ONLINE LEARNING EXPANSION DURING COVID AND BEYOND
Oklahoma: Virtual charter schools offer a different education model (NonDoc Media, June 8th, 2021)
• Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy is one of six virtual charter schools in the state: Oklahoma Connections Academy, Insight School of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Information and Technology School, E-School Virtual Charter Academy and the controversial Epic Charter Schools, which has become the state’s largest school district by enrollment.
• Enrollment numbers at all of these online public schools increased during the 2020-2021 school year. The Tulsa World reported in August 2020 that these virtual schools have seen an enrollment increase of nearly 77 percent compared to the same time in 2019.
• According to the State Department of Education data, OVCA, which was established in 2011, had 4,011 students enrolled for the 2020-2021 school year, compared to 2,669 students the year before.
• Epic One-on-One saw the largest enrollment increase amid the pandemic with 35,731 students enrolled for the 2020-2021 school year compared to a 2019-2020 enrollment of 17,106.
Pennsylvania: Virtual schools saw little disruption, got equal virus aid (AP News, August 27, 2021)
• Commonwealth Charter Academy, the largest virtual school in Pennsylvania, saw its enrollment double last school year, to nearly 20,000 students.
New Hampshire: N.H. Virtual Charter School Enrollment Jumps for Second Year in a Row (Sept 9th, 2021)
• Officials assumed student enrollment would drop as public schools fully reopened this fall. But with the delta variant and concerns about COVID safety, enrollment has increased this year.
• According to The Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) CEO Steve Kossakoski, the school now has over 7,300 students across grades K-12, an increase of nearly 50 percent from the same time last year.
Florida: Press Release: Online Learning Option Still Available For Families: Florida Virtual School Flex (FLVS, September 1, 2021)
• During the 2021-22 school year, FLVS saw unprecedented enrollment growth, as families and school districts across Florida and the nation searched for online education solutions.
• FLVS Full Time experienced a 98% increase in the number of students, while FLVS Flex – the part time option offering students the opportunity to take online courses in addition to attending their zoned school – saw a 57% increase in course requests from July 1 – Sept. 30, 2020.
Virginia: Pandemic spurs boom in virtual offerings for US schools (AP News, August 12, 2021)
• In Virginia, before the pandemic, most of the locally operated virtual programs offered individual courses only to students in grades 6-12, and few, if any, offered full-time instruction.
• In the new school year, 110 of the commonwealth’s 132 school divisions will use Virtual Virginia, a state-operated K-12 program, to provide some or all of their full-time virtual instruction, spokesman Charles Pyle said. So far, 7,636 students have enrolled full time for the fall, compared with just 413 in the 2019-20 school year, he said.
K-12 & Connections Academy: Virtual Charter Schools Are Booming, Despite A Checkered Reputation (NPR, November 30th, 2020)
• Across the country, fully virtual K-12 charter schools have experienced a pandemic-induced “surge,” as one sector observer put it. K12 Inc., one of the biggest in the business, has reported a 57% enrollment increase, taking it up to 195,000 students; Connections Academy, another heavy hitter, has reported a 41% jump, and the list goes on.
Charter Schools Shine During COVID
According to national surveys and research, despite their size and scope, charter schools were faster to respond and more likely to keep educating after Covid-19’s arrival than traditional public schools.
Learning In Real Time: How Charter Schools Served Students During COVID-19 Closures
This paper offers evidence that smaller networks and schools that represent over 65% of the charter school landscape were able to respond quickly and take advantage of the freedom and flexibility that are built into the charter school model to respond to families. Vignettes in this report highlight some of the charter school leaders who exemplify the very best of resourcefulness.
The Education Exchange: A Lot of Lost Ground: Results from the Education Next Survey on Learning During the Pandemic
This nationwide survey revealed how charter schools quickly reacted to the challenges of COVID-19. “Across a range of the questions that we asked, you see a more robust response in the charter school sector and in the private school sector.”
Analysis: How 18 Top Charter School Networks Are Adapting to Online Education, and What Other Schools Can Learn From Them
As public schools across the country build out remote learning plans to support students during school closures prompted by the novel coronavirus, some of the nation’s most prominent charter networks have made rapid leaps from the classroom to the cloud.
Why Many Charter Schools Were Better Prepared for Covid-19
“U.S. schools were not prepared for an overnight shift to virtual learning,” USA Today reported recently, a fact that became obvious to most parents as soon as schools were shut down by the pandemic. In fact, however, some schools—including many charter schools—were better prepared than most traditional public schools.
Heritage Academy
Audio Recording of Idaho Charter School Commission Closed-door Meeting Sparks Outrage
A Press Release from Heritage Academy in Jerome, Indiana – In an April 11, 2019 Idaho Public Charter School Commission Meeting, Commissioners and state-paid Commission employees are caught on tape making disparaging comments about many of the schools they oversee, including Heritage Academy in Jerome. Commissioners also took potshots at the Jerome School District and the residents of Jerome.
