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Many of the nation's school districts still don't have the bandwidth needed to support mobile devices used by students.

Two-thirds of students want to use technology more often in their classrooms, and 76 percent of IT staff said faculty members show increasing interest in implementing educational technology.

But 87 percent of IT professionals said they would need to upgrade their infrastructure before they can incorporate much more technology in their classrooms, and almost nine in 10 faculty members anticipate problems moving away from the traditional lecture model.

“Schools need to have resources equal or better than what [students] have at home,” Washington said.

"Allowing students to pursue learning experiences that are relevant to them -- including traditional seat-based environments and digital learning opportunities -- is the best strategy," Haglund said. "The same thing with adults, frankly. I don't want every teacher to be teaching in a virtual environment because not every teacher has the interest or skills to support that type of an instructional environment."

Among the key conclusions of that analysis is that students in virtual schools run by K12 are performing worse academically and dropping out of courses at much higher rates than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

Such recommendations have been supported by some virtual school advocates, including a structure where funding is based on course completions and not course enrollments, such as the Florida Virtual School's funding model.