(Colo.) Students enrolled in virtual or blended learning schools are graduating on time at half the rate of traditional schools, even as online learning continues to grow rapidly in popularity, according to recent research.
Blended schools—in which students spend some time in a classroom—had a four-year graduation rate of 37.4 percent in 2013-14, and full-time virtual schools at 40.6 percent, the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder reported. The national average is 81 percent.
“The rapid expansion of virtual schools and blended schools is remarkable given the consistently negative findings regarding student and school performance,” authors of the report wrote. “The graduation rates for virtual schools have worsened by 3 percentage points over the past few years, even as graduation rates in the country have been improving 1 percentage point each year.”
In debates over school choice, virtual learning is often considered a means for students to work at their own pace. In 2014, 30 states and the District of Columbia offered statewide, full-time online schools, while 26 states had virtual schools in operation, according to a study published by Evergreen Education Group, a Colorado-based education-technology consulting firm.