Download or read book Understanding and Improving Full Time Virtual Schools written by Gary Miron and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation and expansion of full-time virtual schools. This report provides a new perspective on the nation's largest virtual school provider through a systematic review and analysis of student characteristics, school finance, and school performance of K12-operated schools. Using federal and state data, this report provides a description of the students served by K12 and the public revenues received and spent by the company at the school level. Further, the report presents evidence from a range of school performance measures and strives to understand and explain the overall weak performance of these virtual schools. While the authors share the excitement of new technologies and the potential these have to improve communication, teacher effectiveness, and learning, they recommend that policymakers move forward cautiously and only after piloting and thoroughly vetting new ideas. The authors express hope that their findings will help inform policymakers and motivate researchers to carefully study various aspects of full-time virtual schools. They conclude that a better understanding of virtual schools can serve to improve this new model and help ensure that full-time virtual schools can better serve students and the public as a whole. Appended are: (1) Demographic Characteristics of Students Enrolled in K12 Schools, 2010-11; (2) Details on Publicly Reported Revenues and Expenditures for Schools Operated by K12 Inc., 2008-09; (3) State Performance Ratings, Adequate Yearly Progress Status, and Reasons for Not Meeting AYP; (4) Performance of K12 Schools on State Reading Assessments, 2010-11; (5) Performance of K12 Schools on State Math Assessments, 2010-11; and (6) Questions about Online Learning for Policymakers and School Leaders from the Center for Public Education Study. (Contains 14 figures, 6 tables, 83 notes and references, and 1 footnote.).
Download or read book Author Reply to K12 Inc Response written by University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation and expansion of full-time virtual schools. Using federal and state data, Gary Miron and Jessica Urschel provided a description of the students served by K12 and the public revenues received and spent by the company at the school level. Further, they presented evidence from a range of school performance measures and strives to understand and explain the overall weak performance of these virtual schools. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) sent a copy to K12 Inc. and invited them to send the authors a response to their evaluation report. Although the authors did not receive a response, "K12 Inc. Public Affairs" did prepare a document that was posted on their website that had fourteen bullet points, currently available on the K12 Inc website at http://k12choice.com/images/stories/K12_Response_to_NEPC_1.pdf. In this paper, the authors provide a brief response to these points. The following concerns of K12 Inc. are answered in this report: (1) Objection to the report's use of the term "falling behind"; (2) Pointing to K12 Inc.'s data concerning results of a "Scantron Performance Series exam"; (3) Pointing out new initiatives undertaken by K12 Inc. to support struggling students; (4) Contesting spending evidence from the report; (5) Attempting to minimize the importance and strength of the CREDO study; (6) Concerning the weakness of AYP measures; (7) Defending the company's teachers; (8) Concerning student attrition; (9) Concerning the company's internal "customer satisfaction surveys"; (10) Concerning students with disabilities; and (11) Concerning inclusion and exclusion of the company's schools and concerning data on free- and reduced-price lunch. [For the main report, "Understanding and Improving Full-Time Virtual Schools: A Study of Student Characteristics, School Finance, and School Performance in Schools Operated by K12 Inc. [with Appendices]," see ED533960.].
Download or read book Virtual Schools written by Zane L. Berge and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important volume features contributions by top virtual school practitioners and experts in the field who talk about what virtual schools can do to plan for success. If you are interested in the details of launching virtual learning options for your school, district, region, or state, you likely have more questions than answers. Where do I begin? What kind of personnel will I need? What providers and resources are available to me? How do I hire and train teachers? What are the costs involved? This authoritative volume will answer these questions and many more. Providing an overview of virtual schooling and e-learning, along with detailed case studies and issues chapters, this essential volume provides practical guidance and a brief plan for success roadmap for local schools interested in starting a virtual learning program.
Download or read book Development and Management of Virtual Schools written by Catherine Cavanaugh and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtual schools are a result of widespread changes in knowledge about learning, in available technology and in society. Virtual schooling is growing in popularity and will continue to attract students because of the benefits it offers over traditional schooling. Stakeholders in virtual schools need information to guide their decisions. For the foreseeable future, virtual schools will continue to meet diverse student needs, and to evolve in response to further change. Development and Management of Virtual Schools: Issues and Trends brings together knowledge of virtual schools as a reference for scholars and other groups involved in virtual schools. The chapters review best practice from concept and development, through implementation and evaluation.
