Note: The information in this profile represents SY2010-11 unless otherwise indicated.
School Overview
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School Description
Connections Academy has a rich history of providing K–12 “public school at home” programs by developing full-time online charter schools within states and districts. Like many other online-learning companies, it has begun to field more requests to implement its program in brick-and-mortar schools, rather than just for individual students working in a distributed setting outside of traditional schools. In 2009, the Pro-Vision charter school in Houston faced a predicament. Founded by a former professional football player, Pro-Vision originally was organized to serve middle school boys. But when 20 of its graduating 8th graders did not want to attend a traditional high school, Pro-Vision did not have the resources to expand to serve high school students. School leaders decided to partner with Connections Academy to solve the problem. Pro-Vision’s need created an opportunity for Connections Academy to take the leap into brick-and-mortar blending as a starting point for expanding a whole-school blended solution. The Vision Academy, a combination of the two institutions, opened its doors as a school within a school for Pro-Vision 9th graders in the fall of 2009 and was co-located in the Pro-Vision facility.
Blended Learning Program (1 of 2)
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Program Model
Program model: Flex
Model description
Connections Academy delivers online curriculum, with face-to-face teachers (teachers-of-record) offering targeted interventions.
Blended Learning Program (2 of 2)
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Program Model
Program model: A La Carte
Model description
Connections Academy delivers online curriculum and teachers, but face-to-face coaches offer targeted interventions.
Program Description
Blended model
The Vision Academy students spend their day in a specially outfitted learning lab for all academic subjects. Connections Academy provides the learning management system and online teachers, who deliver all course content. These teachers are located throughout the country but are all Texas credentialed. Connections Academy also provides print textbooks and novels as well as hands-on science and related materials. High school students typically spend about 50 percent of their time at a computer when engaged in a Connections Academy course. For all subjects except math, two face-to-face paraprofessional coaches assist and encourage the students as they monitor the classroom. The Connections Academy learning management system allows the online teachers (who are the teachers of record of the courses) to direct the activities of the face-to-face coaches. Students spend significant time communicating synchronously with their online teacher in the “LiveLesson” Web conferencing room, as well as through email and on the phone through Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). For math, content is also delivered online, but students learn from face-to-face teachers (who are the teachers of record of the course), rather than from online teachers. Students join with the rest of the Pro-Vision school for lunch and other activities, such as gardening, art, and sports. But for their academics, they change back into their white shirts and ties and return to the learning lab. Connections Academy offers several Internet-based extracurricular clubs as well, such as chess, robotics, and a Connections Academy newspaper.
Notable results
The Vision Academy students produced respectable results for language arts, science, and social studies for the 2009–10 school year. Connections Academy, however, found that its online teachers and curriculum were not enough to ensure the young men mastered some of the math concepts. Despite the program’s emphasis on extensive synchronous work, students often turned to their face-to-face coaches for help. But since the coaches were not trained math teachers, their ability to tutor was limited. For the 2010–11 school year, Connections Academy therefore decided to swap a credentialed math teacher in place of one of the on-site coaches. Initial feedback also suggested that the students were restless from sitting and needed more moving around. For the 2010–11 school year, Connections Academy focused on better pacing for the day with more small-group and class collaboration. The model retained the idea of starting with each student’s specific needs, however, and then building appropriate collaborations from there, which is the opposite of the traditional model. Although Vision Academy has been implemented as a pilot, the standard cost of this blended model per student is about $5,000 per year for the full curriculum, plus another $3,000 per student for the physical elements; for example, facility, on-site activities, etc. This $7,000 to $8,000 price tag could be a cost savings for some urban school districts, but does not save money in others. The price is sensitive to whether on-site coaches need to be subject experts.
On the horizon
Vision Academy expanded to serve 10th graders for the 2010–11 school year. This brought its total student enrollment to approximately 43 students and up to three on-site coaches. Connections Academy has focused on evolving the data interface between the online teachers, learning management system, and face-to-face teachers or coaches. Traditionally the system has been geared toward interfacing between an online teacher and a parent or family member for students in a distributed environment. Connections Academy sees an opportunity to revise that approach so that the online teacher works collaboratively with the face-to-face coaches of a co-located group of students instead. Connections Academy has also found that mobile phones are helpful in improving online/on-site, teacher/coach collaboration. Mickey Revenaugh, executive vice president at Connections Academy, said that the science behind how online teachers, on-site coaches, and parents best work together to deliver education is still nascent. Connections Academy—and the online-learning world in general—are working to specify each adult’s role. She believes that as on-site coaches better understand how to master their role, blended learning will improve. During the 2010–11 school year, Connections Academy began providing a similar whole-school solution for about 60 upper-grade high school students in Prince George’s County, Md. It is applying and improving upon its Vision Academy model and expects that through these early iterations, its blending strategy will continue to improve. Apart from its whole-school blended turnaround solution, Connections Academy continues to offer curriculum course by course for students to self-blend. Mississippi has outsourced its entire state virtual school program—approximately 3,000 course enrollments—to Connections Academy. Connections Academy is also providing roughly 2,500 course enrollments to Missouri.
Contact Information
Website: www.provision-inc.org/Vision-Academy.html