The Effective Middle Level Virtual Teacher

The rapid pace of technological advancements, along with decreasing budgets and a focus on preparing learners for a 21st century workforce are a few of the drivers for the proliferation of online and blended learning in K-12 education contexts. Other notable reasons for online learning enrollment include access to highly qualified teachers, flexible scheduling, credit recovery, and dual credit options. Growth in online learning remains steady, with estimated enrollments in the millions, and projected enrollment growth in North America of 13% by 2021 (Chang, 2017). When looking at grade distribution of fully online schools, we see an interesting pattern emerge with fewer enrollments in the elementary years, compared to the national distribution by grade level. High school enrollment sees a greater distribution and the middle school years are mixed, with a smaller enrollment distribution in sixth grade, and greater enrollment distribution in grades seven and eight (Rice et al., 2014). Supplemental program enrollments are harder to pin down, partly because there is no single tracking system in place and partly because of the varied approaches to offering part time online courses, be they state-led, district-led, or some other provider-led program such as dual credit.