One of the America's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programmes for students in schools, K12 Inc.has announced on August 18, 2010, a new partnership with Greenfield Public Schools to launch Massachusetts' first full-time, statewide online public school. Within this scheme upto 500 students in grades from Kindergarten to standard eight across the Commonwealth, for the coming school year, will be catered to by the the Massachusetts Virtual Academy at Greenfield (MAVA@Greenfield). MAVA@Greenfield plans to expand to offer high school in subsequent years. The tuition-free public school is now accepting applications and will be hosting numerous information sessions for interested families and school districts.
In the begening of this year, the Massachusetts Legislature passed and Governor Deval Patrick signed into law an education reform bill aimed at transforming Massachusetts public schools by promoting more innovation and choice. The law included a provision enabling school districts to establish Innovation Schools to help improve student achievement and performance. Innovation schools give school districts more autonomy and flexibility to provide alternative education programs, including virtual schools, and increase public school options for students. In collboration with school districts and charter schools, respectively, K12 operates online public schools in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
