FYI: Virtual school report

[MarkT]

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2016/04/virtual_blended_schools_NEPC.html?cmp=eml-enl-dd-news1-RM

 

http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/virtual-schools-annual-2016

[maize]

Interesting report.

 

I question some of the data. For instance, the bit about fewer virtual school students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch: when I have filled out school enrollment paperwork, there was a box to check for whether the student qualified for free or reduced price lunch but it was optional. Parents enrolling their students in a virtual school have no incentive to share family financial information since their student won't be eating lunch at school.

[Dmmetler]

And, if your DC has never been in PS, you may not even know. I was surprised, when I first started teaching, to discover that my salary as a teacher was low enough that my children, if I'd had them, would have been eligible for reduced lunch. I'm guessing a lot of parents simply don't realize their child might qualify until they do their paperwork at school enrollment, when it's just one in a stack of forms.

[Petrichor]

Interesting report.

 

I question some of the data. For instance, the bit about fewer virtual school students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch: when I have filled out school enrollment paperwork, there was a box to check for whether the student qualified for free or reduced price lunch but it was optional. Parents enrolling their students in a virtual school have no incentive to share family financial information since their student won't be eating lunch at school.

 

Me too. Don't parents sometimes resort to virtual school because public school isn't working out? I'm thinking of cases where parents want to homeschool, but can't figure out how, or because of teen social behavior issues, or medical issues that cause a kid to miss too much school, or poor grades, or special needs that the school isn't meeting (or that the parents don't trust the schools with).

 

I don't think it's usually considered an option if the student is doing well at public school and parent's don't have any kind of objection to public school on moral or religious grounds. 

 

I would think that that would skew the data to see more kids who are failing. 

 

I know a lot of people who think homeschooling is a good idea for religious (Muslim) reasons. Most of them have tried virtual school because they think it would take less effort than finding and teaching a curriculum on their own. Then they find out just how much work is required for virtual school. I can't recall any of them who still have their kids in virtual school unless the kids are also in a program where a teacher is provided to oversee the class work. 

[vonfirmath]

And, if your DC has never been in PS, you may not even know. I was surprised, when I first started teaching, to discover that my salary as a teacher was low enough that my children, if I'd had them, would have been eligible for reduced lunch. I'm guessing a lot of parents simply don't realize their child might qualify until they do their paperwork at school enrollment, when it's just one in a stack of forms.

 

And even in a school with a lot of kids eligible, the principals have to really urge parents to fill out the form, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT GOING to be eating at school. Because if they have a certain percentage on reduced/free lunches, it helps the school as a whole (And we are right on the cusp of that percentage.)