Additionally, with the rise of online high school programs, your homework can be challenging to be certain that the high school meets the academic criteria specified by the NCAA.

If you haven’t done your homework yet, we’ve put together a little head start for you (with some help from the NCAA Clearinghouse Basics):

The best way for students to prepare for a future in college athletics is to complete the approved core courses and earn appropriate grades in them. Indeed, more students fail to qualify to play NCAA sports because of lack of appropriate course work than for low test scores.

“Core courses” is the name that the NCAA gives to high school courses that meet this academic criteria and students must complete a certain number of core courses for NCAA Division I and II eligibility.

According to the NCAA Clearinghouse, which is the organization that determines whether prospective college athletes are eligible to play sports at NCAA Division I or Division II institutions, student athletes should register during their Junior year in High School.

More importantly, if a student athlete is attending or considering attending an online school, your homework can be especially challenging.  Our online school has been approved by NCAA Eligibility Center and we would love to answer your questions.

What is the opportunity cost of public education? In economics, opportunity cost is the cost of foregoing an alternative choice.  With regard to education, it is passing up the opportunities that a private education offers or, from another perspective, it is continuing the risks associated with the public school environment compared to the absence of such risks in most private school environments.

Looking Through the Window of Opportunity

Public schools are not inherently bad for children; they are simply natural byproducts of a one-size-fits-all educational experience with limited resources, which often results in a limited learning atmosphere. And this does not even mention the documented statistics of higher drop out rates and lower moral influence in public schools compared to private schools.

So, when thinking of the financial costs of sending your child to a private school, think also of the opportunity costs of public education–foregoing an alternative. Consider now as the time to carefully weigh the alternatives and look through the window of opportunity. There is no cost to look through this window; but there is a potential cost of not looking through it. To be certain your educational choice–public or private–is the right one, you’ll need knowledge–advantages and disadvantages–of both alternatives.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask us about the positive results we’ve seen in our own students or take a look at what their parents are saying.

Online schools have a variety of delivery methods but there are several common features and characteristics that most online schools share:

• Classes are asynchronous: Online schools can feature live chat rooms where the professor or facilitator is giving a lecture that includes discussion and feedback among the students.  However most of the class discussion, assignments, and exams are asynchronous, which means that each student does work independently and on their own schedule.
• Students have flexible homework schedules: Because of the asynchronous nature of online schools, students can log in at a time of their choosing, view the assignments posted by the professor/facilitator, and complete the assignment by a certain due date.  This flexibility is a great advantage for the non-traditional high school student or college student whose lifestyle or personal preference makes traditional schooling disadvantageous to learning.
• Programs and schools are accredited: Many online schools are accredited, which according to the U.S. Department of Education, is “to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met.”  Online schools that are accredited meet the same standards as any traditional school that is accredited.
• Graduates receive diplomas or degrees: High school students can receive diplomas for graduating from an online high school and college students can receive degrees from online colleges.  These diplomas or degrees are just as valuable as diplomas or degrees earned at traditional schools and many online schools have formal graduation ceremonies.

In summary, an education earned at an online school has the same end result–graduating with a diploma or degree–as any educational institution offers.  The only difference is the delivery method.

Why pursue an online education?

Is an online education as valuable as the traditional school setting? The combination of today’s mobile, service-based economy with the rapid advances in online delivery systems has made for a ripe environment for quality online education.  Today there are thousands of online degrees and certifications available as are hundreds of accredited online schools.  This is no fluke or short-lived trend:  Online education is now a highly respected and increasingly demanded resource.

Do colleges, universities, technical schools, art schools or military academies accept online education? Yes, but you may need to verify this with the particular online school you are researching.  The curriculum of our school, The Oaks Virtual Academy, for example, is Apex Learning, which is highly accredited.  Students who have completed the Apex Learning curriculum have been admitted to Ivy League Colleges, art and technical schools, military academies, and many colleges and universities across the United States and abroad.

How do I know if I fit into online education? Many of our students’ parents are looking for flexibility, independence and control.  If either of these align with your priorities, you are likely a fit for online education.

