North Hills School District

Pride • Tradition • Excellence

History of the Online Academy

History of the Online Academy @ North Hills

2006 - 2007

The North Hills School District began offering online courses through partnerships with vendors. During this time, the District began the process of creating "hybrid" courses where students would attend face-to-face classes while some of their instruction and assignments were provided online through Blackboard, an online learning management system.
With the costs of cyber-charter schools increasing significantly, the District began to envision creating a virtual school district in order to meet the needs of students and families who preferred an online learning option.
Realizing that creating an online school of our own would be a large undertaking, the North Hills School District began by creating a multi-year implementation plan. The first step of this plan was to have our teachers develop and teach a limited number of online courses during the 2007-2008 school year.

2007 - 2008

The District added online courses that could be taken during the 2007-2008 school year that were developed and taught by our teachers. Online Health, Standards of Mathematics, and Standards of Reading/Language Arts were made available to students.
Additionally, during the 2007-2008 school year, planning began for opening an online summer school for the summer of 2008.
North Hills School District students enrolled in our online summer school program and data collected indicated that it was successful in helping North Hills School District students recover credits.

2008 - 2009

In 2008-2009, planning for the next phase of the multi-year implementation plan took place. The District added online courses that could be taken during the school year that were developed and taught by our teachers. Online Health, Standards of Mathematics, and Standards of Reading/Language Arts were made available to students.
With the intention on expanding the summer school program for the summer of 2009, the District formed a consortium of school districts that worked collaboratively to align curriculum and instructional expectations in order to enroll students from other school districts in our summer school program.
Credit recovery and enrichment courses were developed and added to the summer school program offering in the summer 2009, including expanding the grade offerings to grades 7 and 8.
The District provided professional development to teachers in order to prepare to restructure our alternative education program into an online program for the 2009-2010 school year.

2009 - 2010

In 2009-2010, implementing the next phase of the multi-year implementation plan took place. The District added a virtual alternative education program and a virtual High School. For the first time, the District offered high school students with an online learning alternative to cyber-charter schools.
With the intention on expanding the virtual school district, planning began on adding a virtual middle school for the 2010-2011 school year.

2010 - 2011

In 2010-2011, implementing the next phase of the multi-year implementation plan took place. The District added a virtual middle school program. Students in grades 7 - 9 were able to enroll in a fully online learning experience that provided a customized educational program to meet their individualized needs.
Additional online course electives were developed by District teachers that would be made available for the 2011-2012 school year.
Course maintenance and additional professional development opportunities were provided to the online faculty members in order to increase the rigor and engagement in their courses.

2011 - 2012

The Online Academy @ North Hills continued to expand its course offerings in 2011-2012 by adding additional elective courses developed and taught by District teachers.
A K-6 Online Learning Task Force was created with the goal of recommending a plan for offering an online elementary school in 2012-2013.

2012 - 2013

The K-6 online program was introduced and made available to students ~ making the Online Academy @North Hills a K-12 online program.
The Online Academy @ North Hills continued to expand its secondary course offerings in 2012-2013 by adding additional elective courses.