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While online education has made great strides in recent years to become an accepted component of higher education, with many colleges now offering accredited online degree programs, the current opportunities and challenges of online K-12 education are still awash in the turbulent waters of regional politics, temperamental technologies, changing study skills for students, untested learning theories, and numerous innovative yet experimental teaching methods. From completely online charter schools to informal networks of home schools, the evolution of online K-12 education has been persistent since the earliest developments of the Internet. Questions of academic achievement, retention, progression toward degree, and social development of students in online programs is, however, a continuing question for distance educators. In response, the following article provides a review and digest of the current literature on student success in online K-12 education.
BACKGROUND
As many states respond to student populations that are growing faster than campus facilities can be built, online learning (also known as, distance education or e-learning) has been described as "the 'next wave' in technology-based K-12 education" (Clark, 2000). For a nation whose public and private schools have already experienced 19% enrollment growth from 1998-2001, the additional increase of 5% which is expected through 2001-2013 will continue to further strain the education system in the United States in the years to come (National Center for Education Statistics, NCES, 2003). As a result, virtual schools-public, private, and charter-are emerging in many states as an option that can fill the gap in serving students without the capital expenses required for school facilities.
Such schools are not often viewed as a replacement for traditional schools, but rather as an approach that can expand their curricular offerings and serve student populations not participating in classroom-based education by necessity or choice (Clark, 2001). Traditionally under-served populations, including students who are home-schooled, have health conditions, are at high-risk for dropping out, or have competing personal or professional commitments (i.e., competitive athletes), have been among the early adopters of online learning as an alternative to the traditional classroom K-12 education.
As of 2002, 12 states had active online school programs, another five states were developing online options, 25 states had legislation permitting the creation of online charter schools, and a total of 32 states...