Chana German is the director of The Lookstein Center’s website, Lookstein.org. Zvi Grumet is the editor of Jewish Educational Leadership. In this article, they investigate the possibility of using public, online charter schools to provide general education – at almost no cost – to day schools.
It’s 8 am. Rachel rolls out of bed, yawns, and turns on her computer. It loads while Rachel goes through her morning routine. By 8:25, Rachel, a sixteen year old from a Los Angeles suburb, is washed, dressed, fed, and online. But Rachel is not checking out her Facebook wall or updating her status on Twitter, she’s going to class.
Rachel attends an online public school or, as they are more commonly known, a cyber-charter. Cyber-charters are a relatively new phenomena that grew out of a union between the charter school movement and the online learning model.
Approximately two decades ago, a number of states enacted the first charter school laws, hoping to revitalize the public school system. Charter schools are experimental public schools that work independently of local school boards. Of the 4500 charter schools there are 180 that exist exclusively online. As of January 2007, these cyber-charters, which operate in 25 states, are responsible for educating approximately 100,000 students a year (http://www.inacol.org/press/docs/nacol_fast_facts.pdf.).
Cyber-charters are fully functioning K-12 public schools with accredited teachers, guidance counselors, and administrative staff. When students enroll in cyber-charters, they are sent boxes of text books and materials, often a computer and printer, along with a monthly check to cover the Internet expenses. As cyber-charters appeal primarily to home-schoolers (Huerta, Gonzalez, & d’Entremont, 2006), students log in to school from home and “go to school” while parents act as mentors, tutors and “cheerleaders” for their children. Students participate in asynchronous classes at their own pace along with real-time classes and meetings with their teachers, who not only keep track of student progress and attendance, but also respond to student questions and grade assignments. Some schools, noting the lack of socialization opportunities for students, organize face-to-face field trips for their students. And because they are public schools, all the costs are covered by the local school board and the State Department of Education.
Online education was once meant to aid students who could not attend brick and mortar schools due to geographic limitations or performance schedules, but enrollment has become more mainstream as the Internet becomes part of the fabric of daily life. Interestingly, home schooled students, who represent a large portion of students who attend cyber-charters, generally come from religiously conservative homes, whose parents did not enroll them in the public system because of concern that their religious beliefs would not harmonize with the curriculum. Cyber-charters offer a way to get the best of both worlds – without having to sacrifice religious ideals or at-home supervision, parents can get free instructional materials and educational support while their children earn public school diplomas (Marsh, Carr-Chellman & Sockman, 2009).
Advantages
Individualization of instruction and pacing
One of the most attractive features of the cyber-school model is the flexibility that allows students to advance at their own pace and on their own level. Although there is some real-time interaction with teachers and other students, the majority of “class time” is spent independently and asynchronously.
Initially, cyber-schools catered more towards gifted students than those with disabilities, because it was a natural fit. The former were able to work at an accelerated pace beyond their current grade level without any scheduling or budgetary difficulty. This predilection changed as more online schools become affiliated with the public system and embraced their mandate to provide education to all students within their district/state. Now most schools have at least one special needs coordinator who evaluates special needs students and designs custom learning plans to help the students thrive. The coordinators are responsible for tracking the academic success of these students and intervening before a serious problem arises. Interventions can include offering face-to-face tutoring or adapted learning materials, or even just granting extra time to complete a module.
But a student need not have special needs in order to take advantage of the individualization that is central to the cyber school model. Every student (or his coach) can control the number of study hours per day and the number and frequency of breaks. (This is especially helpful to students with attention disorders). He can choose to participate in enrichment games and exercises which are available in most lessons. If he has an aptitude for a specific subject he can move ahead in that subject and continue at the regular grade level for his other courses. If there is a family celebration, the student can slow down for a few weeks and then move at a faster pace to “catch up” on course work.
For a day school administrator, this flexibility may seem like a godsend. Due to budgetary constraints it is difficult for day schools, especially those with small student populations, to provide this range of services. More often than not, schools find themselves focusing on average students and those with special needs are referred to external specialists or public schools. Using a cyber-charter for general studies would allow these students to move at their own pace in general studies, while still remaining in the day school community.
Quality of the Curriculum
The asynchronous nature of online learning means that most instruction takes place independently in the form of guided learning and interactive activities. For the most part, online schools do not write their own instructional materials. Instead they either use a smorgasbord of online and offline resources or purchase a complete curriculum from an educational publisher, adjusted to fit the state’s educational standards. (K12TM, a large online educational system, actually produces its own materials.) In either case, teams of educators and instructional designers write and continuously refine the materials/curriculum. The team works with the understanding that without a teacher present, a well-designed curriculum is even more critical for academic success. The curriculum, not the teacher, must grab and maintain attention, impart information and challenge both audio and visual learners, and assess knowledge and skills. Fortunately for the writing team, the curriculum can be continually improved (e.g. revamping an exercise that has students stumped), corrected (e.g. removing Pluto from the list of planets), and expanded (e.g. adding the most recent international conflict to a history unit) without major cost to the publisher, because it is all online. The result of this process is a curriculum that incorporates current knowledge and uses a variety of instructional techniques and media. Some of these materials and programs have already won coveted educational awards, overtaking the more traditional materials that were nominated in the same categories.
