{"id":34,"date":"2008-05-16T20:21:12","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T01:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=34"},"modified":"2008-05-30T10:06:55","modified_gmt":"2008-05-30T15:06:55","slug":"is-a-virtual-school-the-right-choice-for-your-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/is-a-virtual-school-the-right-choice-for-your-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a &#8220;Virtual School&#8221; the Right Choice for Your Child?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Is%20a%20%22Virtual%20School%22%20the%20Right%20Choice%20for%20Your%20Child%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>After reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=23\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">David&#8217;s post about his son attending a virtual school<\/span><\/span><\/a> [at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=23\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=23<\/span><\/span><\/a> ], we realized we needed to learn more about &#8220;Virtual Schools.&#8221; After doing some research, we learned about some of the pros and cons of virtual schools, and how parents should proceed when considering a virtual school.<\/p>\n<p>Parents tend to be positive about virtual schools. One parent described the virtual school her 6th-grader  attends  &#8220;as the 21st-century, middle-class version of the private tutor.&#8221; Her child can move quickly through her strong subjects, and spend more time on her weaker areas, like math.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>But &#8230; there&#8217;s a catch. <\/strong><\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Because virtual schools are so new, there has been little research to measures the quality of the programs or determine which students benefit from them. One expert expressed these concerns: &#8220;There has been no valid study showing that children participating in virtual or computer-based learning models are performing any better than in traditional schools.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some experts say the programs don&#8217;t have enough oversight &#8211; for example, tracking attendance. Most states require a minimum number of hours of instruction. At some virtual schools, parents to submit a weekly log of their child&#8217;s hours. Computer log-ins provide some objective accounting. A better way to account for learning may be to keep track of course material completed, not number of hours of instruction.<\/p>\n<p>What counts as <strong>learning time<\/strong> may not be clear. A teacher at one virtual school said that a family&#8217;s Bible reading would count. But the state official who oversees virtual schools for that state says parents can&#8217;t count time spent on curriculum not provided by the school.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nacol.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">North American Council for Online Learning<\/span><\/span><\/a> [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nacol.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">http:\/\/www.nacol.org\/<\/span><\/span><\/a>], enrollment in online classes reached the 1 million mark last year. Some experts predict that by 2019 half of courses in Grades 9 to 12 will be delivered online.<\/p>\n<p>Virtual schools may be like other educational models  &#8211; good for some kids, not for others. Before deciding to enroll your child in a virtual school, you <strong>need educate yourself<\/strong>. Spend time learning about the pros and cons of virtual schools &#8211; and about the particular school you are considering. Talk to other parents whose children attend the school. Since virtual schools are held to the same standards as &#8220;regular&#8221; schools under NCLB, ask to see the virtual school&#8217;s report card. ~ Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After reading David&#8217;s post about his son attending a virtual school [at https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=23 ], we realized we needed to learn more about &#8220;Virtual Schools.&#8221; After doing some research, we learned <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/is-a-virtual-school-the-right-choice-for-your-child\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,57,18],"tags":[1309,1299,66,67,65],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eligibility","category-fape","category-ieps","tag-fape","tag-ieps","tag-nclb","tag-parental-role","tag-virtual-school"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}