History of the Virtual High School Global Consortium

www.goVHS.org

The mission of Virtual High School is to develop and deliver standards-based,

student-centered online courses to expand students’ educational opportunities and
21st century skills and to offer professional development to teachers to expand the
scope and depth of their instructional skills.

VHS OVERVIEW
Virtual High School Global Consortium (VHS) is using the best of educational technologies to give
students and teachers access to resources, curriculum, and training of the highest quality, and to prepare
educators and learners to be skilled and confident participants in an increasingly technological world. VHS
is a collaborative of over 400 high schools in 30 states and 23 countries. VHS brings innovative, high-
quality online courses to students, no matter their location. VHS courses are designed to be delivered in an
online classroom experience – cohorts of students participate in online group activities, discussion forums,
team projects and multimedia presentations in our student-centered courses. VHS courses deliver national
standards-based curriculum, 21st century information and communications technologies skills as well as
global awareness through the international membership of VHS. There are currently over 200 full-semester
and year-long online courses in the VHS course catalog. Some of the courses offered include Advanced
Placement Statistics, Career Awareness for the New Millennium, Web Design: Artistry and Functionality,
and Pre-AP-level English Language and Composition. All VHS courses are taught by certified teachers in
each of the schools participating in VHS. Through these Internet-based VHS courses, schools can
significantly enhance their curricular offerings, and at the same time integrate technology into their
academic curriculum.

Virtual High School has become a model for similar programs across the country and around the world.
VHS was honored with the 2001 Stockholm Challenge Award and the USDLA (US Distance Learning
Association) 21st Century Best Practices Award in 2005 and 2007. The Stockholm Challenge is a unique
awards program for pioneering IT projects worldwide. The Challenge focuses on the positive effects of
today's information society and the benefit information and communication technology can bring people
and society. VHS was awarded the Challenge Award in the education field, because as a pioneer in the
field of online learning, VHS has developed strategies that make full use of the potential for collaborative
learning over the Internet. Recognized as the standard of excellence for achievement in distance learning,
the annual USDLA awards program acknowledges major accomplishments in distance learning and
highlights those instructors, programs and distance learning professionals who have distinguished
themselves in the field.

VHS HISTORY
Virtual High School began in 1996 as a five-year project at Hudson (MA) Public Schools and The Concord
Consortium, with an initial $7.4M in grant funding from the US Department of Education Technology
Innovation Challenge Grant. Additional funds from the Noyce Foundation and the US Department of
Education brought the total funding for VHS’s initial five years to nearly $10M. During its five years of
operation under grant-funding, Virtual High School grew from an initial 28 member schools to 232 schools
which cooperatively offered 156 course sections to 3675 students. In October 2001, VHS, Inc began the
journey of transitioning from a grant-funded project to an independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organization.
VHS is built upon a cooperative model of schools working together through the VHS Global Consortium to
offer online courses to their students. The cooperative model of partnering with existing brick-and-mortar
schools to enhance schools’ course offerings is unique to VHS. Schools pay an annual membership fee to
participate in the VHS cooperative, and also participate in the offering of online courses by identifying a
teacher at the school who will offer an online course through VHS. Each VHS instructor is released by their
school for one period a day to teach their VHS course, and in exchange, their school is able to register
students in VHS courses. VHS offers a variety of membership options to meet the needs of schools’ course
enrollment needs.
Classroom teachers are prepared to teach online by participating in one of VHS’s online professional
development courses, Netcourse Instructional Methodologies (NIM) or Teachers Learning Conference
(TLC). Both courses develop online teaching skills such as developing online community, fostering online
discussions, supporting online collaboration among cohorts of students, developing Internet literacy skills,
and modifying course instruction to meet students’ individual learning needs. TLC also teaches online
course design skills, and includes units on online course design standards, use of multimedia, and course
creation and management tools. VHS stresses student interaction, and helps instructors maximize the use of
Internet-based resources and use of the best in multimedia technology. Each school also provides some
release time for a site coordinator who acts as a local VHS administrator, guidance counselor and technical
adviser for students who are taking VHS Courses. The site coordinator is a valuable local resource for
students whose VHS teacher may be located in a different time zone.
The VHS cooperative model of working with schools rather than working to replace schools has proven to
be an effective model for introducing online courses to schools, preparing face-to-face classroom teachers
to be effective online teachers, and providing students with the opportunity to participate in online
classrooms with students from around the world. VHS was awarded the 2001 Stockholm Challenge Award
for exemplary use of technology in education in large part because of its use of a cooperative model of
online course delivery:
Virtual High School is an excellent use of information technology to
provide multiple benefits to multiple participants. … Virtual High School
has been tested in operation, has been transferred widely and it is
sustainable. Many countries could attempt this kind of initiative to provide a
quality option to students at almost any level and from any background. The
jury was strongly impressed by the project’s cooperative model that gives
schools access to resources and training in exchange for them creating and
sharing their own resources online.

