Virtual Charter Schools Realities and Unknowns Daniela Torre UCEA Graduate Student Summit November 14, 2012

What is a Virtual Charter School? Enhancement vs. replacement vs. blended (Means et al., 2010) Location: home, school, third place Instructor: parent, computer program, other adults Asynchronous vs. Synchronous “…wholly public educational organization that offers full-time instruction at the K-12 level at least partially through Internet-based methods, with time and/or distance separating the teacher and learner (Rhim & Kowal, 2010, p.4).

VCS Landscape Privatization & School Choice Provides incentives for providers to innovate Supports pluralism and parent choice Weakens government monopoly (Minow, 2003) Homeschooling movement Most extreme form of school choice Rapid growth since the 1990s Relationship to for-profit companies 75% of students enrolled in VCS attend school managed by a for profit company

VCS Growth Difficult to measure Failure to disaggregate online programs by authorizer type or distinguish between replacement and supplemental programs. Year# of VCS Nationwide

Who Enrolls in VCS? Students who were previously home-schooled Minorities may be underrepresented (Guarino, et al., 2005). High concentration of special needs students in some schools (Baker, Bouras, Hartwig & McNair, 2005).

Equitable Access Digital divide Race/ethnicity gap Urban/rural gap SES gap Home Support

Why VCS? Students and Families Individualized instruction Expand community of learners For former homeschooled children, less financial burden Part of a movement (Means et al., 2009) States or Districts Expand access to students Reduce geographic barriers of teacher labor force Expand choices for constituents Reduce costs and increase efficiency

Instruction Computer Variability in programs Ongoing assessment Teacher Work load Student teacher ratio Level of support Parent Level of support Role within program

The Costs of VCS Student funding How much? Who pays? Fixed costs Curriculum development $4,500 to more than $1,000,000 Server access and set up Variable costs Phones and phone service for teachers Computers Internet access Teacher compensation

VCS and Accountability Instructional hours and Enrollment Should be calculated over a longer span of time Alabama: Clock hours Florida: courses completed Quality of instruction Teacher certification mirrors that for charter schools Parent qualifications? Quality of student work Academic dishonesty Quality of assessments Constraints due to format Data collection Monitoring Contact between parents and students

VCS Outcomes Few empirical studies “Those making policy should be clear on this key point: there exists no evidence from research that full-time virtual schooling at the K-12 level is an adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning” (2011, p.5). Positive findings Blended learning Programs that explicitly teach time management Asynchronous learning Negative findings Student experiences High turnover and drop out rates Lower achievement on standardized assessments

Future Research Quantitative study of student achievement outcomes controlling for selection bias and other factors Qualitative study about the experiences of students and teachers within VCS The differential experiences of students in VCS depending on age. Study access to VCS by breaking down enrollment data according to race/ethnicity, gender, El status, special needs status.

Thank You Daniela Torre Vanderbilt University