One of the interesting problems in K-12 virtual education
programs is the lack of information about which students get served by these
programs. A couple of years ago,
recognizing that we didn’t have good data, David Glick distributed a survey
through the iNACOL list asking programs to voluntarily report student
demographic data. Initially there was a
very poor response, with a number of programs saying they didn’t collect that
data. We also asked state education
departments (SEAs) and found they weren’t asking for the data either.
When I was working in the Massachusetts Dept. of Education
back in the 70s, schools had to report student enrollment and demographic data
as of October 1. Back then Massachusetts
requested demographic data for different programs (e.g. Special Education,
Title I, Vocational Education, etc.).
All schools in Massachusetts were required to submit that data. Simultaneously the US Dept. of Education’s Office
for Civil Rights (OCR) collected data on a subset of schools in Massachusetts
and, I believe, across the country.
Later conservative administrations lessened the role of OCR
apparently either ended or reduced OCR’s data collection. OCR is back in the game and is planning on
collecting student demographic data again.
What’s new is that OCR is planning on collecting demographic data on
distance education programs. Virtual
education including virtual schools are included in the OCR definition of
distance education.
You can see more about this at http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=ED-2013-ICCD-0079
I’m pleased to see OCR collecting student demographic data
for distance education (aka virtual education).
It will give us a better sense of which students are getting the benefit
of online learning. This data collection will present a challenge for some
programs that haven’t been collecting demographic data of enrolled students.
When the Mass DoE collected data, we analyzed the data
looking at access issues among other things.
I was involved with on district where their data indicated
disproportionate representation in special education programs based on
race. The district told me, they didn’t
have a way to collect the data, and so administrators made up numbers where
they thought they should have students.
Then they didn’t look at what they submitted to see if it seemed
logical.
Virtual education programs and schools need to create
procedures for collecting student demographic data. They should then look at it critically to see
what it is saying about their program and who they serve. They should then ask themselves if they like
the picture that the data represents.
