WESTERN SKIES - April 2, 2005

*** BRANSON SCHOOL ONLINE ***

ERIC WHITNEY: Colorado is known as a leader in the school choice movement. But typically that doesn't mean much to kids living in rural areas, where there might only be one or two schools. But that might be changing. As Western Skies' Stephen Raher reports, one southeastern Colorado town has flourished in the relatively new world of online education.

STEPHEN RAHER: The town of Branson, Colorado sits just a stone's throw from the Colorado-New Mexico border. Less than one hundred people live in the town, Main Street is unpaved, and the local school is housed in two-story red brick building.

JAY AUFDERHEIDE: That building was built in 1922.

RAHER: Doctor Jay Aufderheide, the former school superintendent, says Branson was small then, and has only gotten smaller over the years.

AUFDERHEIDE: And at that time the town was like two thousand residents. And then some time shortly after that school was built, about half the town burned down. And not too long after that, half of the half that was remaining burned down. And so, since the twenties and thirties, Branson has been very small, but these folks are survivors.

RAHER: The small band of survivors includes sixty-five students in the Branson schoolhouse.

[sound of bell & hallway chatter]

RAHER: Despite the small number of kids in the building, there are just shy of one thousand children enrolled in the school district. Most of them are students of Branson School Online, the district's five-year-old internet-based program for grades K through twelve.

The online program started in 2000, under the direction of Doctor Aufderheide. He became interested in computer-based learning during the 1990s and after experimenting with a local computer network to share textbooks and other materials, he approached the school board with the idea of an entirely online program.

Aufderheide says the online school has energized Branson. In fact, other than the post office and a small county roads shop, the school is the only non-agricultural employer in town. The program has created several new administrative positions which have been filled by local residents. But the school's teachers are located throughout the state. This is just one of the benefits of new technology, says Dr. Kris Enright, the incoming director of Branson Online.

KRIS ENRIGHT: We live in a day and age where the need to go to the office has been greatly reduced by the fact that so many people can work from their office and you'd never know they weren't sitting in an office in downtown Denver.

RAHER: Teachers with the program agree that a traditional classroom isn't necessary for a quality education. According to many of the Branson teachers, the strength of the program lies in the focus on doing what's best for their students.

Those students and their parents seem to agree. The enrollment has grown from one hundred ten in the first year to nine hundred twenty-four in the current academic year. When Doctor Aufderheide started the program, he only expected an initial enrollment of eighty students.

Branson students come from urban, rural, and suburban areas, ranging from Craig to Denver to Limon. There are many reasons children and parents are attracted to an online program. Some students have medical problems, some are teenage parents, some are on probation, and others have demanding work schedules or just weren't satisfied with their local public schools.

ELIZABETH DAVIS: This is my screen. Their screen looks like this, slightly different access [fade under]

RAHER: Elizabeth Davis is a case study in the non-traditional classroom. She's a Branson teacher, whose work schedule allows her to stay home with her own children. On a Wednesday afternoon she gives a tour of her virtual classroom while sitting in her Colorado Springs house, one hundred seventy-five miles north of Branson.

DAVIS: So when you go to my email box, these are assignments that have been turned in [fade under]

RAHER: Students work their way through online course materials, which can range from strictly text-based reading assignments to computer-simulated chemistry labs. Homework assignments are emailed to teachers, who respond by emailing or calling with feedback.

Part of Davis's flexible schedule includes meeting with students face-to-face. She doesn't do this with all of her students, but Ryan Lutz, a senior who lives in nearby Divide, takes advantage of the optional weekly session.

Ryan says he's much happier in Branson Online than he was in his area public school, but he says the program wouldn't be a good match for someone who wasn't prepared to work hard.

RYAN LUTZ: If they're going to enroll in this type of schooling and they're not going to do anything, then there's no point in really coming out. But I think it just depends on the person.

RAHER: Ryan's teacher, Elizabeth Davis agrees.

DAVIS: This is more work. It's harder on a lot of different fronts. This does require parental involvement. It does require a dedication on the part of the student. It requires some self discipline.

RAHER: Despite the high-tech nature of the program, Davis's teaching environment is somewhat like a one room schoolhouse. She is responsible for seeing her twenty-four students through all of their classes, in multiple subject areas.

Despite the extra work, Davis is an ardent supporter of online education, saying she first became intrigued by the idea in 1984 when she saw her first desktop computer. She also says there are definite benefits in her current job compared to when she used to teach in a traditional brick-and-mortar school.

DAVIS: When I taught in brick-and-mortar, I had a hundred and fifty students over five or six class periods a day. At Branson, a full load for a teacher is twenty-four students. I know my kids so much more.

RAHER: Incoming director Kris Enright agrees, saying the technology of online education is really just a springboard to a new theory of teaching.

ENRIGHT: The technology is increasingly becoming a transparent medium, so that although we're an online school, what's really great about it is no long the "online-ness," it's the individualization, it's the ability to diagnose exactly and prescriptively what a student needs.

RAHER: And while Enright definitely sees the need for brick-and-mortar schools, he also makes a strong argument for change.

ENRIGHT: The brick and mortar traditional model was based on a factory model. The kids come in, we apply a treatment, we give them a curriculum, and they all need to come out at the end looking somewhat similar.

RAHER: Skeptics of online education are quick to point out that children need the social atmosphere of school. But Enright sees things differently.

ENRIGHT: Most adults, when they think back to the middle school, those adolescent years, they weren't really focused on schooling because they were so self-conscious about their height, their weight, their complexion, whether their hair was right, the way they were dressed.

RAHER: And Branson Online does offer regular field trips and outdoor education programs to give students the opportunity to interact with each other, should they desire.

According to Enright, the biggest threat to their program right now is the state legislature. Senator Sue Windells is sponsoring Senate Bill 139, which would create a new regulatory body to oversee online programs.

SEN. SUE WINDELLS: So, what my bill says is if you're going to offer services to more than twenty-five students outside of your home district that you need to get that good housekeeping seal of approval from the state.

RAHER: Windells, who is generally regarded as the most outspoken supporter of public schools in the legislature, says she's not trying to stifle online programs. In fact after serving on an online education taskforce, she's become a fan of such programs, if they're done correctly.

WINDELSS: I was very familiar with online programs and became a real fan of what a great tool this is and how it could develop into something that would really strengthen our public school systems if we did it correctly.

RAHER: The Colorado legislature originally paved the way for online education when it passed Colorado's school choice statute in 1990. The law allows students to attend any public school in the state, either in-person or online. When a student enrolls in another district, their per-pupil funding follows them to the new school. That's why the option of online education is crucial for rural students, says former Branson superintendent Doctor Aufderheide.

AUFDERHEIDE: When you say "choice" to a kid who's living in Branson, or Kim, or even really Trinidad, what is that? Versus a kid who's in Denver, and there's this magnet school over here, and there's this charter school, and there's this choice and this choice.

RAHER: Jenny Porter is the mother of Branson Online student Ryan Lutz. And she thinks students should have as many options as possible.

JENNY PORTER: I'm pro-charter, I'm pro-online, I'm pro-choice for education. It's a good thing, it's a healthy thing. Because any competition for anything makes people re-think things, and makes communities stronger.

RAHER: After stiff resistance from some online educators, Senator Windells agreed to amend her bill to take out several of the more controversial parts. The amended version has not yet been released.

For Western Skies, I'm Stephen Raher.