As mentioned, one of the initial goals of an online curriculum is to grab and maintain the student’s attention. Unlike many college level online courses that use the “read and discuss” model, K-12 courses are much more hands-on. Students may begin a lesson by watching a short video that reviews the previous lesson and then do some guided reading. But then they may complete some exercises to demonstrate their proficiency in the topic and then play a game of memory or space invaders to hone their new skills or knowledge. In a typical face-to-face classroom with twenty-five students, each student may be called on to do an exercise or answer a question once or twice a week. In the online environment, students cannot progress to the next level without “being called up to the board” several times each lesson. All students, whether shy, outgoing, academically weak or strong, have to take an active role in their studies.
In an online English class offered in one cyber-charter, for instance, all students are required to post poetry and comment on their peers’ poems. Students who find it difficult to participate in face-to-face classroom discussions may have an easier time formulating, honing and delivering their critiques at their own pace.
Another way online learning engages and motivates students is through immediate, automated feedback (“Great! I knew you could do it!” or “Sorry, try Again!”) to exercises and games. The results of a quiz will present a final grade, broken down into specific skills, so that students know immediately that they did well on skill A and B, but that skill C needs more attention. Most likely, they will be offered an additional remedial exercise for the skill. Another motivating factor is simply the variety of colorful, fun activities that students have to complete. It is difficult to compare a printed science text to an online textbook that uses zoom-able images, interactive diagrams, explanatory videos, and a “virtual lab.” Students who have a hard time reading a chapter will find it much easier when the prose is broken up with visual resources and punctuated with frequent self-quizzes.
Another way cyber-charters engage students is by incorporating authentic learning experiences into every course. Students post their artwork in online galleries that are open to the public, do science experiments in home cooking with their parents, and critique the literary work of their peers in online discussion boards. One virtual school teamed up with the National Wildlife Federation and the United States Geological Survey to give students who were learning about wetlands the opportunity to work together with scientists on a collaborative project. Students collected and submitted data about frog and toad populations that was then analyzed by the scientists leading the experiment.
For day schools, the opportunity to take advantage of a quality online general studies program without the costs may be enticing. Depending on the student, distance education may actually be more beneficial than just learning more information. Some students become more aware of their academic efforts, seeing direct correlation between time spent studying and grades, and becoming more conscious of their meta-cognitive strategies and skills.
Range of options for class-offerings
The sixty-plus page course catalog from Connections Academy seems a veritable cornucopia of academic choices. Middle schoolers, for example, have the option of seven electives in addition to their standard courses. They can also participate in a variety of school-wide extra-curricular activities like newspaper, literary magazine, book clubs and debate that allow them to get to know their classmates. High school students have even more electives and the choice of many honors and AP courses. The range is far greater than what most day schools can reasonably offer.
Although cyber-schools have the advantage of economies of scale, they are still operating within the public system, and not within the private realm. Private schools endeavor to offer rich curricular choices and extra-curricular activities in the hopes of attracting students and maintaining high acceptance rates to elite colleges. Because public education is a mass phenomena tied to tax dollars, only the wealthiest public districts can compete with the private system.
“No significant difference”
Because they are so new, there are very few academic studies which investigate cyber charters, and most of the studies focus on policy, funding and oversight. Researchers still have not agreed on the definitions of technical terms, let alone studied all the relevant factors, and the situation is complicated even more because technology changes so quickly. Although there is very little research on the effectiveness of K-12 online education, the few studies that do exist find that there is “no significant difference” between online and face-to-face education in terms of student outcomes (Cavanaugh et al., 2004; Zucker et al., 2003; Rice, 2006). In the end, whether or not a student will have a satisfactory experience in any school will probably have more to do with the student himself, the teacher and curriculum quality than the medium (Cavanaugh, 2004).
Costs
When a student registers at a cyber charter, all the costs, including a computer, printer and textbooks, are covered by the local school board and the state. If a day school organized a program similar to the one offered by Yeshivas Ohev Shalom (see article on page 56), their only costs would be some overhead, a physical space and a coach/monitor to watch over the students while they do their schoolwork. Schools that do not intend to suspend their general studies program and move their students into a cyber-school can still take advantage of K-12 online education by supplementing their course offerings. Prices for courses vary, depending on whether or not the student will complete the course independently or with teacher support, but generally the cost of the course and materials range from $200 to $500 per student, significantly less than hiring another teacher to teach a small group of students. Schools buying courses may be eligible for bulk discounts.