Download or read book Virtual Schools in the U S 2017 written by Alex Molnar and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the five years since the first National Education Policy Center (NEPC) "Annual Report on Virtual Education" was released in 2013, virtual education has continued to be a focal point for policymakers. Proponents argue that virtual education can expand student choices and improve the efficiency of public education. In particular, full-time virtual schools (also sometimes referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools or cyber schools) have attracted a great deal of attention. Many believe that online curriculum can be tailored to individual students more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms, giving it the potential to promote greater student achievement than can be realized in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Further, the promise of lower costs--primarily for instructional personnel and facilities--makes virtual schools financially appealing to both policymakers and for-profit providers. The assumption that virtual schools are cost effective and educationally sound, coupled with policies expanding school choice and providing market incentives attractive to for-profit companies, continue to help fuel virtual school growth in the U.S. There is, however, little high-quality systematic evidence that the rapid expansion of the past several years is wise. Indeed, evidence presented in the NEPC annual reports argues for caution. Nevertheless, the movement toward virtual schools continues to gather steam, often supported by weak or even dishonest data. For example, as a part of the confirmation hearings for the current Secretary of Education, National Public Radio reported that Secretary Betsy DeVos responded to a written question from Senator Patty Murray using performance data provided by a for-profit corporation that inflated the four-year graduation rates of virtual schools--in some cases by as much as 300%.1 The 2017 NEPC Annual Report contributes to the existing evidence related to virtual education, and so to debates surrounding it. It provides objective analysis of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; available research on virtual school practices and policy; and an overview of recent state efforts to craft new policy. In Section I--"Full-Time Virtual and Blended Schools: Enrollment, Student Characteristics, and Performance," Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, Christopher Shank, and Caryn Davidson focus on two specific types of K-12 online and blended learning: full-time virtual schools and blended schools. The authors assigned schools in their study a unique identification code that allowed them to gather complete data about each school from a variety of sources (the National Center for Educational Statistics, individual Departments of Education, and so on). The authors use the terms "full-time virtual school" and "full-term blended school" because they want to link these school types to data sets on school characteristics, student demographics, and school outcomes. In Section II--"Still No Evidence, Increased Call for Regulation: Research to Guide Virtual School Policy," Michael Barbour focuses on all forms of K-12 virtual and blended learning. Barbour distinguishes among the different forms of virtual schooling--both supplemental and full-time--and describes the limited reliable research on blended learning programs and blended learning schools. In Section III--"Key Policy Issues in Virtual Schools: Finance and Governance, Instructional Quality, and Teacher Quality," Luis Huerta, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Jennifer King Rice, and David Nitkin use the general term "virtual school" as an umbrella term including all forms of K-12 online learning. When the National Education Policy Center first began this annual examination in 2013, the distinctions among K-12 online learning, virtual schooling and cyber schooling were not as prominent within the academic literature. Additionally, many of the K-12 online learning programs sponsored or supported by State Departments of Education were referred to as virtual schools. Similarly, much of the legislation and policy language used the term virtual (for example, virtual charter school). For these reasons, this annual report was and will continue to use the term Virtual Schools in its title. Therefore, unless they are quoting specific language from a given piece of legislation or policy, the authors of this third section will continue to use the term "virtual schools." (Each section contains a list of notes and references.) [For "Virtual Schools Report 2016: Directory and Performance Review," see ED574701.].
Download or read book Virtual Schooling written by Elizabeth Kanna and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three top authorities offer their expertise and show parents how to ensure that their children optimize their skills and excel in learning in the online world.
Download or read book Handbook of Research on K 12 Online and Blended Learning written by RIchard E. Ferdig and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning is an edited collection of chapters that sets out to present the current state of research in K-12 online and blended learning. The beginning chapters lay the groundwork of the historical, international, and political landscape as well as present the scope of research methodologies used. Subsequent sections share a synthesis of theoretical and empirical work describing where we have been, what we currently know, and where we hope to go with research in the areas of learning and learners, content domains, teaching, the role of the other, and technological innovations."--Book home page.
Download or read book Developing Technology rich Teacher Education Programs written by Drew Polly and published by . This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book offers professional teacher educators a rare opportunity to harvest the thinking of pioneering colleagues spanning dozens of universities, and to benefit from the creativity, scholarship, hard work, and reflection that led them to the models they describe"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Online Education For Dummies written by Kevin E. Johnson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-12-09 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From admission to graduation-your personal guide to studying online Online Education For Dummies explains the ins and outs of attending a virtual classroom, and provides you with the tools you need to hone your skills or obtain additional certification and degrees. This practical reference not only helps you get the most out of an online course, but also offers a wealth of advice to help you pick the one that matches your interests and needs. Identifies the software and hardware needed to study online Reveals how to get financial aid, transfer credits, and manage online time Explains how to locate legitimate online programs and avoid scams Whether you want to earn a degree or just increase your knowledge through an online course, Online Education For Dummies is the only guide you need.