Should I select an online Christian academy or a secular curriculum? Again, we defer to what the parents of our students say, which is what parents all over the country are saying:  Some of the same control concerns regarding potential secular school problems, such as dropout rates, peer substance abuse and overall values concerns are the same reasons that parents choose online Christian schools.   For more on this, please refer to a previous post here, The Value of Online Christian Schooling.

As always, we welcome you to contact us at The Oaks Virtual Academy with any questions you may have…

Consider some of these trends in virtual learning:

• Traditional universities are expanding their online offerings, including UCLA, University of Southern California, University of Maryland, DePaul University, and University of Massachusetts.
• Some schools created online programs as a cost savings tool while others expanded to virtual environments to answer increasing demand from students.
• Over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term; an increase of nearly one million students over the number reported the previous year.
• The twenty-one percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the less than two percent growth of the overall higher education student population
• Nearly thirty percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.
• In the first report of this series in 2003, fifty-seven percent of academic leaders rated the learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face.
  That number is now sixty-six percent, a small but noteworthy increase.
• Over three-quarters of academic leaders at public institutions report that online is as good as or better than face-to-face instruction (compared to only 55.4% of private nonprofits and
  67.0% of for-profits).
• The year 2010 saw an unusual amount of attention to higher education at the federal level,with congressional hearings on new rules dealing with financial aid and student recruiting.

We’re proud to be a part of this growth at The Oaks Virtual Academy and would love to answer any questions you may have about the present and future of online education.

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Sources:

More Traditional Colleges Offer Online Degrees

Class Differences: Online Education in the United States 2010, by Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, retrieved from USDLA Research Center

One need not be a Christian to understand the value of Christian education in today’s world. Simply combine the fact that young minds are growing and impressionable with the continuously drifting moral compass of today’s society and you arrive at the conclusion that school age is the best (and perhaps only) time to get it right; the time to expose your child to the values you want them to hold for life.

Help or Hindrance: Finding the Right Crowd or the Wrong Crowd in School

Feeling part of a group is part of being human; but choosing the right group is part of being responsible, which is not easy to say the least, at any age. Another part of being human is the attraction to shortcuts; the path of least resistance is often the chosen path. The problem is that following another’s path is not often the best path for the you.

In addition, following the wrong crowd is an attractive shortcut because the individuals in the wrong crowd want to belong to something, to have an identity, just like anyone else. Therefore they have no initiation requirements; they let you in to their group with open arms; it’s easy to become a member of the wrong crowd. The path of least resistance is often the easiest choice but it can also be the wrong choice.

Joining the wrong crowd, however, is just as easy as joining the right crowd, although it does not always appear that way. There is a false perception, especially among young people, that there are certain requirements to be part of the right crowd. Low self-esteem is natural during adolescence and early adulthood; therefore young people often eliminate themselves from the perceived qualifications they see necessary to fit in with the right crowd.

As a result of this misconception, they become exposed to the negative potential of mainstream secular schools:

• Fighting & Criminal Activity
• Peer Substance Abuse
• Childhood Obesity
• Teen Pregnancy
• Higher Dropout Rates

The Solution: The Online Christian Home School Option

The best way to minimize or remove a child from the harmful potential of mainstream public schooling is by prevention: Homeschooling and/or Christian Education are as close to perfect solutions (or antidotes) to what ails the world of education and to what presents real and harmful influences on our youth.

Online Christian schooling is not a separation from the real world. It is a wonderful means of giving your child the education he or she deserves that is delivered from a point of view that instills the kind of values any parent would wish for their child: To love them self; to treat others the way they would want to be treated; and to find meaning and purpose in life; to be a part of the right crowd…

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, several questions may arise from people of all ages.  Why would someone want to kill us?  What would Jesus do?  What would God tell us?  As our nation reflects on acts unimaginable prior to September 11, 2001, the Christian responsibility is to answer the extreme emotions of fear and hate with the power of forgiveness and love.

