Alyssa+Sanford


 * Online Schooling**

Source 1: Reasons for online schooling

Fully on-line schooling, also known as virtual school or cyber school, has become the most recent option to replace as well as supplement conventional education. Virtual schools serve students who may have some barrier to attendance at a brick-and-mortar school such as a disability or participation in Olympic level sports. Cybercharter schools can also serve remote populations, delivering a wider variety of courses than individual remote brick-and- mortar schools. For example, a virtual high-mortar schools. For example, a virtual high school in Nova Scotia may serve rural Canadian populations in an effort to connect geographically- dispersed students who wish to study Latin. In some cases, online resources can assist with these problems within the context of the traditional school. Enrollment in distance programs is nearing one million and is increasing by 20% annually. As U.S. News and World Report recently observed, “Across the country, e-learning has changed from a technological curiosity to an integral part of rural public school education, offering more class options to students”(Kingsbury, 2004).Many parents are motivated to break from traditional schooling by dissatisfaction (Peck & Carr, 1997). In general, this dissatisfaction is most simply expressed as an inability on the part of traditional schooling to help children reach their potential. Whether it is a special need for a disabled or gifted child, a need to express certain religious or fundamental values, or negative prior experiences in schools as students or even teachers, home schooling parents feel that the schools, as they currently exist, simply can not meet the needs of their children as well as home schooling (Schilling, 2009). customize for my child’s needs” The heart of the home school choice is the parents’ need to individualize learning experiences for their children. As a result, home school parents are susceptible to the potentials of technology to make individualization a more feasible and attractive option. financial risk and with some possible rewards” – or, “Everybody loves free stuff!” Although parents spent less than five minutes talking about financial matters, the incentives were obvious; it “was a no brainer” compared to other home school curriculum products or private school tuition which parents paid out-of-pocket. One parent explained: “First reason for going with the charter school – economics – because it is paid for with your taxes.” it I can change the world.” The parents we spoke to carried with them a disposition of hope throughout their decision-making. Hope arrived through a post card, a newspaper article, or an interview with William Bennett heard on Focus on the Family radio, One day I happened to flip on Focus on the Family…. When we went to their home page I saw there was two charter schools, one in Oregon and one in PA. I couldn’t believe my luck. (Chuckle). I clicked on it, and it was all free. Since these parents were searching for a program that made sense but was not an additional financial burden, finding PAVCS was extremely enticing.
 * Reason 1**: “Online charters can
 * Reason 2**: “I can try this without
 * Reason 3**:” I have hope and with


 * Challenges facing Traditional Schools**

choice of PAVCS as an indication of probable desires of parents in contrast to traditional schools. Most parents would desire customization for their children. While the same technologies are available to all schools, the current educational system does not fully support customized student learning to the level that is possible for home schoolers—to do so may be politicallyoverwhelming and financially questionable. will seek alternatives to traditional schools due to the combination of socio-cultural changes and modern technologies now available. Remarkably, even very conservative populations will take significant risks with their children’s education if given the opportunity to express their values and to individualize and challenge their children with significant curricula. PAVCS is but one example of an innovative, attractive alternative, which utilizes high technology and social change to give parents and children an option. In conclusion, the interviewed parents expressed what many parents may feel but do not act upon. They tell us that technology can afford far greater attention to the individual needs of their children, more power, significant academic rigor, and a way to express their values within the traditional school curriculum. Many of us support these parental voices, seeing too many traditional schools as factories, with foci on efficiency and uniformity (Reigeluth, 1999). They invite us into fantastic debates over the future of our schools.
 * First challenge**: Studying the
 * Second challenge**: Some parents

Source 2:In depth look at Online Schools

Distance education programs can serve entire populations of students that traditional classrooms do not by providing increased opportunity through choice, tutoring, and supplemental services to: students who live in remote areas, students in home school settings, those who are hospitalized or homebound for health reasons, professional athletes, students who are incarcerated, students who need flexible schedules for employment, or students who want to enrich their education, move at their own pace, or experience learning that fits their particular learning style (Bogden, 2003; Chancy, 2001; Patrick, 2004). Virtual schooling provides flexibility to meet scheduling demands, offers an opportunity for students to take courses over holiday or summer breaks, and can provide remediation and tutoring on demand (Fulton &amp; Kober, 2002; Rural School and Community Trust et al., 2003; Setzer &amp; Lewis, 2005). In fact, virtual schools may present the only option for districts that lack the resources necessary to meet the school choice requirements of NCLB with traditional brick and mortar classrooms (Hassel &amp; Terrell, 2004). McLeod, Hughes, Brown, Choi, and Maeda (2005) attempted to limit these challenges by controlling for student demographics and academic characteristics in their study examining academic performance of students enrolled in Algebra I classes in three virtual schools and two face-to-face schools in three different states. Six teachers and 81 students participated in the study. The findings indicated that virtual students outperformed students in traditional face-to-face classes. Particularly noteworthy about their findings is that students in the face-to-face classes were much more likely to be in a college preparatory program than virtual students, and virtual students were more likely to be enrolled in the math course because of a previous failure. Unfortunately, a number of additional variables, such as early dropout and voluntary testing in the virtual school, raise questions concerning the causality of the findings. The findings from this study support previous findings of adult online education programs that suggest there is no significant difference between courses delivered online and those delivered in traditional face-to-face classrooms (Phipps &amp; Merisotis, 1999). The researchers concluded, "As distance education is currently practiced, educators and other stakeholders can reasonably expect learning in a well-designed distance education environment to be equivalent to learning in a well-designed classroom environment" (Cavanaugh et al., 2004, p. 20). http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=4&edition=&ts=BDA2988F7E1E7A8A8002774EA61A41CF_1272638964920&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B125885398