Week in Review

Partnership with Children's Home Society of Florida

PENSACOLA, FLA. — June 27, 2013 — Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE) announces its partnership with the Treasure Coast Division of the Children's Home Society of Florida. This partnership enables homeless youth and young adults, ages 18 to 23, to access SHCOE's leading-edge online courses through CHS's transitional living program. Headquartered in Port St. Lucie, Florida, the Treasure Coast CHS serves more than 12,000 youth and their families each year in Okeechobee, Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties. The SHCOE program is available to the 150-200 young adults who participate annually in the transitional living program.

Treasure Coast CHS's transitional living clients reside in a youth transition center, located in Vero Beach, FL, where they complete their courses in an onsite learning lab. The program is also available to nonresidential clients, who can access their online courses from any computer.

Ascend Career Academy provides Career Training Education Florida high school students, plans to expand nationally, internationally

PENSACOLA, FLA. — June 27, 2013 — Dr. Howard Liebman, CEO and Superintendent of Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE), and Octavio J. Visiedo, former Superintendent of Schools for Miami-Dade County, announce the launch of Ascend Career Academy.
SHCOE has partnered with a distinguished group of educational professionals based in South Florida to establish Ascend Career Academy, an AdvancED/SACS-accredited, online high school. This unique partnership with SHCOE is a way of creating a pathway of viable academic and career alternatives for students.

In addition to serving Florida students, Ascend Career Academy will work with legislatures, mid- and large-size school districts, businesses, community organizations, and juvenile justice programs to offer the program nationwide. There are also plans to enroll international students. Ascend Career Academy will make a special effort to reach out to and address the needs of minority students.
Smart Horizons Career Online High School is the leading Internet-based career high school program for correctional institutions in the United States. Since its launch in Florida Department of Corrections prisons, it has proven effective in delivering highly secure, performance-based, teacher-supported instruction to inmates with limited educational backgrounds.

SHCOE asked to participate in Clinton Global Initiative

SHCOE was invited to participate in this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The CGI brings together public and private ventures to address issues of social impact—this year’s theme was “re-engaging youth and disenfranchised adults” and “workforce development.” We are delighted to be able to work directly with President Clinton to raise the profile of those at risk, and deliver an AdvancED/SACS accredited high school program that can make a huge difference.

About Smart Horizons Career Online Education
Founded in 2009 and located in Pensacola, Florida, is a private, AdvancED/SACS accredited online school district. AdvancED/SACS District accreditation signifies that SHCOE and all of its schools are fully accredited and that SHCOE is recognized across the nation as a quality school system. Smart Horizons Career Online Education offers 18-credit, career-based high school diploma programs that are designed to prepare students for entrance into the workplace. Career certificate offerings include Childcare Education, Office Management, Protection Services, Homeland Security, Transportation Services, and Professional Skills. For more information, visit our website at www.shcoe.org, call our office at 855-777-4265 or email us at info@shcoe.org

About NexPort Solutions Group
NexPort Solutions Group is a division of Darwin Global, LLC, a systems and software engineering company that provides innovative, cost-effective training solutions and support for federal, state and local government, as well as the private sector.

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NexPort Solutions Blog: Inaugural Post

NexPort Solutions has come a long way from its rather humble beginnings in 2002.  Back then, it was all we could do to keep the Distributed Content Management System (DCMS) up-and-running, and meeting customer requirements.  However, the insights gained through that experience proved extremely valuable as we progressed from a hybridized platform to a model-view-controller architecture.  With each release, NexPort matured and the NexPort Solutions organization matured with it.  The pending release of NexPort 5.0 positions NexPort for compatibility with emerging technologies (e.g., cloud-based delivery, HTML5). 

Agile Practices

From the beginning, NexPort’s development has been mediated by agile development practices (i.e., build what the customer needs at the moment, get it into users’ hands as soon as possible, gain insight from its use, revise if necessary).  Basing development upon empirical evidence rather than on market hype often distinguishes NexPort from other similar products.


Another agile development practice that has affected NexPort’s development has been anticipation of change.  From the beginning, NexPort Solutions has given sincere thought to what will our customers need in the coming years to stay competitive?  That has led to an emphasis on paying down technology debt and positioning NexPort for compatibility with an ever-changing array of browsers, operating systems, databases, and security requirements.

Supporting Customers' Endeavors in the Corrections Industry

A significant NexPort customer, Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE) relies upon NexPort to provide an online learning environment that meets the security and reliability requirements of their customers in correctional facilities.  Not only is SHCOE the world’s first fully accredited online private school district, they are also leading the way in providing Internet-based education to correctional facilities throughout the nation.
 
Convincing Governors, State Legislators, Superintendents of Corrections, Wardens, and Correctional Educators to provide inmates with access to the Internet is certainly no easy task.  However, the staff at NexPort Solutions has repeatedly demonstrated to these customers that NexPort is up to the challenge.

What's Next?

In the coming year, NexPort will help SHCOE expand into the correctional education field with more mature capabilities that address increased security requirements, blended delivery modes (i.e., synchronous and asynchronous), delivery on mobile devices (i.e., tablets), adaptive testing, intelligent assignments, and aggregated reporting.

At the same time, NexPort Solutions will continue to grow a family of interoperable products:  NexPort, NexPort Reporting Services, and NexMeeting.  Watch this forum for more discussions on these developments.

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