Experiences and Exit in K-12 Online Schooling: Reviewing the Literature

While K-12 online distance education (ODE) continues to expand, demand-side factors contributing to its growth continue to be understudied. Student and parent experiences of online schooling have had growing attention, particularly during and post COVID-19, while research exploring exit factors remains scant. This literature review considers key theoretical constructs seeking to understand experiences of ODE and their contribution to retention or attrition. Student experiences in terms of academic achievement of online compared to traditional face-to-face schooling has some more of the more robust debate in the field, with mixed findings when contrasting large-scale studies to specific case-studies of online schools. The need for additional research on achievement and further nuance on measures used in studies is highlighted, as is the need for more studies to consider exit factors to create a fuller understanding of contributing factors to success (or failure) in online schooling.