Disadvantages of cyber-schools
Scheduling
While all cyber-schools rely on a considerable amount of independent work by the students, which can be done at flexible times, many of the more effective online schools supplement that independent work with live teacher presentations. It is for this reason that those schools do not allow for “rolling admissions,” that is, for students to begin a course midway through the semester. To allow that would mean that the student would miss out on a considerable amount of the “direct” face-to-face teaching. The benefits of the live sessions come at a cost – they need to be scheduled at times that will work for the day school.
Since online schools serve as public schools for a general population, those live sessions are generally scheduled for times considered conventional in schools – morning to early afternoon. Any day school looking to “outsource” their general education classes will need to coordinate their schedules. While those schedules are often fixed, they are based on the notion that their students are mostly home schooled. Some online schools are prepared to be flexible in their schedules and add sessions at more convenient times if they have a critical mass of students prepared to attend a class at a different scheduled time, as a day school would likely have (see article on page 56).
A related issue involves the annual calendar. As public schools, online schools follow a public school calendar. Imagine a year in which Rosh Hashanah falls on Monday. Over a four-week span students would miss seven school days in a single month because the public school calendar is not designed to make allowances for the multitude of Jewish holidays. Again, this is an issue only for the live teacher sessions, as most of the work can be done by students on flexible schedules, and online schools may be prepared to make those adjustments for a critical mass of students.
Curriculum
Because they work with economies of scale, cyber-schools are able to invest significant funding and energy into developing outstanding curriculum. Day schools and their parent bodies need to be aware, however, that they have no control over those curricula, and it is unlikely that any online school will develop new materials just for the day school population. There are a number of areas where this can be present issues to different schools.
Take, for example, a unit focus on World History with a chapter on the conflict in the Middle East. It is not difficult to imagine discomfort with the way that topic might be addressed in a curriculum designed for the general population, without sensitivities to Jewish perspectives. Or, for example, a high school English class. Many high schools, particularly in the Orthodox world, take great pains to balance conflicting needs in the choice of books students will read and in the messages conveyed by those books. In a pre-packaged program there may be no room for discussion on those areas, and parents may find their children exposed to things they would prefer their children not to.
A related issue concerns curricular integration, a topic which in recent decades has received considerable attention. Curricular integration takes on particular meaning a Jewish day school, providing opportunities for school to teach students to use a “Jewish lens” in all their interactions and learning, not just in their Jewish learning and activity. Curricular integration offers limitless opportunities in a day school. Ecology lessons can be infused with Jewish values of bal tash-hit (the prohibition against wanton destruction or wastefulness); communal responsibility can be studies through the perspective of tzedakah, tikkun olam and tzibbur; a literature class studying Samson Agonistes can be enriched by a presentation on the Biblical Samson. When the general studies program is “outsourced” to a provider agency, an entire dimension of Jewish learning opportunity – which may be central to the philosophy of the day school – may be sacrificed.
Teaching the whole child
Every educator knows that schools are not just facilities for conveying information – they are educational institutions dedicated to be the parents’ partners in raising their children. Although online schools can effectively communicate knowledge, they have a harder time seeing the child, noticing changes, observing social interactions, etc. When the online school services a home-schooled child, it is the parent who must notice and “be there” for the student. When the child is not in the home environment, it is easier for individual students and the issues with which they may be struggling to get noticed and dealt with.
Some of the most important moments in a child’s learning career happen in the child’s absence. Teachers meet in the faculty room, and in the process of sharing their daily experiences, often begin to notice patterns in individual students. Sometimes the teachers strategize to deal with issues they see, other times they turn to guidance staff or the administration to bring the issues to their attention.
Socialization, or its absence, is another concern raised regarding online schools. Students spend a considerable amount of their day sitting in front of a computer screen. The give-and-take interplay in a traditional classroom plays a significant role in being able to formulate, refine, defend and revise ideas. Beyond that, it also helps to teach students how to communicate, interact and respectfully disagree with peers. A blended school day (half day school, half cyber-charter) may alleviate some of those issues, as students will get to interact during their Jewish studies classes and other “common times,” but there may be considerable sacrifice if the interaction is limited to only part of their school day.
Related is the need for creative expression. Students flourish when they are provided opportunities to express and demonstrate their learning in a variety of modes, including music, the arts, and kinesthetic expression. And those modes of expression and learning are critically important for students’ social-emotional development. It does not appear that online education is equipped for these types of learning or for the development of the person.
