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For Austin Independent School District, DELTA (short for Diversified Education through Leadership, Technology and Academics) and the Virtual School Program (VSP) represent just two of the many ways the district is committed to helping all students succeed. Austin ISD administrators and teachers have worked hard over the years to develop flexible, targeted assistance to help students who might otherwise drop out of school achieve their goals and earn a high school diploma. The NovaNET comprehensive online courseware program from Pearson Digital Learning has been an essential part of these programs.

DELTA is a dropout prevention and course credit recovery program that has been in place since 1995 in Austin ISD. The open-entry, open-exit program available at all traditional and alternative high schools in the district employs individualized and self-paced instruction through the use of NovaNET. DELTA is targeted at students age 14-21 who have already dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of high school.

VSP is a non-traditional, home-based academic program that has been available to Austin ISD high school seniors since 2001. The goal of the VSP is to provide academic opportunities for students who are unable to participate in a traditional classroom setting, most often because they are parents and/or must work full-time for economic reasons. VSP students typically spend 2-4 hours daily completing NovaNET learning modules and other assigned work at home on an Internet-ready laptop assigned to them. Specially-trained VSP teachers then meet weekly with students in their homes for two hours. Angela Woods, a VSP teacher, explains that the program "provides these high-risk students with the same challenging curriculum that you find in the traditional classroom, but at a self-paced level they can access from home."

Through NovaNET coursework supplemented by a variety of assignments and project, students in DELTA and VSP may complete high school courses and earn credits, thereby allowing students a route to graduation that fits the scheduling requirements of those who are at risk of dropping out. In addition, DELTA affords students the option of accelerating course completion and earning multiple credits in a short amount of time.

DELTA has served an increasing number of students each year and has helped more than 4,500 students earn high school diplomas. In 2002-03 alone, DELTA served over 3,000 students. DELTA is available at the 12 traditional and alternative high schools in Austin ISD, plus the Alternative Learning Center. In the last three years, district staff have also expanded opportunities for students to participate in DELTA by working with the community to open a computer lab facility at a local church. During 2002-03 when the VSP was a pilot program, 35 students participated and completed 70 percent of the courses they started in the program.

Like many urban school districts around the country, Austin ISD�s student population has grown it its diversity; these changes have consequently impacted the profile of students in DELTA. Evaluations by the Austin ISD Department of Program Evaluation show that in 2002-03, 54 percent of students who participated in DELTA were Hispanic, compared with 45 percent in 1998-99. African American students comprised 23 percent of DELTA students in 2002-03, compared with 1998-99, when they made up 20 percent of the students served.

The growth of student diversity in DELTA also has included an increase in DELTA students who are Limited English Proficient�from 3 percent in 1998-99 to 12 percent in 2002-03. Preliminary analyses of course credits earned in 2001-02 and 2002-03 show that LEP students complete approximately the same number of courses as their non-LEP peers.

One former DELTA student wrote the following about his experience with the program:

"I am so grateful that I was placed in the DELTA program during what should have been my senior year of high school. I got behind in my credits after my freshman year due to a variety of situations. I became discouraged and began missing school, which caused me to fall even farther behind in my credits. At the start of my 4th year in high school, I was only about halfway through school."

"From the start of being in DELTA, I really enjoyed it. I liked the self-paced method of getting my credits. I also enjoyed having a lot of the coursework done on the NovaNET computers. After I earned my first credit, I really got excited and it was as if a light went off in my brain. I knew that I was where I needed to be." This student went on to finish his graduation requirements only half a year behind his senior class. �

He continued with the following:

"If it had not been for the DELTA program at Lanier, I know that I would have dropped out of school, and maybe only earned my GED. I am thankful for the program and especially my teachers in DELTA for their care and concern�I will forever be grateful to them for everything they did for me."

This student�s teacher, Mr. Dennis Ceder, says that shortly after graduation, the student enlisted in the United States Navy. After boot camp and job training school, he was sent to the Persian Gulf where he has been on the USS Roosevelt serving with honor during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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