When Digital Schools Don't Add Up

There's a terrific three-part series on shortfalls and broken promises in digital schools by the dynamic duo of Burt Hubbard and Nancy Mitchell for Education News Colorado.

As Education Sector's managing director Bill Tucker pointed out so trenchantly in his Education Next blog, the most distressing news is the very real harm being done to individual students and their academic careers.

A few years back I interviewed a Las Vegas student who had the distinction of being the first Nevada public high school graduate to have never set foot in a bricks-and-mortar classroom. He told me it was unlikely that he would have graduated on time had he been required to take a more traditional approach to his studies. I've met dozens of students balancing work and family obligations who also say that online classes have literally been the only reason they didn't have to drop out of school entirely.

At the same time, I know plenty of high school students thoroughly disenchanted with their online programs -- which are often provided through charter schools or for-profit vendors. The hype and promises of one-on-one tutoring sessions with highly qualified teachers never materialized, and they were left largely to fend for themselves.

But how different is that really from the experiences of so many kids at overcrowded public high schools, where guidance counselors are responsible for anywhere from 200 to 400 students, and class sizes routinely top 35? I spoke with one student who had recently transferred to an online high school offered by his public school district. I asked him if he didn't get lonely at home, and miss the face-to-face interaction with his friends and classmates.

He said that at his traditional high school, he could go entire day without speaking a word or having his presence acknowledged.

"I don't see that a virtual high school is any more impersonal," the student told me. "It's easy to say that this program should add some sort of required social interaction, but the kind of people it attracts most likely don't want that anyway."

I agree that students should have options, and that online learning might well be the best route for some of them. But I also believe the decision to make the switch should be one that requires more consideration than just a shrug of the shoulders and signing a transfer form. As Tucker writes, "a system that offers little guidance and no safety nets for ill-informed high school students making big educational decisions is almost certain to produce many more stories of seventeen-year-olds wasting a semester of school at the worst possible time."

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email me at erichmond@ewa.org. I'm also on Twitter @EWAEmily.