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 The West Virginia Virtual School was created by the West Virginia Legislature on July 1, 2000. The mission of the Virtual School is to assure consistent, high quality education for the students of West Virginia through courses delivered via technology, promote efficacy and equity in course offerings, and provide options for implementation across the public school system. The Virtual School initiative helps bridge the barriers of time, distance and inequities for all West Virginia students by providing access to resources. Since the first three seventh grade students from Capon Middle School took Geometry in the fall of 2000, demand for virtual courses continues to increase at a rapid pace.
News and Views West Virginia Virtual School Protocol adopted 8.10.11 The West Virginia School Protocol was adopted on 8.10.11 to provide clarity to schools that are registering students for West Virginia Virtual School classes. The protocol was shared with superintendent and principal list-servs. Why take Virtual School classes? West Virginia students, like their peers nationally, are currently taking courses online that are not offered in their local schools. Some students schedule West Virginia School (WVVS) courses that they are unable to enroll in locally due to scheduling conflicts. Many schools use WVVS courses when it is impossible to find highly qualified teachers to teach the courses in the local school.
Registration Students and school personnel may review the many courses in the WVVS online catalog. More than 250 core and elective courses are available, including many different AP courses. If students are interested in taking online courses through the West Virginia Virtual School, the student may request or the school virtual school contact may request the virtual course
Local Facilitator/Mentor The school must provide a local school mentor/facilitator who will receive regular reports about student progress and will serve as the student’s first contact for academic problems. This local facilitator/mentor is key to the student’s success. The best practice implementation of WVVS courses occur when the online course is placed into the student’s schedule as a daily class period or block of time where the facilitator/mentor works with the student. If the student is not scheduled into a regular period during the school day, the facilitator/mentor should make weekly contact with the student to ensure that the student is making progress
WVVS Grade Transcripts and Drop Policy Most WVVS course providers allow a trial period during which students can drop a virtual course without penalty. The school must report a grade of WNG (Withdrawn No Grade) on the student transcript when the student drops a course on or before 28 days. The school must record a grade of WF (Withdrawn Failing) for a student who drops a course after the 28 day drop date.
The virtual course grade will be sent via email to the school facilitator/mentor. The facilitator ensures that student grades for WV Virtual School courses are entered in the WVEIS data system. No changes can be made to the online course grade by local school personnel. Grades must be recorded as reported by the online instructor following the WV Uniform Grading Policy found in State Board Policy 2515.
Tuition for virtual courses is paid by the WV Virtual School with some stipulations. The county incurs no expense for the first ten students in the same course in the same school (e.g., the first ten students in Algebra II) per year. The county is responsible for providing any textbooks and/or lab materials required by virtual courses.
Additional information about West Virginia Virtual School courses may be found on our website. Contact Sarah Lyons (slyons@access.k12.wv.us) for additional information.
onTargetWV Credit Recovery continues for 2nd year The alarming statistics are all too familiar. Another student gives up on school every 29 seconds nationwide, resulting in more than one million high school students who drop out of American high schools every year. Nearly one-third of all public high school students fail to graduate from high school with their class. In West Virginia alone, students failed more than 25,000 courses in 2008-09.
The WV Department of Education is dedicated to reducing dropout rates and increasing graduation rates for students in West Virginia. To this end, the WV Virtual School is using onTargetWV, a program that will allow students to recover credits they need for graduation and help them develop skills and work habits that contribute to their continued academic success. The new onTargetWV program offers rigorous credit recovery courses with additional scaffolding to sustain learning. These courses are engaging, interactive, and provide differentiated instruction to supply the extra support students need to be successful. An highly qualified online instructor grades works, answers questions, and provides individualized instruction as needed. Additional information about onTargetWV courses may be found on our website. Contact Gloria Burdette (gkburdet@access.k12.wv.us) for additional information. New Courses Added to the Catalog State Board Policy 2450, Distance Learning and the West Virginia Virtual School, states that “Distance learning course content will be reviewed for correlation with the West Virginia Board of Education content standards and objectives (CSOs).” In addition, all courses are aligned with the Southern Regional Education Board Standards for Quality Online Courses. Each year, the WV Virtual School staff identifies new courses for possible inclusion in the course catalog for the upcoming school year. Subject matter experts from West Virginia classrooms work in teams to evaluate each course and make a recommendation for course approval. This summer, twenty-five new courses were added to the WV Virtual School catalog for 201-12. For a sneak peek at the new courses, visit the WV Virtual School website. Virtual Cisco Networking Academy Goes Live
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After a successful pilot implementation at James Rumsey Technical Institute in Berkeley County, the Virtual Cisco Networking Academy is now accepting open enrollments. The Cisco Networking Academy is a global education program that teaches students how to design, build, troubleshoot, and secure computer networks for increased access to career and economic opportunities in communities around the world. The Networking Academy utilizes an online curriculum developed by the Cisco Systems Worldwide Education curriculum development team, interactive tools, and hands-on learning activities to help individuals prepare for ICT and networking careers in virtually every type of industry. Students completing Discovery 1 and Discovery 2 are prepared to take the CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician) certification exam; students completing all four courses are prepared to take the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification exam. For more information about the Virtual Cisco Networking Academy, visit