Public Impact News & Views

In general, virtual charter schools have had poor outcomes. A 2015 study from CREDO (the Center for Research on Education Outcomes) found that, on average, students enrolled in online charter schools lost 180 days of learning in math and 72 days of learning in reading compared to similar students in brick-and-mortar schools.

But virtual schools have the potential to give students access to high-quality instruction regardless of time and place, and to allow students to speed up or slow down based on their interests and needs. And when we scanned the field for virtual charter schools with positive learning results, we found a few. What can others learn from them to make virtual school success the rule, not the exception?

In Meeting the Potential of a Virtual Education: Lessons from Operators Making Online Schooling Work, Public Impact’s Daniela Doyle and Ismael Hernandez-Cruz highlight the experience of two nonselective virtual charter schools making online schooling work for their students—Idaho Distance Education Academy (I-DEA) and New Hampshire’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS). While neither school is an exact demographic mirror of traditional public schools in their states (discussed in the report), both outperform their states in reading and math proficiency, among other positive outcomes. (For more on how these schools were selected to highlight, see What Is Virtual School “Success”? in the report.)

Doyle and Hernandez-Cruz identified four lessons and four recommendations for virtual charter schools.

Lessons:

• Strong teaching (still) drives student success—Just as in traditional schools, teacher selection is crucial. No computer program, no matter how great, can replace an excellent teacher.
• Personal connections are key—“We can’t do anything else that we’re doing without that foundational connection,” Jason Bransford of I-DEA said of efforts to form relationships with each student’s entire family. Likewise, VLACS ensures connections to students and families through a deliberate and intensive system of advisors.
• Student learning must be the center of school design—Both schools have incorporated elements of personalized learning by designing their programs around what students need to succeed, with VLACS in particular creating a very flexible, personalized experience.
• Schools set high expectations for students and families—Both make clear from the moment of enrollment that they do not offer an easier education than traditional schools, setting and communicating high expectations even if doing so leads some families to go elsewhere.

Recommendations:

• Be sure to incorporate the same elements that drive student success in brick-and-mortar schools—in many instances, great schools are great for the same reasons, regardless of setting.
• Identify and adjust to what is truly different about online schooling—for example, focus on elements such as effective online engagement and communication, and support and develop teachers in those areas.
• Use the unique opportunities online schooling offers—take advantage of the opportunity to truly meet students’ individual needs.
• Innovate, don’t just automate—focus on using technology in new ways that better meet the needs of all students.

The field needs more research to broaden and deepen its understanding of online schools’ success. For these two schools, a deeper analysis of how different student groups fare over time relative to their peers might shed more light on their successes and challenges. Finding and studying other online schools achieving promising results would also provide more insight. Meanwhile, these two schools illustrate practices that others can put into action for their students.

About VLACS

• Open since 2008, VLACS serves nearly 400 full-time middle and high school students and more than 13,000 part-time students from New Hampshire, plus about 100 tuition-paying out-of-state students.
• Students can enroll at any time.
• Rather than earning credits, they focus on mastering competencies.
• Students choose from learning “journeys,” including courses, projects, career badges, experiences, teams, and an early-college option.
• Students work with advisors to set an appropriate learning pace to master competencies and can accelerate or slow down as needed.

About I-DEA

• Open since 2004, I-DEA now enrolls about 700 full-time students in grades K–12.
  I-DEA tends to enroll lower rates of students of color than the state overall but enrolls a similar rate of low-income students.
• I-DEA offers considerable flexibility, but also requires students to participate in live online classes at set times twice a week.
• I-DEA follows a calendar, with classes starting and ending at set times during the year.
• I-DEA offers students access to college-level courses, and on average, 20 percent of students graduate from high school with a two-year college degree.

In Better Together: Why Charter School Champions and Parent Advocates Should Partner to Better Support Students with Disabilities, Public Impact issues a call to action for charter champions—including charter associations, city-based education organizations and other reform organizations that see charters as an integral piece of a thriving system of public schools—to form and deepen partnerships with parent advocates to expand access to more quality educational options for students with disabilities.

See coverage of this report in a new article in The 74: Parent Power: To Improve Special Education in Charter Schools Tap Students’ Original Advocates — Their Families — Report Says

The report, which highlights examples from around the country, shows how charter schools, their champions, and parents can innovate to achieve stronger outcomes for students with disabilities through more effective collective advocacy, access to quality school options and equitable policies. The Public Impact policy team explains why such partnerships are needed, what forms they might take and how to get started.

“Serving students with special needs really well at scale requires a deep understanding of the challenges those students face and an ability to push change at a systems level. Parents bring the former, while charter champions offer the latter. Working together, there’s an opportunity to make real progress,” said co-author Daniela Doyle, vice president for policy and management research at Public Impact.

About 13 percent of U.S. students receive special education services. Research shows that as many as 90 percent of students with disabilities can meet the same achievement standards as other students—with the right accommodations and support.

