My daughter sat through the first half of 9th grade in a classroom where the male teacher handed out grades (99 to those he liked - with no testing, assignments, anything for the 99) to students. It was an “elective” class and was her lowest grade (she is not a flirt). We pulled her out of that silly class and she took a Virtual School class for half of the year. Much more challenging. I am thankful Virtual School is available. AP courses are also available through Virtual School. Georgia public schools are in sorry shape, aren’t they?
My recent graduate took 5 AP online courses through Virginia's virtual high school. She was very pleased with her instruction in 4 of the 5, and her AP scores back up that claim.
It's definitely a way to help the upper achieving students who are motivated and self-starting
It sort of varies by district, in my experience, but I don't think most Georgia schools really match up to the schools my nieces attend in Virginia (on the other hand, most Virginia schools may not either), and I don't think the state sets its standards high enough in the CRCT and high school standardized tests.
On the other hand, we do have the sort of cutting edge programs such as Virtual School...