Clay Eaton’s Review of: Rauh, Jonathan. (2011). The Utility of Online Choice Options: Do Purely Online Schools Increase the Value to Students? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19(34). Retrieved May 10, 2012 from

 SC Virtual is in its third year of operation.  It has just under 3,000 students.  The school is a K-12 state-wide school.  There are five other virtual schools in the SC Public Charter School District.  All public charter schools meet all state requirements for curriculum and testing.

Rauh was trying to figure out if parents are acting in an economically rational way by sending students to the school. The problem was that the model did not seem to be rational. The students at the school were scoring very poorly on state standardized tests. Something else seemed to be going on, but Rauh did not know what it was.

 I work at the SC Public Charter School District... So, I reviewed his research and called Jonathan.  We talked about the qualitative aspects of this subject, which he was not aware of. Now, we’re working together on a new study.

Jonathan was not aware that: Many of the students failed in traditional public education. Many come from out of state, and their families are often opposed to any participation in SC public schools. The school gave computers to lower-income students and thus income level and access were not factors.

 Jonathan’s numbers were right.  The students are scoring below averages.  But parents are still putting students in.  It seemed like the rational model broke.  What else is happening here?

 Jonathan Rauh’s hunch was right: Something interesting is going on.  Using a rational economic model is great: This is going to work – with modifications. Thinking about public charter schools and online education in the context of parent choice and a rational economic model is a great idea; he just needs more qualitative.  The take-away: It isn’t always just about test score statistics.

  Clay Eaton  Director of Public Relations and Fund Raising  South Carolina Public Charter School District  (803)   "Excellence. Innovation. Results."   From: Rauh, William Sent: Wednesday, May 16, :52 AM To: Eaton, Clay Subject: Articles of Interest   Clay,   I hope you are doing well. In thinking about our conversation yesterday I am sending you two articles that I think may interest you. The first is by Peterson and Hess. It addresses the differentiation in state standards versus what would be expected from looking at NAEP scores (if a state has higher standards it will have lower scores on state tests, but if that is the case it should also perform better on NAEP than states with lower standards). That is in exactly what Peterson and Hess find, and guess who is up right up at the top – that’s right South Carolina – high standards à lower state performance but positively and significantly different on NAEP.   The second is by Eric Hanushek and colleagues, it addresses Charter schools specifically. It is an article that I cited a good bit in my EPAA article. The authors have access to a huge data set that is fully integrated into the schools of interest (the Texas Schools Project). They have similar findings to my article, but make much better use of the statistical models (Hanushek’s work really is the gold standard in education policy research, it is almost impossible to get published without citing him).   Jonathan