Montana Digital Academy
Montana Digital Academy (MTDA) is specifically designed to provide unique educational opportunities to Montana students and schools. MTDA offers both original credit and credit recovery courses, taught exclusively by Montana teachers, employed by their local districts and trained in online instructional techniques by MTDA. For students looking for a new challenge, MTDA offers AP classes as well as elective courses that expose students to subjects that may not be available in their local schools. Students can access coursework whenever and wherever they want. This way course conflicts are completely eliminated allowing more students to graduate on time. MTDA served 6,785 course enrollments in SY 2013-14, with one of the highest online course enrollments relative to student population in the country.
Projects and highlights:
- MTDA has launched EdReady Montana, an online college and career readiness program that assesses student skills in mathematics and provides personalized intervention assistance to students as they prepare for commonly used placement exams such as AccuPlacer®, Compass®, and the ACT®. This is an online program for all students in Montana from grades 7-12 and higher education who want to brush up on their general math skills, become better prepared for college math or practice math skills needed for their desired career path. The primary use cases to date involve (1) schools, college orientation or educational support programs using EdReady Montana to recover or brush up on math skills before enrolling in a class or taking a placement test and (2) teachers using the program to directly support students in their classroom by providing a focused scope of study and specific set of curricular topics for them to study. EdReady is provided by MTDA to all Montana students through a gift from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.
- Middle school students in Montana have the opportunity to sample world languages by enrolling in the Multi Language Sampler (MLS) program. Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are introduced to French, German, Latin, Spanish and Chinese in uniquely designed seven week sessions. Students may sample all five languages during their middle school years. The project is designed to give students a better understanding of the various languages as they prepare for high school.
- MTDA’s instructional delivery model is comprised of original credit and credit recovery classes all led by Montana licensed highly qualified public school teachers trained by MTDA. MTDA teachers are employed through the public schools throughout the state and provide the online instruction to students. Compensation for the teachers is provided by MTDA to the teachers through their district and the Academy provides reimbursement for the associated employment costs and processing to the district.
