Schools nationwide are taking advantage of virtual learning and
the internet to improve education. The most successful ones
allow students unrestricted access to online programs, so they
can take high quality courses regardless of geographic location.
Yet online education programs Hawaii lag far behind some of the
better programs found on the Mainland. The Florida Virtual
School (FLVS), for example, provides K-12 online education and
has vastly improved test scores and achievement statewide.
Florida’s virtual school students have not only demonstrated
positive gains in education, but they have even out-performed
their peers in traditional school settings and posted above-
average test scores in advanced placement courses and
mathematics. These improvements aren’t just relevant to Florida:
They represent a pioneering example in virtual education for
other states to follow. Hawaii should learn from these
successes, to gather the best practices from effective models,
and to implement these lessons now. (more) In