Hello, Great Lakes Center subscriber:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 85% of American students are already not on track to complete the school year in their traditional setting. To assure learning continues, American educators are scrambling to create as many meaningful remote learning opportunities as possible.  

In this issue, we address the current reality and future of remote learning.

THE ISSUE

Rapid national deployment of remote learning solutions raises questions about the future of online learning.

WHAT WE KNOW

Welcome to the Wild Wild West.

Remote learning has so many names and configurations it is difficult to characterize and study. Virtual schools, remote learning, online learning, e-learning, blended learning and personalized learning are all names for education programs that, to varying degrees, use technology in a student's education.

This Inside Look deals with full-time virtual schools. Next week, we will tackle various part-time programs - often called personalized learning or blended learning.

Full-time virtual schools offer programs with no brick and mortar component for the student. Teachers interact with students exclusively online. These are often run by private for-profit companies such as K12 Inc. whose CEO reportedly makes over $2 million per year. In many states, they are funded by taxpayers as public charter schools. Typically, there is minimal government oversight. Profits are high because expenses are low; teachers often have very high student caseloads, and there is no rent for student facilities, no extra-curricular activities, no library, no student transportation, etc. These schools often receive the same per-pupil state reimbursement as a traditional school.

The most recent NEPC Virtual Schools Report states, "The available research has consistently found that students enrolled in full-time virtual schools perform at levels well below their counterparts in face-to-face schools. Recent research indicates that schools that provide a combination of virtual and face-to-face curriculum and instruction (i.e., blended schools) also perform at low levels compared to traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Finally, research also suggests that both virtual schools and blended schools may be more economical than traditional public schools."

Overall, the academic performance of full-time virtual schools has been abysmal. Yet state legislatures have expanded them with little or no oversight.

In fact, the National Alliance for Charter Schools stated: “Most striking and troubling in these reports is the finding of large-scale underperformance by full-time virtual charter schools. If traditional public schools were producing such results, we would rightly be outraged. We should not feel any different just because these are charter schools."



 

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Online learning solutions offer the chance to provide effective learning during the pandemic although they are not the only means. Many educators are making calls and distributing paper homework packets to their students. However, online learning is the primary means of continuing education during the pandemic.

Widespread use of online learning should be viewed as an emergency measure due to the pandemic. True high-quality education requires full positive human interaction with adults trained in understanding student development. It requires relationships. As the Learning Policy Institute describes, we need to educate the whole child. 

ISSUES

1. There are thousands of online full-time and blended virtual learning systems.  Few, if any, have been independently assessed for quality or fidelity to academic standards.
2. This trend can be expected to exacerbate the achievement gap as research demonstrates that students who struggle academically benefit significantly less from online learning.
3. Overall, full-time virtual schools have abysmal student achievement and graduation rates when compared to traditional schools.
4. Commercial online education vendors can be expected to market and promote their products.
5. Student data privacy concerns are significant.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

1. The Learning Policy Institute has issued this list of Resources for parents, teachers and schools.
2. You can learn more about the state of Virtual Schools in this important report.

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