Darren Smith was a bright student, too, but he had problems paying attention in a regular classroom. His mother, Susan, worried about him, especially when he reached sixth-grade. "I was watching him get lost in middle school," she says. Smith, too, searched for options to traditional schooling.

The Smiths and the Dearings plugged into the burgeoning world of online education, a world where they found flexibility, focus -- and success. Adam Dearing is now a junior at the Basehor-Linwood Virtual Charter School in Basehor, Kan. Darren Smith graduated in June from the Choice 2000 Charter School in Perris, Calif.

Thousands of students like Adam and Darren are flocking to cyberspace. More than 50 charter and public school online programs are running in at least 30 states, and demand for them continues to grow. In the Plano (Texas) Independent School District, for instance, 200 students signed up for classes in spring 2001, the first semester they were offered.

Online learning has made inroads into the educational landscape in the past decade as the Internet has become ubiquitous in schools, offices, and homes. In colleges and universities, especially, online education is booming. Last year, former Secretary of Education and outspoken technology critic William Bennett stepped into the online fray with his own company, K12. As the name suggests, the company intends to develop online curricula for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Not everyone is happy about the growing popularity of online learning and online schools, however. Some educators worry that today's choice could become tomorrow's requirement, with schools using online classes to rid themselves of troublesome students. Another concern is social isolation. Students who take online classes learn by themselves in front of a computer. Critics wonder how students will fare if learning is completely severed from schooling, with its opportunities for personal interaction and its socializing influence.

Online learning "reduces high school to facts and intellectual skills," says Alan Warhaftig, a skeptic of technology use in education and an English teacher at the Fairfax Magnet Center for Visual Arts in Los Angeles. High school, he says, is for "figuring out how to relate and ask questions. If you have students staring at screens for an hour, it's a bad idea."

Even proponents warn that online learning is not a one-size-fits-all option. Not every student is suited to it, nor is every teacher. As Liz Pape, administrator of Virtual High School in Concord, Mass., admits, "It's not a quick fix for educational problems."

What situations are right for online learning? What do online schools offer, and what kinds of students and teachers are best suited for online classes? As online learning evolves, more school board members and administrators will be asking these questions.

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