Virtual School + Dropouts = Diplomas
Yet another innovative use for online learning in Illinois.
by Collin Hitt
Youth Connections Charter School is Chicago’s oldest charter school. The school’s lone mission is to re-capture high school dropouts and then graduate them with a diploma. The school, with dozens of small campuses and sites across the city, is seeing success with a new experiment. From a press release:
On Friday, June 11, sixty students graduated from Chicago’s first and only online high school dropout recovery program. Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) Virtual High School, powered by K12, provides online courses to Chicago students, ages 18-21, who dropped out of school and need 7 or fewer credits to graduate…
Friday’s graduation ceremony celebrated the first year of YCCS Virtual High School, powered by K12. It was an extremely successful inaugural year with 92 percent of eligible students graduating from the program.
The ceremony was an emotional culmination of achievement in the face of adversity. Many of the graduates stated that without YCCS Virtual High School, powered by K12, they would not have gone back to school. With diplomas in hand, the students are now continuing on to college and pursuing their careers…YCCS Virtual High School, powered by K12, is an innovative program where students take online courses delivered by K12 and work with highly skilled teachers to complete the credits they need to receive a diploma. Students attend a learning center located on the Malcolm X College of Chicago campus where students work on their online courses with instruction and support from teachers and staff. Students can also access their courses/classes outside of the learning center to provide students with greater flexibility.
Dropout recovery programs are but one use for virtual learning technology. The Illinois Policy Institute is holding a luncheon and panel discussion (free of charge) in Springfield on June 24 to discuss the various uses “virtual schooling” and its future in Illinois.