Wisconsin Virtual School (WVS) Also known as the Wisconsin Web Academy (WWA) State-led, supplemental online education program made possible through state legislation – The law requires the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to provide equitable access to high-quality online education by offering online courses to school districts, cooperative educational service agencies, charter schools, and private schools located in Wisconsin. DPI partnered with the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 9 to operate the WWA

Wisconsin Virtual School (WVS) Expand learning opportunities for ALL learners Serving students with expanded offerings, credit deficits, schedule conflicts, homebound, expelled, accelerated, homeschooled, summer school, and others No membership fees or contracts to sign Local district control over enrollments and policies Over 70 high school courses, 20 AP courses, middle school,credit recovery, and an online test prep partner We provide Wisconsin certified teachers, content, platform, technical support, and more. We can provide a low-cost training for your teachers to deliver WVS content locally that meets the state 30 hour professional development requirement.

Meeting the Needs of ALL Learners WVS Credit Recovery Courses Schools are continually meeting challenges and finding ways to overcome hurdles in student achievement. Do any of these issues sound familiar? Students need to make up credits for graduation School District wants to improve graduation rates Need to prepare students for state exams Trying to get dropout students back in school A desire to provide educational equity to each student Challenging budgetary concerns while trying to serve each student

How do the Online Recovery Courses Work? 12 weeks to complete, $200 per course, ext. available (2 week drop period Asynchronous, 24/7 access, self-paced, standards aligned, independent online learning Designed for students who failed required classes but learned enough to make a complete repetition of the course unnecessary. Students can test out of the material Classes are largely self-directed, so students can work at their own pace, repeating difficult lessons as needed and skipping those that are not needed.

What should credit recovery courses look like? Comprehensive and challenging curriculum with large test pools to ensure variability in assessments Diagnostic-driven model Individualized for students Real-time teacher support via , phone, discussion board, and web conferencing

How Does it Work? Formative assessments determine students’ areas of weakness. Course materials are delivered to students as they need them Course materials are closely keyed to formative assessments, so students do only the work they need to succeed. Summative assessments validate learning and indicate when student ready to go to the next learning unit. Assessments test lower order thinking skills as well as higher order thinking skills. As a result, only some are auto graded.

WVS Student Statistics WVS student population represents 60% rural districts and 40% urban districts 83% of the students are between 16 and 18 years old. 170 school districts accessed courses through WVS in The top reason students take online courses is because the course is NOT offered in their school. The Fall completion rate was 80%. The average time spent in the course is 121 days. The number of hours spent per week in the course is 6- 7 hours.

Summer 2010 Statistics 76 Wisconsin school districts 147 students (57% of these enrollments CR) 80% average grade and 84% completion rate

WVS Preliminary Stats 54%growth in enrollments 192schools are accessing courses this fall 5% (4% last year) of the students indicate they have an IEP or 504 Plan 1% identify they are expelled students 4% are taking an online course for credit recovery 70% are taking an online course because it is NOT offered locally

Credit Recovery Courses Offered Algebra I Algebra II Geometry English I, II, III, IV Biology Physical Science American Government** American History Geography World History Physical Education** **One semester CR Course

Curriculum Review Access Wisconsin Virtual School offers curriculum review access for all our courses including the Credit Recovery Courses.

WVS Questions & Contact Information Dawn Nordine, WVS Director CESA Kaphaem Road PO Box 449, Tomahawk, WI Phone: Cell: or Website:

Strengths of the WVS Program LEG (Local Education Guide) mentor support WI certified content specific teachers Local support provided start to finish – Policies – Handbooks – Parent meetings – LEG training – Teacher training etc.

WVS Success is Measured How? – Students who complete the course and receive credit locally become successful completion statistics – Data is kept for each semester and summer – Students eventually receive a diploma from their district/program=graduates.

WVS Credit Recovery Success Story Online learning provides another alternative for these students allowing them to learn with their peers in an environment removed from social, physical, and mental barriers and which can also meet their learning style that a traditional classroom may not provide.”

What is the biggest challenge for your program? What are you doing to overcome that challenge? Biggest Challenge: Students who are placed in this environment without the local support needed to help them stay on pace, stay motivated, skills to reach out for support from the LEG or online teacher. How overcoming Challenge: Strongly recommending our LEG resources and training at no cost to the schools. Weekly progress reports to teacher and LEG Webinar LEG training was implemented

If you were starting your program from scratch what would be one thing you would suggest to avoid some of the pitfalls? – Require LEG training for all mentors (guidance counselors, at-risk coordinators, alternative education staff, etc.) – Require our “Must Do List” as part of the role description for each mentor or LEG. – Increase the number of Elluminate sessions for supporting students with more synchronous opportunities

If you had all of the resources you could wish for, how would your program be different than it is now? More personnel to provide support on the front end of each school implementing online credit recovery programs. Legislated or state funding to offset the costs of credit recovery courses for the local districts – removing the barrier of it appearing to be costly to have a content specific teacher involved in the credit recovery.

Michele Nickels, NDEN Director Nicolet Area Technical College - NDEN P.O. Box 518 Rhinelander, WI Phone: Fax: