Virtual schools across the state are joining forces, thanks to the Kentucky Online Learning experience Collaborative.

KET is proud to be a part of the collaborative.

Their goal to improve students online learning experience through collaborative discussion and professional development for districts and teachers.

In the Kentucky Online Learning Experience Collaborative is a partnership between KET and the Department of Ed to work with the virtual schools across the state of Kentucky to provide resources and time to collaborate with other schools and just to support them in any way possible to make sure that the kids are getting as good or better of an education as they would in the traditional.

School.

You get extra help in virtual.

Learning really supports a lot of students that don't necessarily succeed in a traditional classroom.

They may be helping with their family farm.

They may be participating in a work based learning.

Some students, you know, they've got a certain health condition that makes it difficult for them to go in-person every single day, and that was causing them to lose a lot of that learning.

And we're able to provide all that learning from wherever they are academically.

Our kids are scoring on par with the district in some places even higher.

We've had great community building.

You might be surprised how strong of a community you can have in a virtual school, but our teachers do such an excellent job of that.

We have lots of experiences that get them out into the world.

Our students are able to go to prom.

They're able to participate in sports.

They are able to come in and socialize with their classmates for fall festivals and in-person hands on learning days.

All of the social learning experiences that a traditional student might have, you know.

Enrollment and pedagogy.

This is a valid learning path for a lot of students.

I can't tell you how many parents I've had now that have come and said, you know, either invite via email or call in-person, whatever it is, and say, look, this option has changed my kid's life, even though it's not the majority of students that need this option.

The ones that we do have it for can honestly be life changing.

One of the ways that we can personalize learning for students when the brick and mortar in-person environment isn't working for them is virtual learning.

But in order to make that work, we need programs like the one we're involved in with this collaborative in order to be able to learn the correct pedagogy and the right educational and instructional moves that we can make for students.

I love working with the other schools and learning from them.

The collaboration is really important and it can have an in there and structured discussions or even just sitting at lunch talking to people over food.

And I can't tell you how much I've learned from that.

With KET having a long history with virtual learning.

We want to support everyone, whether they become part of the collaborative or not.

We're still there as a support for fifth grade now.

28 schools are currently members of the collaborative.

Meetings are held monthly.