LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Although online schools have existed for years in K-12 and higher education, Tippecanoe School Corp. administrators took notice after the COVID-19 pandemic that its students sought better, fully online opportunities.
Devin Arms, TSC's director of technology innovation, said that when the corporation sat down to look at 2023 enrollment data, roughly 200 students had left TSC to pursue their education online through other institutions and school corporations across the state.
Seeing students make the choice to leave, knowing the educational opportunities may not be on par with TSC's quality, Arms said administrators sought to create their own, locally run and taught online high school, the Tippecanoe Online Academy. Since announcing the school's launch last fall, Arms said 65 students have enrolled so far, all residing within Tippecanoe County.
"Seeing that number was really kind of the impetus to start with this program," Arms said. "Obviously, this is a choice that our students in the community are making, and we feel responsible that we need to offer that choice to them here locally."
Forty teachers from across McCutcheon and Harrison high schools will also teach courses through the Tippecanoe Online Academy through separate contracts, Arms explained, as the online academy will have its own ID number through the Indiana Department of Education.
Although the Tippecanoe Online Academy will effectively be its own school, ultimately creating a third high school for TSC, certain extracurricular activities like sports or band will not be options for the fully online students because of current IHSAA rules requiring students to be majority in-person for their education.
The deadline for TSC students to enroll is Aug. 9, but with Indiana being a school choice state, Arms said students outside of the district may enroll in the Tippecanoe Online Academy at any time throughout the year, otherwise known as rolling enrollment.
Susan Sherlow, a math teacher at McCutcheon High School, said in the past few years after the pandemic, she's begun to see a growing need for better online opportunities for students. She noted that some just perform better academically outside of the four walls of a traditional classroom.
"There seems to be a lot of anxiety within students today than we've seen before, and some students just struggle to walk through the door of our building regularly," Sherlow said. "Traditional education is not for everyone, and we definitely have a pocket of students of our student population who would benefit from an online option."
Sherlow said she can recall several years ago being a mother of four children spread across grades K-12, teaching full time, while also knowing she wanted to pursue a master's degree. Given her busy life, an online option was what would work best for Sherlow and her family.
Her own experience with an online education is something she's leaning on going into this first school year with the Tippecanoe Online Academy. Sherlow recalled what worked well for her in pursuing her online degree and what frustrated her.
Through the online academy, Sherlow said she will have one live class each week, with the first year being optional live attendance. While students are not required to attend the class as it is happening, Sherlow explained students will still be required to watch the class recording on their own time, which is something administrators will be able to monitor.
"The live sessions are just a small part of the course load; there will be discussion boards and other forms of communication within the class that participation will be required in," Sherlow said. "I'm excited to see how this will all fit together, but I'll be extra excited to get these first few months under my belt."
Although this online school will take place mostly behind a screen, Sherlow said she plans to leave her door wide open for students, metaphorically and physically.
"Before I set any class times, I'll be having conversations with my students about class times that work for them, which I will then line up against my own schedule to see what works for all of us," Sherlow said. "We are all local, and between us teachers we share students, so if there was something we wanted to co-plan together, we absolutely could. That's the difference between us and other programs with teachers scattered across the country."
Leading up to the first year for the Tippecanoe Online Academy, Sherlow said she has a healthy dose of butterflies.
"It's good for us teachers to be feeling that way right now though, because that's exactly what our students will be feeling, too," Sherlow said. "We are so excited to get this school up and running, and I know we are all going to need a little grace as we get rolling forward."
To learn more about the Tippecanoe Online Academy or to start enrollment, go to toa.tsc.k12.in.us.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal and Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ellison_writes.