Finally, not all students fit the profile that would benefit from an online education. Younger students need considerable adult guidance, and it is not until middle school that students can begin to be self-sufficient with the online platform. Successful students tend to be highly motivated, determined, independent learners with strong reading, organizational, technological and time management skills. And all students need human support for success, whether in the form of responsive teachers who contacted the students regularly (by email, instant messaging or VoIP), peer-to-peer interaction and collaboration, supportive parents or helpful administrative and technical staff (Rice, 2006; Cavanaugh et al. 2004).
Additional concerns about cyber-schools
In any cross-section of the population there are individuals with a variety of different learning styles and learning challenges. Differentiated instruction can help to accommodate for many of those; sensitive teachers can adapt requirements for and assist students challenged with reading, writing, articulating, conceptualizing or a variety of other learning issues. Can online school accommodate those students, or students going through a particularly challenging period in their life (e.g., divorce, death in the family, move to another community)?
Online schools are proud of their college guidance and acceptances to college for their graduates. One such cyber-school proudly listed the 125 institutions of higher learning that their graduates were accepted to. Reading that list it was clear that there were almost no major universities listed, and certainly no schools that would be considered “top-tier.” Can online schools provide the kind of education that could get motivated students into those more prestigious universities?
Parents may also be concerned about teachers they will never meet in person, nor who are responsible to anyone the parents will meet in person. Although there is evidence that cyber-schools are exercising caution in their hiring practices, and only licensed or certified teachers are being hired (something that not all day schools can claim), that may not be enough to alleviate parental concerns. There was an issue, for example, a few years ago, of an online school which was outsourcing marking of exams to a center in India. While that particular practice was stopped when exposed, the lack of personal connection and accountability remains a concern.
Conclusions
Day school parents pay twice for their children’s education – once in the form of education taxes, from which they currently receive little in return, and once in the form of tuition. The opportunity for savings is significant if day schools can use online public or charter schools to provide general studies courses. Tuitions can be reduced significantly as tax dollars are used to provide secular education. There are, however, catches.
Online schooling is more challenging with younger children than with those in middle or high school. All online education requires an adult presence. In the younger grades that presence needs to be more actively involved in the educational process; in the older grades that presence can simply be a monitor or coach. The savings, then, may be significantly offset in the younger grades by the need for adult supervision, and more moderately offset in progressively higher grades.
But even those savings come at a price. Day schools would lose input and control over a significant part of the educational process, and there would be virtually no opportunities for curricular integration. Subtle issues like scheduling and the celebration of public holidays would be infused, unmediated, into the day school experience. Significant components of the educational process, specifically the focus on the whole-child and children’s social-emotional development, would not receive the same attention, and online schools have yet to build a track record of acceptances into top tier colleges.
Parents who send their children to day schools for quality, private school experience and education will not accept “outsourcing” their child’s secular education. Other parents, however, whose primary motivation for choosing day schools is an intensive Jewish studies program supplemented by an acceptable general studies education may find online charters a reasonable compromise.
Online education is still in its infancy, and already has the potential to impact on day schools. In the years to come, it is likely that elements of online education will begin to infuse increasing parts of the educational process. Only time will tell to what extent it will have an impact on day schools, and on their affordability.
References
Barbour, M. (2009). Today’s student and virtual schooling: The reality, the challenges, the promise…Journal of Distance Learning 12(2), 5-25.
Cambre, B. M. (2009). Tearing down the walls: Cyber charter schools and the public endorsement of religion. TechTrends, 53 (4), 61-64.
Cavanaugh, C. (2009). Effectiveness of cyber charter schools: A Review of Research on Learnings. TechTrends, 53 (4), 28-31.
Cavanaugh, C., Barbour, M. & Clark, T. (2009). Research and practice in K-12 online learning: A review of open access literature. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 10 (1).
Cavanaugh, C., Gillan, K. J., Kromrey, J., Hess, M., & Blomeyer, R. (2004). The effects of distance education on K-12 student outcomes: A meta-analysis. Naperville, IL: Learning Points Associates.
Huerta, L. A., Gonzalez, M. F., & d’Entremont, C. (2006). Cyber and home school charter schools: Adopting policy to new forms of public schooling. Peabody Journal of Education, 81(1), 103-139.
Marsh, R.M., Carr-Chellman, A.A., Sockman, B. R. (2009) Selecting silicon: Why parents choose cybercharter schools. TechTrends, 53 (4), 32-36.
Rice, K. L. (2006). A comprehensive look at distance education in the K-12 context. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(4), 425-448.
Rice, K. (2009). Priorities in K-12 distance education: A delphi study examining multiple perspectives on policy, practice, and research. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (3), 163–177.
Watson, J., Gemin, B., Ryan, J., Wicks, M. (2009). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: An annual review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen, CO: Evergreen Education Group.
Zucker, A., Kozma, R., Yarnall, L., & Marder, C. (2003). The Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V. New York: Teachers College Press.