Awards

K¹²’s Ohio Virtual Academy Named the Parent’s Choice Winner in GreatSchools.net/Business Week January, 2009 School Rankings
The Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA), a statewide online public school using the K¹² curriculum and services, was named the Parent’s Choice winner in Ohio in a state-by-state look at the best high schools in the U.S. conducted by GreatSchools.net and Business Week magazine.

According to the magazine’s website, BusinessWeek.com worked with GreatSchools, a San-Francisco-based nonprofit organization that rates schools and provides an online community for parents, and came up with the best high schools in each state in a number of different categories.

“Our school is very pleased to be recognized by parents as a top public high school in Ohio,” said Jeff Shaw, Head of School for the Ohio Virtual Academy. “This achievement speaks to the hard work and commitment of our teachers, administrators, parents and students. Together we have created a vibrant and innovative public school that provides students an exceptional learning experience.”

OHVA was founded in 2002 and currently serves more than 7,000 students across Ohio, making it one of the largest public schools in the state. The school is part of the national network of online public schools affiliated with K¹² Inc., the U.S. leader in K-12 online school programs.

Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School Named Parents' Choice, Best Public School in PA in Businessweek and Greatschools
The Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School has been named “Parents’ Choice, Best Public School in Pennsylvania,” according to the latest edition of BusinessWeek and GreatSchools.

The GreatSchools/BusinessWeek Five Top-Performing High Schools initiative is based on both academic performance and parent opinion. GreatSchools identified the Top Academic Performance (overall and low-income) and Most Improved schools by analyzing publicly available school test information. GreatSchools also highlighted the Parents’ Choice for both public and private schools by analyzing the Parent Ratings and Reviews on its Web site and selecting schools with the highest average parent rating that also had at least 10 parent reviews posted on www.greatschools.net.

“The Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School views parents as vital to the success of our unique Diamond Model Partnership and is proud that our parents not only view the education here as superior, but have shared their opinions on a respected national education web site like GreatSchools,” said Sheldon Thorpe, President of the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School Board of Trustees and a pioneer PAVCS parent enrolled since the school’s creation in 2001.

The PAVCS Diamond Model Partnership is a collaborative partnership integrating parents, teachers, family support coordinators and K¹² Inc. © curriculum, ensuring all PAVCS students reach their full academic and social potential. This partnership has resulted in PAVCS posting the highest overall scores of all of the state’s cyber charter schools on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, the state’s standardized test related to No Child Left Behind.

“Data shows that student progress is directly related to parent involvement, and the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School succeeds because parents have direct input in the education of their children and the operation of this school,” said Joanne Jones Barnett, Chief Executive Officer of the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School. “It is the greatest honor to have our parents to vote us the best public school in the state.”

ComputED's annual Education Software Review Awards target innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with the technology to foster education excellence, including augmenting classroom curriculum and improving teacher productivity. Winners are selected from titles submitted by software publishers around the world. Selection criteria include academic content, potential for broad classroom use, technical merit, and subject approach. K¹² is honored to have been recognized for its innovative program.

2007 Winner: K¹² Science curriculum for Grades 9-12
For over 100 years AEP has supported and promoted the education publishing industry. Their annual awards program honors the best materials and accomplishments in educational products and education marketing. Judged by peers and experts, the awards provide an objective, authoritative evaluation of the applicant's work. Winners earn the right to display the Lamp of Learning logo, and their products are widely recognized as exhibiting outstanding quality and achievement.

The Golden Lamp is the most prestigious award within the field of education publishing. Publishing professionals, educators, and librarians recognize winners as providing the most outstanding materials for learning. In addition to encompassing content and design that transcends the best in its category, Golden Lamp pieces are critiqued on their fulfillment of their education mission.

Finalist: 2006  -- “The Human Odyssey,” K12's proprietary history book 

Finalist: 2006   -- K12 Grade 4 Art

2007 Winner: Ron Packard, K¹² Chief Executive Officer

This year, the James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award was bestowed at the annual Education Industry Association (EIA) conference in Orlando. The award is given to individuals whose achievements in the for-profit education industry serve as guideposts for others starting and building entrepreneurial educational endeavors, and who exemplify the characteristics James P. Boyle represented, including courage and perseverance with an end to improving educational opportunities for children.