Garfield Online Classes
The way students receive education changes with technology. According to a study by the Babson Survey Research group, more than 6 million students, nearly one third of the total enrollment at post-secondary institutions, show that students were taking at least one course in 2010 in an online setting. The most recent research shows an increase of 560,000 new students enrolled in an online course in 2011. The bottom line is if a student is planning on enrolling in a post-secondary school, it is more than likely at some point they will enroll in on an online class. In order to provide the students in the District additional educational opportunities in online classes, the District has developed Garfield Online. Garfield Online provides curriculum from K12 and Aventa. This is same curriculum offered by Washington Online and Provo School District. Students in Garfield School District have the opportunity to enroll in Garfield Online regular courses at no additional cost to the student. Students must be enrolled in a high school in the District to be eligible to register for the online classes. The students must enroll in the online class within the first ten days of the quarter. They must also have room in their schedule to enroll in the online classes. The School Board has adopted an online enrollment policy with all of the specific information. Garfield School District is using the online school in three ways. First, it is being used for credit recovery allowing students to make up high school credit in classes where they have failed. The cost for credit recovery is $20 per class. Second, students and teachers are using the Aventa curriculum in their regular classrooms. Currently, the teachers are using the curriculum for physics and chemistry. Third, the students are utilizing Garfield Online by enrolling in an online class with K12 providing the teacher and replacing their current face to face teacher with an online instructor. It is difficult to offer foreign language courses to students in the District because of expertise and endorsements needed in each language area. Garfield Online offers French, German, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. Students have over sixty courses to choose from in all areas. If parents that home school would like to offer this curriculum to their students, they could do so by contacting the local high school principal. The District is also offering online TICE (Technology Intensive Concurrent Enrollment) courses to students in mathematics. If you would like additional information on Garfield Online or the online enrollment policy, please visit the Garfield School District web page.
–Superintendent Ben Dalton
