Key points:
- It’s time to transform district virtual schools from pandemic stop-gaps into pioneering models of 21st-century learning
- The sustainability of district virtual schools hinges on whether they can evolve beyond the current versions we see in most districts
- See related article: 5 tips to keep online students motivated
Imagine a classroom where learning transcends physical boundaries, and where every student’s need is met with individualized attention. This isn’t a distant dream, but an emergent reality born in the wake of the global pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic, approximately 375,000 students attended online schools—less than 1% of the total number of US K–12 students. But as the crisis unfolded in 2020, virtual schools became a preferred educational choice for a significant number of families. Our survey in August 2021 found that 43% of districts had introduced a full-time virtual school option during the pandemic. These were new schools that students and families could opt into, separate from the emergency remote instruction commonly provided during the pandemic though existing brick-and-mortar schools.
Yet today, as pandemic emergency declarations officially draw to a close, a recent Hechinger Report article reveals that a lot of these newly minted virtual schools face tenuous futures. Many of the students who enrolled in them during the pandemic have returned to brick-and-mortar settings, leaving the durability of virtual options hanging in the balance.
Shuttering these newly formed schools would be an incredible loss for K–12 education as a whole.
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