Virtual Teachers Deploy Skills Across Countries

U.S. schools connect with educators in other countries to expand offerings

Petersburg High School sits on an island in Alaska's Southeast Panhandle, where most of the land is a national forest, and the 140-student school in recent years has struggled with dwindling enrollment, staff, and electives. So when the Virtual High School Global Consortium, a nonprofit organization specializing in collaborative online education and professional development, offered 25 student spots at a reduced price in exchange for one Advanced Placement teacher, Petersburg took the deal.

"This way, we could offer engineering, architecture, art history, veterinary science, and a bunch of things we couldn't offer our students otherwise," said Petersburg English and Spanish teacher Sue Hardin, who under the deal has facilitated weekly AP classes for students in schools in some Northeastern states as well as Oklahoma and Washington state, and even in China, Switzerland, and Venezuela. "And I appreciate the diversity I get in return."

Working with nearly 700 schools in 43 countries, Virtual High School, or VHS, is one of a number of educational matchmakers that allow brick-and-mortar schools to garner qualified instructors from anywhere in the world. It requires teachers like Ms. Hardin, who has been with the consortium for five years, to pass a proprietary 16-week, graduate-level training program before being added to the roster.

Districts are connecting with educators around the globe for a variety of reasons. Some want to offer a richer course selection than their personnel budgets allow; others find it helpful for new graduation requirements in online learning. For schools in remote areas that can afford the technology, such an arrangement eases the burden for teachers juggling multiple subjects without the proper certification.

While there are drawbacks—teachers who lead online classes say the amount of time required can be draining, and technological glitches can interrupt conversations—educators say the opportunities to build alliances with colleagues worldwide allow them to strengthen their own skills and form partnerships that change the way they do their jobs.

"I've become a better teacher because of this kind of work," said Alicia Carroll, a new-teacher developer in the office of teacher development and advancement for the 57,000-student Boston Public Schools. Her post includes teaching stints at several schools.

"There's a huge network out there," Ms. Carroll said, "and it's just about knowing where to tap into."

Entrepreneurial Effort

In one southern Maine region, the motivation for educators to link with classrooms in different countries has been entrepreneurial, stemming from a plan to help relieve property taxes.

The 3,625-student Auburn school department in early 2011 hired a lobbyist to help push through state legislation allowing public schools throughout Maine to sell online high school courses for a profit to out-of-state and foreign students. The courses would cover a variety of subjects, from the sciences to the humanities, and the target market would be China, where students are increasingly interested in obtaining an American education.

With the former superintendent's retirement last year, Auburn's plans were put on hold, however.

"We're only now returning to the conversation at the district level about whether we should commit to this, and one thing we've talked about is that the program would have to be authentic," said Mike Muir, the school department's multiple-pathways leader, who is essentially in charge of creating various strategies for learning. The idea grew out of his work developing online courses for ...

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