Online programs reach public high schools, too

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2007 | by G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Public school students are fast learning what working adults have known for years: Distance education can open up a lot of possibilities.

About 700,000 public school students in grades K-12 were enrolled in at least one online course during the 2005-06 school year, according to a 2007 survey by the Sloan Consortium. Most of those, the survey found, were in high school.

Although those numbers represent just 1.5% of the nation's 48 million public school students, the figures mark a tenfold increase over the past six years. And in some states, especially those with vast rural areas, the trend is shaking up the status quo.

Example: Alaska. More than half of the state's 54 school districts offer courses online, according to the Alaska Department of...