List of Distance Learning High Schools?

Discussion in 'High School Education via Distance Learning' started by Dave Wagner, Aug 16, 2005.

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  1. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Hi. As of this afternoon, we are stymied by an interdistrict transfer and not sure we can get our daughter into the high school of choice. The private school options are wait-listed as well. Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge of a good online high school that is associated with a brick and mortar high school? This would be a one year alternative to home-schooling, which we would rather not do. Has anybody compiled a web list of high schools with programs that are completely on-line? Thanks in advance.

    Best wishes,

    Dave
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Get yourself a copy of _Bears' Guide to Earning High School Diplomas Non-Traditionally_.
     
  3. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

  4. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

  5. mattchand

    mattchand Member

  6. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    I think Texas Tech University has a K-12 program as well.

    clint
     
  7. TCord1964

    TCord1964 New Member

    I believe the University of Oklahoma has an online high school program. If you actually live in Oklahoma, the Muskogee School District offers online high school classes for free, if you "transfer" to their school district.

    A division of Thomson Education Direct also has a regionally-accredited high school option, James Madison High School. You may also want to check with your state's Department of Education for other alternatives.
     
  8. DesElms

    DesElms New Member

    Why does it have to be associated with a brick & mortar school? I mean, as long as it's accredited -- especially if it's regionally accredited -- what difference does it make? Just curious.
     
  9. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    Thanks for the links, everybody. There are many options to consider.

    Greg, good question; the concern is that it would seem like a "real" high school to my daughter and her friends.

    Thanks again,

    Dave
     
  10. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Dave, as Ted has pointed out, Tom Nixon has done exactly what you have asked.

    http://www.tomnixon.net/work1.htm
     
  11. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    Thanks, Tony. Understood. I was aware of the book but don't own a copy of it. I was looking for web resources, but if the issue doesn't get resolved soon, I may go track down the hardcopy.

    Thanks,

    Dave
     
  12. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    Can't seem to find my copy of _Bears' Guide to Earning High School Diplomas Non-Traditionally_, but, from my perusal of the "High Schools" chapter of _Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning_, it seems that the only DL high schools with B&M presence are university-based dl high school programs.

    Brigham Young University http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/ (BG15, 236)
    Indiana University http://scs.indiana.edu (BG15, 236)
    University of Missouri http://cdis.missouri.edu/MUHighSChool/HShome.html (BG15, 237)
    University of Nebraska http://dcs.unl.edu/ishs/ (BG15, 237)
    University of Texas www.uteaxs.edu/cee/dec/uths/diploma.shtml (BG15, 237)
    Texas Tech University www.dce.ttu.edu/ttuisd/ttuhs.cfm (BG15, 237)
     
  13. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Re: Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    A couple of them links seem a bit buggered up. Let's try again.

    University of Texas www.utexas.edu/cce/dec/uths/index.shtml
    Texas Tech University www.depts.ttu.edu/oes/TTUISDhigh.asp
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2005
  14. TCord1964

    TCord1964 New Member

    Re: Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    Dave,

    I just noticed you live in California. Have you considered or do you know about Choice 2000? It is a fully-accredited, fully online high school which operates in California, and it is tuition-free if you live in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, or Orange counties. It also has the B&M presence you are seeking: Perris Union High School in Perris, CA. Did I mention...FREE?

    http://www.choice2000.org/
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2005
  15. DesElms

    DesElms New Member

    Re: Re: Re: List of Distance Learning High Schools?

    There's nothing not real about PCDI's James Madison High School, to which TCord1964 referred you earlier... and which I'm now saying you should have taken more seriously, if you didn't.

    It may conduct classes only in cyberspace, but it's got a traditional-sounding name that won't call its being a DL school to anyone's attention when they see it on a college application, job application, resume, etc.; and its regional accreditation pretty much trumps all other arguments.

    And here's the kicker: It's very inexpensive... around $1,300 for all four years of the program; or around $1,100 for just three years; or around $900 for just two years; or around $700 for just one year... all of which includes text books and whatever else is needed (excluding lab fees if any courses require them). You can even pay it by the month, interest free... though, at that price, why bother?

    It offers both a 16-credit general diploma (for students who believe they'll never go to college... and are probably right), and a 22-credit academic diploma (for those who are most definitely college-bound). When I looked-over the coursework last year (or was it the year before... can't remember), I noticed that the "academic diploma" grossly exceeded pretty much every state's minimum requirements and fully prepared its students for pretty much any exit exams that might be required of them. Even the "general diploma" meets or exceeds pretty much every state's minimum, non-college-bound graduation requirements.

    So if your daughter and her friends can get over it not actually existing in the brick & mortar (B&M) world (except for its offices, of course), then you/she can save a ton of money, it will be extremely convenient for her/you, and you won't be in the role of the home schooling teacher. Her teacher will be on a videotape or a CD or DVD, and then over the telephone (toll-free, I might add). At most, you'd be little more than a tutor now and then... or probably just a helpful parent, just like any parent would be even if she were going to a B&M high school.

    Do what you want, of course, but by the end of my sophomore year in high school, I was gettin' ready to be named what was, at that time, the youngest Radio Shack manager in the history of what was then the Tandy Corporation (owner of Radio Shack); and I was only going to school mornings so I could be at work by 1:00 PM to work until 9:00 PM. It was a pain-in-the-you-know-what tryin' to work-out that schedule during my junior and senior years. If James Madison High School had existed at that time, I'd have dropped-out of the public, B&M high school I was in, and I would have enrolled in James Madison so fast that my parents and/or anyone else who cared wouldn't have known what day of the week it was (or, if there had been a formal way to transfer instead of dropping out, then I would have done that).

    If anyone asked her where the school was, she could answer "Atlanta," and it would be truthful. And any college admissions officer who wanted to verify the diploma would find it in the directory of regionally-accredited high schools and that would be all that would be required. Don't forget that a high school diploma is a high school diploma is a high school diploma... that is, as long as it's regionally-accredited. Unless you're tryin' to get your daughter into some kinda' hoity-toity, prim-and-proper, ivy league college or university, she doesn't need to be in a hoity-toity high school. She just needs to be in one that will adequately prepare her for the rigors of undergraduate college work. Look closely at the number of units in each of the important areas that the Madison offers in the "academic diploma" track. If that won't prepare her for pretty much any college out there, then I don't know what would.

    Just my thoughts and opinions, mind you -- you do what you want -- but I would look long and hard at it, were I you.
     
  16. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Folks,

    Thanks for all the options. I've been able to calm down my wife as to the virtual choices... very encouraging.

    Best wishes,

    Dave
     
  17. TCord1964

    TCord1964 New Member

    Dave,

    Please keep us updated and let us know what you decide to do. I would be very interested in learning more about the experiences of DL high school students.
     
  18. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Will do. As of this morning though, it seems that both a slot in the desired school and the interdistrict transfer that we begged for have both come through at once. Go figure. Still, the DL options for HS are far more and better than I imagined, which is very comforting to my wife and me. Alas, we probably will have no DL HS student experience to share if all the paperwork goes through...

    Thanks again,

    Dave
     

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