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Tri-Cities online school enrollment surges with COVID rates
Pasco, WA While enrollment at Tri-City schools are slowly returning to normal, online schools are seeing a surge of new students choosing to learn remotely. Along with the rise in the COVID delta variant in the Tri-Cities, enrollment in online courses more than doubled in the space of a month. And overall enrollment in Tri-Cities schools — both online and in person — is slowly rebounding after hundreds of students disappeared from the rolls of public schools last year. Leaders of Pasco’s new virtual school, Pasco Innovative Experiences in e-Learning or PIXeL, were surprised by the rush for their program this year. They initially had 80 students in the new…
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New K-8 online school now accepting enrollment applications after many students preferred online learning
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – A new, fully online school is now taking enrollment applications after many students preferred online learning even before the pandemic. District 11 in Colorado Springs created Spark Online Academy after hundreds of students reportedly left the in-person classroom environment every year, and preferred online learning instead. D-11 already has one online school, Achieve Online School, but the pandemic really amplified the need for an additional program. “If you have an internet connection, you can access the learning, so it doesn’t really matter where you are,” said Principal Julie Johnson. D11 said online learning allows for that flexibility that some parents and families may need or…
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Great Hearts Academies enrollment for online K-8 school opens Monday
(Great Hearts Academies photo) PHOENIX — Great Hearts Academies, an Arizona-based network of nonprofit public charter schools, announced Wednesday that its online school for kindergartners through eighth graders will launch in the fall. Great Hearts Online is open to all Arizona students and does not charge tuition. Enrollment begins Monday. The education system will offer its classical liberal arts curriculum with advanced math and science and a focus on arts and foreign language in a virtual setting for K-8 graders. “The past year has made clear the need for high quality online academic programs in K-12,” Great Hearts America CEO Jay Heiler said in a press release. “The challenge here…
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Washington state’s for-profit online schools are expanding enrollment during the pandemic
As Washington school districts wrangle with massive enrollment drops during the pandemic, new statewide data shows that nearly 6,000 children transferred to a type of school that has faced criticism for closed financial books and poor academic performance: virtual schools paid for by taxpayer dollars and run by for-profit companies. Together, Washington’s five largest for-profit virtual schools will collect roughly $117.5 million in public dollars this school year — about $47.5 million more than they did last year. Times Watchdog reporting digs deep to expose wrongdoing and hold powerful interests accountable to the public. Support watchdog journalism with a tax-deductible donation to The Seattle Times Investigative Journalism Fund. The increase…
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Latino college enrollment was increasing until the pandemic hit
Then the pandemic hit. Alvarez’s mother lost her restaurant job, and Alvarez, who is Mexican American and lives in Nashville, had to start taking care of her younger siblings, guiding them through remote school. Her own attendance suffered. And her grades dropped, plunging from B’s and A’s to straight D’s. Alvarez began questioning her plans to apply — anywhere. “I feel like I wouldn’t get into any colleges [because of] my grades being down,” she said in December. “I also think about my parents having to pay, if I don’t end up getting a scholarship — and I probably won’t now.” The steady stream of Latino students arriving on college…
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California Department of Education notes a decrease in enrollment numbers since March
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The State Department of Education says enrollment numbers in California public schools have declined by more than 700{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} since the start of the pandemic. And while many have an idea on why officials say there isn’t much local data yet to prove the exact reasons. “The only real drop that we have seen is that we have had a downward tik in our kindergarten registration,” said Kelly Richer, superintendent, Wasco Union Elementary School District. Kelly Richer, superintendent, Wasco Union Elementary School District, tells 23ABC that this lack of new students could have financial repercussions, equivalent to one or two teaching positions. “Normally we have a significant number…
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SPS enrollment drop could mean fewer jobs, staffing changes
The Springfield school board received a heads-up this week that given the pandemic-induced enrollment drop this year, fewer teachers may be needed for the coming school year. The number of staff allocated to each building is expected to be adjusted for the 2021-22 year, which may prompt more teachers to switch schools than in a typical year. “It’s going to be very hard to predict enrollment,” said Superintendent John Jungmann, who will retire this summer. “The system has been so steady and easy to project. For 20 years, it has been within 1 percent every year. This is not that year. COVID has thrown us for a loop.” The state’s…
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