A report published by The Sloan Consortium (January 2009) found that...

• 75 percent of public school districts offer online or blended courses.
• districts anticipate these online offerings will grow, particularly with regards to blended learning opportunities.
• Enrollments in online courses grew 47 percent from 2005-06 to 2007-08.
• Online courses are meeting the needs of a range of students—from credit recovery to Advanced Placement courses.
• School districts are relying on multiple online learning providers, giving students different choices to meet their learning needs and styles.
• Online courses represent an lifeline for small rural school districts, helping them offer courses that they may otherwise have not been able to offer.
  
• Department of Education reports that 25 percent of schools don’t offer any advanced courses (anything above Algebra 2 in math and Biology in science, or honors English).
  

These statistics support the need for programs like the Riverside Virtual School, which seeks to provide supplemental services to smaller school districts who might not otherwise be able to provide access to these types of courses to their own students.