Campbell County Virtual School

A distance education program offered by Campbell County School District #1

• Website: www.k12.com/ccvs
• Enrollment: Fulltime K-6
• Medium: Online, Correspondence, Interactive

Minimum qualifications

All instructors for the Campbell County Virtual School must be a highly qualified, certified Wyoming teacher assigned to their area of certification. Every teacher will receive initial professional development related to the delivery of distance education. Professional development is provided through K¹².

Professional development

Campbell County Virtual School requires all staff to participate in distance education staff development both prior to and after their initial teaching begins. This professional development is delivered via both on-site and/or web-based instruction. Though our proposed delivery of material is unique, our approach to pedagogy is not. To accommodate the diverse learning styles of children, we employ a variety of teaching strategies, including direct instruction, hands-on exploration, use of manipulatives, practice exercises, and “distributed review” -- a method of including previous lesson material in a current lesson for the purpose of reinforcing and reviewing the content.

The unique qualities of our setting require staff development in teacher development, online pedagogical techniques, and student achievement. In the area of teacher development we focus on the structure of the curriculum, the guiding principles, utilizing technology that enhances instruction and communication, and about the population of our students we serve.

Student achievement sessions are focused on presenting instructional strategies within the K12 curriculum that need to be utilized in order to improve student achievement. Additionally we introduce the use of diagnostic methods to determine student needs based on available data in order to make use of the most effective Internet-based methods of targeting the instructional support provided to each student.

Staff development plans are developed yearly and include both in-person and online training events. Online events are both synchronous and asynchronous in nature. Whenever possible, the same tools that teachers use with their students are used to train the teachers themselves. On-going professional development occurs throughout the year and is coupled by an active support system from K12 Inc. This support system – the Teacher Effectiveness Group – provides on-demand support through a central teacher support website and on email ticketing systems.

Performance expectations

Campbell County Virtual School teachers are expected to possess appropriate skills in such areas as email, web-based delivery (Elluminate), data management, telephone skills, and virtual classroom management. Feedback to students should occur within 24 hours of receipt of calls, emails, etc. Teachers create additional instructional activities that are delivered either face-to-face or through computer-based instruction. Multiple opportunities (field trips, social events) are scheduled each month that allow for students to interact in a group setting. Synchronous web-based lessons are provided at various times throughout the school year for general instruction, remediation, or enrichment.

Method(s) of evaluation

Administrators review on-line gradebooks, student progress, and data management systems for each instructor. Formative evaluations are conducted several times yearly. Campbell County School District Teacher evaluation forms are used with adaptations to a distance education format. Weekly staff meetings are held to discuss issues (both staff and student) related to the virtual school.