The most pressing questions of life are answered in the Bible and are reflected in our day-to-day living:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. ~ Psalm 23:4

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ~ Matthew 5:44-45

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ~ Luke 6:35-38

Americans will never forget 9/11 but it is within our power to forgive transgressors; and we can love and embrace those who lost loved ones on 9/11.  Hate cannot be defeated by hate; only love can conquer it.

Our thoughts and prayers, especially on this day, go to the families of those lost on 9/11 and to the families and soldiers who have willingly gone into harm’s way to protect our country from further threat.

Ken Robinson, author, speaker, and international advisor on education, spoke eloquently in a talk at the annual TED: Ideas Worth Spreading conference.

The video is approximately 20 minutes in length but well worth your time if you care about education or wonder how the public school system may be stifling the growth and creativity of our children.

Here are a few excerpts from this illuminating and entertaining talk from Ken Robinson:

Creativity… the process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not, comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

Subjects taught in schools around the world have been fundamentally the same since the 19th century.  These subjects, math, languages and the humanities, were prioritized because they were the most useful during the industrial age.

Creativity in a child’s education is just as important as literacy; and we should treat it with the same status.

We stigmatize mistakes and the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

Picasso once said, “All children are artists.  The problem is remaining an artist when we grow up.” We grow out of creativity.

Are “The 3 R’s” as relevant as they were in the 19th century?  Perhaps they are to some degree but there is no doubt that today’s children need more, as Ken Robinson said, “interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.”

“Wisdom is better than rubies.”

The Bible is full of wonderful gems of wisdom, which is the foundation of a complete education for children, as well as continuing education for adults.  Please enjoy these quotes from the book of Proverbs that offer wisdom for people of all ages:

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. ~ Proverbs, 10. 1Righteousness exalteth a nation. ~ Proverbs, 14. 34

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. ~ Proverbs, 15. 13

He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. ~ Proverbs, 15. 15

A man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps. ~ Proverbs, 16. 9

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. ~ Proverbs, 16. 18

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. ~ Proverbs, 16. 32

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. ~ Proverbs, 17. 17

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. ~ Proverbs, 17. 22

He that hath knowledge spareth his words. ~ Proverbs, 17. 27

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. ~ Proverbs, 17. 28

Even a child is known by his doings. ~ Proverbs, 20. 11

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. ~ Proverbs, 22. 1

The borrower is servant to the lender. ~ Proverbs, 22. 7

As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. ~ Proverbs, 23. 7

A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. ~ Proverbs, 24. 5

If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small. ~ Proverbs, 24. 10

Answer a fool according to his folly. ~ Proverbs, 26. 5

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. ~ Proverbs, 26. 11

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. ~ Proverbs, 26. 12

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein. ~ Proverbs, 26. 27

The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion. ~ Proverbs, 28. 1

He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. ~ Proverbs, 28. 20

A fool uttereth all his mind. ~ Proverbs, 29. 11

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me. ~ Proverbs, 30. 8

Do you feel wiser yet?

If education is the soul of society, what will save it?

One would be foolish to say that education has only one purpose; but one could argue that it has one general and overriding result:  It shapes our future.  Now replace the word education with Christianity and the sentence still speaks the truth.  Even better, combine the two and you create Christian Education, and you are given a one-plus-one-equals-three effect.

The Future: Do You Like What You See?

Framed within this context, we may ask ourselves:  What kind of future do we want for us, our children and their children?  What do we want the soul of our future society to consist of?  What we want for future generations is for them to have greater opportunities than the past and present; however one must be careful not to place this perpetual improvement in the context of financial and material wealth but rather of morality and spirituality, one that can be shaped by education, by Christian Education.

“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.”~ Billy Graham

The questions posed in this blog post, both explicit and implicit, are aimed at the general state of education and society as a whole.  As most would agree, however, large improvements are made by taking many smaller steps in the right direction.

Christianity and education share the same destination–the future soul of our society.

On a personal level, you may choose the direction of you and your child’s future but you are also taking a small step for the future of us all.

Please allow us, at The Oaks Virtual Academy, to introduce to you the benefits of online Christian education.