In a virtual course, students attend classes through Blackboard Collaborate (Previously named Elluminate). Assignments are completed through Schoology: these include homework, tests, and other graded assignments. Students log in for class and participate with a live teacher. Students may speak during class by clicking an icon to raise their hands, or be called upon by the teacher. Communication can take place with private notes between teacher and student. If given the rights to us chat, students can also communicate with each other publicly or privately. The virtual classroom allows for students to participate in breakout rooms to work collaboratively on an assignment; in these rooms, students can draw on the whiteboard, chat with their group mates, and use their microphones to communicate.
According to a Pennsylvania Department of Education study released in January 2009, 6% of PA Cyber Charter School graduates required remediation in mathematics and or reading before they were prepared to take college level courses in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education or community colleges. This was one of the lowest remediation rates among the Commonwealths public schools.
The school was subject to a grand jury investigation in 2007 regarding using funds improperly (for expenses not related to each individual student). The allegations were: double billing, excessive management fees, questionable payments to building contractors and misuse of tax dollars with regards to the building of a $23.5 million Performing Arts Center.
In 2010, the school reported that 33.4% of its students met federal poverty levels. In 2011, the schools annual report with the Pennsylvania Department of Education noted that 100% of its 268 staff members were certified.
Per the Pennsylvania Department of Education, one in three recent high school graduates who attend Pennsylvanias public universities and community colleges takes at least one remedial course in math, reading or English.
When the steel mill in Midland, PA closed, a period of decline and population erosion began. In 1986, the Midland Borough School District closed its high school and the students were sent to neighboring school districts on an annual tuition basis. To give these students another option, community and school board members started PA Cyber Charter School. Initially, more than 500 students enrolled in the school. The first graduating class had 17 students. PA Cyber Charter School employs nearly 600 people and has regional offices in Philadelphia, Wexford and Harrisburg.
In 2010, the school reported an Unreserved - Undesignated Fund balance of $2,406,089 and a Reserved - Undesignated Fund balance of $11,415,257.
Special Education students have access to testing, such as Dora/Doma and others, that allows proper academic placing, and students can be given higher or lower grade level course work based on these scores. This allows the student to learn skills they may have missed while in the traditional special education setting.
From January to June 2011, 294 PA Cyber Charter School students took the SAT exams. The average scores were Verbal, 524; Math, 479; Writing, 487.
The students home school district pays tuition to the cyber school. By legislative formula, home districts pay between 90 and 95 percent of what it costs them to educate students in the classroom. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania no longer provides any relief to public school districts for the funding of cyber charter schools. Previously, the Commonwealth reimbursed public school districts 30 percent of their total payments for this type of education, but has since pulled that reimbursement.
Students can take either real-time (virtual classroom) classes or self-paced classes. Students have access to a variety of classes in several categories. Students are required to take certain courses for each grade level. In addition to a traditional curriculum of English, science, social studies, math and the arts, students can enroll in courses about computers, home economics and world languages.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Online Education in 2010, the school reported an enrollment of 8,539 pupils with 904 pupils receiving Special Education services. The school employed 155 teachers.
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2011 - 32% on grade level (44% below basic). In Pennsylvania, 60.3% of 11th graders are on grade level.
Pennsylvania school law allows stpa cyber school Pennsylvania Cyber Charter Schooludents in cyber charter schools to participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities in their home districts. There have been several instances of this, most notably being that 3 state champion wrestlers have graduated from PA Cyber. PA Cyber also has an assortment of clubs and they host the occasional meetups with parents and other children enrolled in PA Cyber.
Students are required to be enrolled in five classes to be considered a full-time student. They are expected to work for one hour per day per subject. Additionally, a Graduation Project is required as it is with every Pennsylvania public school district by state law.
In December 2011, The Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Special Education reported that 1,173 of the 9,651 students at the school were enrolled within special education, 12.2% of the student population. The school served a higher percentage of students in the disability categories of Autism, Emotional Disturbance, Other Health Impairment, and Specific Learning Disability than in the overall state of Pennsylvania.
In a self-paced class, students complete coursework through Calvert, Lincoln Interactive and Little Lincoln. Students have five months to complete a traditional semesters assignments. Assignments are monitored and graded by a teacher as the student progresses through the lessons.
2011 - 56% on grade level (20% below basic). In Pennsylvania, 67.3% of 5th graders are on grade level.
Less than 66% of Pennsylvania high school graduates, who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania, will earn a bachelors degree within six years. Among Pennsylvania high school graduates pursuing an associate degree,Insurance knowledge. only one in three graduate in three years.
In 2010, 83% of the schools special education students graduated rather than dropping out. The statewide rate was 87%.
According to a report by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 3 teachers were rated NonHighly Qualified under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Approximately 1,107 students were eligible to graduate in the two school graduation ceremonies held on June 12, 2010 at an eastern Pennsylvania site and on June 14, 2010 at a western Pennsylvania site.
PA Cyber Charter School lost a suit brought by Slippery Rock Area School District. The school enrolled a 4 year old, but the childs School District did not offer kindergarten for 4 year olds to district residents. The district refused to pay kindergarten tuition for the child. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that a cyber school may still set the entry age of its students and allow 4-year-old children to enroll in its kindergarten program, but it does so at its own cost if the students home district has set a different entrance age.
Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, also known as PA Cyber, is a public, virtual charter school founded in Midland, Pennsylvania in 2000. It is one of 13 cyber charter schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2011. Enrollment is open to all Pennsylvania students in grades Pre-K through 12 throughout the Commonwealth. The school secured a five year renewal of its charter, from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in July 2010.
Students have the opportunity to complete college courses during their 11th and 12th grade years of high school, free of charge. Students who have maintained a high GPA are able to enroll in two college classes per semester.
The undesignated funds are not committed to any planned project. Designated funds and any other funds, such as capital reserves, are allocated to specific projects. School districts are required by state law to keep 5 percent of their annual spending in the undesignated reserve funds to preserve bond ratings. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, from 2003 to 2010, as a whole, Pennsylvania school districts amassed nearly $3 billion in reserved funds.
The Board of Trustees operates school in accordance with the provisions of Act 22 of 1997 (Charter Schools Act). In 2011, the Board includes 2 local school executives, 2 bankers, a retired school teacher, and a local business owner. The Board submits an annual report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
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Students in grades 3rd through 8th and 11th grade participate in the states mandated school assessments called PSSAs. They are tested in reading, writing, mathematics and science. Eleventh grade students participated in the Keystone Exams, end of course pilot exams. The PDE did not make individual schools Keystone Exams results public.
After a yearlong review, the school was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, in 2011.
The school is governed by a seven voting member, appointed Board of Trustees with an additional 4 nonvoting members, under the supervision of the local school board, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the State Charter School Appeal Board.
Since PA Cyber is a public school, any student who resides in the state of Pennsylvania is allowed to enroll at no cost. Students are provided with all of the materials needed to complete coursework. PA Cyber pays for the students internet connection. Enrollment has been growing, from more than 500 students the first year (2000) to 10,000, in November 2010.
The school has been subject to regular criticism from the Pennsylvania School Board Association and Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials over several issues including funding and the schools fund balance reserves.
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