J.R. Tucker High School held a luncheon earlier this month to recognize students who had completed courses online through the Education2020 program during the past year.

Education2020, or e2020 for short, is “a web-based online curriculum that is aligned to Virginia state standards for graduation,” e2020 representative Christine Sellers said. The online program is accessible 24 hours a day and offers more than 80 courses in Virginia, as well as SAT and ACT test prep courses.

The 2010-11 academic year marked the first year that e2020 was used not only in J.R. Tucker, but in all public high schools in Henrico. In total, 550 courses were completed by Henrico County high school students, 109 of which were completed by students from J.R. Tucker. As a result of the credits earned from these courses, 16 J.R. Tucker students obtained a promotion to the next grade level.

Among the students recognized at the June 3 luncheon were 33 seniors who are scheduled to graduate on time with their peers thanks in part to credits earned via e2020 courses. Many of the seniors ended up using the e2020 program to catch up in courses that they had fallen behind in for various reasons.

One graduating senior, Sarah Carpenter, was homebound for about a month and a half due to back surgery on two herniated discs, which caused her to fall behind in her Algebra II class. Rather than try to play catch-up, Carpenter decided to enroll in the e2020 version of the course.

“[e2020] is a very convenient thing for people who get far behind,” said Carpenter, who plans to continue her education online at American Military University. “Without e2020, I wouldn’t have graduated [on time] and would’ve needed to take night school.”

Sellers agreed.

"The individualized instruction [of the e2020 program] is a big help and allows the students to work at their own pace," she said.

The e2020 program is similar to the traditional classroom style of teaching in that students are allotted a class period to work solely on their online courses, and they have 18 weeks to complete the courses.

“The most difficult part [of an e2020 course] for the students is that there is no teacher, so if they don’t know something, they have to either Google it or consult the textbook,” said Terri Kilmer, e2020 Classroom Facilitator for J.R. Tucker High. As classroom facilitator, Kilmer is the closest thing e2020 students have to a teacher, as she monitors students while they work online.

“I try to help them [with the subject matter] as much as I can, but usually I don’t know initially and end up doing some research on the topic to help students out,” Kilmer said.