The History of iNACOL

The Need for a K-12 e-Learning Organization

In October 2000, a national virtual high school symposium, "Building and Growing Your Online School" was organized by CiTE, a division of eCollege. eCollege is a commercial provider of course management systems for the K-12 and higher education market. The idea for the conference grew out of repeated requests for information to the existing virtual schools, particularly in Kentucky and Florida. As those states were the first to organize at the state-level, they were strong models for other states. More than 200 attendees participated. Feedback throughout the meeting was very positive, with comments that it was a much needed 'first meeting of its kind.' In the feedback session at that meeting, someone first suggested the need for a national organization for virtual high schools.

Also in October, 2000, the National School Board Association's (NSBA) "Teaching and Learning Conference" gathered a group of virtual high school leaders and led an informal discussion about the needs of K-12 virtual schools. There was a similar sense of need for more interaction and communication among the virtual schools. Out of that meeting, a listserv was developed, but the group has not been able to organize under the auspices of the NSBA.

In response to the initial request for a national association, there were efforts to locate a potential 'home' for a virtual high school association within an existing organization. Organizations that were contacted included the National School Boards Association, the National Education Association, the SchoolTone Alliance, and representatives from the former Web-Based Education Commission (David Byer, former executive director and Irene Spero, former public affairs director). WCET was also approached to serve this audience, but it was determined that K-12 falls outside their mission and scope. In each case, there was expressed support for the creation of a national association designed to work with virtual high schools, but no indication that a current organization was willing to expand their own mission and role to serve this new audience. These national education leaders were similarly unaware of any other existing education-related organization that would be interested in developing a virtual K-12 organization.

iNACOL's Background

For more than two years, leaders of virtual K-12 programs have been discussing their need to organize, share knowledge, and associate as a group. They have done this through conferences and gatherings that were developed in response to the high level of individual inquiries to individual schools and programs.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation sponsored two meeting to discuss the needs of the schools and the states involved with virtual school programs. The first meeting was held October 15, 2001 in conjunction with the CiTE Virtual High School Symposium in Chicago. Following this meeting, a series of conference calls took place to determine an issues agenda and to plan the next meeting.

The second meeting, a Virtual High School Summer Institute, was held August 15-17, 2002 in Santa Cruz. Additionally, there were several conference calls with interested parties to determine next steps and to identify the agenda for the Summer Institute.

The Virtual High School Summer Institute was held at the University of California Santa Cruz Inn, hosted by the University of California College Preparatory Initiative (UCCP) and WCET. It was attended by more than 50 virtual high school leaders from across the country from Hawaii and Alaska to New Jersey and Connecticut. An open dialogue and spirited sharing of knowledge on multiple levels took place over three days.

Out of this meeting, the group generated a preliminary vision and formed a planning committee.

For more information, please send a message to iNACOL.

Historical Documentation