Huntley High School’s Blended Learning Program is featured on CNN.com as an innovative and successful initiative to better serve the needs of today’s students.
The initiative, which merges Internet-based instruction with a more traditional classroom setting, is one of the largest of its kind in Illinois, with more than one-third of the school’s 2,700 students enrolled in at least one class.
“Having to work online makes it really accessible to do the work that I have to get done,” said Jason Zobott, a top-ranked junior who balances a heavy load of extracurricular activities with schoolwork. “I can learn on my own. I can work at the pace I want to work. And I learn the way I want to learn.”
The article also notes that District 158 has been able to build the program in-house, using current teachers and in a budget-neutral manner.
The program started in 2011 with about 100 students and has grown to nearly 1,000, with several more classes planned next year.
“We did not put new money into this. What we did is change the old things we were doing and changed them into new ways. It’s really a change in how you think of high school,” said Superintendent John Burkey.
