Report details problems with full-time virtual schools
With millions of public high school students taking at least one course online, a new report says that virtual schools are too often subject to minimal oversight and that there is no-high quality research showing that cyber education is an acceptable full-time replacement for traditional classrooms.
Virtual education is expanding. Forty states now operate or have authorized virtual classes for public K-12 students, and a growing number of states are mandating that public school students take at least one online course, including Florida. In 27 states, the report says, full-time “cyber schools” are now operating, including scores of virtual charter schools. More than 200,000 students are enrolled in full-time virtual schools, and more than 30 percent of the country’s 16 million high school students have been enrolled in at least one online course.
Read full article >>Business leaders inject themselves in school reform
It’s hard to think of a profession other than teaching about which everybody thinks they are an expert.
It’s often said that is so because just about everybody in the United States has gone to school at some point in their lives . It’s also true that just about everybody has gone to a doctor, yet medical professionals aren’t deluged with advice from businesspeople and hedge fund managers and insurance executives about how to diagnose and treat illnesses.
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