In this first episode, we chat with Megan Palevich, former Head of School at Laurel Springs School about their fully virtual K-12 program that emphasizes personalization and one-to-one work between students and teachers, flexible schedules to accommodate learners whose schedules or needs don't align with traditional seat-time requirements, and a strong community among staff, students, and families.

In response to pandemic-induced school closures, virtual schools across the country saw enrollment rates skyrocket. At Highline Public Schools’ Highline Virtual Academy in Washington state, for example, enrollment increased from 200 students in grades 6-12 to over 600 in just two weeks during September 2021 – a substantial three-fold increase. As brick-and-mortar schools have reopened, […]

At The Learning Accelerator (TLA), we focus every day on programmatic activities that help us achieve our mission and get a step closer to the world we have envisioned since our early days – a world in which every child in America receives an equitable education that is engaging and personalized. Over the last several […]

At Plymouth-Canton Community Schools’ Virtual Academy, we’ve embarked on a journey to redefine virtual learning. Our goal is to offer a flexible, engaging, and student-centered learning environment that serves our diverse student population. Central to this transformation has been our commitment to listening to our stakeholders – students, parents, and teachers – and ensuring we […]

As co-director and co-founder of Map Academy, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the transformative power of student-centered learning. Our journey began with a simple yet profound question: How can we create a high school that truly works for students who haven’t succeeded in traditional settings? Map Academy was born out of a desire to […]

At ASU Preparatory Academy, the K-12 division of Arizona State University, we are committed to designing new models for educational success and raising academic achievement for all learners. Our creative model includes seven brick and mortar campuses throughout Maricopa County and Casa Grande, hybrid microschools, as well as fully-online schools, ASU Prep Digital and Khan […]

At The Learning Accelerator (TLA), we believe that the future of learning should be student centered. From our work with hybrid and virtual learning programs, we’ve seen how combining virtual learning with in-person learning – what many refer to as “hybrid learning” – is a particularly powerful catalyst to unlock this potential. Leveraging both virtual […]

When students and educators primarily interact through screens and chat boxes in fully virtual settings, school and system leaders may feel removed from the broader physical and social-emotional needs of the people in their community. However, the students and educators on each side of the screen are whole people who deserve equitable access to the […]

For students with disabilities, accessibility is a critical issue, but technology has played a significant role in improving access and working to ensure all students get what they need. Given assistive technology’s effect on improving accessibility, virtual learning is assumed to be even more accessible than in-person learning. But in The Learning Accelerator’s (TLA) work […]

Teachers have a history of being underappreciated and overworked. Teaching in and beyond the pandemic has been particularly thankless and unsustainable, as schools respond to the unfinished learning needs of their kids while curricula became a political football. Teacher job satisfaction hit an all-time low last year. Unsurprisingly, teachers flocked to virtual schools during the […]