Henderson, NV. - From his laptop computer in Henderson, Nevada, James logs into his Forensic Science class, joining more than half a million students across the country who take classes online. His instructor teaches from her home in Reno, Nevada, and other students and teachers are scattered across the U.S.

This senior is among a growing number of students in around the world taking online courses at International Virtual Learning Academy (IVLA), completing their high school diploma online for a variety of reasons. Some students want to accelerate their way through high school, some students need to make up credits, and can’t wait for summer school. Many students just like the ability to work at their pace, on a schedule that works around their life circumstances.

Demand is high worldwide for IVLA’s online learning program, but the school has made sure that every student wanting to enroll has a seat.

International Virtual Learning Academy offers an accredited California High School diploma. IVLA serves students worldwide, through its proprietary online learning management system. Currently, ILVA is enrolling students in grades 3-12. IVLA offers core curriculum for all of those grade levels, as well as a large selection of elective courses.

Nationwide, online enrollment has grown dramatically. A study released in June by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that about 507,000 students, mostly high-schoolers, were enrolled in online courses in 2005, up from 317,000 in 2003. Forty-four states offer significant online programs, and several of the states that don’t are planning to develop them, according to the North American Council for Online Learning.

Several IVLA students said they appreciate the flexibility of learning on their own time and the opportunity to interact with their virtual classmates on online discussion boards if they wish.

Because of an increasingly competitive work environment in a global economy, education officials say students must take challenging courses to prepare for college. Online schools like IVLA provide both challenging course, and 21^st century learning environments that assist students in preparing for higher education.

A great story from HSLDA’s President, J. Michael Smith

From the beginning of the re-emergence of homeschooling in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the strongest criticism of homeschooling was that untrained, noncredentialed parents could not provide the quality of instruction needed to match the education provided in public and private schools. To address this criticism, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) commissioned several studies to compare how homeschoolers score on standardized achievement tests compared to their public and private school counterparts.

The results of those tests demonstrated that on average, homeschooled children regularly outperformed their peers. These test results had a significant impact on the growth of homeschooling. First, state legislators were convinced that homeschooling parents could provide a high level of education, and they passed laws that recognized the right to homeschool. Additionally, many parents who were contemplating homeschooling were encouraged to take the leap of faith to educate their children at home.

What the test results demonstrate is that a homeschool program tailored to the individual needs of the student is the best method of educating a child. This reality was further supported by test results on the SAT and ACT that demonstrated that the average homeschooled graduate tested higher than the average graduate from public schools.

Now we have additional test results that demonstrate homeschool graduates compare favorably with students at such prestigious schools as Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities and the University of Virginia.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) administers the American Civic Literacy Test (ACLT) to college students to measure their factual knowledge about American history, the Constitution and more. The results reveal that students nationwide lack even the basics. When ISI administered the ACLT in 2006 to a sample of students attending Ivy League schools, Harvard seniors answered 69.56 percent of the questions correctly, Yale seniors answered 65.85 percent correctly and Princeton seniors answered 61.90 percent.

Compare this with students at Patrick Henry College (PHC), a Christian classical college located 50 miles Northwest of the District, where 80 percent of the students come from homeschooling backgrounds. The ACLT was given to PHC freshmen this fall. These freshmen scored at 71.6 percent, two points higher than Harvard’s seniors and 17.4 percent higher than the average senior mean score at 50 of the country’s top institutions of higher education.

I also have seen the scores of PHC freshmen on a standardized test by Educational Testing Service known as MAPP (Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress). The MAPP tests proficiency in critical thinking, reading, writing and mathematics, and the results permit us to compare incoming PHC freshmen with college seniors at 253 participating institutions. The PHC freshmen tested higher than seniors at every other participating institution, including Baylor University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the universities of Colorado, Georgia and Mississippi.

The ACLT and MAPP results have their limits, and it must be remembered that PHC only admits high-achieving applicants.

The test results do show clearly what happens when you compare the best with the best: The best homeschooled students systematically outperform the best non-homeschooled students. This success did not happen automatically. It happened because tens of thousands of dedicated parents made tremendous sacrifices to educate their children.

I believe we can safely say the type of parental involvement children receive in a homeschool environment and the learning environment created by the home are significant factors in the success of the homeschool movement in academics. These results are a testament to the dedication of parents as well as the homeschool method of teaching. It is a proven combination for success in education.

At a NACOL symposium, virtual-school students discuss why they left their regular schools in favor of online instruction

International Virtual Learning Academy students say they enjoy the flexibility online classes provide.

What motivates a growing number of virtual-school students to forgo the traditional school structure and take their classes entirely online?

At the Virtual School Symposium hosted in mid-October in Phoenix by the North American Council for Online Learning, virtual-school students from a variety of programs explained they like being able to progress at their own pace–and some said they appreciate being able to take classes not offered by their traditional, bricks-and-mortar school.

Some of the comments made by the student panel, which spoke in front of the entire NACOL conference:

• I left conventional school because I wanted to study at my own pace while holding a job outside of school and focusing attention on out-of-school topics that related to college interests.
• “I was looking for something different to fit my schedule, and the traditional system wasn’t making the cut,”
• “You can create your own schedule. … It’s not the same routine I’d have in the traditional system, and I can get more of what I want to do done,”
• An online school also lets me choose courses that a traditional school might not offer, such as courses that focus more on computer science and graphics.
• “I’m really drawn by technology–that’s one of the main reasons I joined the school,”
• “In the traditional system, [the] main problem is that classes [move] only as fast as the slowest student … so it doesn’t adapt to your own learning style and learning environment. It really slows you down if you want to get ahead.”
• Enrolling in a virtual school not only frees up time for students to pursue other interests, it also teaches them valuable time-management skills.
• Working so independently encourages the same type of time-management skills that college students need to be successful. Managing classes, assignments, and social activities can be daunting, but most students develop a routine quickly.

International Virtual Learning Academy is part of a rapidly expanding resource for online education. A study released during the Virtual School Symposium confirms that the total number of full-time virtual-school students in the United States is on the rise, “along with a continued increase in the number of new full-time programs.” (See “Report assesses K-12 online learning.”)

Education leaders would be wise to listen to what students have to say, and consider ways they can build opportunities for self-paced learning and more freedom of choice into their own school offerings–or else risk losing a growing number of students to online schools that operate outside their domain.

International Virtual Learning Academy students have access to guidance counselors to help them navigate the college application process. Adding a high school component to the company’s virtual offerings made it necessary to provide a robust guidance-counselor support staff, a company representative said.

Even virtual-school teachers at the symposium said they liked many of the freedoms that come with teaching in an online environment.

Not just students, but teachers, too, can become frustrated in a traditional school setting, because much of their time is devoted to tasks such as asking students for late passes or collecting various assignments.

• “I’m not a disciplinarian now; I’m an educator,” one Virtual Academy Teacher said, adding: “Online, there is more one-on-one education.”
• “I have always looked for … alternative ways for students to learn. All students do not learn the same way–they are totally different,”
• In a traditional classroom, educators can “try to think outside of the box, but you’re still faced with the one-size-fits-all model,” she said. “If we know that all students are different, then we have to do something different. This is going to be one of the major reform efforts that education will see.”

International Virtual Learning Academy, like many other online schools, provides individualized education for each student. During the enrollment process, a student’s transcripts and learning needs are assessed, and a graduation plan is developed specific to their needs. Each course is taught by a highly qualified teacher with extensive training in online education.

For more information, visit the International Virtual Learning Academy at: www.internationalvla.com