Philadelphia hopes to launch online cyber school in fall

Cyber charter schools, watch out. The Philadelphia School District is coming for your students.

Come September, the district - pending School Reform Commission approval Thursday night - will launch the Philadelphia Virtual Academy, an online school for city sixth through 12th graders.

The move could net the financially distressed district millions of dollars. This year, about 6,000 city students are enrolled in cyber charters, at a cost to the school system of about $60 million.

"Here in Philadelphia, we want to begin to compete for students," Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Wednesday.

It's a big step for a slow-to-change bureaucracy.

Since arriving in Philadelphia in the fall, Hite has said he wants to develop "innovative school models that will provide options for many of our students who are not as successful as we want them to be in traditional comprehensive high schools."

Cyber students would do the bulk of their learning online, but would have access to local learning centers, including one at the district's North Broad Street headquarters. Courses and staff would be provided by the Chester County Intermediate Unit, the nonprofit local education agency that already operates online programs for 38 districts, including Abington, Downingtown, Haddonfield, and Methacton. It's also associated with the cyber charter considered the highest performing in the state.

The district will pay the Chester County IU roughly $5,700 per student enrolled in the virtual school, depending on the students' needs. It currently pays an average of more than $10,000 per pupil enrolled in cyber charters, which must get state approval to open but which operate independently, and solely with public money.

Cyber charters are an increasingly popular option for students looking for alternatives to traditional brick-and-mortar schools in the city and across the country, but critics say Pennsylvania cybers receive far more money than they need to operate. In 2012, no cyber met state standards.

The fee paid to the Chester Chester County IU, one of several dozen such local agencies statewide, reflects the costs of courses and supplies, said Fran Newberg, the district's deputy for curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Officials on Wednesday touted the benefits of the virtual school, which will offer students not just laptops and Internet access, but also a combination of real-time learning and the ability to work at their own pace on their own time. Students will have state-certified teachers, teaching assistants, guidance counselors, and special-education support.

Pupils can participate in Virtual Academy extracurricular activities and the sports teams affiliated with their neighborhood district schools. They'll have access to more than 600 courses, including every Advanced Placement course offered. And the drop-in centers will be sited around the city, close to public transportation.

But unlike traditional city classrooms that have a cap of 33 students per teacher, the virtual academy will have roughly 125 students per teacher. The teachers, employees of the IU, will be a mix of unionized and unrepresented workers.

That's one concern for Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, who denounced the move as "another effort on the part of the School Reform Commission to outsource positions within the School District of Philadelphia."

Innovation is good, Jordan said, but he's wary of cyber schools.

"The data on them is questionable at best," Jordan said.

The SRC on Thursday will consider a resolution to approve up to $15 million to fund the virtual school for two years. But that's a ceiling, with the actual cost of the school based on the number of students who enroll.

Officials estimate the district needs 85 students returning from cyber charters to break even. The district could net just under $3 million this year if it enrolls 1,000 students for the coming school year, its goal for 2013-14. The aim is 1,200 students the next year.

Though the aim is to draw students currently enrolled in cyber charters or those who are homeschooled, officials said they realized they could draw some students out of district schools.

But, Newberg said, those students would likely leave district schools anyway.

"We're giving them another option," she said.