Among the many factors that impact student performance in traditional K-12 settings, parent involvement (PI) is consistently identified as critical for student success. However, less is known about parent involvement for full-time virtual schools, where most learning takes place asynchronously in a Learning Management System (LMS). The present…

America has a long history of small-school environments, such as one-room schoolhouses and homeschools. But in recent years, other models have developed, giving students more intimate settings for learning and enabling their families to play a larger role in their schooling. Microschools are a leading example of this growing sector that also…

Written expression is used throughout the education system and is significant to student success, However, many students express difficulty in this area. The problem is what instructional methods are used to address written expression difficulty within a virtual elementary school environment. Instructional methods used to address this problem are…

While virtual and online schools for students in grades K-12 gained in popularity before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and served a wide variety of student populations, including students with disabilities during the pandemic virtual teaching became the reluctant norm. As online school sites have begun to welcome students with…

The privatization of public funds for education through school choice programs has fueled the expansion of virtual online charter schools. This redirection of funds contributes to the idea that virtual school success is comparable or even superior to the performance of traditional public schools. The schools most adversely affected are the schools…

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.…

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…

"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…

School choice is a long-standing tradition in the United States. New to the options available to K-12 parents are full-time virtual schools, and this option is an even more recent development for parents of students with disabilities. Very little research exists on why parents are choosing full-time virtual education for their school-aged…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has identified four priority areas within its Strategic Plan that guide the work of the department in its role to support implementation of state education statute and be responsive to district, school, and student need: (1) Increase student engagement; (2) Accelerate student outcomes; (3) Strengthen the…

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…