What's Happening with K-12 Online Learning in California

What’s Happening with K-12 Online Learning in California?

Rob Darrow, Ed.D.

October 2010

Fresno Pacific BLEND ConferenceRob’s Wiki: http://robdarrow.wikispaces.com

http://robdarrow.wikispaces.com/

Rob Darrow, Ed.D.. Rob @ onlinelearningvisions.com. Oct. 2011.

Purpose

To share some research To share what is happening in

California – from online to blended To share recent online learning

events

Rob’s Wiki: http://robdarrow.wikispaces.com



Introductions

Me: Retired online school principal, doctorate, consultant (www.onlinelearningvisions.com), father of a 21-year-old

You: what you do, what you want to gain from this presentation.

http://www.onlinelearningvisions.com/


Background – National Trends

** Online Schools ** Enrollment increases

30% per year

** Charter Schools ** Enrollment increases 11% - 20% per year

Two educational trends challenging traditional education:


One Other National Trend:Static Dropout Rates


Three out of every ten students do not graduate from high school.

The Challenge for the Nation

Source: EPE 2007; Greene 2002

About half of those who graduate are not college- and work-ready.


Research and Dropouts

“Lack of school success is probably the greatest single cause which impels pupils to

drop out of school.” Ayres (1909). Laggards in our schools.


Research Studies - California

Darrow (2010). Online charter schools and at-risk students

Schwirzke (2011). Perspectives about online learning from superintendents


California 13% of the total U.S. K-12 public

school student enrollment 20% of the U.S. public charter

school enrollment Top rated state regarding

charter school law and policy

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (2010)


Defining Terms Traditional Learning

attend courses daily in face-to-face setting Online Learning

attend courses online where 70% instruction is online

Blended Learning attend courses online where 30% instruction

is online Charter School

independently operated public schools of choice


Definitions: Counting Dropouts

One student counts as a dropout if either:

A. Leaves a school and does NOT register at another school

OR B. Leaves school and does NOT have a

high school diploma

Standards set by US Department of Education (reported by states)

Counted in Grades 7-12 in California


Definitions: Online School Enrollment

Part-time Online Students Take one or two online courses in

addition to attending traditional school One student in one course per

semester counts one Full Time Online Students

One student attending the school counts one

Watson, Gemin, Ryan & Wicks (2009). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning.


One Example: Florida Virtual SchoolOne student in one course for one semester


Definitions: Counting Online School Enrollment

No Standards

Part-time online students not officially counted, except as an estimate in response to a researcher’s survey

Full time online students counted if they attend an online charter school

In California, public school students, including charters, are counted each October via California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS)


Charter School History and Policy

1991 – Minnesota: first charter school law 1992 - California passed charter school law 1997-2009 – Every president supports charter

school direction. Obama vows to “expand our commitment to charter schools and invest in innovation.”

2009 – 40 states have passed charter school laws; 5,042 schools serving over 1.5 million students (Allen & Consoletti, 2010)


Online School History and Policy

1994 – 1997 - First K-12 online schools: Utah Electronic School Virtual High School – Massachusetts Florida Virtual School

2007 – Number of states with online programs / online legislation: 42

2007 – Number of online charter schools: 173 in 18 states 92,235 students (Center for Ed Reform, 2008)

2008 – Online course enrollments grew by 65% from 2002-03 to 2004-05 (Means, 2009)

2009 – More than a million K-12 online school students (Picciano and Seaman, 2009)


Types of Online Schools

A. National Companies – individual online charter schools in different states (K-12, Inc. Connections Academy, Insight)

Primarily charter schools

B. Statewide – run by state agencies Some charters, some not

C. District / County – run by school districts or county educational offices

Some charters, some not

Watson, Gemin, Ryan & Wicks (2009). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning. http://www.kpk12.com/

http://www.kpk12.com/


Online Learning and Student Achievement

Meta-analysis have found that overall, student achievement in online schools is the same or better when compared with traditional schools

Means et al. (2009), Cavanaugh et al. (2004)

Emerging Research Online student interaction in discussion

boards / forums (Lowes, 2007)

Student success / student attrition in online courses (Porta-Merida, 2009; Roblyer, 2008)


Comparison

Online charter high school students 14 existed in California – 2006-2009

And Traditional high school students Comparisons in:

Achievement Rates Dropout Rates


Results: California Standards Test /

English-Language Arts (CST ELA)

2007-08 and 2008-09

Taken yearly in grades 9, 10 and 11 Selected Online Charter Schools Selected Traditional Schools


