KATY MAGAZINE NEWS
January 24, 2019
by Natalie Cook Clark
Katy ISD's online school enters it's eighth year with an anticipated enrollment this year of over 3,000 students. The online courses offer flexibility for students seeking educational freedom and more time for work and extracurriculars. Online enrollment opens February 1 for Summer 2019, Fall 2019, and Spring 2020.
Morton Ranch Economic Teacher, JD Coker teaches an online class.
Flexible Learning Options
Available to all high school students and incoming freshmen, the online school program offers 9-10 original high school credits from 30 different courses that help students reach their goals by allowing them to integrate online classes with other coursework. All courses are taught by Katy ISD teachers. Although there are many classes to choose from, full time online learning is not available in Katy ISD.
According to Susan Richards, Katy ISD's E-Learning and Instructional Applications Manager, there are all kinds of reasons that students enjoy online learning. "Students may want to free up class periods for extracurricular activities such as orchestra, drill team, student council, PALS and more. They may have a job and want to fit an early release into their schedule."
The program also makes it possible for students to take courses that may not be offered at their home campus. "For example, the district only offers Latin at Taylor High School so this allows students from other high schools to take that course."
Requires Self-Discipline
While students cannot rush through material since all the online classes have weekly models due, online learning is a different experience. "It helps students to prepare for college by learning the discipline of an online course," said Richards.
How Online School Started
"We noticed that we had students going outside our district to get credit and class experience to better prepare them for the AP tests and we thought we can do that in our district," explains Richards. The program was launched in 2011 offering eight AP courses to 94 students and is expected to enroll 3000 students this year.
Last year there were over 2,500 students that earned close to 3800 credits. This year they anticipate an enrollment of over 3,000 students.
For more information on Katy ISD Virtual School visit their webpage.