Online education is a trend that’s here to stay. Even before the challenges of 2020, online school had captured the attention of families nationwide. According to the Digital Learning Collaborative, 32 states allow online schools to operate across districts, and 23 states run their own statewide virtual schools.*
Together these schools serve more than 375,000 full-time online students and deliver more than a million supplemental courses. Students also take part in an estimated 1.5 million credit recovery courses, which give students a second chance to pass a failed class and earn credit toward graduation.
Yet despite the growing popularity of online education, there’s quite a bit of confusion about how online school works. This list of five myths about online school—also known as virtual school, cyber school, or distance learning—will help demystify some of the most common misconceptions about this type of schooling: