Since the statewide closure of schools in mid-March, BASD students have been plunged into the world of distance learning. Middle and high school students, each of whom already had a district-issued Chromebook, continued to access Schoology, DiscoveryEd, and other online resources – as well as teacher-recorded lessons – in a fairly smooth transition from traditional learning. Elementary students have been using a blend of paper packets, online teacher-recorded lessons, and PBS39 television programming in an effort to make continued progress, albeit at a slower rate than under ideal circumstances.

But a small group of BASD students – around 200 – has been part of the district’s “cyber academy” (BASDCA) since the beginning of the school year.

BASDCA: Basics

of the program

BASDCA is the online learning program developed by the school district to serve the needs of students seeking an online-only or blended online and brick-and-mortar educational experience. Instruction is provided online – asynchronously, so students can access lessons at their own pace and on their own schedule – using instructors and curricula sourced by Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 (IU20), with guidance counseling, extracurricular activities, and even some in-classroom teaching wrapped around by personnel from the students’ official “home” schools. Over the past three years, the program has grown from 45 students to 173 students currently enrolled; 220 students have participated for at least a portion of the current school year in a fully cyber or blended program through BASDCA.

Mark James, who has coordinated the BASDCA since March 2017, explains how the program works. Most BASDCA students are in high school, although there are around a dozen middle school students and a few elementary students taking part in the program. “For middle and high school kids, everything is web-based and done on a Chromebook. For elementary students, there are ancillary workbooks and packets, materials for science labs, etc.,” James said. “It’s not all screen-based, and there’s a kit that gets sent home.” For the few elementary students involved, he describes the program as “basically homeschooling with a whole ton of support. It’s not realistic to expect a second-grader to completely independently manage their own time. It’s sort of assumed that the parents will be involved.”

BASDCA uses “recommended pacing” so students and parents know exactly where they are relative to the typical pace of the course, and what their grade for the course would be if they didn’t complete the remaining work.

The district has embraced the research-based approach to reading promulgated by literacy experts and neuroscientists like Louisa Moats, Joan Sedita and Mark Seidenberg. BASD teachers have been participating in intensive professional development over the past several years as part of the “Reading by Grade 3” (RBG3) initiative, and the district strongly believes that in-person instruction using research-informed methods is the best way for young children to learn to read. With that in mind, James explains, “Based upon the district’s deep commitment to a science-based approach to early literacy instruction, we offer students in Grades K-3 a ‘blended’ schedule, where students come into the building for literacy instruction, and can complete other subject area courses online. Students in Grades 4 and 5 who are reading at grade level may choose to take all courses in the BASDCA.”

Why cyber?

Prior to the coronavirus, most students and families pictured school in a fairly traditional setting, with homeroom, assemblies, lockers, and peers. Is cyber school just a way to opt out of ordinary social interactions? Not in James’s view. He explains that students who want to enroll in BASDCA must write their own application, explaining why they think the program is best for them. Then comes an orientation meeting with the student, the parent(s), James, the assistant principal of the student’s home school, the guidance counselor, and the case manager if the student is in special education. It doesn’t happen often, James says, but, “I sometimes spend the first 15 minutes of the meeting explaining that they’re still going to have to come to the building sometimes.” A seasoned educator and administrator, he knows that “sometimes kids are just dealing with the vicissitudes of the high school years.

“We look at how to provide emotional support for anxiety and related issues,” James says, “and we make a plan for how they can come in at least part-time or eventually, because if they’re not coming into the school, we can’t give them the emotional support.”

Renee Harris, coordinator of the Colonial Virtual Program – the department at IU20 that administers BASDCA – echoes James’s comments. “Kids reach out to me, and I say, ‘Let’s contact your counselor,’ and I’ll work that transition in, and letting the kids develop those skills to advocate for themselves, and see that it’s not scary anymore.” Fundamentally, cyber school is not about avoiding social problems, because the district is committed to teaching each child “how to be in the world with people,” in James’s words.

If it’s not about avoiding the social challenges of high school, who does choose cyber? It’s a diverse group, including elite athletes, students who are already in the workforce, and students with personal or family medical issues. James mentions a student who is an elite mountain biker and snowboarder whose training schedule didn’t work with the schedule of regular school; she did all three years of Nitschmann MS through BASDCA. Other students are completing high school courses while dual-enrolled in community college and working, and the flexibility of cyber schooling is right for them. James describes another student whose family traveled out of the country to be with an ailing grandmother; the student was able to transition seamlessly to BASDCA to remain a BASD student while residing abroad for a semester.

Advantages

of BASDCA

Because BASDCA students are part of the district, they have access to everything their full-time brick-and-mortar peers do. Unlike students who leave public school to enroll in a cyber charter school, BASDCA students are still part of their home schools, enjoying a blended experience when possible, and participating in extracurricular activities with their classmates. James notes that although offering education asynchronously provides flexibility, it decreases collaboration, so he works hard to keep students engaged collaboratively in other ways. “It’s important for us to do everything we can to keep them involved in the learning community,” he declares, citing art classes, after-school clubs, pep rallies, dances, and field trips as ways that cyber students stay involved.

“One of the strengths of the program,” he asserts, “is that the student is still a Liberty HS student, and Mr. Whitaker or Ms. Hinkel or another AP is still his assistant principal, and he can do anything he feels like doing at Liberty.” Indeed, on a student’s official record, the only way to tell that he or she is a cyber student is that the homeroom is marked “cyber” instead of a teacher’s name. BASDCA students are still district students, so if they return to their home schools at semester or year break, there is no de-enrollment/re-enrollment process; records are maintained seamlessly.

Looking ahead to fall 2020, it’s easy to imagine some students and families feeling concern about returning to their physical school buildings with the coronavirus still circulating. Harris notes that BASDCA might be part of the transition process for some of them: “You may have students who have some trepidation about returning, and they can slowly re-integrate back into their building [as blended BASDCA students], because they’re still part of that community.”

James is clear in his belief that the district’s physical schools are appropriate to meet most students’ needs. “Cyber is great,” he says, “and meets the needs of a lot of kids, but we still would like the kids wherever possible, to have person-to-person, face-to-face, even if it’s six feet apart, relationships with teachers.”