For some, education model provides refuge from mental and emotional stress
By Scott O’Connell
The (Worcester) Telegram & Gazette
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Graduation is typically a time for goodbyes, unless it happens to be a virtual school graduation, in which case there are also some hellos.
“It’s exciting to see everyone’s faces,” said Lauren Barry, a high school history teacher at the TEC Connections Academy Commonwealth Virtual School, which recently handed out diplomas to 50 graduates at Mechanics Hall. “Some of them have never met.”
One of two public virtual schools operating in the state, since lawmakers began allowing them three years ago, Walpole-based TECCA eschews the traditional classroom for completely online instruction. Teachers use video and frequent phone calls to keep in touch with students, who take their classes at home on their computers.
At TECCA at least, the model has quickly become popular: The school’s enrollment doubled last school year to about 1,000 students. Officials are projecting another 30 to 50 percent increase this coming year, when the school’s cap will be 2,000. Central Massachusetts, which produced 10 of Friday’s graduates, has been a large contributor to those numbers, according to the school.
Some of those students are like Worcester resident Michaela Smith, who left the Worcester school system to attend TECCA in her senior year to accommodate her busy extracurricular schedule, which primarily consisted of figure skating.
“I started to miss a lot of school because of my training as it became more demanding,” she said, and was encouraged by a friend to check out TECCA. “It was definitely different. You didn’t really have a social aspect. But I feel like the teachers were a lot more enthusiastic about learning. I actually liked it a lot.”
North Brookfield resident Kayla Huard joined TECCA a year and a half ago out of frustration with her old school, David Prouty High School in Spencer.
“I just had to get out of there,” she said, adding that a virtual education has also been more accommodating to her work schedule as a pizza delivery driver.
Both students said they felt TECCA’s education model, while relying more on their own self-motivation, was effective for them. Ms. Smith plans to attend Assumption College in the fall, while Ms. Huard is exploring her higher education options with an eye on a career working with people or animals.
For some students, virtual education has provided a refuge from the mental and emotional stresses of traditional education.
“Some people say high school is the best years of your life, but for me, that wasn’t the case,” said class speaker Lexis Nelson of Sandwich. “I constantly dealt with fear and anxiety.”
But her time at TECCA helped her with those issues, as her appearance at the podium demonstrated: “I never in a million years thought I’d be talking in front of a room of complete strangers,” she said, eliciting a few laughs from her classmates.
The unconventional circumstances of their graduation came up several times throughout Friday’s ceremony, including when guest speaker state Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, made a case for the TECCA graduates being stronger from their experience.
“Given the nontraditional path you have navigated to get here today, I’m confident you’ll be well-prepared to navigate the twists and turns” of post-high school life,” he said.
But while TECCA may be nontraditional, Superintendent Adam Goldberg doesn’t want his school or his students’ education to hang onto a different label: “experimental.”
“I don’t like the word myself,” he said. “Especially going into year three, we’re more established. You can say we’re a success now.”
While the school is still too new to have any accountability rating from the state yet, the Department of Elementary and Secondary’s latest review of the program in February found TECCA was meeting all of its state certification responsibilities.
Ms. Barry, who used to teach at a traditional high school, said she believes in the virtual model.
“It’s both the challenge and the strength of the school,” she said. “It’s definitely challenging (to build relationships with students), because they’re not right in front of you. But it’s more rewarding when you do.”
Even if their interactions might have been fleeting, Ms. Nelson said, she’s sure the TECCA class of 2016 is prepared for the world, virtual or otherwise: “I may not know you, and you may not know me. But I know we all have the potential to be successful.”
