June 2006

School-Community Partnership Expands Learning Opportunities

Orcas Island High School/The Funhouse Discovery Center, Catherine Laflin, Spanish Teacher/DLC Teacher/Mentor

Looking for alternative ways to fund online courses in your school? Consider looking to your community for help. On Orcas Island, The Funhouse Discovery Center, a nonprofit community center, established the Online Learning Program, which supports Orcas Island High School students taking online classes through the DLC.

Here's how the program works: Students go to The Funhouse for their online class period where they check in with Catherine Laflin, who fills the roles of DLC Registrar and Teacher/Mentor. She oversees the students' progress and acts as a liaison between online teachers, the local high school, and the students' parents. The Funhouse has taken on the tasks of funding the students' course fees and providing the salary for Laflin's position. But perhaps what is most unique about this program is that Laflin matches each student with a local mentor.

"This partnership between the high school, The Funhouse, and the community as a whole has proved to be very strong," Laflin comments.

Students matched with local professionals in the field—a recipe for success

Laflin matches students with professionals in the community who have expertise in the subject students are studying. "Kids in the high school are getting to that stage where they want exposure to something real…to find out what that world is like and how the classes they are taking might relate to the world outside of school," Laflin explains. "Furthermore, this helps bridge the gap between the cyberworld, which can at times be a lonely place, and the students' everyday interactions."

This year, a group of students taking a scriptwriting class met regularly with a local screenwriter; a student taking a zoology class worked with a field vet; a group of students taking Japanese learned the art of the tea ceremony; a student studying German met with native German speakers; and a student learning digital music composition and arrangement met with a professional audio engineer.

The mentor aspect of the program does three things: (1) invests community members in the local youths' education, (2) helps foster student appreciation of adults in their community, and (3) creates a larger context for learning for both groups.

Laflin credits this interaction between the local community and online students for the program's successful course completion rate. "We are lucky to have a community not only willing to give their time, but also comprised of such talent and variety."

Support structure and accountability ensures student success

As Registrar, Laflin promotes the program within the school, registers students for courses, and makes sure all the paperwork is in order.

Before students are registered, they sign an agreement outlining their responsibilities as an online student and parents sign an agreement that they will reimburse The Funhouse for course fees in the event that a student doesn't finish a course. Both agreements ensure that students take their online classes seriously.

As Teacher/Mentor, Laflin helps students with coursework, monitors their progress, communicates with the online instructors and parents, and helps students set goals to successfully complete their classes. She also runs the island-based mentor side of the program.

Online courses widen the course selection at school and provide connections for students that otherwise wouldn't exist

Orcas Island High School is a small rural school with less than 200 students in attendance, so class offerings are limited. The main goal of The Funhouse's Online Learning Program is to provide opportunities that don't already exist.

"We're serving the edges of the bell curve mostly, the students that want accelerated classes and AP classes that we just don't have the funding for, or students who are struggling along and need a change or an alternative from what's offered in school," Laflin says. "I view [online courses] as keeping those kids on both ends in school, providing options for pursuing personal goals and helping them get into college."

When The Funhouse surveyed participating students after the first semester, they said that they really valued the opportunity to pursue personal goals rather than just the core curriculum.

Laflin explains: "We have 400 students total in K through 12, and that can get really small for the kids once they enter high school. With online courses, students say 'Wow, here's something different and I can converse online with students from all over.' It widens their community, which in turn enriches the community that's here."

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