How Do You Say 'Here' in a Virtual Classroom?
Posted: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:02 pm |Updated: 8:25 pm, Wed Mar 30, 2011.
Sixteen-year-old Abdi Buul might log in to his chemistry class while sitting at his aunt's pizzeria off University Avenue. Or he might stop in to see a teacher in Old Town to ask about geometry.
"You're not under a schedule. I don't have to go at 8 and come out at 4," said Buul, who enrolled in iHigh Virtual Academy, an online school in the San Diego Unified School District. "I'll do my assignments whenever I feel like it."
Buul is getting his high school degree like any teen. But he is also testing out a new
Young students will soon be required to meet the same requirements to graduate from San Diego Unified as to apply for the University of California or California State University system, a change that the school system hopes will open the door to more opportunities for more students.
Teachers union President Bill Freeman said nobody expects every child to become a doctor or a lawyer, but the school district should set the bar high for everyone. Parents don't want their children to be told that they can't apply to college after they've graduated from high school, Freeman said.
"It's time for us to stop using the budget as an excuse for not educating our kids," Freeman concluded.
Right now, many students graduate high school but haven't taken the right classes or gotten high enough grades to even apply for public universities in California. They can go to private universities or enroll at community colleges and try to transfer in, but the most direct path to a public university is closed off to them. African American and Latino students are disproportionately unlikely to meet that bar.