Year: 2007-2008 CST ELA Comparisons

Percent Proficient and Above

Online Charters Traditional Schools

9th 10th 11th

55%

46%

40%

63%

57%55%


9th 10th 11th

56%

48%46%

64%60%

57%


Year: 2008-2009CST ELA Comparisons

Percent Proficient and Above


Results: Dropout Rates2006-07 and 2007-08

Reported yearly in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 Selected Online Charter Schools Selected Traditional Schools

Note: Dropout data from 2008-2009 not available


Year: 2006-2007 Dropout Percentages by Grade

Note: 2006-07 Online Charter School Enrollment in Grades 11 and 12 was less than 100 students per grade

9th 10th

2%

6%

0.60%0.90%



Year: 2007-2008 Dropout Percentages by Grade

9th 10th 11th 12th

22%

29%32%

59%

0.70% 0.50% 0.70%4.00%



Findings

Enrollment in online charter schools has increased each year for the past three years: 80% in past two years

Percent of students in charter high schools: 6% of total 9-12 enrollment

Percent of students in online charter high schools: .16% of total 9-12 enrollment


OL: Status and Perceptions by Ca Administrators (Schwirzke, 2011)

Surveyed California Superintendents Used survey from Picciano & Seaman

http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/K-12_06

146 School Districts Responded





Results – 2009-10 (Schwirzke, 2011)

40% of districts had at least one student take an online course

Why are blended / online learning courses important?

Meeting the needs of specific groups of students (70%)

Offering courses not otherwise available (60%) Offering advanced placement courses (50%) Permitting students who failed a course to re-take a

course (49%)


Results 2009-10 – Barriers (Schwirzke, 2011)

What are barriers to offering online or blended courses? Concerns about course quality (56%) Course development costs (44%) Limited tech infrastructure (43%) Concerns about receiving funding for online

courses (41%)


Number of Part Time Online Students in Ca (Schwirzke, 2011)

Grades 2006-07 2007-08 2009-10

K-12 17347 42822 34769

9-12 12625 27289 19948

Based on survey results from 146 California schools.


Number of Full Time K-12 Students in California in OL Charters (Darrow, 2010)

Grades 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

K-12 5399 7454 10502

9-12 773 1618 2992

Based on October CBEDS. Ed Data. http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us

http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/




Recommendations (Schwirzke, 2011)

State policies need to be developed to: Identify standard definitions for online and

blended learning Create a framework for online and blended

learning Change to a funding model for online courses

that allows fractional per-pupil funds to follow students down to the individual course, not just the full-time program


Recommendations (Darrow, 2010)

Need a uniform way to count online school students

Innovation grants and research grants needed for online learning in California

Common standards for K-12 online learning should be adopted

Ongoing finance model for online schools needed in California; current school funding finance models don’t fit with online courses


Recent Updates - October

iNacol Definitions and Clarification of Blended Learning

Digital Learning Now – Rated every state on 10 Elements

Ca Dept of Ed released online schools and definitions


iNacol – Updated Quality Online Teaching Standards – Blended Learning Continuum

**Curriculum**

Less Online Instruction

More Online Instruction

Mostly Online Instruction



**Students**






**Instructional Support**





Digital Learning Now

10 Digital Elements (Encouraging all states to adopt) Adopted in Idaho and Ohio

Roadmap to Reform Digital Learning Report Card (for every

state) http://digitallearningnow.com/

http://digitallearningnow.com/

http://digitallearningnow.com/


Digital Learning Now – 10 Key Elements

10 Elements


State Ratings: Ca

Ratings Student Access – 2 Barriers to Access – 2 Personalized Learning – 1 Advancement – 0 Quality Content – 2 Quality Instruction – 0 Quality Choices – 4 Assessment and Accountability – 2 Funding – 1 Infrastructure - 0


State Ratings – Bottom 20


Ca Dept of Education

Definitions of Online Learning Map of Online Schools Revising: “Current State of Online

Learning in California” http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/tcsii/onlineeducatio

n/onlineeducindex.aspx

http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/tcsii/onlineeducation/onlineeducindex.aspx




At the college level

What percentage of students have taken a course entirely online? A. 15% B. 50% C. 65% D. 90%


At college level – ECAR Study of Undergrad Students

52% of students report preferring some form of blended learning (online and f2f) another 22% reporting they want flexibility for as

much or as little online components they need. http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ECA

RNationalStudyofUndergradua/238012

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ECARNationalStudyofUndergradua/238012




Sloan Reports (2010)

Almost two-thirds of for-profit institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long term strategy.

21% growth rate for online enrollments

http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/class_differences





Recommendations

Future students will attend schools that do have online options

Education at all levels (K-12, community college, university) should be designing and offering fully online courses now

Online learning will grow with or without the involvement of traditional schools


Questions?

• www.onlinelearningvisions.com • [email protected] • Rob’s Wiki:

http://robdarrow.wikispaces.com

http://www.onlinelearningvisions.com/

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