Purpose – This article highlights the recipient of the Exemplary PDS Award given by the National Association of School–University Partnerships. In 2024, the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Watson College of Education (WCE) PDS School–University Partnership with Isaac Bear Early College (IBEC) and Southeast Area Technical (SEA-Tech) High School were recognized for their collaborative work. This article highlights the structures and major activities involved in a longstanding, successful PDS partnership. Design/methodology/approach – The article is derived from the award proposal and written in an informative, narrative style, embedding references to each of the NAPDS 9 Essentials to assist in highlighting key aspects of the partnership. Findings – Due to the nature of this piece, there are no research findings. Originality/value – This article draws additional attention to various aspects of this exemplary partnership and may inspire future nominations.

Cultivating supportive online learning environments is an art that begins with nurturing connectedness and community through social presence. As learning management systems continue to become more intuitive, faculty may seek to achieve a more individualized approach by considering authoring tools that respond to individual student needs and preferences in regard to course presentation, navigation, and content. Reflection and prior experience relate to the knowledge and experience element of the Social Presence Model. Reflection lends itself as a powerful formative assessment tool, encouraging learners to actively reflect on course readings and assignments in relation to their prior experiences, interests, and career plans. Recognizing students need for early and continuous feedback on their academic performance contributes to social presence and can positively affect student performance and retention. It affects social presence because feedback serves as a primary and important communication channel between instructors and students.

This article examined a blended learning initiative in a large suburban high school in the Midwestern region of the United States. It employed a single-case exploratory design approach to learn about the experience of administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Using Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) Theory as a guiding framework, this study explored surveys, face-to-face observation data, interview transcriptions, and focus group transcriptions to learn about different stakeholders’ experiences and their observations about student readiness for blended learning. As a result, the data suggested three major themes, namely how blended learning initiatives can promote autonomy and self-regulation, encourage inquiry and build relationships, and ultimately help students feel ready for college.

Purpose - This chapter presents data from research studies specifically aimed at gathering the perspectives of K-12 students who are taking online courses for credit recovery, their virtual school teachers, and face-to-face school support professionals.Approach - This research employed ethnographic techniques to explore the benefits and challenges of online learning as a strategy for credit recovery.Findings - Our research explores several key findings. The data suggest that the benefits and challenges of online learning for students are one in the same. With proper orientation, individualized support, and purposeful structuring of online programs, online and blended learning as a potential solution for credit recovery students, potentially decreasing the number of future high school dropouts.Implications - This chapter suggests a need to look more carefully at orientation, support, and structuring procedures for online credit recovery.Value - This chapter is very valuable as a tool for thinking about credit recovery online. It also provides valuable insight into credit recovery from the perspectives of students who are doing the online courses.

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to explore the Occupational Course of Study (OCS) program through blended learning courses offered through the North Carolina Virtual Public School. In this program, students take classes online with a virtual content area teacher and meet in a face-to-face setting with a certified special education teacher.Methodology/approach - This chapter offers a practical exploration of the OCS program. Its intention is to offer insight into the perspectives of virtual teachers and face-to-face teachers and provide an understanding of how this type of blended learning has the potential to deliver high quality academic coursework targeted to meet individual learning needs.Findings - This blended environment format is a viable method for helping highly qualified content area teachers and teachers with disabilities work together to meet the individual learning needs of students with disabilities.Research implications - The OCS program is able to support large numbers of students who need transition services. Evaluation on this program reveals that collaboration between various educational professionals supports learning outcomes for students.Originality/value - Many K12 districts offer alternative diplomas for students with exceptionalities, with a goal of preparing students for their transition to postsecondary employment and independent living. This chapter offers a practical description of this program for the benefit of other systems that may want to consider this model.

In this three-year, mixed methods case study, the benefits and challenges of online learning for at-risk high school students were examined. A key finding was that at-risk students identify the benefits and challenges of online learning to be the same. While students appreciate the opportunity to work ahead and study at their own pace, they see it as a challenge to be responsible for their own learning and manage their time. The authors of this paper argue that, with proper support structures in place, students who are at-risk for dropping out can overcome challenges and find success in an online learning environment.

Huntley High School in Huntley, Illinois has recently implemented a blended learning initiative to meet needs of their learners in the 21st century, infusing technology into the school's curriculum and teachers' instructional practices, and preparing students for college and career. Huntley's unique mix of traditional and blended learning provides a variety of ways for students to learn in both elective and core classes. We share Huntley's unique model of blended learning, focusing on four lessons learned.

Using the Social Presence Model (SPM), the authors explore the teacher and student experience at the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS), the largest public online secondary school where teachers design and develop the curriculum. Through a series of surveys, focus groups, and interviews, this two-year mixed methods study investigates the concept of social presence through the SPM. The overall findings suggest that teachers value all five elements of the SPM and see it as an important new heuristic for achieving increased student satisfaction and outcomes. Students largely did not find the Model useful, except for the Instructor Involvement element. Furthermore, because of their online learning experiences, students noted an increased investment in their own learning. Further analysis suggests the importance of integrating connectedness and social presence into student orientations and teacher professional development opportunities. Overall, social presence serves as learning a new language—a new literacy—that is essential to a successful online teaching and learning experience.