ANDERSON — At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Rhyann Edwards was an eighth-grader.
But by the end of the school year, the 13-year-old will have completed her freshman year of high school, including a full schedule of world history, Spanish, English, algebra and science. Rhyann is on track to complete high school when she’s 16.
And she attends school only three days a week. The other two days, she volunteers with her church.
Rhyann, who previously attended Highland Middle School, is able to do that because she is a student at Indiana Virtual Academy, an online school.
“This is an amazing school. It is a little bit of a faster pace, but it’s a pace I can keep up with,” she said.
Though Rhyann is having an exceptional experience, the school recently earned its second F accountability grade. The online school also has a graduation rate of 6.5 percent, compared to a statewide average of 88.9 percent.
Still, Indiana Virtual Academy has exploded, growing from 105 students in the 2013-14 school year to 3,376 in grades six through 12 currently. A new Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy opened in September to serve 2,958 additional students.
Rhyann’s father, Jeff Edwards, said he’s not at all concerned about Indiana Virtual Academy’s accountability measures, especially when the bricks-and-mortar school she otherwise would attend, Highland Middle School, also earned an F for four straight years.
“To me, that’s more of an irrelevant thing, because I have much more control than I had when she was in school,” he said.
Edwards said whether it’s online or at a bricks-and-mortar facility, an education is only as good as the participants, including the child and the parents.
“If I as a parent do what my daughter needs to succeed, a school’s grade doesn’t matter and shouldn’t matter,” he said.
Edwards also said he doesn’t believe it’s fair to use the same metrics to evaluate Indiana Virtual School, because many traditional schools funnel marginal students toward it. In fact, he believes many of those students will perform even more dismally when they are left with no one-on-one supervision while their parents go to work.
““A teacher at that point from Indiana Virtual can only do so much,” he said.
Edwards was a little nervous when Rhyann first suggested that she complete her education online.
“She’s pretty self-motivated, and she enjoys it. That helps,” he said. “I think that she actually works more now because the onus is on her.”
For families where there is parental involvement, Edwards said, Indiana Virtual can be ideal. Students can work at their own pace, accelerating or slowing down as they need to, families can plan vacations any time that’s convenient for them, and there are no textbook fees.
Edwards works from home and can peek into Rhyann’s room to see how she’s doing. They also have more time together, he said, breaking to have lunch about midday.
“It’s really been a good thing all around,” he said. “I’m involved every step of the way in her schooling.”
Last year, the family missed an opportunity to go to Thailand because of Rhyann’s schedule at Highland. They were, however, able to get permission from school officials to go to Haiti.
Now, they can pack up and leave whenever the wanderlust hits. In September, the family plans to travel to Mozambique.
“We take normal breaks. She does not do school during that time,” Edwards said. “We make sure she’s at a good stopping point. We figure that those things are so much more educational for her.”
Though it serves students throughout the state, Indiana Virtual Academy is authorized by Daleville Community Schools.
Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison acknowledged that the school traditionally has served at-risk students, such as those in treatment facilities or pregnant girls. Most had a record of failure before being admitted to IVA, he said.
“It was created with a vision to give more support services, more like an online alternative school,” he said. “I think the criticism comes about a lot of times because people don’t really understand all the procedures. Just like brick-and-mortar schools, the virtual schools will have students in them who don’t make advancements as quickly as we would like or the state would like.”
But many traditional students -- including about 150 from Daleville Jr.-Sr. High School -- also take advantage for free of electives that couldn’t otherwise be offered by the school, Garrison said. Some students are able to pick up one of 300 courses, including advanced placement classes, in what otherwise would be a study hall when they have scheduling conflicts, he added.
Students also have access to their school work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Garrison said.
“This whole virtual environment is a choice. A lot of students are choosing it because they don’t have other choices in their area,” he said. “If this choice would cease to exist, these students would not go back to the brick-and-mortar schools.”
Garrison noted that the low graduation rate reflects the fact that many IVA students transferred for credit recovery. Heavily engaged students can do more than a year’s work in a single year and catch up quickly, he said.
Jennifer Purcell, an Indianapolis-based middle school math teacher, was looking for options for her six home-schooled children, who needed structure after she decided to return to school and earn a teacher’s license.
“We started looking at virtual options for them when they got to be in middle school and high school,” she said.
It didn’t take long for Purcell to set a goal of teaching in a virtual environment.
“I feel like it’s the future, and it’s near and dear to my heart,” she said. “I think for sixth through 12th graders, it’s a great option for a lot of students.”
Lessons, which are automatically assigned due dates in the system, include text, interactive activities, videos and assignments.
“There are regularly scheduled discussions with the teachers before they need to take tests,” Purcell pointed out.
Students who struggle can call in a phone session or log into the platform and speak over the computer with a teacher working on a virtual whiteboard. Purcell said she keeps virtual classroom hours, conducts tutoring sessions and works year-round for students who want to continue working through the summer.
“We might spend twice as long on that particular topic, and we can do that because we don’t have to keep them in line with everyone else’s schedule,” she said.
As with homeschooling, some may question the availability of social development opportunities when students are home all day. But Purcell said most have plenty of opportunities for that through church, sports and extracurricular activities in the community.
“The beauty of virtual schooling is the students can be social in the way that’s appropriate for them,” she said.