Within the past 5-10 years or so, there has been a push for virtual schools- where a student stays home and takes their courses on-line instead of going to a regular school in a building. So, are the virtual schools doing better than the brick and mortar schools?
Gannet Newspapers conducted a study of virtual schools in Wisconsin and the statistics show for the most part that regular schools do better than the virtual schools.
From the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune: Enrollment in Wisconsin’s online schools has doubled in the last five
years, but students who have chosen class without a classroom often
struggle to complete their degrees and repeat grades four times as often
as their brick-and-mortar counterparts, according to a Gannett
Wisconsin Media analysis.
Standardized
test results also show that virtual school students trail traditional
students in every subject but reading and are far less likely than their
peers to take the ACT or Advanced Placement tests.
But
virtual schools have more than four times the turnover of traditional
schools and teach students who often bring a history of academic
struggles. So are mediocre results indicative of a flawed system or
flawed students?
“That’s really the $10,000 question, maybe the million-dollar
question,” said Matthew Wicks, vice president of strategy and
organizational development for the International Association for K-12
Online Learning. “We have an assessment system that isn’t effective in
general, and I think is especially ineffective in online and virtual.”Virtual
charter schools — those that allow students around the state to enroll
full time in online classes — have operated in Wisconsin for 10 years,
growing from four schools with 265 students in 2002-03 to 25 schools
with nearly 5,000 students in 2011-12. Three more virtual schools will
open for the 2012-13 school year, according to the Wisconsin Department
of Public Instruction....
According to a Gannett Wisconsin Media analysis:
• In the 2011-12 Wisconsin Student Assessment System testing, virtual students fared slightly better
in reading than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, with 83.1 percent
scoring proficient or advanced, compared with 81.9 percent statewide.
But virtual students fell short
in other subjects, with 5 percent to 12 percent fewer virtual students
scoring proficient or advanced in math, social studies, language arts
and science compared with the statewide average.
• Virtual students also scored lower on the ACT in 2011-12, with students statewide averaging a score of 22, and virtual students averaging 21.5.
• Virtual school students scored slightly better
on Advanced Placement tests in 2010-11, with 70.9 percent scoring three
or higher, compared with 67.6 percent of all students statewide. But
far fewer students took AP tests — 4 percent of all high school
students, compared with 10.4 percent statewide....
DPI data shows a stark contrast between virtual and brick-and-mortar
schools when it comes to students’ ability to complete their coursework.“I
wholeheartedly recommend virtual school … but you do have to have a
level of self-initiative, of maturity, of independence to be able to
succeed,” said Sue DeHaan Palubiak, whose daughter, Tia DeHaan,
graduated this year from eAchieve Academy in Waukesha. “It is a more
passive learning environment in which children have to reach out and
have to have the drive to complete the work. If they’re not inclined to
do so without big brother or teacher looking over their shoulder, then
certainly it’s something at which they could fail.” http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/article/20120826/WRT019802/308260118/Virtual-charter-schools-Wisconsin-not-making-grade
I've taken 2 on-line classes and you have to be dedicated to take the course. There are so many distractions that can affect how you do in the course. But if you are willing to ignore the distractions and don't like the socialization of being in the brick and mortar schools, then the virtual schools may be for you.
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