Illinois Virtual School
Illinois Virtual School (IVS) is the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) statewide virtual school. ISBE established IVS as a supplemental online program in 2001 with a mission to provide high quality expanded educational opportunities to all students in Illinois grades 5-12. IVS functions as a supplemental program to students enrolled in public or private schools or as a full program provider to homeschool students. IVS offers 149 original credit courses taught by, and 22 credit recovery courses managed by, Illinois certified, Highly Qualified teachers. Most IVS teachers are employed by their local districts, and have all been trained in online instruction and pedagogy through IVS-PD, the professional learning arm of IVS. IVS courses are aligned to ILS and Common Core standards, and operate in compliance with NCAA and College Board (AP) requirements. Through its role as the statewide representative of online and blended learning in Illinois, IVS provides leadership to accelerate the adoption and use of online learning by educating schools and districts looking to expand high quality learning options for their students. IVS-PD offers professional learning online programs for educators.
Projects and highlights:
- IVS has spearheaded a Remote Education Awareness Campaign. Illinois’ Remote Education legislation, HB3223 (Public Act 97-0339), provides districts with the framework for providing an alternative, remote educational experience for the non-traditional student wanting to graduate from the local school. The Illinois Virtual School has developed a set of services designed to help districts offer resident students fully or part-time online options in middle and high school. IVS provides a variety of services, while the resident district retains responsibility for the student, along with providing site-specific assistance to students who require it.
- IVS has embarked on a multi-year Online Course Improvement Process. The framework being used for course design is the Quality Matters K-12 Secondary Rubric. Quality Matters (QM) is a faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online courses and support continuous improvement
- IVS is partnering with the Illinois State Board of Education to host a number of professional development opportunities including Data Quality training; Induction and Mentoring for Teachers and Principals; Nursing designation training, and Illinois Shared Learning Environment portal training.
