The Class of 2007 of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) honored and thanked Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted for saving School Choice in Ohio and appearing as its Commencement Speaker.
Husted spoke to an audience of thousands of ECOT graduates, parents and friends as they participated in the seventh annual ECOT Commencement, which was webcast live from the Germain Amphitheater in Columbus. Over 885 students were eligible to participate in the event.
Click here to view a webcast of the ceremony!Husted became the first person in history to become an Honorary Graduate of ECOT – America’s largest e-school with more than 8,000 enrolled. Husted accepted an honorary diploma and a special commemorative “thank you” book signed by all students, parents and teachers attending.
“Without Speaker Jon Husted, we may not be having our commencement here today, and the ECOT revolution in e-learning in Ohio may have ended,” said ECOT Founder William Lager, who recalled Husted’s accomplishments for e-learning and charter schools since his election to the House in 2000.
“The Speaker is not just your commencement speaker. He is truly the champion of the Class of 2007 and the champion of all charter school students in Ohio.”
Superintendent Jeffrey Forster said ECOT students and staff also thanked the Speaker with “excellent academic progress” in the past few years. He announced that ECOT’s testing attendance in 2007 would meet federal AYP standards for the first time with an average of more than 96 percent attendance by students in all federal categories.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for a statewide e-school with students and teachers, who must travel to more than a hundred testing sites scattered across the state,” Forster said. “This is a first for ECOT.”
He also recalled that ECOT students jumped two steps on the state Report Card in 2006 to Continuous Improvement. ECOT student progress in two years on the State Performance Index was the third highest among all Ohio schools for 2006.
Five of the graduates received scholarship awards during the ceremony:
-- Caroline Perucci of Marietta received the Founder’s Scholarship in honor of ECOT Founder William Lager of Altair Learning Management of Columbus.
-- Christina Bush of Delaware received the Ohio Academic Scholarship for academic achievement from the Ohio Board of Regents.
-- Matthew L. Smith from Canton received the Sponsor’s Scholarship in honor of ECOT’s chartering authority.
-- Christine Alspach of Columbus received the Coann Michael Memorial Scholarship for perseverance in the face of adversity.
Senior Anthony Grigsby of Dayton led the Pledge of Allegiance to start the ceremony. Seniors Kirsten Boyer of Miamisburg, Lynsey Butterworth of Columbus and Zachary Whetzel of London led their classmates in the traditional turning of the tassel.
As in past years, the ECOT ceremony today was hardly the typical commencement with a lot of teary good-byes to classmates. Instead, many of the graduating seniors greeted each other, their teachers and administrators for the first time. ECOT students spend most of their time learning in their homes and communities throughout Ohio, assisted by ECOT computers and teachers who are also home-based. ECOT currently has over 8,000 students in grades K-12.
Seven years ago, Lager conceived and founded ECOT as Ohio’s first statewide e-school for K-12. He and ECOT Board of Directors secured a charter from the Lucas County Educational Service Center.
