BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Online schools in the United States need more government oversight and research on how well they do their job, a report released Tuesday said.
"Cyber schools maintain few rules, little supervision, many students and families who struggle and an unacceptably large number who won't make it through to the end," Gene V. Glass said.
"Online K-12 Schooling in the U.S.: Uncertain Private Ventures in Need of Public Regulation" by Glass and Kevin G. Welner, both from the University of Colorado at Boulder, was released by the National Education Policy Center.
Glass and Welner found online schools are a fast-growing part of education with 40 states operating or allowing them. Many states are setting up virtual charter schools, and in Florida, districts are turning to online classes because of legal limits on class size, the report said.
There are now about 200,000 students attending virtual schools full time, while 30 percent of high school students say they have taken at least one online course.
"There's zero high-quality research evidence that full-time virtual schooling at the K-12 level is an adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning," Welner said.