VHS COOPERATIVE MODEL BENEFITS

The VHS project is a cooperative, to which schools contribute teacher time and from which they receive
course enrollments. The VHS cooperative structure is unique, and has many advantages compared to more
traditional centralized models of teaching online courses.
Lower cash outlay. Schools do not have to pay cash for the instructional costs associated with the
VHS. In effect, they barter teacher time for enrollments. This distinction between barter and cash
costs is irrelevant to a business accountant, but it matters greatly in schools because cash costs are
watched far more closely than staff time. The costs of the VHS are, nevertheless, significant,
approximately $6,500 per year for a standard membership of 50 course enrollments. These
charges, however, reflect real administrative, publicity, technology, and development costs that
would be added to instructional costs for any competitive non-cooperative program.
Union Support. School unions are very powerful, so their support is important to the success of any
large effort. Teacher unions are suspicious of online teaching because it appears to cost them jobs.
If the online courses are being offered from one of the centralized course providers, they are right,
because in that case instruction is moved from the school to the central body offering the courses.
If the unions could unionize the central facility, this might be a zero-sum game for them, but local
unions must be concerned with local jobs. Furthermore, the centralized faculty is likely to be non-
union. The VHS, on the other hand, is attractive to unions because it does not change the number
of local jobs and it provides valuable opportunities for professional development. Furthermore, we
have taken pains to include unions in the evaluation of the courses and other aspects of the project.
Therefore, while attacking other online course programs, unions have been supportive of the VHS.
 Easier Buy-In. The VHS is compelling to schools. It offers a package of courses no school could
afford on its own and it provides an attractive function for technology that is typically under-
utilized. The VHS fees for school membership in the cooperative and teacher professional
development are both types of expenses schools are accustomed to paying. Many school districts
are members of various cooperatives that share expertise and expenses among members, from
audio-visual equipment to services for students with special needs. The VHS membership fee fits
into that model. Similarly, schools are used to paying for teacher professional development, so the
cost of the TLC, although greater than the typical per-teacher cost of professional development,
also fits a budget category. In other online course programs, schools are required to pay a per
student tuition, an uncommon and unpopular practice with school boards and unions that also
takes money out of the community.

VHS ACHIEVEMENTS
VHS has an effect on education that reaches far beyond the thousands of participants involved in the
project. There is evidence that changes reach beyond the VHS participants to influence face-to-face courses
by VHS teachers and others. Teachers who have completed the VHS professional development courses
report that they are bringing new technology skills, new teaching strategies, and a revitalized enthusiasm
for teaching back into their local classrooms, thus passing the benefits of their experience on to countless
additional students and colleagues. Students who have taken a VHS course find the experience has helped
them become independent learners and capable technology users, and they pass these skills on via daily
interactions with peers, family members, and teachers. High schools, communities, and entire states have
found the success of VHS has generated strong partnerships between corporate and educational entities, as
well as support for additional technology and educational initiatives within their regions.

VHS Quality Benchmark Indicators annually measure VHS’s online course quality, quality of
professional development, and quality of program services.
 Quality of Courses: Rigor and quality of VHS courses are measured by AP exam pass rates, percentage
of AP students taking the AP exam, course completion rates, and percentage of students taking courses
for credit recovery who recover credit. During 2005/2006:
o 61% of the VHS AP students who took the AP exam passed with a score of 3 or higher. The
VHS cumulative AP exam pass rate, from 2000/2001 to 2005/2006 is 66%.
o 70% of VHS AP students took the AP exam;
o 77% of all VHS students successfully completed their VHS course with a grade of 60 or
higher.
o 88% of students who took summer courses recovered course credits.
o Survey data indicates high levels of satisfaction with development of 21st century skills,
student collaboration and student engagement in course content.
 Quality of Professional Development: VHS provides online professional development to teachers to
develop the necessary pedagogical and technical skills to succeed as online teachers. Indicators of the
quality and rigor of VHS’s teacher professional development program are the percentage of teachers
who successfully complete the online professional development course as evidenced by demonstration
of online teaching skills mastery; and the percentage of teachers able to successfully navigate their first
semester of teaching online, meeting all VHS’s standards for online course delivery. In 2005-2006:
o 87% of VHS teachers successfully completed VHS training; and
o 90% of VHS’s first-year teachers demonstrated the successful habits of practice of effective
online teachers.
 Quality of Services and Program: Most VHS member schools participate through an annual
membership contract, which requires renewal every spring for the following school year. Indicators of
the quality of VHS services and program are membership retention rates and school seat enrollment
utilization rates. The membership retention rate is defined as the percentage of schools which renew
membership from one school year to another. Seat utilization rates are based upon the number of
student seats a school uses as a percentage of the total number to which the school is entitled as part of
its membership contract with VHS. In 2005-2006:
o 86% of member schools renewed their membership; and
o member schools utilized nearly 83% of the student enrollment seats they were entitled to,
indicating high levels of interest in VHS courses and membership benefits.