Trombetta Proposes Charter School Digital Learning Network in Pennsylvania

"Schools across the state are scrambling to create their own cyber programs. Soon every school will be a cyber school." – Dr. Nick Trombetta

LANCASTER, Pa., May 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With help from the state's cyber schools, Pennsylvania's 124 bricks-and-mortar charter schools can move seamlessly into the bricks-and-cyber future through a cooperative Charter School Digital Learning Network said Dr. Nick Trombetta.

Dr. Trombetta made the proposal in an address to the School Leadership Conference sponsored by the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools. Some 200 charter and cyber charter school board members, administrators and teachers from across the state attended a three-day meeting concluding May 2 at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Lancaster.

School districts which formerly fought cyber education are now trying to create their own online programs, said Dr. Trombetta, CEO and founder of the 9,000-student Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

Public charter schools need to implement quality online programs to maintain their competitive edge, but their generally small size and tight budgets require that the cyber programs be both flexible and inexpensive, he said. The state's 11 cyber charter schools have the expertise and curriculum to help their brick-and-mortar colleagues.

Predicting an era of rapid technological and educational change with online education becoming commonplace, Dr. Trombetta told the conference, "When a student comes to an administrator and says, 'I want to learn Mandarin Chinese,' the answer can't be 'no.' The answer can't be, 'that's something we don't do.'"

One solution that's already developed, he said, is an online curriculum prototype developed by the National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS), a nationwide online curriculum and management foundation. NNDS currently provides Lincoln Interactive curriculum to 200 schools in 12 states, including PA Cyber. Trombetta showed attendees some of the Lincoln Interactive courses and a sample digital charter school website.

The model, using Lincoln Interactive's premium curriculum of 250 state-approved online courses, is designed to be flexible, inexpensive and easily customized to any school.

Charter Coalition President Larry F. Jones said Trombetta's idea is very workable and could provide a great opportunity for the state's 11 cyber charter schools to partner with the 124 bricks-and-mortar charters. Jones said this summer he will lead a group of charter school CEOs on a tour of PA Cyber and NNDS headquarters in western Pennsylvania so administrators can see how cyber school works.

Dr. Trombetta told conference attendees that before launching PA Cyber 10 years ago, he went across the state to meet with school district superintendents and intermediate unit administrators, inviting them to join him in creating a cyber school under the 1997 charter school law passed under the Tom Ridge administration.

"Not one of them was interested then and some of them laughed at the idea. They're not laughing now. Schools across the state are scrambling to create their own cyber programs. Soon every school will be a cyber school," Dr. Trombetta said.

"In Pennsylvania we lead the nation in cyber charter education, and I'm proud of that. But with that status comes a responsibility to show the nation what comes next."

The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools is an association of and advocate for the commonwealth's charter and cyber charter schools and the more than 70,000 charter and cyber charter students statewide that these schools educate. This was its first School Leadership Conference, providing education, targeted training and the opportunity for networking to charter school governance, administration and staff.

National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS) is a nationwide educational management foundation providing premier online curricula Lincoln Interactive for grades 5-12 and Little Lincoln for grades K-4.

The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is a K-12 public charter school offering both virtual and self-paced (synchronous and asynchronous) online education. It currently enrolls 9,000 students from 490 of Pennsylvania's 500 school districts. PA Cyber CEO and founder Dr. Nick Trombetta is a recognized national leader in educational reform and innovation. He recently presented at the 2010 Intel Visionary Education Conference in Washington, D.C.

Source: National Network of Digital Schools. Contact Communications Coordinator Fred Miller, 724.643.1180, ext. 1377, or 724.777.5918

SOURCE National Network of Digital Schools