Christian academy to offer online courses

April 12, 2007

Broadfording Christian Academy announced it has opened a new online academy "for students seeking rigorous content that has been biblically integrated."

In a press release, BCA said the online school is based on one found in other states, and contains courses aligned to national and college board standards. It is for students in grades 6 through 12.

BCA Principal Rick Burkett said the academy wants "to provide our students with more alternatives for remediation, recovering credits or acceleration. The technology available today enables greater flexibility and more opportunities to meet unique learning needs.

"Our goal is to become a hub of educational services operating from within a Christian framework that will benefit a wider diversity of student needs - at any time, from any place."

The online school is called "Broadfording Online Academy", and compliments the Barger Learning Program, a program developed by Dr. Elizabeth Barger to meet the needs of students with learning challenges.

Burkett said the Broadfording Online Academy "is more than a computer program." He said teachers provide guidance and direction in every course.

"Even though the teacher and student might be separated by hundreds of miles, the interaction and rapport between them are established from the very beginning.

"We didn't want a program where kids just sat in front of a computer screen and read text all day. We wanted to maintain that human element so critical to learning success," Burkett said.

Courses offered range from basic middle school classes to Advanced Placement classes.

"Technology is providing opportunities for creating new constructs for effective instruction," he said.

He said the Sloan Consortium estimates there were approximately 700,000 students enrolled in online courses in K-12 in 2006.

"Since learning needs vary greatly from one student to the next, we believe the online option is one more key for opening the doors to student engagement and achievement," Burkett said.

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