So this report came across my electronic desk again in the past few weeks.
Virtual Charter School Accountability: What We Can Do Now – https://www.qualitycharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NCSRC-Virtual-Accountability-Paper-FINAL.pdf
And looking at it a bit more closely this time around, I have some questions…
If you review the document, some of the main themes that are included are: what is a virtual charter school, what types of students enroll in those schools, how have those schools struggled to serve students in the past, what are the ways those schools have been approved and evaluated, and what ways should those schools be approved and evaluated?
Now the reason this report stood out to me this time around was because I am current working on the latest version of the National Education Policy Center’s Virtual Schools in the US report. And the cross over or a lack thereof is fascinating… The NEPC reports provide 1) the most complete data related to virtual charter school student demographics and student performance, 2) an update on what the research related to virtual schools and, specifically, virtual charter schools has to say (including things like definitions, student performance, approval and evaluation procedures, and 3) a complete listing of all of the proposed and passed legislation and regulations related to digital learning in all 50 states, as well as the federal government. Each section makes specific recommendations for policymakers.
Given the crossover (I’ve colour coded it for you above), you’d expect the authors of the Virtual Charter School Accountability: What We Can Do Now report to make extensive use of the annual NEPC reports… However, that is not the case.
If you look at the Virtual Charter School Accountability: What We Can Do Now report, the only references to the annual NEPC report are:
- It is about full-time virtual schooling delivered under a charter contract granted by a state-endorsed authorizer. This is an important distinction since the vast majority of students in full-time virtual schools are in charter schools.
- Two national companies, Connections and K12, manage high-enrollment charters in a number of states. K12’s Ohio Virtual Academy currently enrolls just under 10,000 students and Commonwealth Connections Academy in Pennsylvania has over 9,000 students.
- Figure 2: Enrollment in Full-Time Virtual Schools
- It will come as no surprise that operators of virtual charters are challenging this barrage of bad news. Those
interested in the technical arguments made by operators and researchers can find online the statements by
K12, CREDO, the National Education Policy Center , and other groups that participated in recent
colloquies.
Basically, there is one reference related to defining virtual charter schools, two references related to student enrollment figures, and one reference that places the research-based arguments of the NEPC on the same level as the greed-based arguments of the largest corporate profiteer from virtual charter schools.
Interestingly, as an aside, there are nine references to the single CREDO study.
I guess it is better for a charter school organization to reference a single study by an research body that has almost always manipulating the methodology to find in favour of charter schools, than it is for them to reference seven years of annual studies by an organization that – heaven forbid – receives funding from a teachers’ union!
But this does explain a lot about what is wrong with educational research around the issue of school choice. You have one side that looks at all of the data and incorporates the research from all corners of the field, and then another side that simply selects the data and research that fits their already constructed narrative – which in most cases runs counter to the research in the larger field.