Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 @ 07:18 PM
Learner Middle & High School is currently accredited by NALAS. We are now working to become accredited by AdvancED. (The North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement [NCA CASI] and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement [SACS CASI] are accreditation divisions of AdvancED.) This is a lengthy and thorough process. This post describes some of the action steps we take to prepare for the accreditation visit. The whole focus of the accreditation process is for a school staff to take a thorough, in-depth look at their school and make sure that all parts are operating well, and to constantly look for ways to improve.
Learner’s Self Study for Accreditation
Learner Middle & High School is advancing through the Self-Study process which will lead to accreditation through AdvancED. We began the self-study in October and will continue to be in that process for the next 4 months. The accreditation process focuses on our completion of a self-examination, and completion of a lengthy report on that self-exam. Our self-study report will focus around the seven standards/components listed below.
AdvancED’s process has seven standards/components:
1. Vision and Purpose – The school reviews its vision and purpose systematically and revises them when appropriate.
2. Governance and Leadership – The school operates under the jurisdiction of a governing board that establishes policies and procedures that provide for the effective operation of the school.
3. Teaching and Learning – The school develops and implements curriculum based on clearly-defined expectations for student learning. The school offers a curriculum that challenges each student to excel, reflects a commitment to equity, and demonstrates an appreciation of diversity.
4. Documenting and Using Results – The school enacts a comprehensive assessment system that monitors and documents performance and uses these results to improve student performance and school effectiveness.
5. Resources and Support Systems – The school has the resources and services necessary to support its vision and purpose and to ensure achievement for all students.
6. Stakeholder Communication and Relationships – The school fosters effective communications and relationships with and among its stakeholders.
7. Commitment to Continuous Improvement – The school establishes, implements, and monitors a continuous process of improvement that focuses on student performance.
Progress Report
1. Learner Middle & High School has set up its visit by the accreditation team for the first week of April (subject to change due to it being Good Friday/Easter week).
2. We have established the Learner School Committee to help provide broad stakeholder input to the process, and act as a lead team. This group has representatives of staff, students, and parents, and is chaired by the principal, J Lee Harshbarger. Dr. James Leffler will also be assisting Learner as they complete the self-study. (AdvancED Standards I, II, VI, VII)
3. We have examined Learner’s current Vision and Mission statements, and have updated those with input from parents, students, and staff, particularly from those on the Learner School Committee. (AdvancED Standard I)
4. We have begun data collection: We have sent out surveys inquiring about student achievement, staff opinions, student opinions, and parent opinions. (AdvancED Standards III, IV, and VII)
5. We are conducting an alignment analysis of Learner curriculum with Florida’s Sunshine State Standards for student learning.
6. We are examining student achievement to help evaluate our program.
7. We have collected current resumes for all staff. (AdvancEd Standard V)
Updates
We plan to provide updates here periodically to keep everyone aware of Learner’s Self-Study progress and up-coming tasks. If you would like to help with any of the tasks listed, please contact Mr. Harshbarger. There will be opportunity to help with both short and long-term tasks. We are particularly in need of student representatives for the Learner School Committee.
Thank You In Advance
The Self-Study is a comprehensive process to say the least. While the Learner School Committee will be working with Mr. Harshbarger and Dr. Leffler to complete the tasks, they will need to call on all staff for feedback and information, as well as needing to get survey responses from students and parents for analytical data during the process.
Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Mon, Jul 11, 2011 @ 08:39 PM
Submitted by Robert Strodtbeck, Social Studies Teacher At Learner Middle & High School
The great thing about studying history at this time is that, due to the easy access that the Internet allows to documents and references, we can gain access to the complete historical record of the world with a few keystrokes. We only need to develop our focus and purpose so that our keystrokes have meaning.
Since the access to original documents is so much more convenient than in the past, people who have taken the time to review these documents and apply them to the times in which they were written are coming up with reasonable perspectives for the motivations behind decisions that were made that have had a significant effect on the modern world. These perspectives often challenge what has been, heretofore, accepted portrayals of well-known events from the past.
