Introduction

The development of the Personalized Pathways (P2) project is funded by a grant from the New Hampshire Department of Education to help reduce the drop-out rate by providing at-risk students with an on-line option to meet their school's competency requirements or to earn course credit through experiential learning opportunities. Personalized Pathways is a collaborative effort between the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) and school districts throughout New Hampshire. The P2 project will provide schools with the opportunity to combine their current at-risk program with the P2 project to create learning plans that meet the needs of all at-risk students. While the P2 project was designed to assist at-risk students both the competency recovery and experiential learning opportunity options are available to any high school student.

The Personalized Pathways project is divided into two components: (1) competency recovery, and (2) experiential learning opportunities. Competency recovery will allow schools to offer students who have not met competencies, the opportunity to enroll in an online course module with a certified instructor and complete coursework that will satisfy the local school's competency requirements. The experiential learning opportunity option allows students to participate in internships, service learning or other alternative forms of learning, combined with online instruction, to earn high school credit. Course topics available to students participating in either P2 option will include: English, world languages, fitness, mathematics, science, social studies, art, and technology.