How It Works
How Online Elementary School Works
Who can attend?
The Indiana Gateway Digital Academy (INGDA) elementary program serves students in grades K–5 who reside in the state of Indiana.
What are the costs?
Because INGDA is an online program of the Clarksville Community School Corporation, there is no tuition. We provide Indiana-licensed teachers and instructional materials. Families are responsible for providing some common household materials (such as printer ink and paper).
What’s my role as a parent?
As a parent, you (or another responsible adult you choose) serve as your child’s Learning Coach. You’ll work with your child’s teacher to help record student attendance, monitor mastery of online lessons and assessments, and review student work.
Parent/Learning Coach involvement is vital to your child’s success, especially at the elementary level. The typical Learning Coach time commitment in grades K–5 is 4–6 hours a day. The initial 4–8 weeks can be intensive, as your family settles into a routine.
Grades K–2
Parent/Learning Coach daily involvement is critical and approximately 10–15 percent of this time is online.
Grades 3–5
Students begin to have increased independence, but parent/Learning Coach involvement is essential for about 70–80 percent of school time and approximately 15–25 percent of this time is online.
What will my child study?
Coursework is a mix of online and hands-on work, which caters to a wide variety of learning styles. Unit and course assessments are built in to each subject, and easy-to-use online planning and progress tools keep you and your student on track.
K–5th graders take courses in the core subjects listed below. Beginning in grade 3, they also take a self-guided elective course in music or a world language.
ENGLISH / LANGUAGE ARTS
MATH
SCIENCE
HISTORY
ART
Working with Your Teacher
Teachers provide individual and small group assistance via online synchronous sessions called “Class Connects.” Students are expected to attend all required Class Connects and meet with their teacher to receive course assistance, tutoring, and instruction. Class Connects vary by grade level and are scheduled by your teacher.
Attendance
Attendance is logged Monday through Friday according to a traditional school calendar; however, academic progress can be achieved during the weekends as well. Middle school students are expected to spend approximately 6–7 hours on schoolwork per school day.
Mastering Lessons
In the elementary grades, students are required to show mastery of each lesson by achieving 80 percent or better on all lesson assessments. If your child is having difficulty mastering a lesson, let their homeroom teacher know as soon as possible. Teachers offer many support sessions to help students gain mastery.
Expectations for Completing Schoolwork
In middle school, student learning changes to a semester-based approach where students are required to earn a passing grade on their assignments and online lessons. Due dates are assigned to lessons to encourage consistent, steady progress for academic success.
While online lessons can usually be completed at any time of day, students are required to attend teacher-led, direct-instruction, online synchronous Class Connect sessions. During Class Connects, students receive online instruction from teachers and have opportunities to interact virtually with classmates.
Attending Class Connects and completing coursework according to the assigned pacing schedule, will help set up your student for success.
Email is the primary form of communication between the school and families. Learning Coaches and students are required to check and respond to emails on a daily basis.
State Testing
INGDA students are required to participate in district and state testing. This is a mandatory part of the school and required by Indiana statute.
Empowering Young Readers
At INGDA, we are pleased to use Amira to personalize learning journeys for elementary-aged students. INGDA Elementary School Reading Specialist Amy Gard shows us exactly how the AI teaching partner works for our students in this on-demand webinar. Register to learn more!