What happened in the past cannot be changed,
but our knowledge and understanding of it can be.
These new challenges to the popular perceptions of history are called revisionist history. According to Anthony Gregory, a research analyst at the Independent Institute, “Historical revisionism often gets a bad rap. The term is typically used derisively to attack historical accounts that are unconventional, usually with the implication that they are false. But that is a grave misunderstanding of revisionism and the study of history in general.” Gregory went on to detail how revisionism is a responsibility for those who take the study of history as an important step to understanding who we are and where we are going in his review of revisionism in Liberty and Revisionism, from a November 4, 2010, posting in the Freedom Daily.
Revisionism was advocated by no less than St. Augustine in his book, On Christian Doctrine. Augustine's work was devoted to teaching his students that their understanding, application, and teaching of Scripture could only be done responsibly through studying the culture, settings, and languages in which Biblical events took place. He further taught that in the process of their investigations, that if they discovered thoughts that challenged popular perspectives of Biblical records, they had a duty to correct those popular perceptions. According to Gregory, this is revisionism.
To be sure, taking a revisionist view of the events from the past is no small effort. Just as St. Augustine demanded hard study and research before any views be taken, the same is true now. The Internet is filled with countless sources that challenge popular perceptions of historical events, but not all of those sources are credible. Before a source is considered it is wise to investigate the information on which the perspective based. If the source shows the signs of reliability, such as referenced and documented support, then it is worthy of entering into a debate regarding the influences upon history.
In the setting of our classroom, which is the entire world, we have the chance of taking the perspectives of not only well-documented sources from the Internet, but from classmates from around the country and even around the world. The fact of the matter is that in our class, revisionism does not have to be an anomaly, it can be the rule to feed our interest in a subject which can do much to shape our understanding of the future.
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You can take history courses online at Learner Middle & High School. For more information, call 877-399-3832 or email info@learnerhighschool.com.
Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 @ 12:33 AM
Submitted by Nicole Gerace, Mathematics teacher at Learner Middle & High School
In my career as a Middle and High School Mathematics teacher, on many occasions I have been asked, “Why do I need Math?”
The truth is, we use math everyday. When we tell time, follow a recipe, estimate how much money we can spend at the grocery store or how much money we will save by using coupons, etc., math is involved. Sure, these might just require the basic math skills we learn in elementary school, but these are just a few examples of why we need math. Math teaches us how to think logically and aids in our problem solving skills. Using math at any level increases a person’s intelligence and develops thinking.
In addition, math is known as a universal language because the prinicpals of math are the same everywhere around the world. Regardless of whether you use Arabic numbers (5+5=10) or Roman Numerals (V + V = X), the concept of 10 is the same. The same is true with geometric figures. Triangles, squares, rectangles, circles, etc, are the same all over the world and their perimeter and area are calculated the same way no matter where you are.
As far as algebra and other higher level maths are concerned, these provide the abstract reasoning skills that help students become better abstract reasoners in general. Good abstract reasoning skills improve a student's ability to write a coherent essay, for example, since essays require the writer to shift back and forth between abstract concepts and specific supporting facts. Many life skills, including choosing a career, making major purchases, running a business, and managing a family also require reasoning skills that are improved by math study. In addition, success in algebra correlates highly with success in higher education.
Above all, math is meant to be fun. All too often students are imtimidated by math courses. Introducing strange numbers and odd symbols which have never been seen before can be scary. If you look at math as a game, puzzle, or code to be figured out or cracked, you may be more willing to challenge yourself. Once you understand the new concepts, you will see how rewarding and fun math can be!
Take math courses online at Learner Middle & High School! To learn about the math and other courses we offer, call us at 877-399-3832, or email info@learnerhighschool.com.
Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Thu, Jun 09, 2011 @ 11:09 AM
Submitted by Ricki Lee Silverman, Creative Writing teacher at Learner High School
One of the best ways to become a writer is to thoroughly immerse yourself in the style of a writer you admire. Serious writing students have been known to copy out in longhand their favorite poems as well as selections from their favorite books and stories. Like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, these copying experiences figuratively help you walk in someone else’s mind. You start to understand the ebb and flow of that writer’s style, right down to the use of commas and colons.
A related exercise is something I call “Faux Poe.” Edgar Allan Poe was known for his immense vocabulary, and as you try to imitate his style, you will start to see how his word choices help create characters that are a unique blend of the upper class, the willful and the mentally unstable. What’s that you say? You deny that Poe’s lexicographical opulence elevates his headstrong heroes to incomparable heights of unmitigated horror? Surely a person of your perspicacity understands that the revenge-crazed Montresor must wield his words as deftly as he wields his trowel. Surely you see that, should a shabby word encroach upon Prince Prospero’s magnificent crenellated castle, why that word would be just as unwelcome there as . . . the Red Death.
I urge you to deepen your acquaintance with the much vaunted verbiage of Edgar Allan Poe and to try your hand at it, too. You can make the acquaintance of Montresor by reading “The Cask of Amontillado” and Prince Prospero by reading "The Masque of the Red Death."
Have fun! (Or should I say, savor the piquancy of this most satisfying avocation.)
A scene from The Cask Of Amontillado. Willing Hearts Production Copyright 2006
Learner High School offers a Creative Writing course online. To learn more about the courses Learner offers, call us at 877-399-3832 or email info@learnerhighschool.com.
Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Fri, Jun 03, 2011 @ 12:22 AM
Submitted by Robert Strodtbeck, Learner High School Social Studies Teacher
Gary North is an economist and prolific writer who has been pointing out that the low cost of sending information through the Internet is changing how people get their information and causing momentous shifts in the influence of the news media. Newspapers are becoming obsolete and are being replaced by such Internet staples as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. On the morning of the last lift off of the space shuttle Endeavor, I watched an Orlando news program during which the news anchor actually quit reading the news script provided by the station writers and began reading the Twitter feeds of the astronauts on their cell phones.
This same digital technology that allows us to get information around a corporate news filter also allows us to get the documents that formed history for our own study. We can conveniently augment our understanding of a textbook reference of the Articles of the Confederation with finding an easily readable copy with commentaries within seconds on our laptop or even smart phone. We no longer are limited to those who disagreed with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution being simply labeled, “Anti-Federalists”; we can find their reasons and principles word for word as they wrote them just by typing “Anti-Federalists commentaries” into a search engine.
This easy access of information leads me to believe that the best part of a history class is having the curiosity to investigate the information given in the text. This curiosity is based upon questions of the world around you and how we got to where we are. Those basic questions are at the heart of research and, raised individually, become the basis of learning. This is the great adventure you have a chance to experience when taking in this new form of study called online schooling.
Posted by J Lee Harshbarger on Fri, May 20, 2011 @ 11:25 PM
Faculty article by Jessica Mauger, Learner High School Spanish Teacher
Throughout my years in foreign language education, I’ve had the privilege of teaching many types of students, some more eager to learn the Spanish language than others. Because two years of foreign language is required in some programs in order to graduate from high school, I understand that I will come across many students who are only taking Spanish simply because they have to fulfill a requirement. For these students, Spanish class is an obligation and nothing more -- and that’s okay. However, I want to address and encourage the students who are enrolled in Spanish courses and who are eager to learn, not only because it’s a requirement, but because they are truly interested in communicating in another language.
Here are some important reasons why students want to learn Spanish:
Know your neighbors!
If you live in the US, you’re probably (at least somewhat) accustomed to hearing Spanish being spoken around you. Whether you’re at your local grocery store or a highly populated sporting event, Spanish is everywhere. According to a 2009 survey by the US Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 35.5 million people aged 5 or older. With Spanish being the world’s 3rd most spoken language, after Mandarin Chinese and only slightly behind English, you’re bound to hear it--and want to understand and speak it, too!
