Dive Brief:
- "Virtual education can be a game-changer for a lot of students," said M. Karega Rausch, vice president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. But, for a large number of "students who are attending full-time, fully online schools, the outcomes are pretty devastating. What we're seeing now isn't what any of us would hope to see."
- Michael Petrilli, executive director of the Fordham Institute, adding his comments during a Wednesday panel at the Education Commission of the States' National Forum on Education Policy, saying that virtual schools would be better served by being "kicked out" of the charter system, and instead run by state education commissions, as is done in Florida.
- Because virtual schools require "a kid who's pretty driven, who has a pretty supportive home environment" for the best chance at success, Petrilli argued that the schools would better benefit from more selectivity and individual review of applications to determine fit, which is not currently allowed under the current charter model.
Dive Insight:
Online schooling has been seen as a viable alternative for students who either live in areas where the nearest school is many miles away, as is the case in many rural areas, or who have not done well in the traditional school setting. But just like with distance education in higher ed, complete self-guided instruction could present a challenge for some students. Many students need to have a teacher physically present to help guide instruction and keep them on task. In fact, data show students enrolled in these schools do worse across the board on all performance metrics — the number of students who graduate high school in four years after being enrolled in charter schools is roughly 40%, compared to an 80% national average.
The panelists posed a need for some policy effort on regulation and a focus on outcomes for online school providers, and Petrilli suggested more autonomy would actually help them better serve students. But if the argument for virtual charters is that they traditionally serve students who are already behind, adding in levels of selectivity around things like projected familial support could keep those students out and create even another tier in the socio-economic stratification of K-12 education. However, establishing online schools run directly by the state or the district could be one solvent, as it removes the financial incentive to enroll as many students as possible without focusing as much on outcomes. If virtual graduation rates and test scores were rolled together with the metrics of traditional brick-and-mortar schools, states and districts would be motivated to better monitor performance of these schools.
