Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2017
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| Title: | Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2017 |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Molnar, Alex, Miron, Gary, Gulosino, Charisse, Shank, Christopher, Davidson, Caryn, Barbour, Michael, Huerta, Luis, Shafter, Sheryl Rankin, Rice, Jennifer King, Nitkin, David, University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center |
| Source: | National Education Policy Center. 2017. |
| Availability: | National Education Policy Center. School of Education 249 UCB University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-735-5290; e-mail: nepc@colorado.edu; Web site: http://nepc.colorado.edu |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 103 |
| Publication Date: | 2017 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice |
| Document Type: | Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Elementary Secondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Virtual Classrooms, Blended Learning, Public Schools, Traditional Schools, Enrollment, School Demography, Proprietary Schools, Private Schools, Charter Schools, Student Characteristics, Minority Group Students, Low Income Students, Teacher Student Ratio, Educational Indicators, Federal Programs, School Effectiveness, Elementary Secondary Education, Accountability, Graduation Rate, Educational Policy, Educational Research, Educational Finance, Governance, Educational Quality, Teacher Effectiveness, Special Education, English Language Learners, Gender Differences, Supplementary Education |
| Abstract: | In the five years since the first National Education Policy Center (NEPC) "Annual Report on Virtual Education" was released in 2013, virtual education has continued to be a focal point for policymakers. Proponents argue that virtual education can expand student choices and improve the efficiency of public education. In particular, full-time virtual schools (also sometimes referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools or cyber schools) have attracted a great deal of attention. Many believe that online curriculum can be tailored to individual students more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms, giving it the potential to promote greater student achievement than can be realized in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Further, the promise of lower costs--primarily for instructional personnel and facilities--makes virtual schools financially appealing to both policymakers and for-profit providers. The assumption that virtual schools are cost effective and educationally sound, coupled with policies expanding school choice and providing market incentives attractive to for-profit companies, continue to help fuel virtual school growth in the U.S. There is, however, little high-quality systematic evidence that the rapid expansion of the past several years is wise. Indeed, evidence presented in the NEPC annual reports argues for caution. Nevertheless, the movement toward virtual schools continues to gather steam, often supported by weak or even dishonest data. For example, as a part of the confirmation hearings for the current Secretary of Education, National Public Radio reported that Secretary Betsy DeVos responded to a written question from Senator Patty Murray using performance data provided by a for-profit corporation that inflated the four-year graduation rates of virtual schools--in some cases by as much as 300%.1 The 2017 NEPC Annual Report contributes to the existing evidence related to virtual education, and so to debates surrounding it. It provides objective analysis of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; available research on virtual school practices and policy; and an overview of recent state efforts to craft new policy. In Section I--"Full-Time Virtual and Blended Schools: Enrollment, Student Characteristics, and Performance," Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, Christopher Shank, and Caryn Davidson focus on two specific types of K-12 online and blended learning: full-time virtual schools and blended schools. The authors assigned schools in their study a unique identification code that allowed them to gather complete data about each school from a variety of sources (the National Center for Educational Statistics, individual Departments of Education, and so on). The authors use the terms "full-time virtual school" and "full-term blended school" because they want to link these school types to data sets on school characteristics, student demographics, and school outcomes. In Section II--"Still No Evidence, Increased Call for Regulation: Research to Guide Virtual School Policy," Michael Barbour focuses on all forms of K-12 virtual and blended learning. Barbour distinguishes among the different forms of virtual schooling--both supplemental and full-time--and describes the limited reliable research on blended learning programs and blended learning schools. In Section III--"Key Policy Issues in Virtual Schools: Finance and Governance, Instructional Quality, and Teacher Quality," Luis Huerta, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Jennifer King Rice, and David Nitkin use the general term "virtual school" as an umbrella term including all forms of K-12 online learning. When the National Education Policy Center first began this annual examination in 2013, the distinctions among K-12 online learning, virtual schooling and cyber schooling were not as prominent within the academic literature. Additionally, many of the K-12 online learning programs sponsored or supported by State Departments of Education were referred to as virtual schools. Similarly, much of the legislation and policy language used the term virtual (for example, virtual charter school). For these reasons, this annual report was and will continue to use the term Virtual Schools in its title. Therefore, unless they are quoting specific language from a given piece of legislation or policy, the authors of this third section will continue to use the term "virtual schools." (Each section contains a list of notes and references.) [For "Virtual Schools Report 2016: Directory and Performance Review," see ED574701.] |
| Abstractor: | ERIC |
| Entry Date: | 2017 |
| Accession Number: | ED574702 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 CustomLinks: – Url: https://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED574702 Name: ERIC Full Text Category: fullText Text: Full Text from ERIC |
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School of Education 249 UCB University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-735-5290; e-mail: nepc@colorado.edu; Web site: http://nepc.colorado.edu – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 103 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2017 – Name: SourceSuprt Label: Sponsoring Agency Group: SrcSuprt Data: Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Reports - Evaluative – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Virtual+Classrooms%22">Virtual Classrooms</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Blended+Learning%22">Blended Learning</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Public+Schools%22">Public Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Traditional+Schools%22">Traditional Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Enrollment%22">Enrollment</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+Demography%22">School Demography</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Proprietary+Schools%22">Proprietary Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Private+Schools%22">Private Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Charter+Schools%22">Charter Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Characteristics%22">Student Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Minority+Group+Students%22">Minority Group Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Low+Income+Students%22">Low Income Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teacher+Student+Ratio%22">Teacher Student Ratio</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Indicators%22">Educational Indicators</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Federal+Programs%22">Federal Programs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+Effectiveness%22">School Effectiveness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Accountability%22">Accountability</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Graduation+Rate%22">Graduation