Wyoming e Academy of Virtual Education

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Wyoming e Academy of Virtual Education
Information
Type Rural public high school
Grades 9–12
Website www.fwsweave.com

The Wyoming e Academy of Virtual Education, or WeAVE is an online high school in the western region of the United States, operating out of Fort Washakie, Wyoming. It is part of the Fort Washakie Charter High School (FWCHS), which was formed in 2002 to bring a secondary school to one of two remaining K-8 districts in the state.

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Fort Washakie, Wyoming CDP in Wyoming, United States

Fort Washakie is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States, within the Wind River Indian Reservation and along U.S. Route 287. The population was 1,759 at the 2010 census.

Wyoming State of the United States of America

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the 10th largest by area, the least populous, and the second most sparsely populated state in the country. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho and Montana. The state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than 31 of the most populous U.S. cities including neighboring Denver. Cheyenne is the state capital and the most populous city, with an estimated population of 63,335 in 2015.

Contents

Background

Fort Washakie Charter High School was supported financially and programmatically by the local school board, unlike most charter schools. After investigating some of the nation’s premiere online high schools, they created WeAVE.

A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. Charter schools are an example of public asset privatization.

The process to create WeAVE was complicated by having to get a charter from the Wyoming State Legislature, which was a new concept in that state, and became an issue in the 2010 campaign for state superintendent of public instruction. [1]

Curriculum

The Charter School offers both face-to-face education and online instruction. All teachers at the school are rated "highly qualified Wyoming teacher". The Wyoming Department of Education, headed by the elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has named it a "school of choice". The North Central Accreditation (NCA) and the Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation (CITA) accredit the school.

The Wyoming Department of Education is the state education agency of Wyoming. It is headquartered on the second floor of the Hathaway Building in Cheyenne. The agency has offices in Laramie and Riverton.

The Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation (CITA) was an international educational accreditation agency.

The online part of the charter school is WeAVE. It offers both traditional and non-traditional classes leading to a high school diploma. The online school used E-College for its software platform. In 2011, the school adopted Genius SIS and a program from Pearson. [2]

High school diploma diploma awarded for completing high school

A high school diploma is a North American academic school leaving qualification awarded upon high school graduation. The high school diploma is typically studied for over the course of four years, from Grade 9 to Grade 12. The diploma is typically awarded by the school in accordance with the requirements of the local state or provincial government. Requirements for earning the diploma vary by jurisdiction, and there may be different requirements for different streams or levels of high school graduation. Typically they include a combination of selected coursework meeting specified criteria for a particular stream and acceptable passing grades earned on the state exit examination.

Software non-tangible executable component of a computer

Computer software, or simply software, is a collection of data or computer instructions that tell the computer how to work. This is in contrast to physical hardware, from which the system is built and actually performs the work. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all information processed by computer systems, programs and data. Computer software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be realistically used on its own.

A computing platform or digital platform is the environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying software, as long as the program code is executed with it. Computing platforms have different abstraction levels, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries. A computing platform is the stage on which computer programs can run.

WeAVE is only one of three accredited charter schools in Wyoming. [3] It is also the only such school operated by a Native American-majority school district. [4]

Indigenous peoples of the Americas Pre-Columbian inhabitants of North, Central, and South America and their descendants

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the Pre-Columbian peoples of North, Central and South America and their descendants.

Students must complete homework and other assignments and submit them to a "drop box" email system. Each class is essentially independent study. Students spend about 30–40 hours on line each week on classwork. The admissions process is "rigorous". [4]

Outcomes

A study by the International Association for K-12 Online Education highlighted the success of WeAVE in "emphasiz[ing] the need for ongoing communication and support from teachers, learning coaches, counselors, tutors, and special education coordinators." [5] An advantage that WeAVE has for student outcomes is that, if a student drops out, he or she can start again without waiting for a new semester or academic year. [6] The study also noted shortcomings; a major challenge for their students is that they need to be highly motivated to finish their work. [7]

The Center for Public Education cited the online school in a special report. [8] This case study was cited in turn by the University of Minnesota's Center for Rural Policy and Development. The report noted that most students had academic difficulties before entering, they all came from the same Wind River Indian Reservation, they had to go through a rigorous admissions process, and they all received IEPs. [4]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Derek Rayback (October 17, 2010). "There's nothing traditional about these Wyo. Schools". Wyoming Tribune Eagle; originally published in the Rock Springs Rocket-Miner. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  2. ↑ Beny Lederman (November 22, 2011). "Genius SIS Partners with Pearson eCollege: Integration Will Deliver a Highly Flexible Registration and Reporting System to Pearson LearningStudio Users". PR Web on Yahoo News. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  3. ↑ "WYOMING CHARTER SCHOOLS OPERATION AND CLOSURES". Wyoming Department of Education. n.d. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 "A Region Apart: A look at challenges and strategies for rural K-12 schools" (PDF). Minnesota State University, Mankato, Center for Rural Policy and Development. 2009. p. 12. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  5. ↑ Leanna Archambault and Daryl Diamond (n.d.). "Research Committee Issues Brief: An Exploration of At-Risk Learners and Online Education" (PDF). International Association for K-12 Online Education. p. 5. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  6. ↑ Archambault and Diamond, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Archambault and Diamond, p. 11.
  8. ↑ Susan H. Stafford (August 18, 2006). "WY: One small school making big dreams come true". Center for Public Education. Retrieved May 14, 2012.

Coordinates: 42°59′58″N108°51′20″W / 42.99944°N 108.85556°W / 42.99944; -108.85556

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