Online courses offer many benefits to high achievers who are extremely motivated but would otherwise lack access to advanced coursework, Sue Dynarski explains in the New York Times. However, she writes,

In high schools and colleges, there is mounting evidence that the growth of online education is hurting a critical group: the less proficient students who are precisely those most in need of skilled classroom teachers.

She continues:

Yet in high schools across the country, students who are struggling in traditional classrooms are increasingly steered into online courses.

For example, in so-called credit recovery programs, many students who have flunked a course in an old-fashioned classroom retake the class online. 

Dynarski takes a deeper look at online classes for high school and college students in “Online Schooling: Who Is Harmed and Who Is Helped?” published on EdNext as part of the Evidence Speaks series.

— Education Next