February 9, 2005

The New York Times > Education > Tiny District Finds Bonanza Of Pupils and Funds Online

This movement to online schools is inevitable and will always show mixed results among large numbers of students. This alternative is not a panacea, but a legitimate part of the educational mix, nevertheless. Continuously improving results and moving away at a measured pace from the 'industrial model' for public schools is a good thing.

"Some children have adapted to the computerized home study, mustering the self-discipline to advance academically without a classroom teacher to prod them. Others have not.

About one in four of the 1,000 students who had enrolled in Branson Online for the last school year dropped out by February 2004, and after only 5 percent of students took the required standardized tests in 2002, the state put the school on an accreditation watch list.

Of the Branson students who took the state tests last year, state records show, higher percentages scored 'unsatisfactory' in math at every grade level tested compared with students at schools statewide. At Branson, 48 percent of eighth graders scored unsatisfactory, for example, compared with 28 percent of eighth graders at schools statewide. Still, Branson authorities are convinced that the school fills a need and will continue to grow."

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