| Wisconsin Virtual Academy | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| 4709 Dale-Curtin Drive McFarland, Wisconsin, 53558 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Virtual school |
| Opened | 2002 |
| School district | McFarland School District |
| Grades | Kindergarten - 12th grade |
| Affiliation | K12 Inc. |
| Website | http://www.k12.com/wiva
WIVA Homepage |
Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIVA) is a virtual school in Wisconsin. It is currently operated as a charter school by the McFarland School District, which has a contract with the for-profit K12 Inc. corporation of Virginia.[1]
Contents |
The original WIVA was operated as a charter school of the Northern Ozaukee School District of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin from 2002 until 2009. In a December 2007 ruling of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals unanimously declared that such an operation was violating Wisconsin school laws by misapplying the state's open enrollment statute.[2] The issues were resolved with the DPI about the open enrollment statute and a cap on virtual school enrollment under Act 222 was imposed, limiting the number of virtual school students to 5,250.[3][4] Lawmakers are now working to repeal the cap due to the great number of students wanting to enroll.
In late 2008 WIVA changed its name to Wisconsin Virtual Learning (WVL), then beginning in the 2009-2010 school year they wished to offer their students more options in curriculum. They changed their curricula providers to Little Lincoln and Calvert for grades K4-4. For grades 5-12, Lincoln Interactive, Calvert, Aventa, and Florida Virtual are providing the curriculum.[5]
McFarland School District of McFarland, Wisconsin opened a charter school called Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIVA), supplied by K12 Inc., in the 2009-2010 school year.[6]
WIVA has Wisconsin-licensed teachers who help the parents and students with their courses through live (for student help and classes with other students), phone, or e-mail contact. WIVA students are also required to take Wisconsin State testing between October and November. Like most K12 Inc. supplied schools, the student is provided with textbooks, materials, and a loaned computer from K12 so the student can access his/her online lessons. The course lessons and lessons are on the K12 Online School (OLS): here parents are allowed to customize their student's school calendar and add/remove course lessons from the daily plan and add/remove vacation days. However the student must have completed each core course (Math, English, Science, and Social Studies) to 90% or higher by the first Friday of June and have had at least 180 school days. Course lessons include online reading followed by offline textbook work and then the lesson test, also called an assessment. The test consists of an online multiple choice quiz and/or a textbook quiz that has multiple choice and/or short answer. The offline textbook multiple choice and/or short answer questions are answered by the student, the answers are then graded with the teacher guide answer key book by the parent who enters the results into the online test. The online questions are then graded by the computer and the test grade is then displayed. At the end of the school day the parent records attendance on the OLS of what courses their student worked on that day and how much time they spent.[7] The Wisconsin certified teachers pick key course lessons and have the student send the completed lessons to them though K-mail for lesson evaluation. The teachers also have complete access to the student's progress and test results. The teachers have office hours Monday thru Friday in every week. Teachers schedule classes that the majority of the WIVA students are currently working on, so that the students can discuss the lessons together.[8]