Each year, millions of students with disabilities receive special education services. The development of an individual education program (IEP) is an important function in determining what services are provided. The IEP is the product of a collaborative effort between stakeholders, including the student (Barnard-Brak & Lechtenberger, 2010).…

Online school systems and school administrators do not place enough emphasis on the mental health and well-being of their teachers. Mental health and well-being influence the efficacy of teachers' instruction and the relationships they have with students. Educational success depends on the excellence of its teachers, and schools must intentionally…

In England, Pupil Premium Plus is additional funding to help address the educational attainment gap experienced by looked after children. This paper explores the experiences of virtual school heads and designated teachers (n = 140) as they access Pupil Premium Plus-related information, guidance and training to support their practice; navigate the…

Cyber charter schools continue to emerge and bring new opportunities for individualized learning to students and families, and at the same time, have a financial impact on the home school they left. However, some students return to their home school after trying cyber charter options. This study explored what motivated students to leave their home…

The problem addressed in this study was the high dropout rate and the resulting low graduation rate in alternative virtual school settings. This quantitative correlational case study examined the influence of three instructional modalities on students' credit accrual and graduation rates in one alternative education virtual high school. The three…

Virtual charter schools are increasingly popular, yet there is no research on the long-term outcomes of virtual charter students. We link statewide education records from Oregon with earnings information from IRS records housed at the US Census Bureau to provide evidence on how virtual charter students fare as young adults. Virtual charter…

Researchers were already expecting a gradual enrollment slowdown before the onset of COVID-19. Public school enrollment edged up only 2% between 2012 and 2019, holding near 50 million students (NCES 2024), while the U.S. total fertility rate had slipped to 1.71 births per woman--well below the replacement level--foreshadowing a smaller school-age…

This appendix supports the report, "Declining Public School Enrollment," which provides detailed estimates of recent shifts in public school enrollment. This analysis uses data from the Common Core of Data of the National Center for Education Statistics ("CCD"), the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates of the Census Bureau…

Research suggests that teacher self-efficacy shares a relationship with student achievement. This relationship has mostly been examined in face-to-face contexts and it remains to be seen how that relationship translates to online settings. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the methods and instruments used to measure teacher self-efficacy in…

The problem investigated in this quantitative, causal-comparative study is that it was unclear and there was a need to examine, what, if any, statistically significant difference exists in the success between fifth, sixth, and seventh-year cohort high school students (super-seniors) in virtual charter schools in Oregon using standards-based…

In the ever-shifting world of school choice, what began as a homegrown charter-school network's small experiment in microschooling stands out as unique -- and as a uniquely promising model for replication. Gem Prep, a network of seven brick-and-mortar K-12 charter schools in Idaho, anchored by a longstanding and high-performing online school,…

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology was to discover the essence of Christian "paideia" for career classical Christian educators who make daily curricular decisions at a classical Christian online academy that serves a 2nd-12th grade international student body. A qualitative research design was used to gather data on the…

Virtual schools have gained popularity by providing students with the flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere. The appeal of virtual education lies in its capacity to enhance student choices and improve the efficiency of public education (Molnar et al., 2019). Online learning, with its adaptable and personalized approach, proves more effective than…

Face-to-face cooking programs can positively impact food choices, fruit and vegetable intake, and cooking self-efficacy; however, little is known about virtual cooking programs. We studied the perceived acceptability of the virtual SWITCH Cooking School (SCS). Four monthly cooking classes were offered for each participating school. Classes…

Since the peak of the pandemic in 2020, enrollment in virtual schools has steadily increased, with virtual schools now accounting for approximately 1.4% of the nation's public school students. While the effects of the pandemic on student achievement and mental health have been extensively studied, research has yet to thoroughly examine the impact…