Download or read book Enrollment and Achievement in Ohio s Virtual Charter Schools written by June Ahn and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Fordham study, conducted by learning technology researcher June Ahn from NYU, dives into one of the most promising-and contentious-issues in education today: virtual schools. What type of students choose them? Which online courses do students take? Do virtual schools lead to improved outcomes for kids? With over thirty-five thousand students enrolled in its fully online charter schools ("e-schools"), Ohio boasts one of the country's largest populations of full-time virtual students. The sector has also grown tremendously, with a 60 percent increase in enrollment over the past four years--more than any other type of public school. Using four years of comprehensive student-level data to examine Ohio's e-schools, the study finds: (1) E-school students are mostly similar in race and ethnicity to students in brick-and-mortar district schools. But e-school students are lower-achieving (and more likely to have repeated the prior grade), more likely to participate in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program, and less likely to participate in gifted education. (2) Students taking online math courses are more likely to enroll in basic classes relative to students taking face-to-face courses. Almost no students take advanced math courses (like AP Statistics, Calculus, or Algebra II) online, especially compared to students who take face-to-face classes. (3) Across all grades and subjects, students who attend e-schools perform worse on state tests than otherwise-similar students who attend brick-and-mortar district schools, even accounting for prior achievement. In contrast, students in grades 4-8 who attend brick-and-mortar charter schools perform slightly better than their district school counterparts in both reading and math. Results are mixed but modest for students in grade ten. (4) Findings also suggest that e-schools drag down the performance of the entire charter sector. Online schools offer an efficient way to diversify--and even democratize--education in a connected world. Yet they have received negative, but well-deserved, attention concerning their poor academic performance, attrition rates, and ill capacity to educate the types of students who enroll in them. This is especially true in Ohio, where virtual schools have failed (as yet) to realize their potential. Using a slightly different analytical approach than CREDO's Online Charter School Study (2015), Dr. Ahn's results corroborate the disappointing findings on Ohio's online schools. Bold changes in policy and practice are needed to ensure that these schools better serve their students. For advocates of online learning and educational choice, the work has just begun. "Additional Results" is appended. [Foreword by Dada Zeehandelaar, and Michael J. Petrilli.].
Download or read book A Call to Action written by National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Currently, more than 180,000 students attend 135 full-time virtual charter schools in 23 states and the District of Columbia. While some students do well in a full-time virtual charter school environment, too many of these schools are not providing a quality educational program to the vast majority of their students, while enrolling too many who are simply not a good fit for attending a fully online school. In this report, "A Call to Action to Improve the Quality of Full-Time Virtual Charter Public Schools," the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now (50CAN) and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) propose specific policy recommendations to help states better hold full-time virtual charter schools accountable for student results. A list of resources is included.
Download or read book The Transformation of Social Work Education through Virtual Learning written by R. Paul Maiden and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past few years, numerous highly ranked, Tier 1 universities across the United States have embraced the development of advanced online degrees, a niche of secondary education long held by a small group of private, for-profit universities. Rapid advances in online learning technology, increasingly sophisticated, and easy to use ‘learning management systems’ and ‘anytime, anywhere access’ has dramatically increase the demand of individuals, mostly full time employed, working professionals. This volume addresses the dramatic changes that are occurring in social work pedagogy as more schools develop online programs. The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work launched their ‘Virtual Academic Center’ with a cohort of 80 online students. The program has now reached a ‘steady state’ of 2,200 ‘virtual’ students now representing two thirds of their MSW student population. Additionally, the school launched a doctorate of social work degree with a focus on leading and managing innovation, leading public discourse and management of large complex systems. This book essentially tells the ‘USC story’ with the challenges faced in embracing this new technology, teaching social work courses in an online environment, as well as pedagogical enhancements made by faculty in converting traditional campus based courses to the virtual environment.
Download or read book Losing Our Way written by Bob Herbert and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From longtime New York Times columnist Bob Herbert comes a wrenching portrayal of ordinary Americans struggling for survival in a nation that has lost its way In his eighteen years as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Herbert championed the working poor and the middle class. After filing his last column in 2011, he set off on a journey across the country to report on Americans who were being left behind in an economy that has never fully recovered from the Great Recession. The portraits of those he encountered fuel his new book, Losing Our Way. Herbert’s combination of heartrending reporting and keen political analysis is the purest expression since the Occupy movement of the plight of the 99 percent. The individuals and families who are paying the price of America’s bad choices in recent decades form the book’s emotional center: an exhausted high school student in Brooklyn who works the overnight shift in a factory at minimum wage to help pay her family’s rent; a twenty-four-year-old soldier from Peachtree City, Georgia, who loses both legs in a misguided, mismanaged, seemingly endless war; a young woman, only recently engaged, who suffers devastating injuries in a tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis; and a group of parents in Pittsburgh who courageously fight back against the politicians who decimated funding for their children’s schools. Herbert reminds us of a time in America when unemployment was low, wages and profits were high, and the nation’s wealth, by current standards, was distributed much more equitably. Today, the gap between the wealthy and everyone else has widened dramatically, the nation’s physical plant is crumbling, and the inability to find decent work is a plague on a generation. Herbert traces where we went wrong and spotlights the drastic and dangerous shift of political power from ordinary Americans to the corporate and financial elite. Hope for America, he argues, lies in a concerted push to redress that political imbalance. Searing and unforgettable, Losing Our Way ultimately inspires with its faith in ordinary citizens to take back their true political power and reclaim the American dream.
