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an area with cushy couches and tables called the Fishbowl, where students gather to chat between classes or to work on group projects.

put on headphones or twist iPod ear buds into their ears, because the online programs are interactive and multimodal—comprised of audio, video vignettes, Flash animation, quizzes, and games. Paraprofessionals called “assistant coaches” walk through the center to make sure kids are doing their work, fix computer glitches, help with academic questions

The online curriculum for each course is adaptive, meaning it can gauge from the students’ answers when they have mastered something and are ready to move ahead and when they may need extra practice before moving on. A bar on the upper right corner of the screen tracks students’ progress in every course and becomes part of a report automatically e-mailed to parents at the end of every week.

Using this “daily achievement data” from the students’ online work, teachers at Carpe Diem meet with students individually or in small groups, called workshops, either to give extra remedial help or to facilitate enrichment projects. Grouped roughly by age, students rotate in and out of the Learning Center, workshops, gym, or science labs every 55 minutes until the end of the day.

combine the best of traditional, face-to-face instruction with the best of the cutting-edge online curriculum available to virtual schools. The result is something education experts are calling a hybrid school.