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Illinois School Board Journal
May/June 2007

by Sherwood "Woody" Dees

Sherwood "Woody" Dees retired as superintendent of Limestone CHSD 310, Bartonville, in 2002, and has worked with United Star Distance Learning Consortium for the past year.

While small school and school-within-a-school concepts have grown in popularity in large, metropolitan areas, existing small schools — especially those in rural areas — often struggle to provide their students with a wider variety of class offerings. That struggle has been eased with the advent of online learning or "distance courses" that benefit both students and the district.

While some distance courses can be arranged with local community colleges, Internet offerings also allow students to broaden their horizons without adding extra faculty or buying more textbooks.

Cambridge High School, located 30 miles from the Quad Cities area in northwest Illinois, is one of those small, rural schools that has used distance learning opportunities to benefit both its students and the district. In fact, nearly 25 percent of Cambridge students enrolled in a distance course for spring 2007.

"With our 8-block schedule, our juniors and seniors have often exhausted our local elective courses," said Karen Brandau, who facilitates distance learning in Cambridge. "They use these distance courses to give them options, to explore potential career fields and to broaden the curriculum to include courses not offered locally."

While the district offers a solid basic curriculum of English, math, social studies, science, physical development and vocational courses, ordinarily the budget and facilities will not allow electives like oceanography, criminal justice or medical assisting that might appeal to just one or two students. That's where United Star Distance Learning Consortium steps in.

Through an 11-station computer lab at Cambridge High, students can take courses like these that address very personalized interests.

Brandau's son Jared, a junior at Cambridge, has taken three USDLC courses: biology, oceanography and AP environmental science. In addition to giving him access to courses not offered at the school, Jared believes his online learning experience helped him figure out things for himself and learn how to self-teach.

Sophomore Sarah Fink, who has taken animal health and an introduction to interior design through USDLC, credits online courses with helping her decide to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. With online learning, she said, "you have deadlines that are farther apart, which allows you to take your time and learn the material in depth."

In addition to support from students, the distance course program has widespread administration and community support.

"Distance courses are available all day long and don't have to fit the master schedule," said Robert Reagan, Cambridge High's principal. "We also use them for enrollment overloads in courses where we're limited by seating capacity and or workstations."

Reagan said online learning also can help when students need to take a course out of sequence, such as a junior who needs to take a freshman health class.

Superintendent Steve Fink sees distance learning as a way to provide enrichment for higher achieving students as well as a cost savings for the district.

"We are able to offer a multitude of courses for what would be the cost of a first-year teacher ($30,000)," Fink added.

While 80 percent of Cambridge graduates currently go on to a college or university, they no longer need to feel intimidated when they encounter other undergraduate students from larger urban high schools who have taken sophisticated curriculum offerings or when they are placed in large enrollment collegiate classes. After all, those taking distance learning classes have competed successfully and been classmates already with hundreds of students from all over the United States.