The Missouri Virtual Instruction Program (MoVIP) got off to a somewhat rocky start. Eagerly sought middle school courses were missing at first, and it was not clear what the available courses would cover or how the program would work.

Today, I took another look at the MoVIP website and am pleased to report that those initial problems have been straightened out. The site contains many resources, including: numbers of students enrolled at each grade level (more than 300 students are now enrolled in the middle school courses); a course demo; calendars, schedules, and other documents; and course descriptions.

The course descriptions are very thorough. They list textbooks, required projects, and course goals, so parents don’t have to guess what goes on in “Second Grade Science.” The explanations of how the program teaches reading and foreign language vocabulary are especially informative. You sometimes hear that a parent expected a school to use one teaching method and was upset to encounter another (phonics, new math, etc.). I can’t imagine that happening with MoVIP because they provide so much information up front.

With 100 to 300 students enrolled per grade level, MoVIP isn’t yet big enough to change the status quo in Missouri public education. I hope, as word spreads about this program, that it will spur healthy competition between virtual school and the traditional districts.