Keeping Pace with K - 12 Online Learning: A Review of State-Level Policy and Practice

States no longer wonder whether online learning is within their borders, but instead ask how it is being implemented explains the fourth annual Keeping Pace report. The report defines the growth in online learning and reports on state activities. As of September 2007, 42 states have significant supplemental online learning programs (in which students enrolled in physical schools take one or two courses online), or significant full-time programs (in which students take most or all of their courses online), or both.The fourth annual Keeping Pace report

Key findings of the Keeping Pace research include:

• Myriad types of programs exist, mixing and matching among variables that include type of governance (state-led, charter, district, etc.); amount of instruction online (fully online, hybrid); course types; student types; geographic reach; and other variables.
• Promising practices, with demonstrated success, are being developed in teacher professional development, teacher management, communication between teachers and students, data management, course development, and other areas of practice.
• A small number of programs have attracted attention from policymakers due to questions about finances, quality, and ways in which the programs adhere to existing laws and regulations. There has been increased scrutiny of online programs, particularly full-time programs, in a few states, and programs that do not adhere to quality standards risk creating a backlash that could impair all online programs.
• Data to evaluate online programs against face-to-face education are lacking, in part because of shortcomings of state data systems and in part because online student populations are at most only 1-2% of the total.
• Data to compare online programs to one another are insufficient because of a lack of common measures in calculating and reporting student achievement.

Major online learning program and policy developments in 2006-2007 include

• Florida Virtual School, the largest online program in the country in terms of number of unique students, had more than 100,000 course registrations, more than 90,000 course completions, and more than 50,000 students in 2006-2007.
• K12, Inc., the largest operator of online schools across the country, filed for its initial public offering in late July. Its prospectus discusses the company's growth, from 11,000 students in fiscal year 2005 to 27,000 in FY 2007, an annual growth rate of 35%.
• The Missouri Virtual Instruction Program, an unusual state-led program in that it is offering both elementary and high school classes, and full-time and supplemental, began operations in Fall 2007 with over 2,000 students.
• State auditors in Colorado, Idaho, and Kansas released audits of online learning programs across their respective states.
• An Arizona bill to expand the Technology Assisted Project Based Instruction (TAPBI) program, a pilot of 14 online district programs and charter schools, was passed by the legislature but vetoed by the Governor.
• Indiana's budget bill HB1001 stipulated that virtual charter schools would not be funded through June of 2009.
• Michigan moved ahead with implementing its requirement, passed in 2006, that all students have an "online learning experience" before graduating.

Keeping Pace was funded by the Clark County School District, Connections Academy, Florida Virtual School, Illinois Virtual High School, Odyssey Charter Schools, Texas Education Agency, and Virtual High School, and the BellSouth Foundation (now AT&T). The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) provided much of the research.

Source: Keeping Pace with K - 12 Online Learning

Evergreen Consulting Associates