They are becoming increasingly popular, and their advocates say they allow traditional education to be regenerated. Such are the so-called ‘charter schools’.
They are increasingly popular in the United States and their advocates say they are allowing traditional education to “regenerate.” These are the so-called “charter schools”, which use the internet as their main tool.
The educational technology sector has lobbied to bring high technology to these educational centers which are financed through independent public funds.
And the result is virtual classrooms in which the autonomy of this type of school is combined with the flexibility of the internet.
However, a large-scale investigation, which analyzed 17 states in the country with these types of schools, ensures that “academic performance is significantly lower in mathematics and reading” in these virtual classrooms, compared to conventional schools .
In addition, the National Study of Online Charter Schools, the first major study on this phenomenon, ensures that student learning “is not as effective” with this system. What are the reasons?
Digital stun
According to the study, carried out by the University of Washington, Stanford University and Mathematica Policy Research, students who learn in virtual classrooms are very reluctant to their counterparts who go to class.
In mathematics, the result is the same as if the children had missed a whole year of school.
Internet schools are relatively small in number of students.
Still, the idea of virtual education has grown very rapidly, and is considered a potential alternative to conventional schools.
Today there are about 200,000 students registered in online charter schools in the US, according to the research. And, between 2012 and 2013, there were about 65,000.
Students do not pay tuition fees, and schools have annual funding grants of US $ 6,000 per student that represent, in total, US $ 39 million in public spending. Online schools have no physical limits and can grow rapidly.
In fact, one school in Pennsylvania enrolled more than 10,000 full-time students.
These online schools, also known as “virtual” or “cyber” are defined by a system in which almost everything is taught online.
They do not function as additional classes to those with a teacher and a blackboard, but rather as an alternative to not attend face-to-face classes.
However, the new conclusions about their poor performance question this learning system.
Less time with the teacher
The study found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that there was much less contact with teachers in virtual schools.
Students who go to school with desks and bricks spend, on average, the same time with the teacher every day as those who attend “virtual school” spend in a week.
Online schools rely much more on students managing their own learning and determining the rate at which they progress.
But the biggest problem the researchers identified was the difficulty in getting students to focus on their work.
“The difficulties in maintaining student participation are inherent in online teaching,” Brian Gill, co-author of the report, told Sean Coughlan, the BBC’s education correspondent.
“And they are exacerbated by the disproportion between students and teachers, and the short time of contact between them that, according to statistics, is common in online charter schools,” added Gill.
The researchers compared the performance of students in virtual schools with that of students in conventional schools, according to their gender, ethnicity, and levels of health and poverty.
The biggest difference from traditional classrooms is the disproportionate and high number of white students.
Additionally, the researchers found that only 2% of cyber school students outperformed their conventional classroom counterparts in reading.
On the contrary, in mathematics no online school was better; in fact, 88% were “significantly worse”.
“Grim” findings
James Woodworth, of the Stanford Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO), described the findings as “bleak” and said they “will serve as evidence in the face of debates about the role of online schools in the future”.
The Center for the Reinvention of Public Education at the University of Washington suggested that these findings “demonstrate the need for better regulation of these schools.”
The center’s director, Robin Lake, told the BBC that “we need policies that address the concerns, without unnecessarily restricting its growth.”
What should be the admission standards for virtual schools? How to inspect the quality standards? These are some of the questions.
Sources from the National Association of Public Charter Schools assured that they feel “disheartened” by “the low performance”
Nina Rees, president of the agency, says charter schools that “suspend” should be closed.
However, he noted that the study only investigated those schools that offer full-time classes, and that there are many successful examples of so-called “blended” teaching, which includes both virtual and face-to-face classes.
The research also highlighted that online schools could be advantageous for rural students with limited options and for those with health problems.
He also said that this educational system could be beneficial for families traveling around the country and for those who, for any other reason, do not “fit in” in traditional schools.
Connections Academy, a provider of this type of education, said the statistics should take into account “the distinctive character of the instruction and the population that public schools provide online.”
The academy called for “productive leadership” to find a way to strengthen virtual schools.
Because, as he explains, “this form of education is chosen by a growing number of American families”
