BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 207
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 25, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
O'Donnell, Chair
AB
207 (Grove) - As Introduced January 29, 2015
SUBJECT: Virtual or online charter schools: average daily
attendance
SUMMARY: Authorizes virtual or online charter schools to claim
independent study average daily attendance (ADA) for pupils who
are residents of a county that is 125 miles or less from the
county in which the apportionment claim is reported.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires independent study ADA to be claimed by school
districts, county superintendents of schools, and charter
schools only for pupils who are residents of the county in
which the apportionment claim is reported or pupils who are
residents of a count immediately adjacent to the county in
which the apportionment is claimed.
2)Authorizes virtual or online charter schools to also claim
independent study average daily attendance for pupils enrolled
in the school that move to a residence outside of the county
only for the duration of the course or courses in which the
pupil is enrolled or until the end of the school year,
whichever comes first.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
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COMMENTS:
What is a "virtual school?" According to the California Virtual
Academy (CAVA), which is the largest chain of virtual schools in
California, the use of online curriculum and services allows
"learning [to] happen at home, on the road, or wherever an
Internet connection can be found." Physical instructional
materials and other offline resources may also be used.
Attendance is monitored through an Internet connection and
physical attendance at a school site is not required, although
periodic attendance may occur. Virtual schools are sometimes
promoted as a good option for athletes, actors, and others for
whom regular attendance at a school is not possible. However,
virtual school teachers report that these types of students
actually account for a small fraction of virtual school
enrollment. Virtual schools enroll students in grades K through
12.
California has about nine virtual schools or virtual school
chains, nearly all of which are charter schools. CAVA is the
largest chain, which, according to a recent report ("Virtual
Public Schools in California," In the Public Interest, February
2015), operates schools in 11 locations. Another chain, the
Academy of Arts and Sciences, serves students in 33 counties,
according to its website.
Online instruction has not been shown to be effective. The use
of online instruction has grown in recent years, but there have
been few well-controlled studies of its effectiveness with K-12
students. This is the main finding from a review of the
research reported by the U. S. Department of Education (USDOE)
in September 2010 ("Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in
Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning
Studies"). The USDOE report contains the findings of a
meta-analysis of research on online learning, which concludes
that "on average, students in online learning conditions
performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face
instruction." However, the report cautions against generalizing
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this finding to the K-12 population, because only five of the 45
studies in the analysis involved K-12 instruction. (The others
involved medical training, higher education, and other non-K-12
instruction.) All of the five K-12 studies involved blended
instruction, in which online learning is combined with
face-to-face instruction. Because blended instruction often
includes additional instructional time, the positive effects
observed with this approach may be the result of the additional
time on task, and cannot be attributed to the media, per se,
according to the USDOE report.
Report finds serious shortcomings in CAVA schools. The report
by In the Public Interest ("Virtual Public Education in
California," 2015) focused specifically on CAVA schools, and
concluded that "students at CAVA are at risk of low quality
educational outcomes, and some are falling through the cracks
entirely, in a poorly resourced and troubled educational
environment." Among the concerns identified by the report are
the following:
In every year since it began graduating students, except
2013, CAVA has had more dropouts than graduates.
Students are eligible to be counted as having attended
with as little as one minute of log in time each day.
K12 California (the California subsidiary of K-12, Inc.)
pays itself for services out of CAVA school bank accounts
that it (K12 California) manages.
Competitive bidding is prohibited: K12 California
contractually prohibits CAVA schools from seeking another
vendor for services that K12 California is willing and able
to perform.
CAVA teachers report that the "vast majority" of the
work they do is clerical, preventing them from spending
sufficient time of teaching.
Limited local control: individual CAVA location
governing boards operate under contract to K12 California
and do not "have much leeway in terms of budget, program
and contracting decisions independent from K12 California."
K12, Inc. charges CAVA schools more than they can
reasonably pay for administrative and technology services.
The shortfall is covered by "budget credits" that are
extended by K12, Inc., which results in a "perpetual debt"
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relationship between CAVA schools and K12, Inc.
CAVA students have lower academic achievement, higher
dropout rates, and higher turnover than students in
brick-and-mortar schools.
Studies in other states also indicate online instruction alone
is not as effective as regular classroom instruction:
A 2011 study of charter school performance in
Pennsylvania by the Center for Research on Education
Outcomes at Stanford University found that each of that
state's 8 online charter schools ("cyber schools")
significantly underperformed brick and mortar schools and
regular (non-virtual) charter schools in reading and math.
A review of virtual schools in Wisconsin by the Gannett
Wisconsin Media Investigative Team found that students
receiving online instruction "often struggle to complete
their degrees and repeat grades four times as often as
their brick-and-mortar counterparts," and they "trail
traditional students in every subject but reading."
A 2011 report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor
in Minnesota reported that full-time online students were
more likely to completely drop out of school and made less
progress on state standardized math tests than students in
traditional schools.
A 2011 report from the Ohio Department of Education
rated only three of Ohio's 27 virtual schools as
"effective" or "excellent."
A 2006 performance audit by the Colorado Department of
Education of that state's virtual schools found that, "in
the aggregate, online students performed poorly on the CSAP
[Colorado State Assessment Program] exams and had higher
repeater, attrition, and dropout rates."
The Florida Virtual Academy, a statewide virtual school,
reports that 81% of its students who complete their courses
receive a passing grade. However, the Tampa Bay Times
reports that the Virtual Academy's records show that
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two-thirds of students who enroll in a course don't finish
it. When dropouts are included, the actual pass rate is
28%. The Times was unable to get Virtual School Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test scores from either the
Virtual School or the Florida Department of Education.
Most virtual schools in California use a curriculum provided by
K12, Inc., a private, for-profit company headquartered in
Virginia. In 2014, the NCAA recently announced that it will stop
accepting coursework from 24 schools nationwide (13 in
California) that use the K12, Inc. curriculum at any Division I
or Division II college or university, because "their courses
were found to not comply with the NCAA's nontraditional course
requirements." Other K12, Inc. schools are currently being
evaluated by the NCAA for compliance with its "core course and
nontraditional course requirements." A 2012 report by the
National Education Policy Center ("Understanding and Improving
Full-Time Virtual Schools: A Study of Student Characteristics,
School Finance, and School Performance in Schools Operated by
K12, Inc.") found that students in K12, Inc. schools have lower
academic achievement, higher dropout rates, and higher turnover
than students in brick-and-mortar schools.
This bill increases the number of students that virtual schools
would be able to enroll by allowing them to claim ADA funding
for students who live up to 125 miles outside of the county in
which the virtual school is located.
Prior legislation. AB 377 (Grove), Statutes of 2013, would have
allowed an online or virtual school to claim ADA for a student
who resides anywhere in California. That bill failed in the
Assembly Education Committee on a 2-5 vote.
AB 2007 (Grove), Chapter 807, Statues of 2014, authorizes
virtual or online charter schools to claim independent study
average daily attendance for pupils enrolled in the school that
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move to a residence outside of the county only for the duration
of the course or courses in which the pupil is enrolled or until
the end of the school year, whichever comes first.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Parents for Virtual Public Education
Opposition
Public Counsel
Analysis Prepared
by: Rick Pratt/ED./(916) 319-2087