The Rise Of Online High Schools

High school goes digital. Never mind pep rallies and locker rooms. We’ll look at the rise of online high school.

We all know what school means. Especially high school. Classrooms. Study halls. Pep rallies. Locker rooms. For most, that’s still the formula.

But a rising wave of American students – and not just high school but the full K-12 – is turning away from that. Is getting its education online.

Some are just supplementing with online courses as hard-pressed schools cut Latin and Chinese and AP classes. Others are going whole-hog to the Internet. The full load, from home, with lectures and readings and homework and tests, all online. Is this the future?

This hour, On Point: when school goes online.
-Tom Ashbrook

Bill Tucker, managing director at the Education Sector.

Clifford Nass, professor at Stanford University.

Jeffrey Scarborough, Headmaster at Stanford Online High School.

The New York Times "Several other universities — though none with the pedigree of Stanford — already operate online high schools, a development that has raised some questions about expertise and motives."

San Francisco Chronicle "Online high schools aren't new but until now haven't targeted gifted students who often progress rapidly through advanced material. A gifted student might finish a math course in four months that an average student would need a year to complete."

Education Week "Those students are often underserved in regular public schools, which may not have the time or money to provide courses that challenge them or allow them to pursue particular academic interests, says Patricia Wallace, the senior director of information technology for the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, which runs an online prep school called CTYOnline for pre-K-12 students."