Make the Grade with Online Options

Kids today learn how to use a computer or a video game system before they can even read or write, yet states are not taking advantage of this kind of technology in education, according to the Nation’s Digital Learning Council.

The Council released the first Nation’s Digital Learning Report Card last month, evaluating states on their adoption of healthy policies to help kids get more out of their education through online courses and materials.

Oregon received high marks for our state’s full-time online programs, thanks to online public charter schools. Charter schools are privately run public schools, in which parents can choose to enroll their children regardless of their residential district. Oregon’s online charter schools are growing quickly, but they still serve only about one percent of public school students.

Meanwhile, Oregon received low marks in the national Report Card for failing to make online classes available to public school students on a course-by-course basis. Yet, the need for such options is undeniable.

Consider that 75% of Oregon schools fail to offer students Advanced Placement or IB classes in reading, math, science, and social studies. Contrast that with states like Florida, where thousands of kids attending regular public schools that don’t offer in-house AP courses can access effective online advanced courses, as well as courses designed to help them catch up with their peers.

Oregon’s legislature will soon consider online learning again, since it commissioned a task force to examine governance for online charter schools. But instead of focusing on how to govern our state’s successful online charter schools, legislators should focus on removing the barriers that keep so many children from the valuable online opportunities available to kids in other states and nations.

Christina Martin is a policy analyst and the School Choice Project Director at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.