By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK—Lorna Bryant hoped to lead one of the only public schools in the state where elite young athletes, students with severe medical disabilities and victims of bullying could learn together in a nontraditional classroom — one where all the instruction takes place online.
Teachers of the proposed New Jersey Virtual Academy Charter School would have used web cameras to broadcast their lessons over the internet.
Students with questions would have posed them in an e-mail or during a web chat.
Bryant, 40, called the model “revolutionary” and one that has shown promise in other states, including Arkansas, where the former teacher lived with her family before moving to Livingston last year to help launch an online-only charter school for New Jersey students.
Every kid at the school Bryant hoped to start would have received a laptop, and students living in homes without internet connections would have gotten a subsidy to sign up, she said.
“We know that online learning is not for everyone, but countless parents from every corner of the state told us that for this child, this one particular child, the virtual school model is what we want,” Bryant said.
However, Bryant’s plan will have to wait.
Earlier this month, Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf halted the opening of the state’s first two fully virtual charter schools, including the one Bryant was set to lead, citing legal concerns and insufficient evidence that web-based schooling helps students achieve academic success.
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