| The historical research study will focus on the development and growth of virtual education programs for K--12 students, with primary emphasis on the states of Florida, California, and Pennsylvania. The term virtual education will be used interchangeably throughout this document with online courses and e-learning. The purpose of this historical research was to document what federal, state legislative actions were instrumental in the emergence of online programs now available to K--12 students, examination of the evolution of virtual education nationally, and in particular the three states where phenomenological growth was found to best represent favorable conditions in which the development of these programs have thrived. The study also focused on understanding how political, sociological and economic conditions facilitated the growth and development of e-learning to include K--12 programs; identify what factors were critical to successful development in Florida, California and Pennsylvania to enable the statewide progress in virtual education programming; and learn how these factors influenced the emergence of different designs in virtual education programs across the three states researched. |
