Brooklyn Center: Students can go to school in the city by staying home

Starting next fall, students from all over Minnesota will be able to earn a high school diploma from the Brooklyn Center School District without ever setting foot in the city.

The Brooklyn Center school board on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract with Insight Schools Inc., a national network of online high schools. Insight is owned by Apollo Group, the for-profit company that runs the University of Phoenix online college.

Insight provides students' computers, a dedicated staff and curriculum that often goes beyond what traditional high schools offer. Since the program is affiliated with a public school district, students' education is funded by the state, without extra investment by the district or students.

Insight helps with setup costs; the cost to run the school will depend on enrollment numbers. But the arrangement eventually could be a net gain for Brooklyn Center, even after Insight is paid for running the school. But Brooklyn Center Superintendent Keith Lester does not expect to see revenue for four or five years.

Experiment in the city

Traditionally, Insight Schools are based in small, rural districts. This is the first time the company, based in Portland, Ore., has joined with an urban district.

"We're excited about learning some things from our district partner in Minnesota, working with kids in an urban core," said Keith Oelrich, founder and CEO of Insight Schools. "We get a lot of those kids around the country, but none of our districts have been urban core districts."

Flexibility for students

From Lester's perspective, Insight is a way to attract students who need more flexibility than traditional or alternative schools can offer, who have had to drop out because of child care issues, family, health or work reasons.

"It's another step in closing the achievement gap, offering students another alternative, getting students back in school and providing flexibility for students that even an alternative program can't because you have to be there," he said. "In an online program they can go to school from midnight to 5 a.m. if they want to."

For the short term, Insight and Brooklyn Center administrators will work together to mesh Insight curriculum with Minnesota standards, to find local headquarters and to hire Minnesota-certified administrators and teachers.

Insight instructors in other states -- often teachers who have recently retired or who have young families -- have not been part of state teachers' unions. Insight's Minnesota teachers may or may not be part of Education Minnesota. Brooklyn Center teachers' union president Cathy Bufis said she hopes for a productive collaboration. Oelrich said teacher pay will be comparable to that in local public schools.

Insight School of Wisconsin, based in Grantsburg, opened this fall after a year of preparation. Its 240 students represent the whole state, with a critical mass from the urban area near Racine and Milwaukee. Students choose from 140 courses and six tracks, from remedial to Advanced Placement.

Oelrich worked with a handful of public and private online schools before he came up with the idea of a national network of online schools that could share administrative and intellectual resources. With their first venture, Insight School of Washington, which opened last year in Washington state, the hope was to enroll 200 students; 3,000 students applied.

Katrina Shelman, a sophomore living in Olympia, Wash., was homeschooled before she began her freshman year with the Insight School there, based in the Quillayute Valley School District.

She's taking English 2, honors biology, Algebra 2, honors U.S. history, Spanish 3 and physical education.

"It's really nice because I get to do it at my own pace," she said. "There's structure, and due dates, but I can work when it's best for me because then I don't get all stressed out."

Katrina says she is active in student government and Spanish club. Last year, she went to prom.

"We want kids to feel like they are part of a connected learning community," Oelrich said, "as opposed to taking classes online or sitting in a closet with their computers all day."