There are several platforms for online programs. The simplest platform is an example like Verizon Foundaton’s Thinkfinity – recently named a “Best in Tech” website by Scholastic Administrator magazine. It offers lesson plans and supplemental aids for classroom teachers, students and home-school parents that will soon be linked to Virginia’s Standards of Learning by grade level and subject.

The oldest example is a state virtual school. Virtual Virginia, operated by the state Department of Education, offers more than 60 middle and high school courses ranging from Latin and AP Art History to Spanish and AP Statistics. But enrollment in Virtual Virginia is capped and has significant restrictions – one reason why, in 2008-09, fewer than 5,000 students were enrolled. In fact, Virginia’s enrollment ranks only midway among states with state virtual schools and is far outpaced by states like Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.

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Courses in Spanish and Latin, above year three and in Advanced Placement, will be offered online through Virtual Virginia. This is a new tactic in teaching a foreign language to students — especially a “dead language” such as Latin — but it’s not without concern from parents.

“I was really surprised,” said Vandeveer, whose daughters take Latin and Spanish at Smithfield High School. “It messed up their plans in progressing through the classes.”

Virtual Virginia, a program of the Virginia Department of Education, offers online courses in AP studies, foreign language, core academics and elective classes to students across the nation.

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Virtual Virginia