Further growth hinges on policy, funding changes in states from coast to coast, it says
Primary Topic Channel: Virtual schooling / Distance Learning
Online learning is growing rapidly, but its continued growth will require specific policy and funding changes that focus on increasing educational choices and opportunities while ensuring high quality and improved student achievement, according to a new report.
"Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning," the fifth in an annual series of reports examining the online-learning landscape, debuted at the North American Council for Online Learning's (NACOL's) Virtual School Symposium on Oct. 27. The report recommends several policies to increase online learning options for students.
Those policy recommendations include ensuring that students and parents are free to choose online courses and schools; encouraging schools of education to incorporate online instruction as part of the curriculum for future teachers; creating true national content standards so online content does not need to demonstrate alignment with countless different content frameworks; revising accounting standards for funding to get away from count dates, seat time, and other measures that don't apply to the online environment; and establishing some standard metrics for basic quality assurance and measurements, such as consistent measures for course completions.
The report found that online learning continued to grow in the latter part of 2007 and the first half of 2008, in terms of both new programs and the enhancement of existing programs. Many states have passed new legislation to promote further growth in online learning, it says.
As of this fall, 44 states offer significant online learning opportunities for students. Seventeen states offer significant supplemental and full-time online options for students, and many of those states have both a state-led program and full-time online schools. For example, Florida offers the supplemental Florida Virtual School and the full-time Florida Connections Academy and Florida Virtual Academy. Similarly, Colorado offers the state-led Colorado Online Learning program, as well as numerous full-time district programs and charter schools.