Not only that, the district’s Virtual High School, which opened in 2004 to offer an online alternative to brick-and-mortar high schools, experienced a 33 percent jump in students enrolled exclusively in online courses this spring after a flat fall semester enrollment of 150 students.

“That was a surprise,” Ebert said.

Also, the number of Clark County high school students taking just one or two online courses increased by 37 percent this year to 12,000.

For the rest of the article, go to Online class attracts savvy sixth-graders

Instead of waking up early and rushing to class, 150 high schoolers get up when they feel like it and take their classes online.

“You get to eat breakfast, (you) don’t have to wake up super early and be afraid you’re going to miss the bus,” Dakota Schneider said.

Schneider is a junior at VHS. He went to Basic High School his freshmen year, but struggled.

“I noticed I couldn’t concentrate a lot with kids constantly tapping on desks, making noise.”

The shy student also worried about bullying, and says some of his friends were victims. Schneider researched VHS and gave it a try.

Dominique Quattrini is a Virtual High School senior.

She battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma the summer before high school. After beating it she went to Silverado High School her freshman year. Quattrini relapsed the following summer and enrolled in virtual school from her hospital room, “For me, even though I was dealing with all the treatments, I wanted to – as best as I could – stay on track and finish.”

After beating cancer the second time, she almost went back to her traditional school but decided against it.

Despite the physical distance with online learning, students say they actually get more one on one time with their teachers.

“They’ll check in at least once a week and we have an instant messenger program so we can message them anytime they’re online and we need help. So, it’s definitely more personable here,” Quattrini said.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual High School lets kids go to school at home

For the vast majority of those students, online classes give them a chance to retake courses they’ve failed. For years, high school campuses have struggled to provide enough makeup classes to the students who need them. Putting these teens in classrooms before school, after school and during summers has proved inflexible and expensive.

Now more students are being encouraged to take such classes through Virtual High. The online format might seem impersonal, but it holds students and teachers plenty accountable. Students must motivate themselves to work through the material. Teachers are available via phone, email and text messaging, and they provide personal instruction for struggling students. Meanwhile, district administrators have the ability to log into any class at any time from their desks to verify progress.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual High School: District program appears to be working

No, he’s not a Doogie Howser kind of genius graduating early. He’s not being home-schooled by his mom. And he’s not dropping out.

He’ll still be taking the same Clark County School District classes as other sophomores, but through Virtual High School, a sort of “Tron” educational environment where he completes homework, takes test and even communicates with his teacher and classmates on the Internet through instant messaging and in chat rooms.

No extra cost is involved and there’s still a student prom. A campus at Flamingo Road and McLeod Drive provides a meeting place for students who want face-to-face help.

“For some students, I will go the entire semester and not hear their voices,” said Kelli Sommer, chairwoman of Virtual’s English department.

Virtual High School — opened in 2004-05 — is nothing new. It has 150 full-time students, but projects 12,000 total enrollments this school year. That’s because online courses are now available to students at all 49 district high schools this year, allowing them to remain at their home schools while retaking a class or two through Virtual.

For the rest of the article, go to County students at Virtual fulfill graduation requirements online

While VegasPBS still relies on more traditional grants and donations made during pledge drives to help keep the station on the air, its diversification strategy is paying dividends.

“We have weathered the recession pretty well,” said Tom Axtell, general manager of KLVX-TV, Channel 10, which is branded as VegasPBS.

Operating revenue was $18.21 million in 2010. Operating expenses were $11.43 million, with the resulting surplus allowing the station to repay $6.38 million of the $18.1 million it borrowed from the school district to build its $70 million headquarters on East Flamingo Road in 2010. The final $1.5 million loan payment to the school district should be made by the end of fiscal 2012, he said. The majority of the construction was financed through a $40 million capital campaign before work began.

Axtell said the increase in the station’s assets is a direct result of capabilities that came with that new 112,000-square-foot building.

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

As television came into vogue in the 1940s, Congress reserved some broadcast frequencies for educational purposes, many of them licensed to colleges and large school districts that operated radio stations. In 1953, the University of Houston signed on the nation’s first noncommercial educational TV station.

For the rest of the article, go to Business savvy lets VegasPBS grow, deliver popular programs

Jimenez, 33, is beating the high cost of living by teaching for five to six online schools a year while also maintaining his day job as a full-time instructor for the Clark County School District.

For the rest of the article, go to Part-time teaching online pays off

He had wondered how to be fair in eliminating foreign language classes. He did not want to offer a Spanish III course at the expense of cutting a French III class. So the plan was to tell Bonanza students to take their foreign languages classes over the Internet through the district’s Virtual High School.

Because Bonanza will be able to hire back as many as eight additional teachers, “we will be able to bring back those programs with live bodies,” Mangino said.

For the rest of the article, go to Schools plan to restore elective courses

Quattrini, 16, was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. After being in remission for a few months, the cancer reappeared. She has been in remission for the second time for about a year.

During her time in the hospital, she received tutoring for weeks at a time while out of school.

She still comes to the classroom in the afternoons for tutoring and often will stay to help tutor younger kids if she can.

The Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation and the Torino Foundation hosted the second annual C.A.P.S. Ceremony May 14 at A-Tech to honor about 50 students in the program and the teachers, tutors and donors who helped them.

For the rest of the article, go to Sunrise Children’s Hospital program keeps kids fighting cancer hitting the books

Social service agencies referred Courtney to the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, where she found housing and enrolled in the Virtual High School, an online school from which she’ll graduate next year. Courtney’s mother, sister and two brothers got some assistance from HELP Nevada for an apartment, where they’re living rent-free through January.

For the rest of the article, go to Innocent victims of the recession

It’s a matter of matching the need and motivation of a student with the right technology and setting.

“I got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Dominique Quattrini who was a freshman student at Silverado High School when her battle with cancer caused her to attend virtual school.

For the rest of the article, go to Online Las Vegas High School Attracts Students