Seventeen-year-old Ashley Smith is finishing her last year of
high school. When she is done, she will also have completed many
college courses.
She did all of it without ever stepping into a high school or
college classroom.
The Parker resident is a student at the Branson School Online,
where she logs on to a Web site to read books, take exams and chat
with her teachers and other students.
The school allows her to complete her high school education at
her own pace and complete some college courses at the same
time.
With lives becoming increasingly complicated and technology
becoming more available to the average student, online schools are
the latest trend in education.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said Carol Mock, registrar of
Branson School Online.
The certified public school accepts students from anywhere in
Colorado. It began three years ago and has a student body of about
700 kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
“It provides a flexibility that the bricks and mortar schools
don’t,” Mock said. “For as many students as we have, we have as
many stories [about] why it is so successful.”
Some of the students are competitive ice skaters who spend their
daytime hours training and traveling. Some students have serious
health issues, which prevent them from following a traditional
school schedule.
With a school that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
students can plug in their laptop from a hospital or a hotel room
and participate in school.
For Smith, the online school allows her to work 30 hours a week
at a local doctor’s office and concentrate on developing a music
career.
When asked if she thinks she has missed anything by not
attending a traditional high school, she said “I look at all the
things other kids have missed out on by not being online. I have
been a part of the working world for a while now, and feel like I
have a head start on life.”
Smith has been working since she was 14 years old and credits
the online school for allowing her the flexibility to do that. She
spends evenings and weekends studying math and literature, freeing
up her days for work and music.
Smith takes classes with about 30 online students. She chats
with them and forms bonds as she would in a traditional classroom,
she said.
“I have met a lot of different people in the classes,” she said.
“They are much more professional and the students seem to be more
interested in what they are doing.”
Mock predicts online schools will continue to grow in upcoming
years.
“It allows students the opportunity to go at their own pace
without the baggage of traditional schools,” she said.