Correction: Insight School is a district choice school, not a public charter school, as originally written. The change has been reflected in this post. We apologize for any confusion caused.

School is getting back into gear for most students across Colorado. An ever more popular and innovative option for parents and students is the online school. The newest - Insight School of Colorado - is authorized by the Julesburg School District in the far northeastern corner of the state.

Technology and cyberspace are ever changing, so you may need to revise your notions of what an online education program looks like for the typical student. Here’s what Insight has to offer:

Enrolling at Insight means having access to the very best online high school education, including

• A personal mentoring program
• A nationally recognized curriculum
• Professional one-on-one instruction
• In-person meetings
• Social activities
• All the administrative and technology support you and your family need

There’s also a video that explains more about the Insight program (free Quicktime software needed). Social activities, you say, at an online school? According to the website, there will be a school newspaper, student government, academic clubs, occasional field trips throughout Colorado, and “Yes, there will be a prom!”

As an online district school of choice, the opportunity to enroll in Insight is open to students age 14 to 20 anywhere in Colorado. But only local Julesburg students have the option to enroll part-time; all others must sign up for at least 5 courses. Students at Insight benefit from the development of an individual learning plan, 24-hour-a-day academic and technical support, and the opportunity for upper-level students to earn as many as 12 college credits through the University of Phoenix Pathways program.

It’s too late to sign up for the upcoming fall semester, which starts next Monday, August 25. But the enrollment process remains open for the coming spring. No matter where you live in Colorado, Insight might be the right fit for your high schooler. Check it out!

Other new schools featured:

• eDCSD Online
• The Studio School in Adams 12
• Cesar Chavez Academy-North Central
• Early College High School Arvada
• AXL Academy
• The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

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On its very first day of class, here’s a quick update on the Early College High School at Arvada, via an email one of my friends in the Education Policy Center received from school director Sarah Brock:

…First of all, due to strong community request and concern regarding the upcoming changes to the high schools in the area, we are enrolling both 9th and 10th graders this year (very small classes of both, between 30-40 students per grade). Going forward we will only be enrolling 9th graders each year - around 80 students each year - and we expect to reach capacity in 2012, with approximately 320 students. Because we are enrolling 10th graders this year, our first graduating class will happen in Spring of 2011!

Finally, I notice that you have our Open House and Information Sessions on the site - but all the dates are past. I would truly appreciate it if you would update the site to say that ECHS at Arvada will be accepting walk-in enrollments through August 22nd. Interested families can stop by the school and speak to Ms. Paula Kendall, our Office Manager, in the main office anytime between 8am - 4:30pm. They can also email me at sbrock@echswest.org if they would like more information or to set up a tour.

For anyone in the Denver metro area still looking for a free high school in which to enroll for 2008-09, this is the week to check out ECHS at Arvada as an option. Remember, you can find all your Colorado schooling options at the School Choice for Kids website.

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For students or parents of students on the verge of entering the high school years, a new option is opening up this fall in Jefferson County, just west of the Denver city limits. The Early College High School (ECHS) at Arvada begins its first day of classes for 9th-graders only on August 18. Eventually, ECHS will serve all four high school grades, and is scheduled to graduate its first class in 2012.

Authorized by the Charter School Institute board, ECHS at Arvada touts itself as a small school. In fact, the facility space - a former credit union office currently under renovation - will be able to serve only up to 450 students.

But the real appeal of this charter school, located just east of Sheridan Blvd. on 60th Ave., is the design to help kids earn both a high school diploma and up to 60 transferable college credits in their four years. This dual-enrollment program especially is aimed to help young people whose families have limited background and financial resources that would allow them to enter the world of postsecondary education.

It’s not too late to enroll in ECHS at Arvada. If you need to find out more, though, you may attend one of the upcoming information sessions:

• Tonight, July 31, 7:00-8:30 pm, Regis Room, Carol Hall, Regis University
• Monday, August 11, 7:00-8:30 pm, the new school building at 4905 W 60th Ave.
• Thursday, August 14, 7:00-8:30 pm, 4905 W 60th Ave.

ECHS at Arvada also is hosting an open house this Saturday, August 2, from noon to 4 pm.

