Both my daughters did several online classes with good results. K12 has taken some abuse, but my daughter's Spanish 2 was actually better than our public school (she took it over the summer before her Sophomore year). The courses from the North Dakota School for Distance Education in Life Science and Biology were also as good as public school.

The community college classes were hit and miss. The best that can be said for some was that they satisfied the requirements of the degree program at the university.

I was bullied in school when I lived in California, and I received no support from the public school. I almost committed suicide over it. I would not hesitate to pull my kids out of public school if that situation eve arose. I would have loved doing online classes (at least until I got to 10th grade and my parents moved to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi).

We really need to look at how the entire system is run and organizers and rebuild it from the ground up. It is still modeled after a system instituted based on the needs and demands of society hundreds of years ago and at this point is straining to adapt to the realities of today.

The online schools appear to be a good resource and may be the thing that spurs this change.

None of them graduated...and honestly many were on this program so they could babysit siblings or in some cases the parents did shift work and had trouble getting them to school...a few had parents who were just too lazy to get their kids to school on time. Also, it is useful for abusive parents...so there are major problems with it. I feel standardized tests must be administered. This is basically kids teaching themselves...and what about science labs and math? The kids who didn't graduate failed the Ohio graduation test which is not that hard and can't pass a GED test.

GOP not funding public schools has made them bad. A lot of kids do better with online school. It's getting better and better by the year.

But there are so many barriers. State legislatures who know nothing about education--and may even be hostile to public education--pass unhelpful laws that the schools must scramble to comply with. And some local school boards are disasters.

I agree the current model is outdated. Kids learn differently now than they used to. They respond best when mixed media is used. An old fashion lecture on history would put my kids to sleep.

are home schooled and can hardly read or write. One is 11 and cannot read or write however she is a talented dancer and goes to dance class 5 times a week. I blame the State for not checking up on their progress. The mother would rather concentrate on dance spend tons of money on dance but cannot be bothered to teach this child how to read and write.

not others. It depends on the program, the teacher, the student, and access.

My son is in a hybrid program with college classes and online high school classes. Whoever put his Career math program together did a terrible job. It covers Things like avoiding bankruptcy in one chapter and statistics in the next one. There are no GOOD directions till after you finish a section you needed the help for.
He is taking a college level math, and not a basic level, at the same time. He says the college class is much easier. I've had to help him figure out how to do it since the individual directions stink . Whoever proofed the program dropped the ball.

both in the content and physical location.

I do a lot of training as an instructor and the tool I use lets me monitor how long people are off the training portal screen (IOW: doing something else) and that number can be very high with adults, I'd be interested to see if these stats are kept for children

Online is a pitiful substitute in that regard.

It could serve very well to fill holes in inadequate meatspace schooling, though.

"worth college credit"

IMO there is a big difference between your school, "my online school was through the public school system" online classes,

and the online


"get your HS diploma", take classes/tests free and only pay when you pass online "school" tests.

The cheating is incredible. I copy and paste a student's answer into Google and have an exact match in seconds on a free site. Paid sites have even more answers. This happens on assignments as well as tests.

As for K-12... It's a Milliken scam. Too many kids don't graduate and teachers can have hundreds of students. But hey, it's a money maker for the corporation.

The public school online program seems to be very well run in California; they have to check in with a teacher every day at a specific time and they can be pulled from the program if they start falling behind or if it seems that the parents are not monitoring the kids. There's a "in class" component where they physically meet with a teacher when it comes to testing, and their P.E. requirements are met through subsidized YMCA or other local community programs. Each online student has an IEP, and apparently they also have GATE courses. They've also got a reasonable graduation and GED rate, almost comparable to the average public school.
Of course, some graduates are almost 20 when they get their diploma or GED, but at least they graduated.
For the child that has problems with socializing or filtering in normal classes, but has a parent or grandparent willing to participate in the "homeschool" program, it seems to be a very good program.

Haele