Inside Online Charter Schools A Report of the National Study of Online Charter Schools

Transcription

1 Inside Online Charter Schools A Report of the National Study of Online Charter Schools Media Call and Webinar October 27, 215 Brian Gill, Senior Fellow

2 Online charter school sector is young and understudied Instructional approach is innovative, consistent with one of the purposes of charter laws Critics have questioned effectiveness of online charters Few rigorous studies of operations or effects We present results from the first national study of operations of online charter schools 2

3 Principal survey responses illuminate operations of online charter schools across the country Sought to survey principals in all online charters, which are: Public charter schools Serving full-time students Delivering instruction entirely online Received responses from 68 percent of schools Survey findings supplemented with data from public sources (U.S. Department of Education) 3

4 About 2 online charter schools are operating, serving 2k students Number of online charter schools Total number of students served by online charter schools 5 4, 45 35, 4 3, 35 25, OH PA CA GA AZ CO NV TX OR WI SC ID IN MN UT OK LA MI HI AR KS NM FL DC NH 2, 15, 1, 5, Number of online charter schools ( ) Total number of students served ( ) More than half serve elementary and middle grades as well as high school Sector dominated by a few schools serving >1 students each 57 percent of schools are affiliated with management organizations 4

5 Percentage White students overrepresented, Hispanic students underrepresented % % % 5% Asian or Asian Pacific Islander Online charter schools 31% 12% 14% 15% Hispanic Black White All public schools (includes only states with online charter schools) English learners very underrepresented (.4 percent) Students with disabilities represented in similar numbers as in conventional public schools (14 percent) 5

6 Independent study is most-frequently-used instructional approach Percentage 1 Percentage of online charter schools using each method frequently % 59% 6% % 36% 32% 3% 27% 21% 19% 2% 11% Individualized, studentdriven independent study Teacher-guided synchronous discussion Collaborative learning involving two or more students working together 4th grade 7th grade High school Lecture One-third of schools rely exclusively on self-paced courses Very few online schools use lectures frequently at any grade level 6

7 Median hours per week Students in typical online charter schools receive 3 to 6 hours per week of synchronous (live) instructional time 5 Median weekly hours in synchronous instruction th grade 7th grade High school Time for median student (as opposed to median school) is 5 hours in elementary and middle grades, 6 hours in high school One-on-one instructional support time is 45-6 minutes per week 7

8 Online charter schools have substantially higher student-teacher ratios than other public schools Number of students 35 Students per full-time teacher Online charters Brick-and-mortar charters Conventional public schools 8

9 Student engagement is the biggest challenge facing online charter schools Percentage of principals identifying issue as one of the greatest challenges Student engagement 33 School/CMO/district/state administration 13 Public perception 11 Parent engagement 11 Finding and analyzing meaningful data 1 Being located remotely from students 7 Accountability systems 7 Funding 7 Finding quality teachers 4 Student recruitment and retention 3 9

10 Most online charter schools have substantial expectations of parents Percentage 1 Percentage of online charter schools expecting parents to play particular roles % 8% 7 7% 64% 6 56% % Actively participate in the student's instruction Participate in parent training sessions 4th grade 7th grade High school 1

11 Key conclusions Online schooling creates both constraints and opportunities for delivering instruction Independent study is the dominant mode of learning, with much less synchronous (live) instructional time than in conventional schools Online charter schools expect much of parents Parental support may be necessary to keep students engaged the biggest challenge for online charters Challenge of student engagement is inherent in online instruction But lean staffing and limited live contact hours may exacerbate the challenge and make it difficult to solve 11

12 For More Information Read the full report and the fact sheet Brian Gill 12