Only one year old, IUHS is gaining momentum

By Lisa Denlinger

Bopp

Accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the high school is administered by the IU School of Continuing Studies’ long-standing Independent Study High School Program. “Typical enrollees are homeschooled, homebound, or otherwise not thriving in a conventional high school program,” said IUHS principal Larry Onesti.

Among these students is 17-year-old Stew Rish of Virginia Beach, Va. Diagnosed during the past year with attention deficit disorder, the intelligent teen was struggling in public school. IU High School, said Stew’s mother Retha, provided a “perfect” alternative.

“IUHS courses,” she said, “are structured, information is presented in small bytes, the instructors provide lots of positive feedback and students work at their own pace. With his IUHS diploma in hand,” she said, “Stew will be able to apply to colleges with a diploma that ‘means something’ because it came from Indiana University.”

One of the reasons an IUHS diploma “means something,” said IUHS coordinator Dan Bopp, is because Indiana University High School maintains the highest level of academic integrity. Its curriculum, he explained, complies with the competencies and pro-ficiences established by the Indiana State Department of Education.

“Indiana University High School’s 43 state-certified instructors and six academic advisers, as well as its administrators and support staff, remain committed to the exciting and challenging possibilities presented by distance education,” said Bopp. “As we confidently enter our second year of service, Indiana University High School is proud to uniquely contribute to IU’s identity as a truly great, truly public university.”

http://www.indiana.edu/~scs/offerings/highschool.html