Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice

This eighth edition of Keeping Pace—digital education’s yearbook cum encyclopedia—offers promising statistics for online-learning proponents: All fifty states and D.C. now offer at least some sort of online or blended learning opportunity, with digital course enrollment jumping 19 percent in the last year alone. Good news. But there’s more. At an average per-pupil expense of about $7,000, full-time online learning can cost thousands less than the average brick-and-mortar experience. Other trends are interesting. Notably, single-district programs have grown the fastest this past year—with consortia programs greatly expanding as well. (Implementation of the Common Core standards will likely spur states to adopt this consortium model as well, say the authors.) Yet other trends serve as reminders that we have yet to unlock the full potential of online learning: Digital programs are serving a disproportionately low percentage of minorities, free and reduced-price lunch students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. For those looking to winkle out digital-learning statistics, get a lay of the digital-learning landscape, or see how their own states fare in this realm, Keeping Pace won’t disappoint.

John Watson, Amy Murin, Lauren Vashaw, et al., Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice (Durango, CO: Evergreen Education Group, 2011).