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E-Learning Opens Real-World Doors

Melissa Gorman, a special education teacher at the Academy for Design and Construction at Union High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., works with Delvonte Jackson-Stewart, an 11th grader, in his blended learning class. The course takes place in the school’s computer lab with a 1-to-8 adult-to-student ratio.

—Brian Widdis for Education Week

Virtual courses give Grand Rapids students time for internships and on-site experiences

By Ian Quillen

For many schools, mixing online courses with face-to-face learning is primarily a method for serving struggling or advanced students while keeping them inside school walls.

But for several hundred high school students in the Grand Rapids, Mich., school district , blended learning is the key that unlocks the door to the real world.

In 2008, the district launched the first of five Centers of Innovation, one at each of the 17,000-student district's high schools. They are designed to give students a pathway to in-school internships and fellowships that could eventually lead to careers. Two of the centers now use online courses from e2020 , a provider located in Scottsdale, Ariz., for...