Charter school champions are poised to address the needs of students with disabilities as a central objective of charter advocacy—quality school options for all. And parent groups have decades of experience advocating for students with disabilities and bring student and family perspectives to policy discussions. Both charter champions and parents of students with disabilities stand to gain more by working together than alone.

Greater collaboration between charter supporters and parent groups representing students with disabilities can lead to innovations and improvements in all levels of education. But first, those partnerships must take shape. Charter champions can take the following five steps to start the process and drive collective action toward improved student outcomes, better school options, and equitable policies.

1. Set ambitious goals for “quality school options for all.”
2. Consider gaps in your work.
3. Identify the parent organizations already working on behalf of students with disabilities in your area.
4. Look for opportunities to connect.
5. Partner more deeply.

Striving for innovation and equity, these groups can accomplish more together than they can alone — they are better together.

Charter schools frequently confront inadequate facility funding, few affordable and suitable buildings, inadequate facility expertise among charter founders, and gradual expansion of enrollment and grade levels that requires more or new space. Charter school facility incubators provide affordable, short-term space for new and growing charter schools.

In a new report, Charter School Facility Incubators: A Case Study of Washington, D.C.’s Innovative Approach to Charter School Facilities, Public Impact takes an in-depth look at the design and operations of Building Pathways, a Washington, D.C.-based charter school facility incubator.

Charter school facility incubators shoulder the responsibility of finding and preparing the space. Incubators should provide a full complement of building management and planning services and set rent payments that are tied to a school’s enrollment and ability to pay during its first years so that school leaders and board members can focus on academic programs, school operations and financial health.

“Facilities incubators can let school leaders keep their focus where it counts—on teachers, students and families,” said co-author Troy Smith.

Only four states have a facility incubator; Building Pathways provides the most well-developed example after providing short- and long-term space to more than 26 charter schools since its inception in 2006. This case study shows its keys to success to help other incubators follow its lead.

The Building Pathways charter school incubator initiative has been a vital component of the growth and success of the charter sector in Washington, D.C. Organizations wishing to create an incubator model in other cities should evaluate whether they can meet the following success factors:

1. High-quality authorizer.
2. Growing, high-quality charter sector.
3. Geographic Proximity of Charter Schools.
4. Stable and flexible funding.
5. Facility Expertise and Local Knowledge.

• James Cerasani, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois
• Casandra Cherry, Phillips Middle, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
• Cherie Dixon, LB Yancey Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
• Frederick Hoffman, Ferndale Middle, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
• Casey Jackson, Aycock Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
• Steven Kennedy, Wilson Middle School, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina
• Amy Pearce, North Edgecombe High, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
• Angela Porter, Hairston Middle, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
• Christina Ross, Desert Oasis Elementary, Nadaburg Unified School District No. 81, Arizona
• Keisha Wheat, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois

• Kristen Boyd, Aycock Elementary, Vance County Schools, North Carolina
• Elizabeth Meyers, Randolph Elementary, Chicago Public Schools, Illinois
• Jenny O’Meara, Phillips Middle, Edgecombe County Public Schools, North Carolina
• Merrie Conaway, Foust Elementary, Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
• Eric Ward, Harding University High School, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina

Opportunity Culture schools and educators continue to attract attention…check out these posts from new sites, multi-classroom leader columns, and an exciting award for a multi-classroom leader.

Lexington City Schools’ Superintendent on Working with Us to Implement Opportunity Culture: Dr. Anitra Wells, superintendent of Lexington City Schools, discusses the district’s plans to work with Public Impact to implement Opportunity Culture in the 2019-20 school year. Opportunity Culture will extend the reach of excellent teachers and their teams to more students, provide teachers with more leadership opportunities, and provide more support for teachers.

Multi-Classroom Leader on Impact and Joy: In a short video from Guilford County Schools, Multi-Classroom Leader Fred Hoffman of Ferndale Middle School explains the impact he can make in his role on more students and teachers.

Multi-classroom leader awarded $175K grant: Multi-Classroom Leader Cassandra Cherry received a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Science and Mathematics. The $175,000 grant will go to Cherry, Phillips Middle School, and Edgecombe County Schools. Cherry plans to use the award to create a makerspace STEM lab first at Phillips, and then in every other district school over the next five years.

Opportunity Culture could help Arizona teacher shortage: Arizona schools currently have a teacher shortage, with nearly one in four classrooms without a permanent teacher. This column includes Opportunity Culture as one way to increase collaboration and retain teachers.

How technology can encourage student engagement and growth: Multi-Classroom Leader Amber Hines uses technology, such as QR codes and two-way recording, in her elementary school classrooms for self-study and assessments. This allows for personalizing instruction and feedback, student growth, accountability, and more.

Multi-Classroom Leadership helped this teacher prepare to lead a school: Hadley Moore left her teaching position at an elite prep school to be a multi-classroom leader at an inner city public school. The experience helped her grow as the leader of a small teaching team in ways she never expected.