K–12 Online Learning and School Choice: Growth and Expansion in the Absence of Evidence

• In Event: 53.081 - Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 53.081-2 - Online Learning, Achievement, and Innovation in Charter Schools

Abstract

In this paper, the author situates school choice within the field of K-12 online learning, specifically the use of full-time K-12 online learning in the form of cyber charter schools. The author then examines the use of cyber charter schools as a mechanism for school choice in K-12 online learning, specifically the effectiveness of cyber charter schools. This examination focuses on not just the findings, but critically examines the sources (and potential motivations) for those findings. Given the growth of full-time K-12 online learning, and the continued pressure by proponents to create favorable regulatory climates for cyber charter schools, a critical – but honest – examination of student outcomes is long overdue.

Author

• Michael Kristopher Barbour, Touro University - California