Alva Review-Courier -

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Sally Padilla's fingers flew across the keyboard of the Dell laptop.

With deliberate action, but very little discussion, the Pueblo girl logged on to her user account, scrolled through a list of her academic courses and popped open a virtual classroom. There, in the upper left-hand corner, was a video link to her teacher. Sally also had access to her scholastic notes, supplemental learning materials and chats with her classmates, who were scattered across the state.

She did all this without leaving her busy home. Sally, 16, is a student of Pikes Peak Online School, a...