WA to Open Virtual School
State's first online high school won't have a media specialist
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2006
Washington's first fully online high school is about to open its virtual doors next fall.
The Insight School of Washington looks great at first glance. It'll be a fulltime high school offering ninth to 12th graders courses in all subjects in levels ranging from remedial to advanced placement classes. Up to 50 certified teachers and advisers, called I-Learning Instructors, will be on hand during the week to provide assignments and grade tests, and courses will be delivered 24/7 through videostreaming. Kids will also get free laptops, Internet access, and a printer. And at the end of four years, those who complete the program receive a high school diploma—all for free.
What about a school librarian? There isn't one, says Frank Walter, superintendent of the Quillayute Valley School District on the rural Olympic Peninsula, which will run the school in partnership with a private Portland, OR-based company called Insight Schools.
Instead, students will have access to the Digital Learning Commons (www.learningcommons.org), a comprehensive online database with resources that include Grolier Online and Facts On File. But there won't be a certified media specialist to help guide kids through all the resources—only teachers and advisors.
“Students do need guidance and instruction to online and print library materials to help them decipher between good information and junk,” admits Walter, adding, however, that Insight has no plans to hire a school librarian.
Students who attend Insight will likely have needs that can't be met by traditional schooling, says Walter, meaning they are homeschooled, full-time wage earners, have health or physical problems, or have struggled socially in a regular high school.
That's why certified media specialists are so crucial, says Sarah Applegate, president of the Washington Library Media Association. “It's really a bad precedent,” says Applegate, who's also a national board certified librarian at River Ridge High School in Lacey, WA. “Here are kids with more disadvantages than other kids, and they're not giving them important library skills. It's one less tool that they have at their disposal. Where's the equity?”
Applegate says the Digital Learning Commons is a great resource for “one-stop-shopping,” but having a certified librarian guide students through one or two credible online resources would be more valuable to students.
“If we want students to be critical thinkers, then we need to provide them with multiple resources and someone to guide them through them, meaning a certified teacher librarian,” Applegate says.
Washington isn't the only state to launch a fully online high school. Virtual schools exist in Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan, and other states are planning to create them as well. Insight will receive state and federal funding and is open on a first -come, first-serve basis to about 600 students, Walter says.