Download or read book Online Blended and Distance Education in Schools written by Tom Clark and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-Published with the Microsoft Corporation Online, Blended and Distance Education in Schools provides students enrolled in Education Technology, Educational Administration and related Masters and PhD programs with expert opinions and insights on the practice and policy in K-12 online, blended and distance education, online and blended programs, including curriculum, instruction, technology and management aspects. It describes the status and trends of the field, provides illustrative program examples, explores the issues and challenges that programs face and highlights ongoing research in key areas related to program effectiveness. Topics discussed:* The current status of K-12 online, distance and blended learning in the U.S.* Policy, funding, and management issues in relation to program implementation* Research on effective programs within governmental jurisdiction and various program types* Global case studies that represent the variety of ways programs are being successfully implemented * A synthesis of key findings and lessons learned, and local and global visions for the future of K-12 distance and online learningThis text is highly appropriate for students enrolled in Educational Technology, Educational Administration and related Masters and PhD programs. An online companion resource provides pedagogical features that enhance text use in a classroom setting.
Download or read book Digital Online Culture Identity and Schooling in the Twenty First Century written by K. Rosenfeld and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-01-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital Online Culture, Identity and Schooling in the Twenty-First Century provides a cultural, ideological critique of identity construction in the context of virtualization. Kimberly Rosenfeld explores the growing number of people who no longer reside in one physical reality but live, work, and play in multiple realities. Rosenfeld's critique of neo-liberal practices in the digital environment brings to light the on-going hegemonic and counter-hegemonic battles over control of education in the digital age. Rosenfeld draws conclusions for empowering the population through schooling, and how it should understand, respond to, and help individuals live out the information revolution.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of U S Education Law written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 761 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the mid-to-late 20th Century, education law emerged as a distinct area of practice and scholarship in the United States. Attorneys began to develop specialties representing school districts, students, parents, and teachers, while law schools and colleges of education started to offer courses about the legal regulation of K-12 public schools. The statutory and common law governing schools grew rapidly, and developed in a manner that often treated public schools differently from other governmental entities. Now, law schools and colleges of education regularly offer an education law course. Many states' school administrator certificates require some familiarity with education law. The scholarly field of education law is rich and deep. Attorneys play a key role in education policy, as do state and federal legislatures and regulatory agencies. The issues range from school funding to supporting English learners; from racial equality to teachers' labor laws; from student privacy to school choice. Addressing those issues and more, The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of K-12 education law in the United States. A number of foundational chapters present a synthesis of general areas of law for those who seek an introduction. Dozens of other chapters build on those foundations, diving into various topics in a nuanced, yet accessible, way, creating value for those who seek to deepen or reframe their knowledge about a specific issue. Throughout the volume and especially in the last section, the authors also look to the future and thus help shape the direction of the field.
Download or read book Handbook of Research on K 12 Blended and Virtual Learning Through the i Flex Classroom Model written by Avgerinou, Maria D. and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching models that focus on blended and virtual learning have become important during the past year and have become integral for the continuance of learning. The i²Flex classroom model, a variation of blended learning, allows non-interactive teaching activities to take place without teachers’ direct involvement, freeing up time for more meaningful teacher-student and student-student interactions. There is evidence that i²Flex leads to increased student engagement and motivation as well as better exploitation of teachers’ and classroom time leading to the development of higher order cognitive skills as well as study skills for students' future needs related to citizenship, college, and careers. The Handbook of Research on K-12 Blended and Virtual Learning Through the i²Flex Classroom Model focuses not only on how to design, deliver, and evaluate courses, but also on how to assess teacher performance in a blended i2Flex way at the K12 level. The book will discuss the implementation of the i²Flex (isquareFlex), a non-traditional learning methodology, which integrates internet-based delivery of content and instruction with faculty-guided, student-independent learning in combination with face-to-face classroom instruction aiming at developing higher order cognitive skills within a flexible learning design framework. While highlighting new methods for improving the classroom and learning experience in addition to preparing students for higher education and careers, this publication is an essential reference source for pre-service and in-service teachers, researchers, administrators, educational technology developers, and students interested in how the i2Flex model was implemented in classrooms and the effects of this learning model.
