School's out for summer, but virtual learning is in

For many, the term “remote learning” conjures bad memories of the dark days of the pandemic with kids sitting in front of computers for hours a day and teachers scrambling to translate in-person curriculum to a video conference format. But lessons learned about virtual learning from the days of school closures and mandatory remote instruction are now paying off. In some areas of the country, online learning, even at the kindergarten through 12th grade levels, is growing.

For instance, in Washington state, more than 54,000 students—almost 5% of all public school students—were enrolled in online courses through 526 schools during the 2022-23 school year, according to a recent report by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. That’s 154 more than the number of schools that offered online classes in 2020-21.

On the East Coast this spring, 19 New York City public schools launched what they called school-based virtual learning. The online classes are offered to currently enrolled students to “provide opportunities such as advancement and/or flexibility to meet the needs of students and staff in the school community,” according to the city’s Department of Education.

This fall, the city expects to offer virtual learning in about 125 high schools, and it will also provide classes in the evening and on weekends. New York City middle schools will add school-based virtual learning programs in the 2025-26 school year.

Momentum for virtual learning has been building over the years. The increase in online instruction follows the ratification last year of a contract by the United Federation of Teachers in New York City to expand virtual learning for grades six through 12. It also builds on a remote learning pilot program that the city started in 2018 through another teachers union contract that provided additional access to Advanced Placement, world language and elective classes. In 2022, the city’s first fully virtual school, the Virtual Innovators Academy, opened to students in ninth and 10th grades. That same year, A School Without Walls opened as a hybrid high school based in Manhattan that combines in-person and online instruction.

“There are a multitude of reasons why students may choose to participate in remote or hybrid courses,” Nicole Brownstein, director of media relations for New York City Public Schools, said in an email to Route Fifty. By offering accelerated and unique courses, virtual learning gives students flexibility to work at an internship or take care of family commitments, she said. 

A common use for online learning in elementary, middle and high schools is to make space in students’ schedules, said John Watson, co-founder of the Digital Learning Collaborative and the Digital Learning Annual Conference. In Virginia, for instance, Fairfax County Public Schools let high schoolers take PE online during the summer, which frees a spot for another elective during the school year.

Online learning also can help with credit recovery, which lets students who have fallen behind catch up, and it can facilitate education for students who have mental or physical challenges that make it hard for them to spend seven hours a day, five days a week in a school building.

The best way to determine whether online learning is right for a student is to consider the student, not necessarily their age, Watson said. It might be fine for a high school student to be home alone working on their courses, but "you’re probably not going to have your first grader doing that,” he said. 

In most cases, online learning happens in a blended or hybrid setting, which means students attend a traditional school and take one or two online courses, or they attend school in person a couple days a week and do the rest of their work online.

To parents and educators who worry about adding screen time for youngsters in this tech-heavy era, Watson said, “digital learning has never been driven by technology. It’s always about different learning strategies, different ways for teachers and students to work together that are facilitated by new technologies.”

Although online classes became common during the pandemic, they have been around since the advent of the web. Five years ago, more than 2.7 million K-12 students nationwide were already taking part in digital learning, according to a 2019 Forbes article. 

“It’s really critical … to understand that what happened during COVID was not the online learning that had been happening for two decades prior to COVID,” Watson said. 

It typically takes six to 12 months to set up an online school, but when the pandemic struck, most schools had only three days to prepare, he said.

“Through little or no fault of their own, the remote learning efforts during COVID were mostly mediocre at best because nobody had any training, and on top of that, many districts, especially Title 1 districts, were thinking more about [getting] students their meals and things like that,” Watson said. (Title 1 divisions and schools are those with high numbers or percentages of students from low-income families.)

Although more students in all grades are choosing online learning, it’s not available equally nationwide. “Some states don’t allow online schools at all, and limit hybrid/blended schools. Some states fund a state program to offer supplemental online courses, others don’t. Some allow funding to flow to students only if they are physically present, which limits online learning,” Watson said.

Online classes have benefits for teachers, too, though, he added. They have more time to work with their students and provide what each needs. “They have more time to think about their individual students who may be having specific challenges,” Watson said. “Every teacher that I know in that [traditional school] situation feels very time-stressed.”