Across the country, more than 1.5 million middle and high school students are taking courses online. This online revolution in K-12 education is being seen across the country, from large cities to rural school districts, except in Maryland. Just a fraction of the estimated one million students taking courses online last year were Marylanders.

Access to online learning varies significantly from state to state. For students living in a state with robust online learning opportunities, this can mean access to a wide array of Advanced Placement courses, the flexibility to take courses that do not fit in the school schedule, remedial coursework, the freedom to learn at students’ own pace and time, and the ability to take courses not offered at the local public or private school. Access to online learning liberates students from the confines of geography and time, and helps create a customized education best suited to a student’s unique needs. As Clayton Christensen, author of Disrupting Class, writes:

Student-centric learning is the escape hatch from the temporal, lateral, physical, and hierarchical cells of standardization… Student-centric learning opens the door for students to learn in ways that match their intelligence types in the places and at the paces they prefer by combining content in customized sequences. …teachers can serve as professional learning coaches and content architects to help individual students progress — and they can be a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage.

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