D300 charter gets final approval for virtual school

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Updated: October 29, 2011 12:40AM

PINGREE GROVE — “It’s hard to play dodgeball on a computer,” said Dawn Muhammad, director of The Cambridge Academy.

That’s why The Cambridge Academy will offer blended virtual learning options for students, including music, art and physical education courses and certified teachers to help those struggling in a specific subject on the Cambridge Lakes Charter School campus here, Muhammad said.

Otherwise, the courses offered for the first time this fall at The Cambridge Academy will be completely virtual.

Cambridge Lakes Charter School announced it has received the final approval from the state of Illinois to open the virtual school for students kindergarten through grade 12 from Community Unit School District 300 and across the state this fall.

That approval came in early June after the District 300 Board of Education voted in December to approve an amendment to its charter with Northern Kane Educational Corp., which operates the charter school. That amendment renewed the charter for Cambridge Lakes through 2014 and lengthened the Pingree Grove school’s program from the current preschool to eighth grade up to grade 12.

The school board’s renewal also expanded the charter school’s virtual learning program to educate high school students from within the Carpentersville-area school district.

Northern Kane had said at the time it also was pursuing a second charter for an Illinois Online Charter School that would be open to students from across the state.

The Illinois Online Charter School is encompassed by The Cambridge Academy, according to Muhammad.

“There are several benefits to blended virtual learning,” she said. “Not only does virtual learning match the learning style with learning experience, it creates an environment in which students learn quickly, well and at their own pace.”

The Cambridge Academy will use the same courseware from Virginia-based K¹² that the charter school has piloted the past two years, offering individual virtual courses to its students performing two grades above or below their age levels. That pilot blended program has grown from two students in the 2009-10 school year to about 40 this past year, the charter school has said.

Throughout the coming school year, the academy plans to add classroom mentoring, language learning, MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) assessment, Personal Learning Plans, global and entrepreneurial learning, and the music, art and physical education programs, according to Northern Kane.

It is free for District 300 residents and open to students from across the state for a fee, Muhammad said. She said the academy is working to establish partnerships with other school districts across the state that would make it free for their students to attend as well.

The Cambridge Academy will offer information sessions about its blended virtual learning options in July, August and September, according to Northern Kane. More information is available by calling 847-464-1400 or emailing TheCambridgeAcademy@CambridgeLakesCharterSchool.org.