Classroom Technology

Michigan Pushes E-Learning Options

By McClatchy-Tribune — October 17, 2011 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Michigan Department of Education isn’t waiting for the legislature to increase online options for students.

The department has released guidelines that allow more middle school students to take all classes online and some districts to open more virtual charter schools, among other changes that expand online options.

The new guidelines are in response to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s push for the legislature to remove rules that cap some online enrollment. Although the state education department has the power to give districts flexibility, the legislature would need to act to completely remove restrictions. “We agree with the governor that this is a good thing for students,” says Barb Fardell, a manager in the state Office of Educational Improvement and Innovation.

Online education already is big in the state. The Michigan Virtual High School expanded to nearly 15,000 courses taken from 100 a decade ago.

Kimberley McLaren-Kennedy, 17, of West Bloomfield, began taking all online classes during the 2010-11 school year at Avondale Academy in Auburn Hills. She has become a believer in online education.

“It’ll work for students who have the motivation in themselves and the discipline,” she says. “But if they’re lazy, I don’t think it will work for them.”

The 3,750-student Avondale district is one of 171—out of the 800 districts and charter schools in the state—that already provide expanded options for middle and high school students to take many or all classes online.

New guidelines are going to make it easier for far more Michigan students to take all or most of their classes online.

State law limits students to two online classes a semester, and the districts and charter schools that allow students to take more operate under special waivers from the Michigan Department of Education. But those waivers are limited, in most cases only allowing 25 percent of a school’s population to take all or most classes online.

The new guidelines allow districts to apply for new waivers that are intended to be more flexible, and for the state’s 57 intermediate school districts to apply to create virtual charter schools for up to 10 percent of students who reside in their geographic boundaries.

A version of this article appeared in the October 19, 2011 edition of Digital Directions as Michigan Pushes E-Learning Options

Events

Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar The Trump Budget and Schools: Subscriber Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Curriculum Webinar
End Student Boredom: K-12 Publisher's Guide to 70% Engagement Boost
Calling all K-12 Publishers! Student engagement flatlining? Learn how to boost it by up to 70%.
Content provided by KITABOO

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Classroom Technology From Our Research Center Chromebooks or Cellphones: Which Are the Bigger Classroom Distraction?
Most schools have had 1-to-1 computing environments since 2020; others have had it since the early 2010s.
2 min read
Left, chromebooks, to be loaned to students in the Elk Grove Unified School District, await distribution at Monterey Trail High School in Elk Grove, Calif., on April 2, 2020. Right, a ninth grader places his cellphone into a phone holder as he enters class at Delta High School on Feb. 23, 2024, in Delta, Utah.
Students work on 3-D printing projects at Sutton Middle School in Atlanta on Feb. 13, 2020.
AP
Classroom Technology Quiz Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Leveraging EdTech to Accelerate Learning?
Answer 7 questions on effectively leveraging EdTech to accelerate student learning.
Classroom Technology Opinion Schools Don't Know How Well Cellphone Policies Are Working. You Can Help
We urgently need comprehensive research about cellphones in schools, writes Angela Duckworth.
3 min read
A hand holding a cellphone with data that is not being analyzed. Cellphone bans being decided without studying the data.
Roman Stavila/iStock
Classroom Technology Instagram Wants Teachers to Report Cyberbullying. But How Much Will That Help?
The social media platform created a program designed to help educators report instances of potential cyberbullying.
2 min read
Conceptual image of cyberbullying.
iStock/Getty