Did the students fail or did we fail them?

Why do Cyber Schools have high turnover and lower achievement test scores? Cyber schools receive students who have chosen to leave the public education system because it has failed them. Cyber schools are a second choice school for many students who are bullied, have bad grades, or unacceptable behavior. In some cases cyber schools have been able to re-mediate students and send them back to traditional schools, kick them out because they are not the right fit to be independent learners, or keep the ones who embrace the flexibility and independence of learning online. We can continue to criticize online learning, or marvel at the 35,000 students who have adapted to this kind of learning. It’s easy to throw out vague statistics to prove a point. It would also be good to judge the improvement of cyber learners from year to year and school to school. The pioneering spirit of online learners will prevail because of the way technology levels the playing field for students in rural, urban, and even developing countries. Students who are from economically disadvantaged families now have the opportunity to catch up to the privileged.