Article Notice – The Pre-Pandemic Growth in Online Public Education and the Factors that Predict It

An article that scrolled across my electronic desk over the past few days.

The Pre-Pandemic Growth in Online Public Education and the Factors that Predict It

• August 2022
• Journal of School Choice 16(21):1-32

• DOI: 10.1080/15582159.2022.2098446

• Trevor Gratz
• Dan Goldhaber
• Nate Brown

Abstract – While spring of 2020 introduced virtual instruction to all public schools, virtual schooling had already been growing in most states. We focus on pre-COVID-19 changes to full-time virtual school enrollment in public schools, and provide evidence on the relationship between virtual school enrollment, internet speed, community demographics, and traditional K–12 school achievement levels. We find negative associations between online enrollment and test achievement in brick-and-mortar schools, and low internet speeds. There is some evidence that students are less likely to enroll in virtual schools as the share of students of their own demographic in brick-and-mortar schools increases.