Rate</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Policy%22">Educational Policy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Research%22">Educational Research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Finance%22">Educational Finance</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Governance%22">Governance</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Quality%22">Educational Quality</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teacher+Effectiveness%22">Teacher Effectiveness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Special+Education%22">Special Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22English+Language+Learners%22">English Language Learners</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Gender+Differences%22">Gender Differences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Supplementary+Education%22">Supplementary Education</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: In the five years since the first National Education Policy Center (NEPC) "Annual Report on Virtual Education" was released in 2013, virtual education has continued to be a focal point for policymakers. Proponents argue that virtual education can expand student choices and improve the efficiency of public education. In particular, full-time virtual schools (also sometimes referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools or cyber schools) have attracted a great deal of attention. Many believe that online curriculum can be tailored to individual students more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms, giving it the potential to promote greater student achievement than can be realized in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Further, the promise of lower costs--primarily for instructional personnel and facilities--makes virtual schools financially appealing to both policymakers and for-profit providers. The assumption that virtual schools are cost effective and educationally sound, coupled with policies expanding school choice and providing market incentives attractive to for-profit companies, continue to help fuel virtual school growth in the U.S. There is, however, little high-quality systematic evidence that the rapid expansion of the past several years is wise. Indeed, evidence presented in the NEPC annual reports argues for caution. Nevertheless, the movement toward virtual schools continues to gather steam, often supported by weak or even dishonest data. For example, as a part of the confirmation hearings for the current Secretary of Education, National Public Radio reported that Secretary Betsy DeVos responded to a written question from Senator Patty Murray using performance data provided by a for-profit corporation that inflated the four-year graduation rates of virtual schools--in some cases by as much as 300%.1 The 2017 NEPC Annual Report contributes to the existing evidence related to virtual education, and so to debates surrounding it. It provides objective analysis of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; available research on virtual school practices and policy; and an overview of recent state efforts to craft new policy. In Section I--"Full-Time Virtual and Blended Schools: Enrollment, Student Characteristics, and Performance," Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, Christopher Shank, and Caryn Davidson focus on two specific types of K-12 online and blended learning: full-time virtual schools and blended schools. The authors assigned schools in their study a unique identification code that allowed them to gather complete data about each school from a variety of sources (the National Center for Educational Statistics, individual Departments of Education, and so on). The authors use the terms "full-time virtual school" and "full-term blended school" because they want to link these school types to data sets on school characteristics, student demographics, and school outcomes. In Section II--"Still No Evidence, Increased Call for Regulation: Research to Guide Virtual School Policy," Michael Barbour focuses on all forms of K-12 virtual and blended learning. Barbour distinguishes among the different forms of virtual schooling--both supplemental and full-time--and describes the limited reliable research on blended learning programs and blended learning schools. In Section III--"Key Policy Issues in Virtual Schools: Finance and Governance, Instructional Quality, and Teacher Quality," Luis Huerta, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Jennifer King Rice, and David Nitkin use the general term "virtual school" as an umbrella term including all forms of K-12 online learning. When the National Education Policy Center first began this annual examination in 2013, the distinctions among K-12 online learning, virtual schooling and cyber schooling were not as prominent within the academic literature. Additionally, many of the K-12 online learning programs sponsored or supported by State Departments of Education were referred to as virtual schools. Similarly, much of the legislation and policy language used the term virtual (for example, virtual charter school). For these reasons, this annual report was and will continue to use the term Virtual Schools in its title. Therefore, unless they are quoting specific language from a given piece of legislation or policy, the authors of this third section will continue to use the term "virtual schools." (Each section contains a list of notes and references.) [For "Virtual Schools Report 2016: Directory and Performance Review," see ED574701.] – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: ERIC – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2017 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: ED574702 |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=ED574702 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 103 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Virtual Classrooms Type: general – SubjectFull: Blended Learning Type: general – SubjectFull: Public Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Traditional Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Enrollment Type: general – SubjectFull: School Demography Type: general – SubjectFull: Proprietary Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Private Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Charter Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Characteristics Type: general – SubjectFull: Minority Group Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Low Income Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Teacher Student Ratio Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Indicators Type: general – SubjectFull: Federal Programs Type: general – SubjectFull: School Effectiveness Type: general – SubjectFull: Elementary Secondary Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Accountability Type: general – SubjectFull: Graduation Rate Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Policy Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Research Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Finance Type: general – SubjectFull: Governance Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Quality Type: general – SubjectFull: Teacher Effectiveness Type: general – SubjectFull: Special Education Type: general – SubjectFull: English Language Learners Type: general – SubjectFull: Gender Differences Type: general – SubjectFull: Supplementary Education Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2017 Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Molnar, Alex – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Miron, Gary – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Gulosino, Charisse – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Shank, Christopher – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Davidson, Caryn – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Barbour, Michael – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Huerta, Luis – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Shafter, Sheryl Rankin – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Rice, Jennifer King – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Nitkin, David IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 04 Type: published Y: 2017 Titles: – TitleFull: National Education Policy Center Type: main |
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