Other new schools featured: AXL Academy, The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

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Our governor has placed a lot of attention on the goal of cutting Colorado’s dropout rate in half in 10 years. To get a sense of what it will take to accomplish that goal, inquiring minds should go check out Diplomas Count 2008 by Education Week. (Thanks to John LaPlante at the SPN Blog for pointing it out.)

There’s lots of information at your fingertips, such as:

• State-specific background reports with easy-to-read information … here’s the report for Colorado (almost 26 percent of students failed to graduate in 2005)
• A tool to compare Colorado’s P-20 Council to different states’ education alignment councils
• An interactive mapping tool that allows you to see how successful individual school districts are at seeing kids through to high school graduation

Memo to Education Week: The Education Policy Center staff here says what you have put together is a great resource for looking at the dropout issue. But did you know that there is no way to find Colorado’s largest school district (Jefferson County, where I am right now) on your mapping tool? It doesn’t come up in a name search. It isn’t labeled on a map of the Denver metro area. What’s the deal?

When it comes to great mapping tools on education websites, I’ll stick with the one that helps my parents to find the best school for me.

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The Michigan Education Report, run by a sister think tank Mackinac Institute, highlights an innovative cost-saving, Catholic school model in Detroit:

Tuition costs have been cited as a factor in the closing of more than 1,000 Catholic parish schools across the country in the past two decades. The Cristo Rey model addresses that problem by requiring students to spend four days in the classroom and one full day working each week. Their earnings go toward their school costs. In Detroit, the work-study program will bring down the family contribution to an estimated $2,200 per year, according to Earl Robinson, president of Detroit Cristo Rey. The school will work to help parents who can’t afford even that much.

The Cristo Rey model not only brings costs down, but introduces students to the working world, helps them develop work ethics, assists them in making career choices and, Robinson pointed out, lets them write a resume upon graduation that includes four years of work experience and four references.

At the State Policy blog, John LaPlante suggests this kind of innovation helps to answer the objection that vouchers won’t fully cover private school tuition costs.

Those raising the objection could also look to the foot of the Rocky Mountain West, at Denver’s Arrupe Jesuit High School, which has a similar work-study program that keeps tuition costs down. As a feature in last year’s Denver Post showed, Arrupe Jesuit’s innovative approach - combined with rigorous standards and high expectations - has been making a real difference among a high-poverty student population.

Now if only tax credits or publicly-funded scholarships could be provided to ensure more Colorado students had access to such innovative programs.

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Do private school vouchers help kids graduate from high school? A new study about the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) suggests that might be the case:

In “Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee: 2003-2007,” John Robert Warren, Ph.D., compares graduation data for students in the MPCP and the MPS. Dr.Warren concludes that “students in the MPCP are more likely to graduate from high school than MPS students.”

According to Warren, had MPS graduation rates equaled those of MPCP students, there would have been almost 20% more public high school graduates between 2003 and 2007. Over the five years studied, that would have meant nearly 3,000 additional MPS graduates.

The very smart Jay Greene also points out the need for caution: Warren acknowledges “he can’t say whether the voucher program caused their higher graduation rate.”

But our Governor - who has promised to cut the state’s dropout rate in half - ought to pay attention over the next few years, as Jay Greene is working on a study that will help answer the question: Do private school vouchers help kids graduate from high school?

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The 2008 edition of the Newsweek and Washington Post annual Challenge Index - which “measures a public high school’s effort to challenge its students” - was released this week. One Colorado high school made the top 100 nationwide: Lafayette’s Peak to Peak Charter School, which ranked #40.

The Colorado Charters blog has posted some information from the press release:

The highly accredited college-prep K-12 charter school opened as an elementary school in 2000, and has grown to over 1300 students in grades K-12 in 2007. Peak to Peak High School offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum including AP classes, highly acclaimed fine arts and state championship athletics. The three graduating classes to date average a 99 percent graduation rate, and 100 percent of the 93 graduating seniors in the class of 2008 have been accepted to a college of their choice. The 81 2007 graduates were offered over $4 million in scholarship money. Ten 2008 seniors qualified as National Merit Finalists, over 10% of the senior class, and eight additional students received Commended recognition. Sixty-two students qualified for Advanced Placement Scholar distinctions based on the 2007 AP exams taken last spring.

Even though high school is a long ways off for me, I’d like to congratulate Peak to Peak for the well-deserved recognition. As always, parents can find information on Colorado public schools like Peak to Peak and other options that may be near them at the School Choice for Kids website.

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