Continuing and Innovative Education, The University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin Online High School

The University of Texas at Austin High School was authorized by the State Board of Education in 1998 and is fully accredited by the Texas Education Agency.

The school began as a distance education program and has evolved into a rigorous, online school offering students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma while preparing them for college and the future.

All of our courses are aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and are taught by experienced, Texas certified instructors.

Students in The University of Texas Online High School can earn their diploma from any place in the world – working at any time of the day at their own pace – meeting each student’s individual needs.

Students in The Online High School come from all walks of life – students who :

• want more flexibility,
• want an alternative to traditional schooling,
• have been home-schooled and want a diploma from an accredited program,
• want to accelerate their learning,
• are professional athletes (gymnasts, ballerinas, tennis players)
• have professional careers (actors, singers, band members)
• have health issues that preclude them from attending public schools
• have moved and prefer not to enroll in a new school
• have dropped out of school
• and students from other countries.

Our students are from Texas and 24 other states within the US as well as 11 foreign countries.

We have schools in Vietnam and Morocco whose students are enrolled in our high school, are taking our courses online, and will receive a diploma from The University of Texas at Austin High School.

The University Online HS currently has 250 students ranging in age from 13- 20 and over.  Each year, we have 25 to 30 students graduate from the program.

Students must successfully complete Texas graduation requirements which includes the required number of credits, the required courses, and the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (or TAKS) exit level exam.

The University of Texas Online High School is proud to say that our graduates are attending major colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program

The Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program was created to help migrant students earn credits through distance learning courses that are aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and can be completed at any time and any place.

The program provides tools, services, courses, computer equipment, and software applications that enable migrant students to meet and often exceed the requirements for high school graduation.

Texas migrant students, who are the children of farm workers, travel to 47 different states to harvest crops with their families. 

Migrant students usually leave their Texas schools in the spring before the school year has ended—and don’t return until the school year has already started in the fall. Their migrations result in frequent disruptions to their education as they transfer from school to school.

Because of these disruptions, migrant students have difficulty earning the credits needed to graduate from high school.  Migrant students have a lower high school graduation rate than the general population and have lower scores on the state-mandated Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) examination.

Through the Migrant Program, students can work on portable courses at their own pace at their Texas schools, at their receiving schools when they migrate to other states, and at their homes. The program offers three course formats:  print, CD-ROM, and online, so that students are able to work on the courses with or without computers and Internet connection. The program helps students earn credit outside of the regular school schedule and setting through distance learning courses. The computer-based delivery system is a uniquely powerful tool for serving migrant students because of its ability to bridge time and distance.

Since its inception in 1987, the Migrant Program has provided services to the migrant students of Texas.  Each year, approximately 1,500 students enroll in the program’s distance learning courses.

The program is funded by a grant from the Texas Education Agency and gifts from corporations and foundations including the Beaumont Foundation of America, the Exxon Mobil Foundation, the John G. Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation, and the Microsoft Corporation. 

There is no cost to the students or school districts.

The program has received a number of awards including the Significant Achievement in Independent Study Award by the University Continuing Education Association and, most recently, the Outstanding Services to an Underserved Population Award from the Association of Continuing Higher Education.  Each year for the past six years, the program has been the recipient of a University Continuing Education Association award for its Exemplary Migrant Student Recognition Ceremony.

LUCHA

LUCHA is an innovative K-16 Education Center initiative designed to help secondary Spanish-speaking English language learners transition into public schools, thereby helping them to achieve success in school, college, and life.

Children immigrating to Texas from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries face many challenges. These students face academic failure not only because of a language barrier but also because most schools do not have the resources to determine appropriate grade placement, diagnose content-area mastery, or train personnel to recognize and address the challenges faced by immigrant students.

The goal of the LUCHA Program is to provide resources to assist school districts with the placing of Spanish-speaking language learners—primarily from Mexico—in the appropriate grade and courses.

And to assist the Spanish-speaking students as they transition into public schools so they do not lose instructional time and credits while learning English

The LUCHA Program provides 4 services:

1. One service is the analysis of transcripts. With over 360 school districts in Mexico, each with its own curriculum, just translating course titles is not sufficient.  Therefore,  the LUCHA Program requests the curriculum from each student’s school in Mexico and does an in-depth analysis including a comparison to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS.  After this analysis, credit recommendations are made to the district

For the Mexican immigrant students who are unable to provide transcripts from their home schools, LUCHA works directly with the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico and Mexican Educational Institutions to locate and provide missing transcripts.

2.  LUCHA also provides Online Diagnostics to districts to assess a student’s content area knowledge in math and science. An accurate assessment of student knowledge is critical to ensuring student success and preventing English language learners from dropping out of school.

LUCHA diagnostic assessments are in Spanish and the results serve as a guide to districts in placing students in the proper learning environment and in determining the appropriate instructional support.

3. For Spanish-speaking students, LUCHA also offers online courses in Spanish.  Courses are from Mexico and are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).  Teachers can use these courses to teach subject specific content to students in their native language while transitioning them to English using ESL instructional methodologies. These courses allow students to continue earning credits while learning English.

We offer 15 semester courses that align to the TEKS and can be counted for credit as well as 5 courses that can be used as support for students.

4. LUCHA students may also have access to the K16 Education Center online courses in English. The math and science courses, which include video tutorials, serve as excellent support and provide a smooth transition from online courses in Spanish to courses in English.

The LUCHA Program began providing services to Texas public school districts three years ago.  The Program is currently being implemented by 24 districts in Texas, recommended over 7,000 credits based on the transcript analysis and has provided over 5,000 courses to more than1,2000 students. 

Through this program, districts are able to provide avenues for success to their recent immigrant, Spanish-speaking students.