Technology Inspires Public School Students To Pass Their Classes

When school let out last summer, students at Solid Rock Community School, like schoolchildren everywhere, had strong emotions. But they weren’t the typical giddy-anticipation-for-beaches and sleep-late emotions. The students were anxious because they’d have to wait months to return to school. They even tried to convince school leaders to cancel summer vacation.

“These kids love school,” says Michele Flynn-Fasnacht, principal and co-founder of the New Port Richey, Fla., private school. “During the summer, they’re bored.”

That students would prefer school to summer vacation is commendable in and of itself. But given that 35 percent of Solid Rock’s students were at risk or failing in their previous schools — public and private — their passion is exceptional.

Students decide which courses to take (within boundaries), at what level and how they’d like to approach them: in a group that meets with a teacher, on their own using textbooks or via the Internet.

Perfect Fit

The custom approach helps accommodate the plethora of learning styles found in the school. That’s critical to parents like Tina Velasquez, whose fifth-grade daughter and seventh-grade son both have special needs and were failing in public and private schools before enrolling at Solid Rock.

“In public schools, you’re a number,” Velasquez says. “It’s all about order, efficiency, conformity.” Solid Rock is the opposite, she says.

“If my son does his math homework upside down and backwards, but it still comes out correct, he’s not chastised for doing it wrong,” she says. “He’s actually praised for taking a different approach.”

She was amazed at the results from the start. “My kid all of a sudden smiles,” Velasquez says. “For once, he’s happy.”

Unlike traditional schools, Solid Rock doesn’t use grade levels to group students and dictate what they should be learning. No two schedules are the same, so a student studying college-level literature might also be in a fifth-grade math class.

“It’s more like college in that respect,” says Terri Schryer, co-founder and vice principal. “The students are working at their individual levels, so they’re not lost because someone told them they had to be there.”

The amount of technology used in classes depends on students’ personal learning goals. Some students have never used computers before enrolling at Solid Rock; others have used them but are relatively computer illiterate, says Flynn-Fasnacht. The online classes (www.solidrockvirtualschool.com) teach them valuable technology skills, she adds.

Students even determine how long they’ll spend on a particular course. Because they don’t have to worry about advancing to the next grade each year, students work as quickly or as slowly as they need. They move on when they’ve learned the material and completed the coursework. As such, students at Solid Rock can’t fall behind — or grow bored if they’re ahead — because they don’t have to keep pace with a group.

“We literally stop and we say, ‘You can’t do this? We’re not going to move onto the next lesson,’” Flynn-Fasnacht explains. That can mean working with a tutor, switching to another class or changing the method of teaching from, say, a lecture-style format to educational video games. “Whatever happens, we don’t leave the children behind.”

No One Left Behind

The phrase “no child left behind” really gets to Solid Rock teacher and parent Valerie Anderson. “My son is the epitome of a child who was left behind,” she says. He had to repeat kindergarten and second grade because of his dyslexia. He even struggled in private school. At Solid Rock, however, he’s learning at his own level in each subject area.

“I needed an environment that catered to all children, not just children who could read and write,” Anderson says.

When you walk in the door, it’s clear that this isn’t a typical school. There are counters and round tables scattered about, with notebook PCs, TVs and DVD players, and other peripheral equipment out in the open for students to use at their own discretion.

“It’s very similar to home schooling,” says Rebeckah Shaw, the school’s president. “You go at your own pace.” But, she adds, you’re surrounded by fellow students and teachers, so it’s more fun than home schooling. “I love it.”

Shaw, who was home-schooled from eighth grade until this year, wasn’t cut out for traditional schooling. “I wasn’t learning anything in public school,” she says. “I was bored to death.”

Now, half her classes are online, so she can move ahead when she’s ready. “I’m always asking for more work,” says Shaw, who at age 15 already has enough credits to graduate. “I would have never had this chance in public school.”