More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Mr. Hamilton, who had failed English 3 in a conventional classroom and was hoping to earn credit online to graduate, was asked a question about the meaning of social Darwinism. He pasted the question into Google and read a summary of a Wikipedia entry. He copied the language, spell-checked it and e-mailed it to his teacher.

Mr. Hamilton, 18, is among the expanding ranks of students in kindergarten through grade 12 — more than one million in the United States, by one estimate — taking online courses.

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Nashville’s first virtual high school rolls out in fall

The newest high school in Nashville won’t have walls. Or desks. Or books.

Metro Nashville Public Schools will open its first virtual high school this fall. Courses will be offered entirely online and accessible to everyone from home-schooled students to Metro students looking for elective classes they can’t find at the school they attend.

The virtual high school is still under construction. The district has yet to decide which classes will be offered, how many students will be enrolled and how widespread the first year’s effort will be.

But it’s all part of the school district’s long-range goal to ensure that all students take at least one class online before they graduate.

“There’s an assumption that children today are completely plugged in,” said Keisha Ray, director of instructional technology for the school district, who is working this summer to organize the first classes at the virtual high school.

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