South Dakota Online High Schools
Learn about online high schools in South Dakota, free online high schools, and earning a high school diploma online
The South Dakota Virtual School is an online clearinghouse of tuition-free distance courses offered by approved providers. All course offerings and providers are approved by the South Dakota Department of Education. The goal of the Virtual School is to provide choice, flexibility and quality for all students across the state. South Dakota Virtual is not a diploma granting institution.
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The number of online high schools across the country continues to grow with virtual schools now operating in 12 states and five other states working on similar projects, according to Education Week’s annual School Technology Report.
The editors of the fifth edition of Technology Counts 2002: E-Defining Education, praised the growth in online classrooms, but warned that the quality of such programs must be monitored.
“E-learning is poking holes in the walls of the traditional American classroom and giving students unprecedented access to challenging course and academic material,” says Virginia B. Edwards, the editor and publisher of Education Week. “But there are still problems and unanswered questions about this way of teaching and learning. And one of the chief concerns is ensuring the quality of online courses.”
For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Schools, E-Learning, Sweep The States
The state’s university system is trying to lure back students who dropped out just short of graduation and now have new obligations or interests standing in the way of a diploma.
A recent report to the Board of Regents said 1,889 students left the university system from 2003 through 2008 and never returned after accumulating at least 90 credit hours – roughly the equivalent of a third-year student.
Regents staff found that it wasn’t poor grades but rather an illness, financial problems, schedule conflicts, work obligations or personal problems that most often sidetracked a student.
“A lot of these students in their final semester in school got a grade point average of zero despite having almost a 3-point GPA overall,” said Paul Turman. “They just walked away. Something happened” in their life.
Turman, associate vice president of academic affairs for the regents, is overseeing a two-year project to identify those students and make it easier for them to return to the university system on campus or through the three off-campus university centers and online programs.
South Dakota, New Jersey, Arkansas, Colorado, and Nevada are studying the so-called ready adult population under grants from the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
For the rest of the article, go to South Dakota Regents look to lure university dropouts back to school
Best Online High Schools is pleased to announce this brand-new website for South Dakota online high schools. While this state currently has few such schools, look for that to grow in the very near future.
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