Published: Friday, August 10, 2012 10:07 PM CDT

The Yankton School District (YSD) continues to get on board with the increasing popularity of online programs at schools to help supplement students’ learning experiences inside the classroom.

The elementary schools in the district offer students two programs: SuccessMaker and Reading Counts. The middle school offers IXL — Math and Accelerated Reader. The high school has Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations (PLATO) for the Alternative Learning Center and Virtual High School for students to do the courses online, but must pay a fee in order to do so.

The South Dakota Virtual School provides expanded course offerings to students through online studies. In addition it gives students the opportunity to take more Advanced Placement (AP) courses, the ability to study highly specialized subjects or receive more specific remedial instruction in certain subjects.

Yankton Middle School principal Todd Dvoracek said the programs have had a big impact on students.

“There are not a lot of online programs offered at the middle school, but the programs we do have are strictly supplementary,” he said. “They don’t drive our instruction, they supplement the curriculum.”

For the 2011-12 school year, there were 133 school districts and school systems in the state that participated in the Virtual School program. There are also 24 AP courses and 82 credit recovery courses offered through the online program.

He added that the teachers use the programs for all levels of students; and the programs currently in place are all cost-effective and kids can use them both at home and in the classroom.

“Students enjoy using the technology of the online programs here,” Dvoracek said. “They can also log on at home on their computers, iPads or iPods.”

Despite the successes of the programs at the middle school, Dvoracek added that students must buy into the technology and the programs offered, and they have done so with the math and reading programs at Yankton Middle School.

The elementary schools in YSD also use online programs as part of their schools’ curriculum.

The elementary schools use Success Maker and Reading Counts. Success Maker allows teachers to track students’ growth over time. The program is used mostly in the elementary schools for reading and math. Success Maker also asks more advanced questions as students get questions right and easier questions when students struggle in a given area.

“The Success Maker program works at students’ ability levels, so students do not become easily frustrated,” said Jerome Klimisch, principal at Stewart Elementary.

The other online program used at Stewart is Reading Counts, which quizzes students after they read a book. The program also works a lot on comprehension and tracks the amount of books students read, along with their reading levels.

Klimisch noted that both of these programs are about 8 years old.

Students that use the Success Maker program get placed at a certain level at the beginning of the school year, and the program will track their growth to see how much improvement they have made over the year in both reading and math.

Stewart Elementary was able to purchase the Success Maker program with school improvement funds several years ago. Klimisch noted that since the program has been purchased, the school has not fallen back into the improvement classification.

“If the programs are used correctly, a teacher can see if a class is having lots of problems in one particular subject area,” Klimisch said.

He added that all the teachers in the school use the programs differently, but they all try to get their students into the computer lab and on the programs about once a week.

Teachers at Stewart note that the programs are having positive effects on students, and it adds another tool for teachers to track students’ progress in a number of different areas.

Students in the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) at Yankton High School (YHS) use the PLATO program. The focus of the program is on learner and student achievement and educational success for the students using the program.

“We use the program primarily for credit recovery in order to keep a student on track for graduation,” said Dr. Wayne Kindle, principal at YHS. “The program is Web-based, so it can be accessed from any computer located outside of YHS. This allows us a great deal of flexibility to access the program.”

Kindle added that the software, in addition to the staff at the ALC, has provided hundreds of students with second or third chances to get back on track with their credits and enable them to graduate from YHS.

In addition to helping students recover credits, the software also offers a GED prep course. The course enables students to prepare for their GED and then take the test on their own time through the program.

“Our first goal is for all students to complete their diploma through YHS,” Kindle said. “The GED prep course is an alternative when situations arise for a student, which may constitute the need for a student to consider a GED option towards graduation.”

Klimisch added, “We don’t think online programs will ever replace good teaching and good teachers. They’re just new tools to help students learn.”

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