Annual Report September 2017
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IVS Now! Annual Report September 2017 Prepared by the Peoria County Regional Office of Education d/b/a Illinois Virtual School Peoria County Regional Office of Education d/b/a Illinois Virtual School Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48 Elizabeth A. Crider Derry, Regional Superintendent George McKenna, Assistant Regional Superintendent Illinois Virtual School Staff Cindy Hamblin, Director Danielle Brush Lewis, Coordinator of Professional Development Services Edward Cook, Customer Service Lead Maria Gottschalk, Learning Management System Specialist Jennifer Kolar-Burden, Coordinator of Curriculum Liz Lappin, Instructional Media Developer Lara Zink Pritchard, Enrollment and Data Specialist Illinois Virtual School has institutional membership in the following organizations. • International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) • Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA) • Quality Matters • Consortium of School Networks (CoSN) Background and Purpose Illinois Virtual School (IVS) is the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) statewide virtual school. ISBE established IVS as a supplemental online program. The IVS program is designed to allow students who are enrolled in a public or private school to supplement their education by taking courses that are educationally appropriate. ISBE’s GOAL 1 “Every child in each public school system in the state of Illinois deserves to attend a system wherein . Ninety percent or more students graduate from high school ready for college and career.” REALITY Students may require alternative solutions to assure their learning success and preparation for college and/or career. Solution A school partnership with IVS provides • an opportunity for students to take a fully online curriculum, giving schools, students, and families greater options; • an opportunity for students to take courses not offered by their face-to-face school, such as Advanced Placement, world languages, and other enrichment opportunities; • flexibility in scheduling with enrollment terms starting throughout the year; • credit recovery options for students to graduate on time; and • individualized instruction that occurs anytime and anywhere through teacher managed courses. The IVS program is administered through the Peoria County Regional Office of Education, a member of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS). Working in partnership with public and private schools as well as homeschooled students, IVS offers both classes for students and professional development programs for educators through online web-bases services. Online learning increases educational access to improve educational outcomes. Since IVS partners —not competes—with schools, the local school retains their students and is able to offer expanded learning opportunities. This year’s annual report has been prepared to communicate to a variety of stakeholders the learning opportunities made available to students and educators in Illinois through IVS. Specifically, this report highlights: • Online courses and enrollment data/trends • IVS commitment to quality • Student Voices – data from student surveys • The IVS Instructor – role and responsibilities • School Partnerships – data collected and two use cases • Professional development opportunities for educators - Cindy Hamblin, Director Illinois Virtual School 1 Online Courses Illinois Virtual School offers two online course solutions to meet the needs of students. • Full Service Courses include curricular content that provides sufficient instruction, practice, and assessments for students to master skills and concepts. The courses are aligned to relevant learning standards and are recognized by the NCAA and College Board. Courses have been coded based on the State Course Codes and rigor levels as part of the Illinois State Course System (ISCS). Illinois certified, highly qualified teachers facilitate each IVS course. The IVS full service course fee is $225/ semester course. • Credit Recovery Courses are proficiency based. These courses are intended for students that were unsuccessful in passing the course the first time and need to retake the course with IVS to recover credit. Illinois certified teachers manage these courses. The IVS credit recovery course fee is $85/ semester course. See Exhibit One page 13 for the new 2017-2018 IVS Course Catalog. The graph below represents FY 17 Full Service and Credit Recovery course enrollments by Department. The top five courses with respect to enrollments are: • Spanish I • Consumer Economics • Spanish II • Algebra II • Algebra I 2 Course Enrollment Trends • 2009-10: 2530 enrollments • 2010-11: 2993 enrollments • 2011-12: 3167 enrollments • 2012-13: 3185 enrollments • 2013-14: 3837 enrollments • 2014-15: 5157 enrollments • 2015-16: 6487 enrollments • 2016-17: 5848 enrollments The graph above shows the course enrollments for FY10 – FY 17. The graph above represents the growth of course enrollments by fall, spring and summer semesters. 3 Student Success Rate Data Success rate for Full Service courses is determined by the number of students earning 60% or higher divided by the number of students in the course. Students who drop after the two-week grace period or fail to earn 10% (non-starters) are not included in the calculation of the Success Rate. For the 2015-2016 school year, the full service course success rate was 93%. Success rate for credit recovery courses is determined by the number of students that have passed the course with 60% or higher and have completed the required written assignments in each course. Students considered non-starters, earning less than 10%, are not included in the calculation. For the 2015-2016 school year, the credit recovery success rate was 61%. NOTE: The IVS success rate has grown to over 70+% with a new credit recovery support system put in place January 2017. Commitment to Quality IVS is dedicated to offering quality courses, taught by quality instructors and supported by a quality technical assistance team. IVS is a member of Quality Matters, a national leader in quality assurance for online education. The Quality Matters rubric is utilized to review and improve IVS courses. The Quality Matters rubric is based on research-supported and published best practices in online and blended course development. IVS is submitting identified courses annually for Quality Matters review and certification. IVS maintains a robust training and support program for its online instructors. Teachers new to IVS complete a multi-training program before receiving a course assignment. The training includes an introduction to the online environment; technical skill development in managing an online course; and practice preforming the day-to-day responsibilities of an online instructor. New teachers are assigned to an IVS mentor for the initial 4 – 7 months of teaching. Participation in an IVS Professional Learning Community and ongoing professional development are required of all instructors. The IVS team utilizes a 24/7 help desk system and integrated phone system to support school personnel, students, and parent/guardians using the IVS program. This system assigns and tracks help tickets submitted for technical assistance, questions, and follow-up tasks. The system also includes an extensive Help Center populated with IVS resources and help guides. Our customer satisfaction rating is collected each month with an average of 97% satisfaction rate. 4 Student Voices Students are directed to complete an IVS Course Survey at the 50% point of their course. IVS has collected 6200+ student responses over the past three years. The IVS team utilizes student feedback to enhance our services as well as to address any concerns or celebrate successes. The IVS Student Student data collected indicates that 62.4% of our students are female and 37.6% are male. For 67% of the students, the IVS course they are enrolled in is their first online course. The chart on this page reflects the breakdown of our students by their current grade in school. Students identified the following as the main reason for taking an IVS online course. • School requirement or school advised student to take the course. 41.03% • To get ahead in credits earned. 15.75% • I’m interested in the subject. 15.37% • College entrance requirement. 8.91% • The course is not offered at my school. 7.94% • To make up a missing credit. 7.10% • I’m a Middle School student looking for a High School course. 2.83% Students completing IVS Courses For 64% of the students, their IVS course is part of their daily class schedule. When asked where they work on their course, 45% reported at both school and home, similar to the face-to-face classroom. When asked how much time is spent working on their course, 40% reported 3-4 hours per week and 31% reported working on their course 5+ hours per week. Students were asked if the activities in their IVS course made them think and helped them learn. The survey results show 77% indicated yes. For 73% of the students, the contact and feedback received from their IVS online teacher was identified as “just enough.” When asked if the student would recommend taking an IVS course to a friend, 65% indicated yes. 5 The IVS Instructor The Peoria County Regional Office of Education d/b/a Illinois Virtual School employs 64 Illinois certified teachers. Instructor responsibilities include: Communication IVS instructors communicate with students, parents, and local school representatives. Ongoing communication is maintained through emails, phone