on-site programs to complement its online components . GCC ’ s new virtual learning program is “ very much targeted in relation to COVID and those that are COVID sensitive about returning to school ,” says Superintendent and CEO Cindy Petersen .
Petersen estimates that roughly 60 percent of the virtual academy ’ s 125 students have transitioned from one of GCC ’ s other schools , indicating growing interest in continued online learning . “ I do believe that the desire by parents and students to have a virtual offering will continue ,” Petersen says , “ especially if you continue — which we intend to — to make it a rich , engaging , excellent experience and that we continue to look at it for how to improve it .”
Scaling difficulties
AB 130 required rapid adjustment even for the most well-prepared districts , but the transition has been considerably rockier for some .
Sacramento City Unified School District chose to fulfill the state ’ s requirement through its already-existing K-12 independent study option , Capital City School . However , enrollment in the program outstripped capacity , with only 400 of 1,600 enrolled students being assigned a teacher and receiving curriculum information by the school ’ s Sept . 2 start date , according to media reports .
According to the Sacramento City Teachers Association , Capital City School was already short-staffed , as were SCUSD ’ s in-person programs . District second grade teacher and SCTA President David Fisher says district administrators were unwilling to negotiate with the union ’ s request for a Department of Education waiver to create its own virtual learning academy , which SCTA believes would have alleviated the Cap City bottleneck .
“ Our district waited until Aug . 19 to actually pose a plan to us ,” Fisher says . “ And so now they ’ re trying to staff virtual learning through independent study at more or less the last minute so this is why you ’ re finding so many parents and families frustrated ,
While some schools were taken by surprise by the abrupt shift to distance learning as a result of physical school closures due to the pandemic , many already had some type of learning management system in place . Learning management systems scale from basics that allow teachers to record grades and distribute assignments to more robust platforms that incorporate synchronous online classrooms with their own internal video components .
One of the more prominent players in the LMS field is Folsom-based PowerSchool , which employs about 2,900 people and serves more than 45 million students worldwide , according to the company . Power- School has grown primarily through acquisition of other companies , including well-known LMS Schoology . PowerSchool went public this
sort of left out in the cold .” Representatives of SCUSD did not respond to requests for comment .
While Setzer and one of her older children both had positive experiences as Capital City School graduates , she made a different choice for her younger children . “ We opted out of doing Cap City , mostly because I already knew what Cap City was about . … Knowing the school , how small it was and how few teachers they had , I was like , I don ’ t know how they ’ re going to do this ,” she says .
As for Setzer ’ s own students — children ages five and under — she ’ s been surprised by their resilience . “ I was skeptical at first . … How do we even reach them in a meaningful way and engage with them through a screen ?”
A Worldwide Player
past July , selling at $ 18 per share with a valuation of approximately $ 3.5 billion .
“ We ’ ve seen a big acceleration of the use of that learning management tool ,” says PowerSchool ’ s Chief Product Officer Marcy Daniel , “ because districts have moved — had to move — between , and have been rapidly moving between hybrid in class and virtual over the last 18 to 20 months .”
And just like the students , teachers and administrators it serves , PowerSchool has also had to adjust its day-to-day operations . “ I have two children , they were home with me ,” Daniel says . “ That definitely brings it close to home , ( awareness ) of things that we need to do in our platforms to create greater connection with our parents , how can we make it easier ?”
Setzer ’ s question is one most educators and parents have asked at one point or another in the past 18 months . As it happens , she says her young pupils responded well to the virtual format : “ We were really surprised to see that they were really able to engage , and the parents were happy to have something , especially during those early days when everything was shut down . … And so really we were providing one of the only social experiences that many of them were tapped into .”
The Davis Unified School District ’ s Davis School for Independent Study began more than three decades ago , but its Virtual Academy opened at the beginning of this school year . While it had been in the works since Principal Robert Kinder joined DSIS just under five years
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