Florida has long been a leader in virtual education, and exports K-12 classes all over the globe. Now, it’s also home to a newcomer that is targeting a faith-based niche.
This spring, St. Andrews Episcopal Academy quietly launched Episcopal Virtual, and a sister operation, Anglican Virtual, with backing from its parent church and the Diocese of Central Florida.
The goal is to make online K-12 classes available to the 80 million members of the Anglican Communion — which encompass Episcopal and Anglican churches.
The new private virtual institution wants to give Episcopal and Anglican schools a new avenue to offer courses (like Latin) for which they couldn’t otherwise afford full-time teachers, and to give home schoolers around the world a new way to take accredited courses that are steeped in their faith.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the project is launching in Central Florida, the region that gave birth to Florida Virtual School, which has long offered online classes beyond the state’s boundaries.
“The whole field of online education is exploding,” Tim Nunez, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Central Florida.
Nunez, who serves as chief of staff to Bishop Gregory Brewer, said brick-and-mortar Episcopal schools also serve children of other faiths. And because of the Anglican church’s ties with the erstwhile British Empire, the new virtual courses have a potential for global reach, including Africa and Southeast Asia.
“Because it’s virtual — it doesn’t have any walls and doesn’t have any borders — other Episcopal schools could use it to supplement what they’re doing,” he said. “A kid in a Nigeria or Singapore or somewhere could take these same classes online.”
The school is being run from Fort Pierce, where Trina Angelone has spent two years revitalizing St. Andrews with a blended learning curriculum and a broader transformation that turned the entire waterfront town into an extended classroom. (We’ll have more on that in the coming weeks).
The online Episcopal school is being incubated by Virtual Schools of Excellence — a new effort Angelone launched a few blocks away from the St. Andrews campus — until it’s able to stand on its own. It’s spent the past few months in a “soft launch,” training teachers and enrolling a small number of students. It’s now looking to enroll students for courses they’ll take over the summer .
“We’re hitting that market hard right now,” Angelone said. Students “can be in the backyard or the beach or anywhere else but they’re still doing their online classes.”
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