Starting this fall, high school students in Bozeman and around the state can take free online classes for credit from the state's new Montana Digital Academy.
Bozeman High School students will be able to take online classes that aren't already offered at the school, like oceanography, Principal Rob Watson told the Bozeman School Board on Monday night.
Students who fail a class needed for graduation, like math, will be able to retake the class online to earn credits. That will be especially set up to make it convenient for students in the Bridger alternative program to recapture lost credits, Watson said.
However, Bozeman High won't let students take online classes for credit because they don't like a particular teacher or they just want to have their afternoons free, Watson said. But if students can't take on-campus classes because of scheduling problems, they could apply to take the class online, he said.
"We honestly believe a course we can teach on campus, a student is going to get more out of" than from an online class, Watson said.
A surprising number parents and students have expressed interest in the new online option, particularly because the Montana Digital Academy classes will be free this first year, Watson said.
Home-schooled students can also take the online classes. But home-school students who wish to receive a Bozeman High diploma won't be able to take an entire high school curriculum from the academy without taking at least some classes at the high school, Watson said.
The first year, the digital academy will offer only high school classes, but eventually it's envisioned to offer classes from kindergarten through grade 12, said Marilyn King, assistant superintendent for instruction.
It has taken years of discussion and planning to get the Montana Digital Academy up and running, Superintendent Kirk Miller said. State education leaders made a key decision that online classes must be taught by "highly qualified" teachers who have Montana teaching certificates.
University professors balked at the idea that they weren't considered "qualified" to teach high school students because they lacked public school teaching certificates, Miller said. So the state Office of Public Instruction has created a new "dual-credit" license for Montana University System faculty.
The Digital Academy's future may be uncertain. It depends on whether the 2011 Legislature is willing to continue funding the new program, at a cost of roughly $3 million, Miller said.
School Board trustees expressed enthusiasm for Digital Academy. Trustee Heide Arneson said it could help students suspended for discipline reasons, or students on a traveling ski team, or students who couldn't get into a class because of staff cutbacks.
Trustee Ed Churchill said the online classes would be helpful at large high schools like Bozeman that already offer a wide variety of classes, but it could be crucial for small districts that can't offer as many courses.
Some of the classes offered this school year include Spanish, Chinese, math, U.S. history, psychology, health and physical education, and college-level Advanced Placement or AP classes.
More information is posted on the website, www.montanadigitalacademy.org.
On other issues Monday, the School Board:
--Approved 5-0 the annual report on the progress the school made last year on its Long Range Strategic Plan. The report is posted on the home page of the school district's website (www.bsd7.org).
--Recognized two recent Bozeman High School graduates, Taylor Wild and Mike Neely, automotive technology students of teacher Jess Stovall, who won first place in the 2010 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition in May at the College of Technology in Helena. In June they competed in Dearborn, Mich., against teams from around the nation, finishing 32nd.
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