February 2007

Keeping Homeschooled High School Students Engaged
and in the District

Home School Partnership Program, Bruce Vilders, Coordinator

"The DLC has become a lifesaver for us," says Bruce Vilders, coordinator of the Home School Partnership Program in the Sedro-Woolley School District. Vilders explains that there is a large contingent of homeschooled students at the elementary level but that these numbers decrease at the high school level.

When students begin to take algebra, geometry, and other advanced classes, many parents have a difficult time keeping up. Now that students in the Home School Partnership Program (HSPP) have access to Apex Learning ClassTools via the DLC, they are able to take advanced classes and their parents are able to continue to oversee their children's learning without being responsible for the content.

"The DLC takes the heat off parents and allows their children to take rigorous classes that are aligned with the GLEs and WASL," Vilders says. "And that allows those students to stay in our program, and for a school district, that's a good thing. We don't want our students dropping out or going someplace else…so this really has been a lifesaver for us."

Peer-to-peer training on DLC resources

Vilders, an HSPP instructor, and parents participated in an initial training with the DLC. Then some parents took the lead and are now training other parents. Vilders and one of his exceptional students, who has taken the lead on ClassTools, will offer a workshop next semester to students who are just joining HSPP. "I think that having a peer teach them to use these tools is going to be really well received by our older students."

In addition to ClassTools course materials, Beyond Books, another Apex Learning product offered through the DLC, is also very popular.

"Beyond Books is aimed at parents that have traditionally created their own classes. I have a couple of parents that absolutely love Beyond Books, because it allows them the freedom that they've always had with their children's education."

DLC resource a one-stop shop for parents

One of the parents, who is interested in U.S. history, is putting together several classes for her son using Beyond Books. "Beyond Books allows parents to focus in on an area and gather all the resources, almost like one-stop shopping," Vilders says. "And to have that versus what homeschool programs can traditionally offer—'Here's a textbook, here's a workbook, do the report, regurgitate the questions at the end of the chapter'—allows parents to be much more creative and cast their net much wider for the resources they need."

Vilders recently met with a parent and student who were just about to purchase their first computer to take advantage of DLC resources. The parent said that she had been hearing so much about the resources from other parents that she was finally taking the plunge into the 21st century. "That really showed us what a sea change this is for some of these families…Giving them DLC resources makes all the difference in the world. It has created a much higher quality program than we've ever had before."

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