KPLU Local News
(2010-05-31)
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Giant Campus of Washington's James Peters looks at photos of teachers who work for the online learning company. The pictures line a wall at the firm's Seattle headquarters. (May 28, 2010).
Gary Davis photo.
SEATTLE, WA (KPLU) -
Starting this fall Seattle will be home to a new high school. It's not part of Seattle Public Schools. Instead, it's the latest collaboration between a private company and a small, rural school district hoping to capture some of the growing market of online students.
A Small 'Giant' Emerges
Giant Campus of Washington is looking to capture a piece of the growing market of public high school students moving to full-time online learning. The firm, headquartered on Seattle's waterfront, currently serves about 60 part-time Washington students. This fall, Giant Campus will begin offering basic core curriculum, along with its specialty: technology and business classes.
In the decade after companies like Insight of Washington, Washington Virtual Academies, and Internet Academy have dominated the public school online market, Giant Campus Head of School James Peters says his company has found its niche.
James Peters: "We are going to be the only full-time program with a dedicated technology focus."
Giant Campus has made its name over the past decade through its technology course offerings. It operates a private school, Giant Campus Academy, in addition to contracting for its tech programs with bigger names like Kaplan and K12. Peters says pairing its bread-and-butter classes in computer science, digital arts, and business with core requirements will give the school a strong market position.
A Rural School District Becomes a Partner
The move to full-time wouldn't be possible without a public school sponsor. That's where the White Salmon Valley District, located along the scenic Columbia River Gorge in south central Washington, comes in. A future Giant Campus graduate, no matter where they live in the state, will receive a diploma with the district's name on it. Technology courses, like those offered by Giant Campus, are the kind teenagers - and academic leaders - are scrambling after. Rural districts, with their historic funding challenges, view the partnership as a way to offer more to their students without increasing their budgets.
Malcolm Dennis is principal at Columbia High School in White Salmon, and has been part of the new partnership's growth. "You have to go out and make sure you market your school to your constituent," Dennis says. "When you have a staff of 22 and now you are down to 18, that makes it tough to do the course offerings you need," he added. Dennis says partnership means Columbia can offer as wide a variety of courses as much larger schools.
The state allocates funds to each Washington school district based on the number of full-time equivalent students. That means every Giant Campus student's allocation is redirected to White Salmon. Those dollars are then passed along to Giant Campus. The arrangement allows the company to offer their courses for 'free.' Dennis says he doesn't expect the arrangement to make money for White Salmon, at least for a few years. Even then, he says, margins would be slim.
Some Students Take Quckly to Online Learning
Dennis says certain students do very well in online learning environments, where kids aren't distracted, "by a neighbor poking at them or interrupting them as they're trying to learn. But he says online certainly isn't for every student. Self-starters, like 17-year old Braden Bouwman, fare better. The junior from Issaquah's Liberty High School has been taking a course from Giant Campus this year.
Braden Bouwman: "I know it sounds kind of nerdy to have your own online class at home doing game design, but t's helping me learn. It's different classes that I get to take on my own and it's my freedom to work at my own pace."
Bouwman says the gaming course was exactly what he was looking for, and it wasn't something he could get at Liberty. He says he plans to continue part-time with Giant Campus while he finishes his diploma at his home school. But he says he's seen how well a full-time online student can do. He says that's how his older sister got her high school diploma and improved her grades. Giant Campus is betting there are more students like his sister, part of an online high school market some surveys predict will triple in the next three years. Gary Davis, KPLU News, Seattle.
For More Information: State of Washington (OSPI) Digital Learning overview of state approved programs
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