What Do the Best Online Middle Schools Offer Students?
February 9, 2024
Students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 are succeeding at online schooling, and many are enjoying their online classes more than they did at their former schools.
What can the best online schools offer families considering an online middle school?
Exceptional Academics
The best online middle schools are held to the same high standards as excellent brick and mortar middle schools, and a select few have been in business long before the global pandemic forced education online overnight. These long-established online schools have become models of excellence for the newer online schools.
Dwight Global Online School, for example, was founded in 2014 and is the online program of the Dwight Schools Global Network, with campuses in London, Seoul, Shanghai, Dubai, Hanoi, and New York.
Dwight NY, the flagship campus, has a 150-year-long tradition as an independent school and was the first independent school in the Americas to offer all four International Baccalaureate programs.
Highly respected and ranked No. 2 on Niche.com and Newsweek magazine’s listing of the top 50 best online schools in the Americas, Dwight Global has received worldwide recognition for its excellence. The school has highly qualified faculty and is accredited, an especially important element if an online middle school student continues through online high school. Colleges and universities will accept student transcripts from accredited online schools, making accreditation an essential aspect when selecting the right online middle school.
Scheduling Flexibility
Online middle school programs provide flexibility to families with student athletes, performers, and other students who need time to travel with family or pursue outside school passions. These students need a mix of time on the road for competitions and performances, as well as time each day for school, study, and to train and practice. An online middle school like Dwight Global can meet these needs, and still provide consistency and rigorous academics.
An online education also allows families who travel together often for business or pleasure the chance to do so without a break in learning.
Take it from Marco Badino, parent of two Dwight Global Online School students.
“I strongly recommend online learning to anyone who has a passion and ambition for something outside school and at the same time doesn’t want to give up an outstanding academic curriculum,” said Badino.
“My children also appreciate the global network of schoolmates they are building around them, and we hope in the future they can leverage this network to be world citizens ready to face global challenges,” Badino said.
Support For All Learners
Dwight Global students have a combination of scheduled, twice-a-week, live classes and asynchronous, recorded lectures and seminars. This instructional model provides flexibility as well as something equally important: the opportunity for students to determine their own learning style and use that knowledge to maximize each school day.
“In Dwight Global’s online middle school, students in grades 6, 7 and 8 join an academically robust program where they are encouraged to collaborate, think critically and independently, and apply their knowledge to the world around them,” said Head of Dwight Global Middle School Sara Crucet. “Our focus on relationships and structured advisory programs also address students’ social-emotional needs.”
Online middle school learning teaches time management skills, self awareness, and advocacy for a student’s own academic success, skills that often get lost in many traditional schools.
All types of learners can benefit from online learning. Strong academic students benefit from online learning because they are able to fit more learning into each day. They also have access to a wider array of advanced classes than most traditional schools can provide. Struggling learners adapt well to learning in the comfort of their own home, with fewer distractions, extra support from faculty and administrators, and targeted help from learning resources specialists who guide them every step of the way.
Strong Community
An exceptional online middle school will make community a cornerstone of its mission.
Middle school students thrive when relationships are strong, and Dwight Global’s structure and use of technology strongly supports these relationships every day. Middle schoolers have plenty of time to engage and interact with faculty and with other students, both in class and outside of it, and to engage in opportunities for social and emotional learning.
At Dwight Global, students have one-on-one sessions with teachers, as well as regular advisory meetings, assemblies, and other unstructured time to socialize. Middle schoolers are involved in extracurriculars and clubs that provide additional time to socialize, learn, and collaborate with others.
Uniquely, Dwight Global students are also invited to join in-person orientations, graduations, guest lectures, performances, STEAM weekend, and more on Dwight's New York campus. Students may also arrange to visit and study on other Dwight campuses worldwide. This combination of online and in-person experiences is rare in an online middle school and offers families another dimension in creating personalized online learning for their children.
The combination of these elements provides a rich, dynamic middle school learning environment. Find out more about Dwight Online Global School and its highly respected middle school program here.