Online high schools in North Carolina

Virtual studies are part of the high school curriculum in the Tar Heel State. Online high schools in North Carolina have operated since September 2002, when the state's Business Education Technology Alliance charged the North Carolina School System to integrate technology into the schools. The E-Learning Commission then created the North Carolina Virtual Public School, or NCVPS, to create online courses for subjects that students could not take at their own campus schools.

North Carolina online high schools and courses

Today, as the second-largest virtual school in the nation, NCVPS partners with public schools to offer over 70 standard and customized tuition-free online classes to North Carolina students, including Advanced Placement and SAT exam preparation as well as credit recovery courses. NCVPS is an extension of public schools, so students enroll in the program through their own schools.

Students seeking a full-time online education can explore private schools, which often provide personalized study plans and flexible scheduling.

Educational achievement in North Carolina

North Carolina has more than 480 public high schools, over 70 of which are called early-college high schools. Graduation rates in 2010 were just over 74 percent, with a 3.75 drop-out rate. North Carolina is renowned for its public and private colleges and universities. The U.S. Census found some areas of the state to be more highly educated than the U.S. average: Nationwide, 27.5 percent of adults held at least a bachelor's degree as of 2009, compared to about 45 percent of adults in Durham County and Wake County, which includes Raleigh. In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked both the Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Cary metropolitan areas among the top 10 most educated cities in the country.