Elementary students gathered at the Kibbe Preserve in Warsaw to learn from Joe Cuehlo and his insect collection.

The Health Council of Illinois awarded Mike Gooding, of Bowen, the Heroes in Long Term Care award. Gooding was honored for his persistent work to recover from an accident and for helping other patients smile on a daily basis.

The effort to rebuild the pool in Bowen has been going on since 2007. The park board is waiting on funds and weather to cooperate so the deck and splash pad can be completed.

For the rest of the article, go to 2011 — Year in Review

CEO Ron Packard believes this is just one of the many opportunities his company, K12 (NYSE: LRN ) , can provide. Packard, who spoke at Fool HQ last week, explained that the Internet has revolutionized so many industries, but its impact on education has been relatively limited. K12 seeks to change that.

For the rest of the article, go to Will Virtual Learning KO the Education Gap?

K-12 opened Chicago’s Virtual Charter High School to much fanfare in 2006, part of a push under former CPS chief Arne Duncan to expand alternative education options for parents seeking tougher curriculum for their children or safer learning environments outside of traditional neighborhood schools.

Enrollment at the virtual charter school, which offers courses from kindergarten through high school, now tops 550 students and was one of the few public schools in the city last year to achieve “adequate yearly progress” mandated under No Child Left Behind.

For the rest of the article, go to CPS mulls deal to expand virtual education

Virtual learning courses were offered to students this year who opted for classes that weren’t full enough to hold a full class or for students who needed remedial courses.

Virtual courses were offered after the School Board agreed to only teach classes that were at capacity — with 29 or 30 students enrolled. So if 40 students signed up for AP biology, for example, some schools drew names; the first 30 were enrolled in the class, and the other 10 were out of luck, unless they opted for a virtual course.

Three course sources
This fall, 20 students are enrolled in an online course through Florida Virtual School, four are enrolled through Illinois Virtual School, and 38 students are enrolled in Brigham Young University Independent Study — an affordable program that also offers credit recovery.

More than half of those students are taking AP courses like art, biology, statistics, English and calculus, said Jon Malone, director of student support.

For the rest of the article, go to Rockford School District officials seek bigger role for virtual learning

The initiative will begin this coming school year as high school freshmen and sophomores trade in their English and Math textbooks for their very own Apple MacBook laptops purchased by the district. Students will then easily access Pearson’s online comprehensive mathematics and literature programs — engineered for one-to-one classroom environments — that will guide each student on a personalized learning path with engaging and robust research-based content aligned to the new Common Core State Standards.

For the rest of the article, go to Mendon, Illinois School District Announces One-to-One Student Laptop Project

The Illinois Board of Education recently approved the Cambridge Lakes Charter School’s academic software for kindergarten through 12th-grade students.

The Cambridge Academy is designed to complement the teaching and learning of its existing charter students. School leaders plan to hold their first information session about the academy at noon July 30 at the school campus, 900 Wester Blvd. The second session is scheduled for noon Aug. 13.

Through the “blended-virtual” learning academy, the school will be able to provide a more individualized learning program for a student, especially if he or she either is excelling or falling behind in a particular subject, said Dawn Muhammad, director of the academy.

For the rest of the article, go to Cambridge Lakes rolling out new virtual school

That approval came in early June after the District 300 Board of Education voted in December to approve an amendment to its charter with Northern Kane Educational Corp., which operates the charter school. That amendment renewed the charter for Cambridge Lakes through 2014 and lengthened the Pingree Grove school’s program from the current preschool to eighth grade up to grade 12.

For the rest of the article, go to D300 charter gets final approval for virtual school

“Last year’s graduation ceremony was historical because it was our first graduating class. This year will be just as historical because our graduating class has doubled and 70 percent of our students will be transitioning into college after graduation,” remarked Early King, YCCS Virtual High School Head of School. “It makes me extremely proud to see the results of the collaborative effort that each scholar, teacher, family member, mentor and faculty put in to make this day manifest itself.”

For the rest of the article, go to 120 Students Cross the Stage, Graduating from Online High School Recovery Program

“Virtual snow days,” where students do lessons online during bad weather, have been used for select high school programs and colleges for some time, and are now becoming a viable alternative to extending school calendars to make up real snow days and limit the interruptions they cause in student learning.

School closings during the winter months have a big impact because often meatier subject material is presented at that time of year as classrooms get to the heart of many of their curriculum. Many state achievement tests are scheduled during the winter months, compounding the pressure.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual Classrooms to Kill the Snow Day

UIS will participate in the Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework project directed by the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.

Data to be collected include such things as a student’s age, academic record, gender, where he or she may have transferred from and other information, he said.

“In looking at the data, we should be able to identify patterns of success or trouble in the past,” said Ray Schroeder, director of the UIS Center for Online Learning, Research and Service. “Then we can assign tutors or otherwise make sure the students have help available to them.”

For the rest of the article, go to UIS to help create online learning database