Online programs to decrease dropouts?

By Jim Stergios
May 9th, 2008

The Washington Policy Center has a great overview of the online learning programs established in their state. In Washington it came unanimously in 2005, with support from homeschoolers as well as the Washington Education Association (their version of the MTA).

WPC provides some nuts and bolts on the program:

- 6,600 students in Washington are enrolled in full-time online learning through programs run by local school districts.
- Over a dozen school districts in Washington State offer these programs. School officials typically select a private educational company to provide day-to-day online instruction to students.
- A family selecting an online learning program needs to have; 1) an adult or guardian at home to work with the student, 2) a computer with access to the internet, and 3) a letter from the student’s home school district. All online education teachers are certified educators.
- Younger students spend only about one-quarter of their time on a computer. They also work from printed textbooks, workbooks, flash cards and other instructional materials. Some high school classes are conducted live online… Online programs also include social events, outdoor adventures, field trips and graduation ceremonies.

But the most important data point is this: “Full-time online programs are attracting families who had previously rejected public education… Almost half, 45%, of one district’s online students were not previously attending public schools.”

Is this a way to capture some of the dropouts across the state–and in many of our Middle Cities the numbers reach 40 percent?