A new twist in the debate on learning in online classes

SHARON -- Rebecca Dalgin's 12-hour days begin at 7:30 a.m. in a Holliston dance studio, where she stretches, leaps, and twirls in classes she hopes will propel her onto the stage of professional dance.

Dalgin, a 17-year-old from Sharon, has passed the MCAS, aced three Advanced Placement exams, and earned the 102 credits she needs to graduate, her parents say. The Dalgin family wants Sharon schools to let Rebecca graduate with her class and receive a Sharon High School diploma, but Superintendent Claire Jackson has rejected the idea, because Dalgin has not attended the school since her sophomore year. Now Dalgin and her parents are asking the School Committee to reverse Jackson's decision.

Dalgin's case adds another twist to the ongoing debate about how much time a student should spend in class to earn a high school diploma. At least 80 public and private schools in Massachusetts participate in distance learning, along with hundreds across the country. In most cases, students go online for courses their schools don't offer and sit in a classroom for other courses.

Dalgin has been taking all of her classes online the last two years to free her days for dance studies, much as gymnasts turn to correspondence courses so they can train all day.

The teenager's petition earlier this month asking School Committee members to grant her a diploma has sparked a discussion on the nature of high school and a reexamination of policies, said Suzanne Peyton, the panel's vice chairwoman.

"Public school education has been very traditional, very bureaucratic," said Peyton, one of six board members.

The department must consider the new reality of distance learning and how to accommodate alternative students, she said.

"As we become a virtual community, all these options are available to us," Peyton said.

School officials say Dalgin's petition is the first of its kind in Sharon. Nationally, such cases are rare, as well, said Michael Carr, spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Reston, Va.

School boards around the country are wrestling with whether to offer online courses and how much time students can spend away from the classroom, Carr said. Online education is growing fastest in rural communities with fewer resources. Urban and suburban school departments, like in Sharon, are generally slower to embrace the new format, he said.

"There's an old sort of mentality that you have to have them in their seats for a certain amount of time," Carr said. "We're kind of moving away from that toward more experiential learning."

The trend is toward flexibility and personalized learning plans, but change is gradual, Carr said. "They're all going to move at the pace of their own school boards and own communities."

In Massachusetts, local school departments decide whether to accept distance learning courses, said Department of Education spokeswoman Heidi Perlman.

In Sharon, the superintendent sees the argument as a simple one: Dalgin is not enrolled at Sharon High School.

"She is home-schooled by her parents in a vigorous and challenging program of dance and distance learning," Jackson said. "There is no School Committee policy permitting such students to receive SHS diplomas."

Her parents, Rani and Frank Dalgin, disagree. Rebecca is not home-schooled, Rani Dalgin said, adding that she wants school officials to approve an alternative education plan for her daughter, because pursuing dance seriously is not an option at the high school.

The family consulted with Sharon High School counselors before allowing Rebecca to leave school and believed school officials would honor the alternative plan, Rani Dalgin said. High school principal George Anthony declined to comment. Jackson said the school did not approve an alternative plan.

Individual education plans are devised for special-needs students, said Rani Dalgin, a Boston College researcher, so why not for gifted and talented students like Rebecca?

Rebecca Dalgin said she wants her diploma, and she wants the applications she sends to universities with strong dance programs to reflect her academic achievements.

Pursuing a diploma through an online diploma mill would be expensive for her family, she said. And GED, or General Educational Development, diplomas still carry a stigma, her parents said.

Peyton said she's not sure the School Committee can act before Dalgin's college applications are due this fall, but she hopes the board can help.

"This is a very bright student; she's doing extraordinary things," Peyton said.

New policies could help other gifted students and students forced to miss school because of illness, she said.

The Dalgins argue that the School Department's dual enrollment policy allows for Rebecca's coursework and that her accredited distance learning classes should be credited in the same way community college courses students take while they are in high school are credited.

Rebecca has taken three Advanced Placement courses through universities. This year, she plans to take online math, psychology, and French courses, and the AP literature exam, as well as complete a community internship.

School Committee chairman Andrew Nebenzahl said dual enrollment is for students taking accredited college courses not offered at the high school. The school board has set no time line for making a decision because of the implications a new policy would have on other students.

Rebecca Dalgin said she has worked hard for her diploma, as have other Sharon students. But after a recent dance class, she admitted she is more focused on rehearsals than fighting the School Department.

She said she does not regret skipping her last two years of traditional high school. She can't wait to dance every morning, while she wasn't always enthused about school.

"You really put your whole self into it," she said, of her modern dance and ballet studies at Dancing Arts Academy in Holliston. "It's an art form and a way of life."

She doesn't need to graduate with her friends, though it would be nice, she said. Her mother is more sentimental, saying she wants to see her daughter in cap and gown, walking across the stage with her lifelong classmates.

"It's more a question of heart," Rani Dalgin said. "It's almost like the closure of something she's been doing since she was 5 years old."