Using Public Virtual Schools to Develop a Workforce

Long before the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Courtney Bennett, Director of Virtual Learning for Warren County Schools in McMinnville, Tennessee, began utilizing virtual instruction as a means to prepare students to be college and career-ready upon graduating high school. Her efforts have led to students being employable upon graduating, often in the same community where the students have grown up.

In 2015, Dr. Bennett developed an online program that targeted students who were juniors or seniors at Warren County High School who wanted to work parttime in the community while completing course requirements for graduation. When COVID-19 blindsided schools across the country, Warren County was ahead of the game thanks to the groundwork for virtual learning laid by Bennett. When school districts were closed due to the pandemic and forced to move to remote instruction, Warren County was a step ahead of the game. “We went from approximately 125 students learning virtually to over 6,000 in a two-week time frame. It was all hands on deck to make that happen,” said Bennett when asked about how her school system rallied during a time of crisis. In 2020, Dr. Bennett applied for a school number with the Tennessee State Department of Education and began working to develop a state-recognized, public virtual school that would serve students in grades 6 to 12. The request was granted, and Warren County officially opened Warren Connect Online Academy in August 2021.

After the pandemic began to ease somewhat in 2021, Bennett still had over 1,600 students learning virtually. Many students and families were afraid to go back to in-person learning due to health concerns, but there were students who still wanted to be a part of the local job force and work toward graduating high school, so there was still a large need to provide opportunities for that specific subset of students. Bennett pressed on and partnered with a local community college and a technical school to provide students with additional options to be employable after high school. Dr. Bennett developed a partnership with Motlow State Community College and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in McMinnville, Tennessee, where students enrolled in virtual high school via Warren Connect Online Academy and could take dual enrollment classes at either Motlow State or TCAT. “We were doing something that had never been done, so there was no real playbook for what we were doing. We just knew we wanted to set our virtual students up to be college or career ready,” said Bennett. “Students attend Motlow State or TCAT during the day and work on their high school courses at night. When our students graduate, they are ready to get a job or go to college and that’s important.”

In 2022, Warren Connect Online Academy had students graduate with the Google IT Support Professional Certification due to a partnership with Motlow State Community College. Those students were employable immediately. “It’s amazing to see a high school senior graduate have the capability to find a job starting in the $50,000 per year pay range. For our community, that’s incredible.”

Dr. Bennett continues to build Warren Connect Online Academy and currently serves as a mentor to multiple other virtual school leaders across the state of Tennessee. She has served on the Tennessee Educational Technology Association Virtual Leaders and Instructional Learning committee, and presented at various state and national conferences.