The COVID-19 pandemic forced many American schools to hastily transition to online learning. I assess how the online learning experience of students enrolled in brick and mortar schools that transitioned to online learning in Spring 2020 compared to the experience of students who were already enrolled in virtual schools when the pandemic began.…

"Self-Determination" concept is based on the simple assumption that all human beings with and without disabilities, ought to be in a position and develop the skills to intrinsically influence their life outcomes and gain control over their own life. This qualitative case study explored the understanding of high school special education…

While numerous authors have studied the comparison of achievement growth scores between charter, private, home, virtual, and in-person schools, there has been very little research regarding a comparison of growth scores during a time of a global pandemic. This study revealed that school choice for parents who desire for their children to attend a…

In Utah, deaf and hard of hearing elementary school students can access their education--in American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken and written English--from their devices at home. Many secondary students can access online coursework as well. This is thanks to a four-year project undertaken by the Utah School for the Deaf (USD). The goal was to…

Autistic children comprise a large group of young people who are looked-after by their local authority and for whom educational outcomes are amongst the poorest of all children in care. Virtual School Heads (VSHs) in England have a statutory responsibility to improve the educational outcomes of children in care following the implementation of the…

Digital learning, the use of computers and the internet to study courses taught in the classroom, is viewed by many educators as a breakthrough to helping those at-risk students stay in school and earn their diplomas. The flexibility afforded by digital learning, with students working on their own time at their own pace, is a way for students to…

In this paper, we document elementary school teachers' attitudinal and pedagogical changes during the rapid move from brick-and-mortar to virtual schooling initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We administered four online surveys (in September and October 2020, and in March and June 2021) to determine teachers' perceived challenges and successes in…

The relationship between student activity data and performance in the online classroom is well-documented, yet the parameters of this relationship and their implications for K-12 online schools are not yet well understood. This study examined the role of student chronotype (defined here as the time of day a student is most active in an online…

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed virtual schooling to the forefront of the national educational landscape. Long-time proponents of this technology quickly positioned digital programs and platforms as the obvious solution for schools that had to close buildings to avoid transmitting the virus. The pandemic exacerbated a trend that NEPC virtual…

This study included quantitative and qualitative methods to provide an in-depth exploration of the parameters of at-risk student virtual education environment. Surveys were administered to teachers, students, and support staff. The connection between school resources and learning are discussed in this study. The results of the study provide…

During the Spring 2020 semester, all fifty states in the United States closed schools from in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. When the two Upstate South Carolina school districts in this study reopened in the Fall of 2020, they gave families the option of allowing students to attend newly developed virtual schools which…

After Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a temporary school closure last March because of COVID-19, leaders at the LEARN Charter School Network got busy thinking about what remote learning would look like; they had a track record of performance to safeguard. Pre-COVID, the 20-year-old Chicago-area charter school network of 10 college-prep K-8…

While research shows that teacher training and professional development intertwine with the overall success of a student and academic achievement, there is still research needed regarding students in poverty that attend online schools and low student achievement benchmarks. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of clear understanding…

The audit objective for this report was to determine whether the Ohio Department of Education (Ohio Education) and selected Ohio local educational agencies (LEAs) have sufficient internal controls to ensure that individualized education programs (IEPs) are developed in accordance with Federal and State requirements for children with disabilities…

Current research suggests that students fare better in school, especially in areas of engagement and attendance, when they have supportive adult-student relationships. As many educators learned during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, extra efforts are needed to build these supportive relationships when teaching and learning in online environments. Full…