Mt. Lebanon High School will now offer online courses to students for the 2nd semester of the 2010-2011 school year due to a grant funded partnership with the National Network of Digital Schools. High School parents were emailed information about the program and course offerings. Read more…
Read about Distance Learning on page 20 of the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the MTLSD and the MLEA. Collective Bargaining Agreement
Read this four-part series about the new charter and cyber-charter schools and how they affect local education.
· Charter, cyber-charter schools provide options
· Cyber-charter funding draws controversy
· Northern Lebanon offers alternative to traditional schooling
· Senator vouches for vouchers
Welcome to 21st century education, folks.
Updated January 2, 2011: The latest Mt. Lebanon High School PTSA newsletter includes this letter from Dr. Davis, Principal.
Dear parents and students,
In our effort "To Provide the Best Education Possible for Each and Every Student", I am proud to announce an opportunity for our students and staff to explore the world of online instruction. In the coming months, a grant will allow us to partner with the National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS), which designs, develops, and delivers online Lincoln Interactive© courses. Through this partnership, the high school will be given the following opportunities:
1. During the 2nd semester of the 2010-2011 school year, a limited number of students will be offered the chance to take an online course through Lincoln Interactive© to enrich and extend their academic experience. These courses will be academic offerings that currently do not exist at the high school, and will be taken in addition to students' current classes. A mailing has been sent to each high school student for him/her to apply for the opportunity of participating in an online course. Please remember that the deadline to submit the application to the Principal's Office is January 10, 2011.
2. Staff members will explore the curricular offerings of Lincoln Interactive© and then provide input into the potential development of an online, asynchronous financial literacy course.
3. After "observing" other online courses provided by Lincoln Interactive©, staff members will also begin discussing the development and delivery of our curriculum into our own online courses. These courses may be provided to our students or to students in other school districts where the quality and/or variety of course selection is not comparable to our high school.
4. Since successful completion of our state standardized tests are now a requirement for our students to graduate, staff members will also be given an opportunity to discuss the development of online, asynchronous Keystone Exam remediation modules/courses.
The discussions regarding the use of online instruction are in the early stages, but I believe it is important to introduce you to the topics being discussed. These discussions could result in numerous opportunities for our students and staff, and we need to begin examining and evaluating our options. As additional information becomes available, I will share it with you.
Ronald P. Davis, EdD
Principal
In our effort "To Provide the Best Education Possible for Each and Every Student", I am proud to announce an opportunity for our students and staff to explore the world of online instruction. In the coming months, a grant will allow us to partner with the National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS), which designs, develops, and delivers online Lincoln Interactive© courses. Through this partnership, the high school will be given the following opportunities:
1. During the 2nd semester of the 2010-2011 school year, a limited number of students will be offered the chance to take an online course through Lincoln Interactive© to enrich and extend their academic experience. These courses will be academic offerings that currently do not exist at the high school, and will be taken in addition to students' current classes. A mailing has been sent to each high school student for him/her to apply for the opportunity of participating in an online course. Please remember that the deadline to submit the application to the Principal's Office is January 10, 2011.
2. Staff members will explore the curricular offerings of Lincoln Interactive© and then provide input into the potential development of an online, asynchronous financial literacy course.
3. After "observing" other online courses provided by Lincoln Interactive©, staff members will also begin discussing the development and delivery of our curriculum into our own online courses. These courses may be provided to our students or to students in other school districts where the quality and/or variety of course selection is not comparable to our high school.
4. Since successful completion of our state standardized tests are now a requirement for our students to graduate, staff members will also be given an opportunity to discuss the development of online, asynchronous Keystone Exam remediation modules/courses.
The discussions regarding the use of online instruction are in the early stages, but I believe it is important to introduce you to the topics being discussed. These discussions could result in numerous opportunities for our students and staff, and we need to begin examining and evaluating our options. As additional information becomes available, I will share it with you.
Ronald P. Davis, EdD
Principal
From the Center Court Blog:
ReplyDelete"Last week, students received information about a grant-funded pilot program available to Mt. Lebanon High School students during second semester. We've recently developed a partnership with the National Network of Digital Schools and will offer a limited number of online courses to our students at no cost to the District.
Students who apply for this opportunity can receive elective credit, provided that the student has already met or will meet the District requirement of 10 elective credits offered through the course catalog at the high school. The transcript from NNDS will be attached to the student’s MTLHS transcript when mailed to colleges, if requested to do so by the student. Grades attained through this online pilot program will NOT be calculated into the student’s MTLHS quality point average (QPA) . . ."
Four questions:
1) When the grant ends, does the district pay the costs of the added courses or is this cost passed on to the parents?
2) Why are we adding courses when the High School Course Catalog already has over 250 courses listed including Parkway courses? Not all of the courses in the Catalog are staffed now!
3) Why would a student take a course that doesn't count in their QPA?
4) Is there any other expense (like a TIF) the school board can dump on Mt Lebanon?
John Ewing