It’s well-known that many schools throughout the country are struggling each year to hire enough teachers, particularly in content areas like science and foreign language.

One school district is experimenting with finding a solution to this problem through the use of virtual educators. This year, the Northampton County Public Schools (NCPS) in Virginia is partnering with Proximity Learning Inc. (PLI) to utilize three virtual educators to teach in-need subjects.

One virtual educator will teach high school Spanish, another will teach Middle School Explorations and the final will teach middle school science.

"Through this alliance, NCPS boasts the opportunity to continue meeting exemplary educational goals without any sacrifices to current faculty or resources,” said NCPS and PLI in a joint statement.

"PLI's Virtual Staffing provides a seamless and generally 'win-win' solution, providing master educators while still accommodating to each school's unique schedules, requirements and policies,” PLI said.

"PLI's courses are live and interactive, hosting familiar face-to-face classroom activities such as student participation, group exercises, with the opportunity to ask questions and problem solve with the teacher in real time.”

According to PLI’s website, using virtual teachers allows for districts to work within their budget and save on the costs of hiring a full-time teacher. In addition, it says students are ensured access to the best instructors from all over the country.

PLI claims that students using its courses have a 93 percent pass rate and an 87 percent completion rate.

Read more about PLI here.

Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

5/19/2016