Virtual Schools

Few teachers, parents, or students would disagree with the observation that technology has had a profound impact on the education of individuals at all levels. Distance learning, where students and their instructors can be separated by thousands of miles, is only one example. Virtual schools are another.

A virtual school is a school that provides identical content to the traditional school building but is not constrained by a physical plant or structure. Virtual schools operate electronically, providing curricula, opportunities for parent involvement, and other essential services to individuals (mostly school-age children) at home because they are being homeschooled or at home because they cannot attend school for medical or legal reasons.

In effect, virtual schools have opened up the opportunity to millions of students to pursue public school educations in a way that combines new technology and appropriate pedagogy and content. According to a recent article in Education Week, these are “any-where, anytime” schools.

Currently, more than a million students are enrolled in a virtual schools in the United States, and given the increasing interest in them from families homeschooling their children and from others, the number is expected to increase in coming years. Such students are particularly attractive to school districts (who often get funded based on their enrollment figures) because students who enroll in a virtual school are often those who would be unaccounted for if that possibility did not exist. For example, parents with strong religious ties who would rather homeschool their child can easily do so through a virtual school, saving them enormous commitments of time and expense. Educating children through virtual schools reduces planning time and cuts down on expenses associated with educating children (supplies, computers, infrastructure, etc.).

Virtual schools tend to operate as follows. Students enroll in kindergarten through 12th grade, as they would in nonvirtual schools, and parents and the student as a group are invited to an orientation (as would be case with traditionally schooled students). Books and usually computers and printers are given out upon enrollment, and a teacher is assigned who will deliver assignments and play an active role in the teaching process through initiating and monitoring assignments.

The mechanisms by which virtual schools are funded varies as greatly as the design of the school. A combination of local and state funds, tuition costs to parents, and federal funds (which almost every school receives) make up the bulk of the support.

Do virtual schools “work”? If the definition of work is the completion of a curriculum that otherwise would not have been completed, the answer is probably a resounding yes. However, the movement is still too new such that there are not sufficient data to conclude that large amounts of eligible students would enroll when they would not have otherwise if the option were not available.

However, there are other measures of success for a school, which also need to be examined. Little is known about the impact that virtual schools have on academic achievement, participation in extracurricular activities, and the benefits (and disadvantages) of socializing throughout the day with peers.

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