Virtual school extends courses across Georgia

Students who can't take classes such as Japanese in their rural public school districts once could only wait until they headed for college.

Now, they can take Japanese and more otherwise unavailable subjects through Georgia's Virtual School, an online state-sponsored curriculum that brings big-system class choices to small-town schools, officials said.

Registration for next fall opened March 1.

Walker County's Ridgeland High School has 18 students "who are in the honors academy who are taking courses that either they couldn't fit into the schedule or students that just want to take some accelerated classes that we don't necessarily offer here," guidance counselor Laura Fritz said. "Several kids are taking foreign language."

Sophomore Sierra Murr said her first virtual school experience is helping her reach career goals.

"I'm taking Mandarin Chinese. It's always been a dream of mine to travel to Asia and be a English as second or other language teacher," Sierra said. "I feel that Mandarin would help me in a way securing my place at that job.

"It's really different. It's very exciting, and it's a new way to challenge yourself," she said.

Georgia Virtual School, launched in 2005, offers a complete high school curriculum with Advanced Placement and college prep courses, according to the state Department of Education. Students can take core subjects, AP classes for a leg up when they go to college or make up the credits they need for graduation.

During fall 2009, more that 3,000 Georgia students completed online courses. The most popular online courses are in six languages: Latin, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, officials said.

Dade County High School principal Billy Millican said 10 students or so in the county are enrolled in virtual school to take courses that aren't offered in the four-school system.

The online courses are not easy, Mr. Millican said.

"You've got to be on your p's and q's to pass an online course, because you've got an actual teacher somewhere out there monitoring what you're doing," he said.

Online teachers respond to student queries within 24 hours, he said.

Some districts use their own distance-learning programs.

Catoosa uses the Apex Learning program that offers AP courses, core classes and credit recovery, said Trish Schimpf, system school improvement specialist.

"We haven't had to rely too much on (Georgia) Virtual School this year to fill in any gaps," Ms. Schimpf said.

But Catoosa reserves the state program to help where Apex lacks.

"In fact, my own daughter wants to use Georgia Virtual School to take Japanese, since we don't have that as a formal class," Ms. Schimpf said. "She is so excited that we have that possibility and she isn't just bound to courses offered inside four brick walls."