpeak for teachers to hear.
Students exercise independently for physical education, and Thoming said the course’s curriculum is focused on nutrition and health, though the district in this case has to trust the student will exercise, and there’s little oversight.
For lab science classes, though, such as biology or chemistry, a student can dissect a virtual frog or test acids and bases online. Given said the setup is roughly the same for Kaplan’s academy. Videos also accompany most lessons.
If students have a question, they can call a teacher directly between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., chat with an instructor online or send an e-mail. Some teachers said they prefer such interactions, as they can talk with students one on one instead of trying to keep 20 or 30 kids on task.
“I think this is a trend in education,” science teacher Chuck Pederson said.
Without the threat of a teacher present, many students might be tempted to cheat. But Delta Pacific officials have a way to answer that, too. During an online test, if someone tries to open a
new browser window, the program will block it.
When students submit papers, teachers run them through TurnItIn.com, which highlights sentences pulled from Web sites to catch potential plagiarists. Instructors read the papers and give them back to the students with comments on their work. Electives teacher Chuck Feathers said he keeps his own notes in a file on his computer, so he can instantly remind himself of a student’s strengths and weaknesses.
While there are always workarounds to Delta Pacific’s cheating controls, Pederson said, it’s not much different from the challenges of academic honesty in a classroom.
Students said they enjoy the freedom to work at their own pace. Pederson said many of his students don’t log in until about 11 a.m., but they still get their work done on time.
“Delta Pacific had a lot of options for me to graduate on time, which wasn’t looking like an option with my other school,” said Holly Dowd, a 17-year-old senior from Union City. “It’s really interesting, because it fits my style of learning exactly. I can read for myself, I can go at my own pace and I can go back and look at it.”
Self discipline is not a hallmark of some teens, and until it is, online education will not catch on with some of our students. On the other hand, II have had the distinct pleasure of 'meeting' many of my students online and helping them succeed. This unique style of learning is absolutely amazing, and is a boon for rural students who want to learn, for example, Russian or Japanese. We can now fulfill more dreams.
And while the four of us teachers have just been laid off due to poor student attendance issues, I maintain that there is a place here for many of us. Online solitary education, the way that it's done here, is very stimulating, and even joyful and fulfilling. I recommend it to many of you high school and junior high students, especially those who are behind in credits. Join us.
Researching parents. To get a better understanding of the validity factor of it all ask yourself. Could Delta outsource their administration? If the answer is no. What are they teachin?
However, we are talking about K-12 education. A high school education is much more serious topic than a computer literacy seminar taught at the local library.
And, I don't know about the comments related to "hatred" or where they come from, but I would like to respond to the study that was posted by PepeLePew.
Here's the link again. For reference. http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
The study as I understood it has little coorelation to show regarding K-12 education. The study is focused more on motivated adult learners, such as military students. For example.
The fact that 1 in 5 students don't graduate high school may be attributed to poor education and a lot to do with their environment.
Providing students on the verge of dropout with additional learning mandates that require them to conjure up more self-motivation actually does little or nothing to solve the problem at the state board level.
Although it may be the right approach for a fraction of those one-fifth of students, which amounds to a very small corner case. And while it works for a few, it is NOT the right thing for me to replace a real educator with a computer screen. Sorry,
The facts show that Charter Schools have the hightest level of success even much higher than private schools. And yes, much much better than online education, which works for working adults completing an MBA or something.
I've heard that Delta used to have a great K-8 Charter, program. Perhaps Delta should have kept the K-8 Charter school that was doing well. And NOT outsourced what was doing well to begin with.
I would however, congradulate Delta NewJ on saving a few bucks.
Many of yer comments below are valid. But please remember, what works well fer one don't mean it's gonna work well for others or all.
Some people to great with computer assisted larnin. Others can't seem ta disiplin themselves or have trouble an that's whair a face ta face teacher is necessary.
Please, let's not fall inta th trap ya discribe with yer comments about larnin in th 50's. Just as that don't work well fer everyone taday computer assisted larnin isn't fer everyone either.
I do agree with yer final sentence, "I would advise any parent out there interested in this type of learning environment to read a study which cites hundreds of sources, not just one person on their buggy whip box."
But I'd add that this new technology don't fit everyone's needs an abilities either.
Best fer th parents ta take a very active role in thair kid's education. If they don't classroom instruction or computer assisted larning ain't gonna solve th education problem.
Here's a link to the study:
http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
Maybe Delta Charter did their research (something the haters obviously didn't) before offering this fantastic opportunity to those students who don't fit the traditional mold. It is a tragedy that 1 in 5 students in California do not graduate high school, perhaps it is because of the flawed thinking that EVERY STUDENT MUST LEARN THE WAY THEY DID IN 1950?
I would advise any parent out there interested in this type of learning environment to read a study which cites hundreds of sources, not just one person on their buggy whip box.
It changed my way of thinking about how unbalanced we can become on a path paved with good intentions.
"Without the threat of a teacher present, many students might be tempted to cheat. But Delta Pacific officials have a way to answer that, too. During an online test, if someone tries to open a new browser window, the program will block it."
All the student needs is a second computer or an XBox with Internet connection and can easily look up the answers online. Thus bypassing the anti-cheating mechanisms. As a parent, I would certainly not want a system that allows this type of cheating by other students. This "grading on a curve" should be UNACCEPTABLE before I would be interested in enrolling my children in such a course with ability to allow cheaters to schore higher grades without catching them.
As I said it's good that Delta has learned to outsource teachers to save a the taxpayers a few dollars, but the system needs to be fixed. First. And I am personally surprised that the State of California has approved such a flawed system.
Of course Delta students can take classes online that are NOT taught by teachers from outside Delta. If you read the article you would see that it says Delta students have access to the following classes:
" Spanish, French, German, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin or Russian translations over the phone" through "PowerSpeak"?
It says nothing about teachers at Delta teaching all these classes. They are apparently "outsourced"? Who knows? Perhaps even by someone in another country? I don't know. But I do know the article does NOT say they have local teachers for these classes.
Instead, it says they outsourced though an agreement with outside companies.
And all the other classes through "Advanced Academics" too. That's obviously what the article says. 'Outsourced their teachers'?
And that's where I deduced that Delta essentially outsourced the K-8 Charter school teachers?
Anyway, I'm just reading the article the way it was written. But, perhaps we misunderstood the article or you would like to straighten out the article if it's in err?