Dive Brief:

• The Florida Department of Education has approved 26 online courses from Edmentum for next school year.
• The courses, which include Advanced Placement, world language, and, physical education were approved under the Florida Approved Courses and Tests (FACT) Initiative, which aims to "expand student choices in selecting high-quality online courses."
• To be approved, online courses must show that they are accessible for diverse learners and that their curriculum aligns to the FACT requirements.

Dive Insight:

The benefit of virtual schools is that gifted students can move ahead and learn on their terms, and those who are behind can get remediation — hence the need for flexibility for a diverse group of students.

That said, online courses have been criticized for having sub par curriclum. One notable example is for-profit virtual school K12Inc, which announced plans last April to rebrand as Fuel Education. The company was called out on the American Federation of Teacher's site Cashing in on Kids as one of the most egregious education profiteers, and it also came under fire last year for issues including poor academic performance and allegations that it pressured districts to enroll students in its online courses — even if the students were not necessarily a good fit for virtual learning.