photos.com
To lengthen the school day by 90 minutes, some Chicago schools will be adding online classes after school, with support from economic stimulus funding, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune.
The extra time will be tacked on to the end of the school day. The block will be divided between math and reading, with a short break for a snack and recess, a source said. Much of the cost of the program will be covered by federal economic stimulus money, a source said.
Online classes are not new to Chicago students (more than 4,000 students took online summer school courses), and the trend is growing across the country.
More than a million students engaged in online learning in the 2008 school year, an almost 50 percent increase over 2006, according to the Sloan Consortium, a group of organizations that support online education.
Parents, have you or your kids taken online classes for credit? How was the overall experience? Write in and let us know.