{"id":1512,"date":"2020-08-31T09:10:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T16:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winginstitute.org\/news\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2020-08-31T09:13:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T16:13:07","slug":"how-to-assess-the-effectiveness-of-virtual-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winginstitute.org\/news\/how-to-assess-the-effectiveness-of-virtual-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"How to assess the effectiveness of virtual schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>\u201cVirtual Schools in the U.S. 2019\u201d<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even before the Covid-19 pandemic closed down K-12 education and established an overwhelming interest in remote learning, there has been a rush towards creating virtual schools (also referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools, or cyber schools).&nbsp;&nbsp;There is a belief that virtual schools&nbsp;can customize online curriculum to individual students more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms, expand student choices, and attain greater student achievement than in traditional school models.&nbsp;&nbsp;And, the promise of lower costs makes this alternative attractive to both policymakers and for-profit provider.&nbsp;&nbsp;The question is, does research back up these claims?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) report\u2014<em>Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019\u2014<\/em>is its seventh annual report attempting to answer these questions.&nbsp;&nbsp;This report is a comprehensive attempt to analyze the characteristics and performance of K-12 virtual schools, review the current research as it relates to virtual school practices and outcomes, examine state legislative efforts to monitor these programs, and make policy recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though the current number of schools represents a small portion of the overall K-12 system, they constitute some of the fastest-growing options.\u00a0\u00a0The report examined two models: virtual schools (in which students receive all of their instruction on-line) and blended schools (offering a combination of face-to-face and online activities).\u00a0\u00a0Both are models that will be receiving much attention as K-12 education tries to navigate the Covid-19 waters.\u00a0As of the 2017-18 school year, there were 501 virtual schools serving 300,000 students across 35 states.\u00a0\u00a0This represents a 20% growth over the previous five years.\u00a0\u00a0Seventy-nine percent of these students were enrolled in virtual charter schools, twenty-one percent enrolled in district operated schools.\u00a0\u00a0Sixty percent of the total enrollment was in schools operated by for-profit\u00a0organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the same year, there were 300 blended learning schools serving 132,960 students across 33 states.\u00a0Enrollment in this model has grown dramatically, increasing from 36,605 students in 2015-16 to 132,960 students in FY 2017-18 (263% increase).\u00a0\u00a0Only 26.7% of blended schools were operated by for-profit organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This report examined the relative performance of virtual schools, blended schools and traditional schools using annual state-assigned school performance ratings and high school graduation rates.&nbsp;&nbsp;School performance ratings varied somewhat across states, but generally included: student academic performance, graduation rates, achievement gaps, attendance, parent\/student satisfaction, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp;The resulting data classified schools as academically acceptable or academically unacceptable.&nbsp;&nbsp;Less than fifty percent (48.5%) virtual schools had acceptable school performance ratings.&nbsp;&nbsp;Only 44.6% of blended schools had acceptable school performance ratings.&nbsp;&nbsp;There was no data provided for traditional district schools.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An analysis of high school graduation rate data produced similar results.\u00a0\u00a0Only 50% of students in virtual schools graduated on time from High Schools, compared to 61.5% for blended schools and 84% for traditional district schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Citation(s)<\/strong>:\u00a0Molnar, A., Miron, G., Elgeberi, N., Barbour, M.K., Huerta, L., Shafer, S.R., Rice, J.K. (2019). Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved August 25, 2020]from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/publication\/virtual-schools-annual-2019\">http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/publication\/virtual-schools-annual-2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Links<\/strong>:<a href=\"http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/Virtual%20Schools%202019.pdf\">http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/Virtual%20Schools%202019.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cVirtual Schools in the U.S. 2019\u201d. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic closed down K-12 education and established an overwhelming interest in remote learning, there has been a rush towards creating virtual schools (also referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools, or cyber schools).&nbsp;&nbsp;There is a belief that virtual schools&nbsp;can customize online curriculum&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winginstitute.org\/news\/how-to-assess-the-effectiveness-of-virtual-schools\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6,5,16,17,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-outcomes","category-external-influences","category-monitoring","category-policy-initiatives","category-societal-outcomes","category-structural-interventions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to assess the effectiveness of virtual schools - Wing Institute news section<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winginstitute.org\/news\/how-to-assess-the-effectiveness-of-virtual-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to assess the effectiveness of virtual schools - Wing Institute news section\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cVirtual Schools in the U.S. 2019\u201d. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic closed down K-12 education and established an overwhelming interest in remote learning, there has been a rush towards creating virtual schools (also referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools, or cyber schools).&nbsp;&nbsp;There is a belief that virtual schools&nbsp;can customize online curriculum... 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