The students, who will be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis, will be officially enrolled in their local public schools but take all of their core academic courses and electives necessary to earn a diploma online, with instruction provided by teachers with official certification from the commonwealth.
The boom around virtual education at the K-12 level started a little more than 10 years ago, says Susan Patrick, president and chief executive officer of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, also known as iNACOL.
By 2002, just a handful of states were starting the early versions of their state virtual schools, says Patrick, who previously served as the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. But now, 27 states have their own virtual schools offering part-time or supplemental courses. Thirty-eight states allow for full-time online programs to exist through charter schools or individual or multiple school districts.
Though there have been successes with fully online high school programs, Patrick says the model isn’t the best choice for all students.
“There have been times when students struggle with their traditional high school environment, might be far behind and mid-year switch to a fully online high school program and think it’s going to be easier, when in fact it’s quite rigorous,” Patrick says. “So s tudents need to make sure that they can identify where they are in their academics and identify that the online school has the services, has the direct support from teachers and regular interactions.”