Seizing Opportunities for Students

It is said that true leaders are more fearful of missing opportunities than they are about taking risks. True leaders not only see opportunities, but they seize them. As educational leaders are we just seeing opportunities or are we seizing these opportunities for students? Are we worried about missing these opportunities for students? We should be!

This week I wanted to highlight Davidson County Schools and the leadership team for truly seizing the opportunity of NC Virtual Public School for students. Just last year, Davidson had only 32 students enrolled in online classes and they were struggling to figure out how to seize this opportunity. As of today (August 21), Davidson has the highest enrollment in the state at 578 students, equaling that of ALL charter schools enrolling students in NCVPS! Ben Terrell, the Distance Learning Advisor for Davidson County Schools has provided the spark that has ignited the leadership team to integrate virtual learning into the academic fabric of Davidson County. Kudos to Dr. Fred Mock, Ben Terrell and the leadership teams in Davidson County for seizing this opportunity for students.

NCVPS has seen a remarkable growth in its program, with a current Fall enrollment pushing 13,000 students. With state budget cuts still looming, schools have had to be very innovative in their business and many districts are beginning to see the true opportunity that online learning can bring to their students while keeping them fiscally sound in a difficult budget year. Regardless of budget, I wanted to commend those schools and districts who have championed online learning and have truly been more fearful of missing opportunities for students than they were of taking a risk with online learning.

Two reports below demonstrate that online learning is effective and I encourage you to read these and seize this opportunity to provide cutting edge, rigorous learning opportunities for your students. Please don’t miss the opportunity for your students’ sake!

USDOE Report Shows Online Outperforming Face to Face http://tinyurl.com/onlinestudy

NCVPS Evaluation Report from Friday Institute for Educational Innovation

http://www.ncvps.org/docs/results/ncvps_summary_presentation.ppt