Idaho is moving closer to establishing one of the farthest-reaching requirements in the country for students to take online education courses, though the measure has to clear a couple of final hurdles first.
The approved rules this month that would mandate that students complete two one-semester online classes before graduating from high school.
The basis for those rules was a law approved by the Idaho legislature earlier this year, over the objections of opponents who said it would dilute the quality of instruction by doing away with teachers in certain classes. One of the state board members is , the state鈥檚 superintendent of public instruction, who championed the measure before state lawmakers and the public.
The new rules now go out for public comment, and they will come back for a secondand final vote later this year, said board spokesman Mark Browning. After that, he said, the rules will be sent to the legislature for approval.
But even then, the law won鈥檛 be in the clear. Opponents succeeded in having it placed on the in November 2012 for a repeal vote, along with two other education laws approved this past legislative session.
鈥�115 Different Solutions鈥�
Under the new rules, individual school districts would be allowed to decide what types of online courses they wanted to offer to fulfill the requirement, Mr. Browning said. Districts could draft their own content for the online courses, or have an outside provider develop it for them.
Some school systems have been using online courses for years, the board spokesman said, while others 鈥渁re looking at completely revamping the way they鈥檙e doing things.鈥� The state has 115 school districts, Mr. Browning added, 鈥渁nd they鈥檙e looking at 115 different solutions.鈥�
Idaho would become one of only four states鈥攁long with Alabama, Florida, and Michigan鈥攖hat require students to take online education courses to graduate, according to Susan Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of the , or iNACOL.
Idaho鈥檚 requirement, with its two-credit mandate, 鈥渋s the most ambitious of any state,鈥� Ms. Patrick said in an e-mail.
Last week, during his state of education address, Indiana state schools chief Tony Bennett proposed a plan to require students to take at least one online class to graduate. Mr. Bennett said he would leave it up to local districts to decide which classes would be available online.
In 2002, Michigan was the first to adopt such a rule: It has a requirement for a 20-hour 鈥渙nline-learning experience.鈥� Alabama makes an online-learning experience one of the criteria for high school graduation. New Mexico has a similar requirement, but it gives students the option of meeting the criterion without using online educational experiences.
