ACCESS

About ACCESS

ACCESS Virtual Learning (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide), is an initiative of the Alabama Department of Education. Its primary goal is to provide high quality instruction and improve student achievement through virtual learning opportunities. With over 120 classes offered, ACCESS provides the entire high school curriculum at no cost to Alabama public schools. There are 30,000 students across the state of Alabama who are currently taking classes through ACCESS.

Goal

The goal of ACCESS Virtual Learning is to create equity by offering digital distance educational opportunities to all Alabama public high school students.

Mission

The mission of ACCESS Virtual Learning is to provide an infrastructure that delivers equitable, quality learning opportunities for all citizens.

Vision

The State of Alabama provides equal access to high-quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning.

History

In 2004. Governor Bob Riley created a task force to address issues regarding rural public schools who were not being able to hire additional teachers in order to offer more electives. The solution was to create a virtual learning environment that blended traditional and online/video conferencing resources. The outcome of this task force later created ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide). The program was broken into three regional support centers (supervised by ALSDE in Montgomery, AL) to hire, train, evaluate, and support ACCESS teachers as well as be support outlet for schools utilizing the program. The three support centers were divided by the northern, central, and southern regions of the state and housed in Madison City Schools, University of Alabama and Troy University.