Amy Owen is the Senior Director, Digital and Teacher Policy at ExcelinEd.
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) was founded in 1997 as the first statewide, Internet-based public high school in the United States. It started out, 25 years ago, as a state-funded pilot program in two Florida school districts with 77 students and five course offerings. FLVS was soon recognized as its own school district in 2000 and now serves K-12 students in multiple ways: as a Florida school district, as a virtual course provider for other Florida districts and as a content provider nationwide for both in-person and virtual instruction through its FlexPoint program.
FLVS has gained accreditation from respected regional accrediting agencies, including the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), a division of Cognia. Its core courses are also approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA ).
To learn more about FLVS’s history, its successes, challenges and vision moving forward, ExcelinEd spoke with John Winn, who formerly held roles as an education policy advisor to Governor Jeb Bush and Commissioner of Education in Florida. Tomorrow, we will share an interview with Dr. Louis Algaze, President and CEO of FLVS.
At that time, of course, everyone was impressed by the possibilities that the internet could provide. I don’t think the state saw a need for statewide virtual school at that time. And so, it started out as a school district project between Alachua County Schools and Orange County Schools. A lot of these things come to fruition through the work of individual legislators or someone out in the field, developing innovations and asking the legislature to fund a pilot project.
I got involved while working for Governor Bush at the time as education policy coordinator. He heard from constituents complaining that the school districts were exerting too much control over online innovation. He felt FLVS really needed to be in statute, as a formal, standalone program with its own board. We worked with the legislature to draft legislation, and the Governor’s support led to passage.
As we learned more about FLVS, I got enthusiastic about the possibilities of what it could do for students who, in a whole variety of settings, needed to catch up on course requirements or wanted more advanced courses.
One of our priorities was to significantly increase participation in Advanced Placement courses. I was enthusiastic about expanding access due to seeing the many approvals required for my daughters to enroll in AP classes. I just thought it was ridiculous. Furthermore, our statewide analysis showed 35 out of 67 school districts offered no Advanced Placement courses. FLVS became an integral part of our initiative to expand Advanced Placement participation, especially among minority students and those in rural areas. Florida continues to lead the nation on the diversity of students taking AP courses.
As a statewide program, access was granted to private and homeschool students. You could have an avenue for official courses that earned credit toward high school graduation. This was also at the time when the legislature enacted statutes authorizing scholarships for students in failing schools. These policies were all working together and filled a real need for students in terms of having options outside traditional public schools.
At first, the FLVS pilot program was funded through a line item in the budget. But if it lost a champion in the legislature or was no longer seen as a priority, it could be removed easily. So, we started an effort to have the virtual school students be funded through Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) funding. Also, the class size amendment opened the door for students to enroll in FLVS without increasing class sizes in traditional schools.
There were initial concerns over how the state could verify student enrollment from remote locations. To ease these concerns, FLVS agreed to accept funding only if students successfully completed course requirements, which would be documented by staff.
Also, every public school student had to take the Florida state assessment. If they didn’t do well, then FLVS would have lost favor with the Department of Education leadership and with the legislature. It was in the school’s interest to keep the students engaged, keep the quality up and make sure that students’ needs were being met. And then as other online providers came into existence, the legislature pretty much had open arms to adding more avenues for students and parents.
That requirement wasn’t aimed at FLVS per se. That was more to get students to be more computer literate. Instead of requiring computer literacy, you require one online course, so students have to figure out computer skills along the way. This policy also encouraged school districts to open more options for students to take online courses. To avoid losing funding to virtual schools, school districts began offering online courses themselves. Some contracted with FLVS to use their courses, because they were accredited and accepted by the state’s Department of Education.
An appealing aspect of FLVS has been the quality of curriculum, student engagement and teacher training. In surveys, students often responded that they received more attention from the Florida Virtual School teachers than in a traditional classroom. FLVS students enjoy a one-on-one relationship with teachers and flexible access to them.
There was and still is a digital divide. When FLVS began, they had students participating who could participate from computers at school, either in their computer lab, after school or during study hall. They could also work at local libraries. More students were getting connected at home, but then you had to be motivated and get your parents involved to find a way to connect.
If there’s any benefit of the pandemic, school districts providing students with technology is probably one of the best, even though we know that there were big gaps in achievement caused by the pandemic.
The obvious answer is that students are no longer trapped by the structure of public education. In other words, if you wanted a course prior to FLVS, you had to take it in a traditional school. Around that time, there also were cutbacks in summer school funding; it became focused only on make-up work, not accelerating coursework.
One of the other major accomplishments of Florida Virtual School is how they have innovated through developing new products. They’ve invested in products, resources and services that go beyond the state of Florida and even go beyond their initial concept, which I think is fabulous. In my opinion, there’s no better group to do it than the ones who built FLVS from scratch. They have the passion for providing high-quality online education that continues to pay off.
FLVS was and continues to be an important part of our state’s overall commitment to improving student achievement and offering more opportunities for a high-quality education.
Florida families who are interested in enrolling in Florida Virtual School can visit www.flvs.net. Schools and districts looking for support when starting their own online, blended or hybrid learning program can visit www.FlexPointEducation.com. The FlexPoint website also has a resources section that provides education leadership with tools and tips when starting their own program: https://www.flexpointeducation.com/resources. Current students or prospective students in Florida can find more information on FLVS’s blog: https://blog.flvs.net/.
