Dec 19, 2017
John has a lively discussion with Jim Dachos, director of education partnerships at The Virtual High School (VHS), a non-profit organization in Massachusetts. VHS works with more than 700 schools and has a catalogue of about 200 courses, which includes AP offerings and courses for middle schools. The VHS model differs from competitors in several ways: The organization collaborates with rural schools by freeing up teachers to provide online instruction, and, in return, providing discounts to schools. VHS also offers rural schools a collaborative model that enables both the school and VHS to establish more of a classroom setting rather than simply online learning. The majority of these partnerships are in the Northeast, but VHS is an international organization, with partnerships across the United States and abroad, including China. VHS works with several consortia, such as the Western Maine Educational Collaborative, which provides additional buying resources for rural schools.