“There are risks and costs to action.”

That’s a quote from John F. Kennedy, which applies to most of the educators taking action to create or expand innovative digital learning options for students. A few of these risks include:

There’s been quite a bit of attention to the declines in public school enrollments. Some of this is specific to certain districts, but more interesting are the enrollment declines at a national level—because these might have significant effects on policy and practice.

In October 2022, the first “post” pandemic (or near-post-pandemic) results were released from our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. It caused quite a stir, with local and national media outlets publishing headlines from the relatively benign, “Student math scores are down from pre-COVID levels, the National Report Card finds”; to the somewhat alarming, “Parents Are Owed the Truth About Learning Loss. NAEP Proves It”.

We can all agree that the pandemic has upended the education system. Let’s be clear, emergency remote learning was not online learning (like the successful online schools that have been around for decades), yet it did provide insight into the possibility of learning at home - at least part-time. Welcome to hybrid learning - getting the best from face-to-face teaching and from-a-distance online learning.

Competency-based education (CBE) has been in the news a lot lately, especially with Michael Horn’s new book being published about CBE’s potential as a post-pandemic solution to change our education system.

A blog post from a while back that discussed an article critical of online learning included this quote from the original article:

“There is little comprehensive information about the curricula, student-teacher ratios, how much actual teaching occurs, or what if any academic supports are provided by the schools.”

The story that we’ve been hearing—and telling—about emergency remote learning is something like this:

1. The COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020.

2. Physical schools closed and shifted immediately to emergency remote learning.

3. Emergency remote learning wasn’t the same as well planned online learning, because it was implemented with almost no planning.

This may seem off-topic, but trust me it’ll come around to online learning…

You may have seen headlines that looked something like this, a couple of weeks ago:

Screening Procedure Fails to Prevent Colon Cancer Deaths in Large Study seemed to tell a compelling story. That headline comes from Bloomberg News; similar headlines were on CNN, NBC News, and many other mainstream and health-related sources, including at least one which called the study the “gold standard.” Why was this newsworthy? Because:

Every so often I like to visit ideas that don’t merit a full post but are worth mentioning.

UDL, accommodations, and reaching all students
A recent post discussed reaching all students, and Universal Design for Learning.

Among the key tenets of UDL is that the design principles “improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people.” I’ve been aware of this idea but, to be honest, it was only some recent events and reading a non-education blog post that have made me fully appreciate this concept.

“We hear this regularly from students after they transfer to our school full time: ‘This was the first time I felt like I wasn't stupid.’” — Former Director, Full-Time Programs at Virtual Learning Academy Charter School NH

District leaders, the time is now to be "the one." Be the champion to ensure ALL MEANS ALL when you are supporting equity in your school systems. Virtual and hybrid learning opportunities are now a regular part of traditional educational systems, whether for homework, in-school online learning, or learning off campus due to health considerations, inclement weather, or even construction.

How students in online and hybrid schools should be funded, and at what levels, has been a topic of debate for as long as online schools have existed. The Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC) has touched on these issues in our recent funding report and blog post, and will explore these issues further in an upcoming webinar.

Countless words have been written about the impact that the global Covid-19 pandemic has had and will have on K-12 education. This moment in history has been described as “disruptive”, “future-shaping”, an “incredible opportunity”, and more. Just as much attention has been devoted to discussing what the pandemic has revealed or exposed about K-12 education, with observers justifiably noting systemic inequality, technology shortcomings, outdated policy, etc.

We’ve all seen the distressing news – many schools and districts around the nation are challenged with teacher shortages. From reports that teachers are quitting their jobs faster than they can be replaced, to college students in Arizona teaching in the classroom before they’ve graduated, and rural school districts in Texas switching to four-day weeks due to lack of staff, school administrators are looking for solutions.

Several recent stories have caught my attention as they highlight how hard it can be to start or grow an online/hybrid school, particularly in a mainstream district.

One of these, “APS to apply lessons from virtual learning program audit to planning for new online program” is a rather dry headline to apply to a story that is quite negative:

The headline seems to say it all:

“Many Remote Learning Options Shutting Down as School Reopens for Fall 2022.”

Dig just slightly further, though, and a different interpretation of the numbers becomes apparent:

“Even as COVID-19 infections continue to fluctuate, roughly one-third of the country’s largest school districts are ending their remote learning programs this fall…” (emphasis added)

Having a child in a virtual class at home comes with expectations for parents that are often new, unexpected, and unclear. Past experiences or faulty assumptions may set students and families up for frustration. Other students, however, thrive in the new virtual environment, feeling empowered by the flexibility and choice. Recent research has attempted to identify and measure the most effective types of parental support for virtual students at home. Parents may breathe a sigh of relief that they do not need to be an expert in Algebra or World History to have a significant impact in supporting their virtual learners.

It’s well understood in digital learning circles that emergency remote instruction during the pandemic was both the best option when schools had to be closed, and a bad reflection on learning online. District and school leaders, teachers, and everyone else did the best they could on short notice, but it’s clear that emergency remote instruction was neither highly successful nor did it represent, in most cases, best practices in online instruction.

We’re now seeing the first of what may be a new trend that would be an even worse reflection on online learning.

Policy advocates and political parties in the US run into the hard reality of public opinion (aka voters) when they push ideas that limit options and choices.

Both parties take these limiting views on some issues while pushing freedom of choice on other issues. Some conservatives want to limit who you can marry and, at the extremes, what sorts of contraception you can use. Some liberals want to limit the types of cars you can drive, and, at the extremes, whether you can eat beef.

From the student and educator perspective, the digital learning argument is clear and relatively simple:

Some students have a better learning experience and improved academic outcomes in non-traditional settings, and students should have those options available to them.

From the policy perspective, the discussions get more complex quickly, because inevitably the conversation must turn to first principles, as in “what is the point of education?”

Last week’s post mentioned that we are still seeing influential observers criticizing online and hybrid learning mostly by conflating it with emergency remote learning. It linked to an article titled Online Schooling Is the Bad Idea That Refuses to Die, which at least has the positive attribute of being straightforward and honest about the writer’s views.