Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIVA) is a virtual school administered as a charter school by the McFarland School District in McFarland, Wisconsin. The school is operated by the for-profit K12 Inc. corporation of Virginia.
School history
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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, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals found that the operation violated Wisconsin school laws by misapplying the state's open enrollment statute. The issues were resolved with the Department of Public Instruction 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.
In late 2008 WIVA changed its name to Wisconsin Virtual Learning (WVL). Beginning in the 2009-2010 school year it changed its 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.
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.
Curriculum and teaching
WIVA has Wisconsin-licensed teachers who help parents and students with their courses through live (for student help and classes with other students), phone, or e-mail contact. WIVA students are required to take Wisconsin State testing between October and November. Students are provided with textbooks, materials, and a loaned computer from K12 so they can access online lessons. Lessons are on the K12 Online School (OLS), where parents can customize their students' school calendar and add or remove lessons from the daily plan and add or remove vacation days. Student must complete 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. Lessons include online reading followed by offline textbook work and a lesson test, called an assessment. The test consists of an online multiple choice quiz or a textbook quiz that has multiple choice or short answer. Answers are graded with the teacher guide answer key book by parents who enter 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 what courses their student worked on that day and how much time they spent. Wisconsin certified teachers select key course lessons and have the student send the completed lessons to them though K-mail for lesson evaluation. Teachers also have complete access to the student's progress and test results. Teachers have office hours Monday thru Friday. Teachers schedule classes that the majority of the WIVA students are currently working on, so that students can discuss the lessons together.
References
External links
- Official website
