Some have argued that we should address widespread academic failure by making the school day longer or the school year longer. Others have suggested breaking up one long summer vacation into shorter breaks during the year. All this does is tinker with an anachronism. Students of varying abilities still will sit in a classroom for a pre-determined period to learn the same amount of material. This is equivalent to putting 1,000 high school students on the starting line and expecting them to finish a mile run in the same time.
2012 Florida Highlights
- Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is the country’s largest public online course provider in the U.S.
- Florida has the most online learners in any state.
Current Strengths and Reform Opportunities
- Florida has made great strides in creating policies to support online and blended learning that can be further strengthened by policies that support competency education for traditional and online students.
- Florida’s provisions for funding online students can be expanded to fund traditional students to expand overall student choice and access so that funding processes are the same across systems.