Empowering Middle, High School Students Statewide with Virtual Classes

Alabama middle and high school students can take classes online for free thanks to a virtual learning program offered through a partnership with The University of Alabama and the Alabama State Department of Education.

What is ACCESS?

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide is a grant-funded program created in 2006 and offers over 120 virtual and blended courses, including Advanced Placement courses.

Whether a student has failed a class and needs to catch up, wants to take a class that isn’t taught at their local school, or has any other need for flexibility in their schedule, ACCESS provides a solution. All courses are taught by Alabama-certified teachers and meet the learning standards outlined by the State of Alabama.

Nellie Christian, director of the ACCESS Virtual Learning program at UA, said every type of student from grades 6-12 can benefit from the program.

“Across the state, ACCESS serves both public and private schools, and we also have some homeschooled students enrolled,” she said. “Some schools have no immediate need for ACCESS, but in our area consisting of 246 schools, about 60 percent are using our program.”

The ACCESS Support Center at UA has a course delivery team that actively supports students and schools as well as a course development team that works to create the courses for the entire ACCESS program. The UA Support Center serves schools across the middle portion of the state. 

Two other state support centers, the Madison Support Center located in the Madison City School District, which covers the northern third of Alabama to include from Cullman, north; and the Troy University Support Center located at Troy University, which covers the southern third of the state to include Montgomery, south, have a course delivery team that supports students. All three support centers work together with the ALSDE to support student success in ACCESS courses.

ACCESS also offers professional development and training on best practices for online courses for its teachers.

Why ACCESS Matters

Students Learn at Their Own Pace

Brody Mazingo is a UA freshman from Jemison. He is a double major in political science and business on the pre-law track who used ACCESS to make sure he didn’t fall behind during his very busy senior year.

“I took physics through ACCESS in the second semester of my senior year because I was involved in a lot at school,” he said. “I was a state officer with DECA, SGA president, on the golf team and volunteered with the Special Olympics.”

Mazingo said when he learned about ACCESS, he didn’t realize it would be as paramount to his academic success as it has been.

“The school told us about ACCESS when I was junior,” he said. “I knew I would be missing a lot of school and my senior year would’ve been much, much harder without ACCESS.”

Teachers Reach More Students

Students and teachers alike see the benefits of ACCESS. Lance Northcutt is a 33-year veteran teacher and has also been teaching in the program since its inception. Despite his early doubts, he quickly learned teaching in the ACCESS program was something he was always meant to do.

“Fourteen years ago, a friend introduced me to ACCESS and said it was the way of the future,” he said. “I’m old school so I was very skeptical. But I was shocked because I fell in love with it.”

In addition to teaching full-time at Oak Grove High School, Northcutt part-time teaches algebra, geometry and financial planning to students across the state through ACCESS.

His students vary in need from those with Individualized Education Plans to students doing AP courses, credit recovery and regular courses.

“ACCESS is important because we’re reaching so many kids we were missing before,” he said. “ACCESS is available when face-to-face is not.”

Schools Serve Students Better

By centralizing online course development and management, ACCESS supports schools and school systems so they can focus on their students’ needs.

Prattville High School Assistant Principal Michal Stallworth said ACCESS helps their students stay on track.

“In the summertime, our students utilize ACCESS through credit recovery and full course options to attain credit for courses that they have not previously passed,” she explained. “We use ACCESS as our platform for summer school and have seen great student success with the implementation.”

The method of course delivery is determined by each school district. Stallworth said students on Prattville High School’s campus are supplied with a campus facilitator to support them in classes during the school year. 

She added that reaching students before they need help is the goal.

“Our counseling department reaches out to parents and students to give them information about ACCESS during scheduling nights and in individual student meetings, she said. “We have around 65 students using it right now. Some of them may be taking courses that we don’t currently offer. Others may be using it to allow more flexibility in scheduling.”

How ACCESS Works

For Students

Students can take AP courses, foreign languages, electives and standard subjects like social studies, English, math and more. Fifty-seven of the courses are also NCAA-compliant for students who plan to continue pursuing their respective sports at Division I, II or III colleges or universities.

Students can also take advantage of the credit recovery option where they can take a course through ACCESS that they didn’t pass in a traditional classroom setting to try to earn a passing grade.

The ACCESS courses are aligned with the standards required by the state of Alabama.

Some career prep and technical education courses are currently available, but Christian said they’re looking to add to those offerings.

“Growth for us would be offering even more career tech courses for ACCESS students,” she said. “I do see us growing in that area, based on the needs the school systems have identified.”

For Teachers

Teachers who deliver ACCESS courses are Alabama-certified and can be employed with a school district, teach ACCESS part-time or be independently employed. If they do work for a school district, they can only teach ACCESS courses to students outside the school district for which they work so there is no conflict of interest or course cross-over.

How to Gain ACCESS

The ACCESS website offers an extensive look at resources for learning about teaching in the ACCESS program, a listing of the current course offerings and information for parents who want to see if ACCESS is a fit for their student.