UC plans to launch an online academy

Charter to accept 125 ninth-graders

By Chris Moran
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 5, 2006

The University of California is starting a virtual public high school for San Diego County students.

UC has offered individual online courses to the state's high school students for seven years. But the UC Online Academy scheduled to open Aug. 28 will accept as many as 125 full-time ninth-graders who will take all their classes from home via computer.

“This is the wave of the future. This is something that appeals to a lot of different students,” said Lynda Rogers, executive director of the academy.

UC Online Academy is a cyber charter school. As a cyber school, it offers a complete curriculum on the Internet. As a charter school, it's a free public school.

Like brick-and-mortar charter schools, cyber charters operate free of many public school regulations on staffing, curriculum and spending. In exchange, they pledge to meet specific academic goals. If a school doesn't achieve the goals, its charter – the permission to operate – can be revoked.

The Imperial County board of education granted UC Online Academy its charter, and by state law students in adjacent counties – in this case San Diego and Riverside – are eligible to enroll. The office will be in El Centro. It's the first of three virtual high schools UC plans to open. Rogers said she plans to have 10,000 student within three years.

The academy will be the fifth cyber charter school serving San Diego County. Several hundred students in the county are enrolled in cyber charters.

Sweetwater Union High School District chartered a virtual high school to open this fall, but its founder withdrew the application when the district began planning to hire an online course provider.

There are no admissions standards for the UC cyber charter. UC Online Academy will offer Advanced Placement, honors and other rigorous courses that are prerequisites to admission into state universities. It will also offer remedial courses, such as pre-algebra, for struggling students.

The important thing is that students – high-achieving or not – be independent learners, Rogers said.

“It suits both the student who is interested in accelerating the learning process, because they can work at their own pace, or students who need more time,” Rogers said.

In addition to a 25-to-1 student to teacher ratio, the academy will have UC undergraduate students available as tutors. San Diego County students will meet each week with the school's administrator via the Internet for “Webinars” to cover announcements on college deadlines, SATs, extracurricular opportunities and other matters.