PA Distance Online High School Program Overview

PA Distance's online high school students engage in 5.5 hours of school per day through our blended learning environment. This includes both synchronous (live) and asynchronous (independent) learning activities. How does this blended approach benefit high school students?

High School Course Catalog
A young man sitting at his desk with a laptop during a virtual learning session, and a monitor displaying another person. The room has bookshelves, framed artwork, and a window with floral curtains.

How Does Online High School Work?

PA Distance’s virtual high school program incorporates synchronous live learning sessions and asynchronous learning opportunities.

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Live Learning

Each synchronous, Live Learning Session with their teachers is 60 minutes long and encompasses 2-3 hours of their day, depending on their class schedule.

Smiling girl writing in notebook at a desk with school supplies, in a cozy, well-lit classroom.

Independent Lessons

Students are assigned independent asynchronous lessons, which are between 30-60 minutes each day or about 5 hours per school week, in each subject.

Mr. Charles Mort, High School Principal

“At PA Distance, high school students engage in flexible, real-world learning that goes beyond the classroom—preparing them for college, careers, and life, wherever they are.”

Educational Programs

  • Promotional banner for enVision K-12 Math Series by Savvas Learning Company, featuring a robot character on the right side and colorful geometric design elements in blue, green, and purple.

    enVision Mathematics

    This highly-rated product aligns directly with PA Core Math standards, challenges students to think critically about math concepts, and personalizes math for students.

  • A promotional flyer for Apex Courses by Edmentum featuring a group of four diverse students and information about personalized digital curricula for grade 6-12 learners.

    Edmentum Courseware: Plato

    A curriculum product that enables daily mastery assessments allowing for frequent evaluation and adjustment of student learning plans ensuring continuous progress.

  • A blue outline of a computer monitor and keyboard next to the text 'CodeHS' in gray.

    Code HS

    Code HS is an online teaching platform that supplements the Live Learning Sessions that go along with the Computer Science elective courses that PA Distance now offers high school students. Code HS is made to supplement and enrich the lessons for each class.

  • Arrangement of health and fitness items including a water bottle, headphones, remote control, notebook, and various fruits with the text 'Glencoe Health' in the center.

    Glencoe Health

    Glenco Health provides students with age-appropriate content that aligns with national and state health and safety standards. Glenco Health is a research-based program that focuses on developing students’ knowledge and skills during critical periods of development. 

  • Multiple digital screens displaying educational and organizational websites, including StudySync with a landscape image, a colorful cityscape, and pages related to democracy and hero's journey.

    StudySync ELA

    StudySync is a comprehensive ELA education curriculum for grades 6–12. StudySync is designed to captivate through selections of culturally diverse literature, elevate instruction tailored to specific learning needs, and provide flexibility to create the ideal classroom experience for students.

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Graduation

To celebrate the end of students’ high school education and honor their hard work, PA Distance hosts a yearly in-person graduation ceremony in Harrisburg, PA. During this event, seniors and their families celebrate with their teachers and classmates while receiving a high school diploma in their caps and gowns.

Five women standing together inside a room with a wall painting of a panda bear and the word "Bamboo" above it. Four of the women are wearing orange t-shirts with messages promoting kindness, inclusion, and ending bullying, while the woman in the middle wears a yellow t-shirt with a focus-related design. They are smiling and standing close together.

Student support should extend to education and beyond.

With the help of our interventionists, counselors, teachers, and student support staff, we can meet each student where they are and help them to grow.

To ensure every child has the tools that they need to be successful, PA Distance utilizes a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) to grow out students academically, behaviorally, and socially.

  • Delivery of standards-based instruction and differentiated learning opportunities to meet the needs of students

  • Collection and analysis of multiple data points to support informed decisions regarding curriculum, instruction, and assessment

  • Implementation of a tiered system of support to differentiate programmatic interventions of all students

A teenage boy with dark hair in a black hoodie sitting at a desk with a laptop in a bright room, with bookshelves and a TV in the background.

Student Support

A group of people are gathered in a classroom, watching a presentation with several speakers standing at the front. The room has large windows, and gaming-related materials are on the table.

Office Hours:

Students have the opportunity to meet any of their teachers for additional help on their daily assignments. At 3:00 p.m. every day, students can meet with their teachers virtually via a video call, phone call, or chat.

Career & Work:

We require all of our students to go through our career education and work program in order to prepare them for life after online high school in PA. Requirements vary by grade level.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports:

PA Distance utilizes Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to provide a behavioral support system to high school students. PBIS is a process for creating safer and more effective schools. It is a systems approach to enhancing the capacity of schools to educate all students by developing research-based, school-wide, and classroom behavior support systems. High school students are given monthly projects to show their progress in exhibiting what PA Distance called our Core Four, which is made up of four behaviors we feel students need to succeed in life and school. These include organization, self-advocacy, working independently, and attending school.