The Iowa legislature is currently debating the role of online schools. A number of questions have been raised and must be answered if we are to proceed down this road.

The first concern is to follow the money. The funding that would go to a local school district and then percolate through the local economy now would go to an out-of-state corporation.

There is also the question of quality. The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow with 10,000 students in Ohio had test scores ranking above just 14 of the 609 school districts in the state. In 2010, barely half its third graders scored proficient or better on state reading tests, compared with the state average of 80 percent.

The Center for Research and Education Outcome looked at results in Pennsylvania, specifically the arguments about individually tailored lesson plans which are provided to teachers who typically have classes of 50-100 students. Susan Ohanian, an educational consultant, created three online student identities and took all the first- and second-grade social studies courses as a research project. When she reported that “Johnny wasn’t getting it,” the answer from K-12 (another on-line company) was “repeat the lesson until you get it right,”

For the rest of the article, go to Cedar Valley Voices: Online education lacks human component