Virginia Governor and Education Secretary View Charter and Cyber Charter Education in Action

MIDLAND, Pa., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson said their tour of the National Network of Digital Schools and charter schools in Midland will help Virginia catch up to other states in the creation of charter and cyber charter schools.

"We have a long way to go. We're far behind you," McDonnell told teachers as he toured offices of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland. The online teachers, who were finishing up their daily instructional duties Thursday afternoon, gave the governor a standing ovation.

Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson said Virginia has four charter schools, none of them online schools, compared to 139 charter schools in Pennsylvania. PA Cyber CEO Dr. Nick Trombetta told them that 11 of those 139 are cyber charter schools with a total enrollment of about 25,000 students in grades K-12.

Trombetta offered assistance to Gov. McDonnell, noting that because of term limitations in Virginia, McDonnell and Robinson have only four years to accomplish their education goals. "You have one shot to get done what you need to do. Like you, our students have only one shot at a good education. It is our responsibility to give them the best shot possible."

McDonnell and Robinson quizzed PA Cyber teachers and administrators about how cyber education works. Virtual classroom teacher Christine Crow showed them how she teaches online classes in real time, saying every classroom session is recorded and can be replayed by students to improve understanding, and students can even contact her after hours at home for extra help.

Discipline problems are almost non-existent in virtual classrooms, Crow said. And because she does not have extra duties like monitoring hallways, study halls and bus time, she can devote more hours of her school day to actual teaching.

"There's so much opportunity here, excellence and flexibility for education, and at a lower cost. This also takes away a lot of the classic problems faced in traditional schools, like discipline. We would like to replicate something like this in Virginia and maybe even partner or collaborate with NNDS," said McDonnell.

Charter and cyber charter schools "break up the old monopolies, the old ways of doing things," he said. In Virginia, his administration has "started laying the foundations of charter schools," is exploring collaborations between K-12 schools and higher education, and is working on "a framework for virtual schools."

Secretary Robinson, noting the unique history of Midland schools and PA Cyber, praised Dr. Trombetta as "a 21st century leader" who turned an educational crisis into a creative opportunity.

"What I learn here and take back to our state will make us stronger," promised Robinson.

In a presentation at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School – a 500-student charter school also founded by Dr. Trombetta - the governor and his entourage were shown three digital learning applications: the innovative Little Lincoln early childhood online curriculum, the Cutting Edge Science curriculum developed by NNDS in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratories, and a demonstration of the unique arts education collaboration between Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center and the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute.

In the Yamaha demonstration, Dr. Mario Ajero, assistant professor of music at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, conducted a real-time piano lesson with Alex Castille, a student composer at Lincoln Park. The session concluded Dr. Ajero in Texas remotely playing the piano at Lincoln while another student, Amber Nicole, sang a piece entitled "The Spark of Creativity."

Dr. Barry Bittman, CEO of the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute, told McDonnell and Robinson that charter school innovation in Midland has created unexpected opportunities for new partnerships and initiatives. He announced that the Yamaha Institute and Lincoln Park will partner with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, using music in a "therapeutic intervention" with the goal of improving brain conductivity in Alzheimer patients.

Bittman said the educational innovators in Midland are providing "not just the inspiration but the substance to move students ahead."

Contact, Fred Miller, [email protected], 724.777.5918

SOURCE National Network of Digital Schools