District Profile: Now Launching in CoMo

As Dr. Beth Winton discusses her philosophy on student opportunity, she hints at the fact that it takes a village. “To me, it’s a big collaborative effort to make sure that students get what they need in a way that keeps them motivated and interested,” Dr. Winton says.

As the district’s Online Program Administrator, Dr. Winton oversees CPS Online, which is the district’s primary virtual learning option for its secondary students. And while the program itself has a lot of moving parts and coordination among CPS educators, the collab doesn’t stop there. “If there’s a need that arises—perhaps something we don’t have an online option for, or we don’t have a certified teacher for something—we’ll use Launch,” Dr. Winton says.

Launch at the Elementary Level

While Columbia Public Schools first began offering Launch courses to students on a per-course basis in 2019, the district officially partnered with Launch in 2022. The primary reason for this partnership was providing virtual options for elementary students—during the 2023-2024 school year, approximately 10% of Columbia’s secondary virtual students were enrolled in at least one Launch course, and 100 percent of the district’s K-5 virtual students utilized the program.

“We don’t offer elementary courses with CPS Online,” Dr. Winton says. After researching Missouri’s K-5 virtual programming options, the district chose Launch as its primary elementary provider. And this was a decision that was made over the option of building elementary programming internally with CPS online. “You all have the infrastructure, the training, the experienced teachers,” Dr. Winton says. “As we researched, we discovered that it would be almost burdensome for us to build it out—it would be silly for us, even—because you guys already provide a quality option for our state.”

As Dr. Winton discusses the district’s decision to partner, she says one of the things administrators liked the most about Launch was its synchronous opportunities. “The younger our virtual students are, the more important it is to us that there is a synchronous option,” Dr. Winton says. “We feel that’s more educationally sound.”

The Student Experience

Marc Lujan, a rising fifth grader who spent part of third grade and all of fourth grade online with Launch, says he had a great experience. “My teacher, Mrs. Blake, was really nice, and she always let us have extra time if we needed more time to work,” Marc says. “Also, I got to meet online friends, and I actually had a lot of fun,” he says.

As Marc discusses his online friends, he talks about the various ways they connected, both during and after school. “Mrs. Blake would put us in breakout rooms, and we would chat about a particular subject,” Marc says. “But after school, sometimes, we would get online and start chatting again.”

Marc remembers several things standing out throughout the year, including how Mrs. Blake always talked about the weather, and how he learned all about how his favorite food transfers from farm to table in his Science class. “We learned the different steps it takes to make a burger,” Marc says. “I really thought that was so fun.”

A Parent’s Perspective

Marc’s mother, Tiffiny, says they were pleased to have Launch as an option for their son. “Marc has an IEP, and Launch has been great about working with him,” Tiffiny says. “We came from out of state to Missouri, and we didn’t have a great experience with the online program we were using in California. We were really impressed with Launch.”

Patricia MacNeil, the mother of former fifth grade student Agnes, had similar accolades. “Agnes is autistic and has an IEP, which means that she has some really tricky independent needs that were not able to be met in a traditional classroom setting,” Patricia says. “Launch worked really well for her. I think she liked it because she was able to be at home, which is a comfortable place for her, and she’s surrounded by things that are comfortable and familiar for her.”

As Patricia discusses Agnes’s Launch experience, she says that she also liked that she was able to work so close with her Launch teacher. “I was there with her, too, and if she was struggling or having a rough day, I could communicate that with her teacher,” Patricia says. “We would work through it together. The teacher was great, because he worked to develop a relationship with her.”