Virtual High School in Prince William Co. wins national award

Prince William County Schools’ Virtual High School is among the honorees in the Center for Digital Education’s first Digital Content and Curriculum Achievement Awards. The award was announced at the International Society for Technology in Education conference on June 24.

“This award recognizes schools for their innovation and hard work in implementation of digital content and curriculum,” explained Renee Lacy, supervisor of non-traditional education and summer programs.

The Virtual High School at Prince William County Schools (VHS@PWCS) has enjoyed steady growth since its inception in 2000. To date, more than 9,000 students have taken at least one of the 22 courses designed in a blended format. Students attend orientation and work from any location with Internet access to complete their assignments and take their assessments online but must take mid-term, SOL and final exams face-to-face with their instructor.

Gina Jones, administrative coordinator of VHS@PWCS was quoted as saying in a news release, “The VHS has always had a ‘home-grown’ approach to online course content development allowing us to modify, refresh and align the content whenever necessary,. Our lead teachers are also trained as learning content authors and work closely with instructional designers, editors and PWCS curriculum supervisors to ensure course quality.”

Cathilea Robinett, executive vice president for the Center for Digital Education was quoted as saying, “Innovations in digital content and curriculum are moving us rapidly into the future of education—with this year’s group [of winners] leading the charge by applying unique technology approaches to learning.”