Virtual Charter Schools and Home Schooling By Carol Klein

Chapter 2

Background

The study of the virtual charter school and its relationship to home schooling has its roots in three distinct innovations: home schooling, charter schools, and virtual education. The home schooling movement has its own unique history and will be briefly described in order to understand the current receptivity of some of its families to what the virtual charter school can provide. Likewise, a recounting of the charter school movement will help to inform readers about the attributes from which the virtual charter school has drawn to establish its governance system. Finally, virtual education has laid the groundwork for the tech-nological structure of the virtual charter school. Thus, an overview of each innovation, with current findings and practices from the literature, will be given to help provide a deeper understanding of the creation and functioning of the virtual charter school model and its relationship to home schooling.