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Ames district approves pilot online program with Edmentum; board seeks careful rollout and monitoring
Summary
The Ames Comm School District approved a contract with Edmentum to start an online learning option for district secondary students next school year, with administrators and board members emphasizing a cautious, staged rollout, criteria for student participation and close outcome monitoring.
Dr. Jeff Hawkins, associate superintendent for the Ames Comm School District, told the school board the district will begin offering online learning options for secondary students next school year by contracting with Edmentum and that the program is intended as a staged rollout rather than an immediate, district-wide replacement of in-person instruction.
Hawkins said the district’s near-term plan is to have courses and teacher support provided by Edmentum during 2025–26, to identify a small set of in-district students for enrollment, and to develop entrance criteria and a referral process this summer. “Next year, we plan to begin offering online learning options for secondary students that are enrolled in our school district,” Hawkins said. He added the district intends to expand programming incrementally: “In ‘twenty six–’twenty seven, we want to begin accepting those open enrolled students and developing 9 through 12 core courses,” and later move to blended district-created online courses taught by district teachers.
Board members asked how the model will be used and monitored. One board member said it could support students at risk of dropping out: “I think this will be great for students who need different . . . environments,” and asked whether the program would fold into dropout-prevention strategies. Hawkins answered that the district expects to use the option “in tandem with other strategies to try to make sure students stay engaged with school.”
Board members also raised the district’s past experience with online providers during the pandemic. One board member recalled a prior program with “Edgenuity” that produced poor results when deployed at scale under emergency conditions; Hawkins and other speakers said the current plan differs because it is intentionally staged, uses a different vendor, and will include local success coaching and criteria to identify appropriate students. Hawkins described cap-and-pilot intentions: the district is looking at starting with roughly 20 students rather than hundreds or more in order to evaluate outcomes before expanding.
On features, Hawkins said the Edmentum platform supports asynchronous and synchronous learning, office hours and weekly live teaching sessions, mastery-based learning, AP options and flexible pacing. He said students enrolled in the district option would remain Ames students, “able to participate in school activities and clubs,” with grades placed on district transcripts and students earning an Ames diploma.
The board moved to approve the Edmentum order/contract as presented during the meeting. The motion passed 5–1.
Hawkins said the next steps are to finalize contract approval, draft entrance and referral criteria over the summer, work with building staff to identify appropriate students for the pilot, apply next fall to the state for open-enrollment approval and include the option in spring registration if and when the district is ready to offer it broadly. He told the board he will return with updates on criteria and early outcomes in the 2025–26 school year.
