School choice is a multi-faceted concept that encompasses several education options, including the ability to enroll a student in a charter school, online school, homeschool or to receive school vouchers. If you’ve heard these terms before, you know that there is a debate over these options. If you’ve got five minutes, here’s a primer that will help to break down some of the components of school choice.

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The Life Skills Center of Arizona located in Phoenix will serve as a “home-base” for the distance learning students. “The differentiator between Life Skills Online and other online schools is a home-base that provides one-on-one attention,” says Administrator of LSC Arizona, Jared Kittelson, “it is extremely important for them to have someone to reach out to.”

For the rest of the article, go to Life Skills Centers Offers New, Online High School Program in Arizona

As with all innovations, though, there is always a question of cost for providing such new technologies, especially when states are providing less per-pupil funding.

A study released last week by the Education Center of Excellence at the Parthenon Group (commissioned by the conservative education think tank, the Fordham Institute) suggested that the costs of digital learning could be significantly less than more traditional modes. The authors cautioned that its findings must be interpreted with some caveats: costs vary across digital education platforms and different entities pursue online learning for different reasons (cost-savings versus enhanced offerings, for example).

For the rest of the article, go to Can States and School Districts Cut Costs Through Digital Learning?

Of course, that means that we must be certain that he does his work, but that’s not really any different from regular schools.

My son scores high on his AIMS tests, so I know we’re on the right track.

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The difference is that Valles is a math teacher in the latest educational experiment to sweep the states: online learning.

Valles works at Primavera Online High School. She has no textbooks, no work sheets to copy, no homeroom, no tired feet at the end of the day. Her students never see her during the school day.

For the rest of the article, go to Teaching online presents challenges

And in 2008, Arizona blogger David Safier reported that K12 was outsourcing a critical teacher function — grading papers — to workers in India. The company later discontinued that practice.

I could go on, but you get the point. Local reporters in farflung places were paying attention to virtual schools long before folks in big cities took notice. And for that, they deserve a heap of credit.

For the rest of the article, go to The stories behind the story of K12 Inc.

But Arizona’s loose regulation is not unique.

Nationally, experts who have studied online schools say no state has model regulations for them. A growing number of states are increasingly bent on ensuring there are fewer barriers to the growth of online schools. The belief is that the marketplace will bring the needed discipline to the system as parents and students choose good schools and reject bad ones.

Arizona online schools get state funds, and students attend for free. The number of online charter and district schools has grown from 14 to 66 in the past two years.

Some Arizona political leaders are talking about possible changes that would bring more regulation of online schools.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal was a strong supporter of online schools when he served in the Legislature. He says the state Department of Education needs to review the state’s online program and conduct a thorough analysis of student academic progress. He also favors random surveys of parents whose children are enrolled in the largest online providers to get their opinions on quality.

“I’m always in favor of more choices and more options, but I have more nervousness about this part of the K-through-12 environment than I have with other sectors because I always want to make sure there is real value being created for society by the public-education system,” Huppenthal said.

Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee, favors changes that would encourage online schools to boost student achievement. Now that the state’s online program has been around for more than a decade, “it’s time to look at these policies in place and see, ‘Are we getting the best academic achievement for the money we’re spending?’ ” he said.

The charter school is a non-profit, but it pays a for-profit company for help.

Primavera’s largest contractor is American Virtual Academy, which powers the courses with curriculum and learning software. From 2005 to 2009, Primavera paid the company annually between 42 percent and 50 percent of its total revenue.

American Virtual Academy is owned by the Creamers and is located in the same Chandler office as Primavera.

For the rest of the article, go to Arizona non-profit schools’ ties to for-profits raise flags

Students come and go at a fast rate because some students and their parents are unprepared for the self-motivation and discipline that online courses demand, said Barbara Dreyer, president and CEO of Connections Education, a Maryland-based company that operates a national group of virtual schools.

“We have plenty of students with low scores who are really trying,” said Dreyer, whose company operates Arizona Connections Academy. “We will move them up. It may take us two years, but we will move them.

For the rest of the article, go to Online schools face questions over quality, effectiveness

More K-12 Arizona students are trading in the traditional campus experience for learning by computer at home any time of day or night. The number of students in Arizona-approved online schools has more than tripled over the past six years. Nearly 36,000 students, or about 3 percent of public-school students in the state, took at least one online course in 2010-11.

Students attend for free because, like any public school, online schools get state funding.

The growth is being greeted with a mix of hope and alarm. Online education, a staple at colleges for years, holds a lot of promise because it strips away the limits of fixed time and place for school. It allows students in any place to be taught at any time, and at their own pace. It uses e-mail, chats, video, audio and animated graphics to engage. A dull lecture can become a compelling interactive lesson.