A new letter from the Harvard Graduate School of Education by Brigid Schulte considers the success of virtual education and its future as it considers what is next. How can the 53 million K-12 students of the United States, participate in virtual education, if it can realistically only handle less than a million? Can the virtual schools make a contribution to education in a building?

In 2001 Connections Academy was educating 400 students in grades K to 12. Now, ten years later, Connections Academy operates in over 20 states and has over 30,000 students. And now there are two states, Florida and North Carolina, that have full-time virtual schools and there will be more.

But new research on virtual education suggests that it may not be the best way to educate students. The research suggests that “purely virtual approach has its limits.” Additionally, a report from the U. S. Department of Education recommends that a blend of face-to-face instruction and online learning might be the best way. In other words, a blended approach to learning.

Mickey Revenaugh, the executive vice president of Connections Learning, acknowledges that the drive is to create a whole spectrum of learning opportunities for students; to personalize education.

Realistically virtual education can only handle about 10% of the student population, says Michael Horn the executive director of the Innosight Institute which studies virtual learning, blended, and face-to-face education.

Virtual schools are sometimes referred to as “Clicks” (one uses the computer mouse to click to different lesson plans and sources of information) and the face-to-face schools are referred to as “Bricks” because they are usually in a building. Essentially many schools are becoming what is called a “hybrid school” -which is a face-to-face school that utilizes many aspects of a virtual school. When students work on their virtual classes there is a teacher and peers around in the school building who can participate when necessary.

The Connections Academy recognized the need and future of hybrid learning and started a new division of the academy called Connections Learning which is an extension of virtual learning but in a bricks-and-mortar setting. The first time Connections Academy did this was in Pennsylvania when virtual home schooling parents wanted a place where their students could meet their peers, develop social skills, and have a teacher around periodically to help answer questions. They have also opened up a center in Prince George’s County in Maryland.

Now the Connections Academy is applying for a hybrid charter in Prince George’s county and looking to get involved with a variety of low-performing traditional schools. They recognize that bringing in the flexibility enabled by virtual might make school more successful for students.

In a similar way the Florida Virtual School (FVS) which has 100,000 students in 67 Florida districts, 49 states, and 46 countries has started setting up shop in buildings. Some educators at bricks-and-mortar schools are considering the positive offerings of FVS that could help them with crowded classrooms, high per-pupil costs, and slow achievement.

Louisiana has discovered that students who are taking Algebra 1 through an online class are doing better than Algebra 1 students in face-to-face classes. FVS is working with a higher percentage of minority and low-income students than in the general population and is having more success.

The online schools are beginning to realize that they can work with only so many students of the 53 million students across the U.S. But working in a blended environment makes it possible to have more students involved in virtual schools.

The report ends with an observation from Mickey Revenaugh of Connections, “I think the Department of Education report on hybrid learning having more power than either face-to-face or online learning itself is why the interest in this is growing exponentially. And for an awful lot of students, school is a lot more than just a place where they get their instruction. So what we’re seeing is a blossoming of a lot of different hybrid models and resources. Which is exactly where we need to go in education to make sure we’re meeting the diverse and changing needs of students.”

Source: Harvard Education Letter - “Clicks” Get Bricks – Once completely virtual, some K-12 online schools are settling into buildings