Here are a few interesting statistics found on www.learnspanishguide.com:
- At the end of the 19th century, 60 million people spoke Spanish. Today, nearly 500 million people across the world speak Spanish!
- In both the US and Canada, Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn. In the US, it is the most popular by a very wide margin.
- Students with 2 years of studying a foreign language generally score higher on their verbal scores on the ACT/SAT.
- Over the past decade, the demand for Spanish Language courses worldwide has almost doubled.
- The Hispanic population in the United States has grown by 60% in just one decade. At present, there are 35.5 million Hispanics, representing 12.5% of the total population. Hispanics are now the first minority.
- The United States has the fifth largest Hispanic population worldwide (trailing Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina – just barely behind Spain itself and Argentina). Of this group of over 35 million people, 3 out of 4 say that Spanish is their primary language.
- In the New York City area, the newscasts on the Spanish-language Noticias 41 and Noticiero Univision, often have higher ratings than news shows on CBS, NBC and ABC.
Keep watch for my next blog posting for more interesting reasons on why students should learn Spanish.
Learner High School offers Spanish I & II classes online. Contact us for more information about studying Spanish (or other courses) online at Learner.
Posted by Carol Moser on Tue, Apr 05, 2011 @ 01:48 PM
By Carol Moser
Enrollment Counselor, Learner Middle & High School
As an enrollment counselor for an online high school I’m used to answering a lot of questions about our school, and what makes our school different. When talking to adults and students alike I hear the same statement at least once a day, and that is, “I don’t want to take any classes, I just want to take the test and get my diploma!” To which I usually reply, “Okay, if you just want to take the test, do you mean that you just want to get a GED?” “No, no, no, I want to get my high school diploma! I just don’t want to have to take all those classes.”
In talking to them I finally discover that someone either told them that they could just take a test and get their high school diploma online, or they were online themselves trying to do some comparison shopping and found one or more sites that made it all look so quick, easy and cheap to get their high school diploma online.
As with most things, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. The truth of the matter is that there is no quick test you can take to get your high school diploma. You have to take the online courses, do the required work and pass your tests; any website you find that promises a quick and easy solution is simply a diploma mill!
Are All Online High School Diplomas Created Equal?
It is important to understand the difference between earning a diploma from an accredited online school, and getting one from a website that requires that you only pay their fee and take a test, or worse still, just fill out a form.
I know I said it once, but it bears repeating so here it is again: any website that promises a quick and easy diploma is simply a diploma mill!
Wikipedia defines a diploma mill in this way: “A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies.”
What this means is that you can easily pay them your money, and they will happily let you take their test and then provide you with their certificate that says that you have earned your high school diploma online. The problem is that this certificate is not a valid high school diploma! In actuality it has no value at all, especially if you or your child is planning to use this diploma to get into college someday. It will not be recognized as a valid high school diploma, and what you thought was a cheap solution just turned into a complete waste of your money.
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The fact remains that there is NO quick fix to getting your high school diploma. You simply have to take the required courses needed to graduate, put in the time to do the work and pass your tests. If taking your high school classes in a traditional school setting does not work for you, for whatever reason, then attending a good accredited online school will probably be your best option. Some of the better schools will even allow you to log in 24/7 which enables you to do your course work on your own schedule, not the school’s.
If you just want to get your GED, that is a different story altogether; however, it is still recommended that you put in the time to study even for that. A GED is not the same as having your high school diploma, but that will be a different topic to be left for separate post.
Doing Your Homework
Regardless of which option you choose, you are still going to have to do your homework. Making sure the school you choose is an accredited online school should always be your first assignment. Next find out if the teachers board certified, and if the school really offers a flexible schedule, allowing you to do the work at a time that works best for you. I can proudly say they we offer all of the above and more here at Learner Middle & High School. We have students ranging from the 6th grade, to adults with jobs and families taking their high school courses online. I encourage you to go back to our home page now and request a free demo of our courses – yes, we are so confident of our school and what we have to offer, we even let you sample our courses for free.