Virtual Charter School: Innovative and Note-worthy

Learning at home in her pajamas before a computer screen, Emily Brown's youngest daughter is picking up things in 6th grade that her older daughter is attempting as a freshman at a Catholic school.

For the former teacher, that's evidence enough that Chicago Virtual Charter School is working.

"The curriculum is better here," Brown said. "It's a grade level higher."

The school, the city's only online program for kindergarten through high school, has become an alternative to traditional public schools for parents such as Brown who believe regular schools often don't challenge children enough or don't give slow learners the extra time they need.

Principal Bruce Law said last year the school, which opened in 2006, met the measure of "adequate yearly progress," mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. More than 30 percent of Illinois schools did not qualify, many of them charter schools, according to the state board of education.

As U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan prepares to dole out federal aid for school reform, charter schools—especially those with an online component—stand to gain, experts say. Duncan, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, is a proponent of charter schools and an early backer of the Chicago Virtual School. He announced last week that the budget to reform the nation's schools was doubled to more than $100 billion.

"Arne Duncan wants to fund innovative learning methods and I can't think of anything more innovative than online learning," said John Watson, a consultant with Colorado-based Evergreen Consulting, which publishes an annual online school report "I think they should be funded through some of this stimulus money."

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.