Choosing cyber during COVID

Substantial research has already examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected in-person schooling, but no prior work has explored its effects on cyber schools. Here, Robert Maranto, Dennis Beck, Tom Clark, Bich Tran, and Feng Liu compare the students entering a large national cyber charter school network in spring 2020, during the pandemic, with students entering in 2019 and 2018, before the pandemic. They find that the COVID cohort resembled prior groups demographically but reported greater success at their prior in-person schools and exhibited greater measured success in cyber schools.

The Shifting Landscape of Education Governance

In recent decades, education governance has seen many important shifts that influence how education services are provided to students. This chapter introduces three of the most pronounced changes. First, the formal actors responsible for education have shifted from an environment most centered on local school boards to one where city, state, and federal politicians have more responsibility and influence over education. Second, due to policies enabling vouchers, charter schools, and cyber schools, public funding for education is now distributed to a wider array of school types beyond traditional brick-and-mortar public schools. Third, the role of outside private money from philanthropies has increased over time, and the organizational form favored by these donors may be changing in ways that limit the amount of transparency required of these funders. Cumulatively, these changes have eroded the traditionally insulated and localized character of education governance, making education more similar to other areas of U.S. policymaking.

Training Teachers for a Virtual School System

Online learning at the K-12 level is growing exponentially. Students learning in supplemental virtual schools and full-time cyber schools, using a variety of delivery models that include and sometimes combine independent, asynchronous, and synchronous instruction, in almost every state in the US. In some instances the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by teachers in this technology-mediated environment is consistent with what they learned about face-to-face teaching in their teacher education programs, while in many instances, the two are quite different. Presently the lack of empirical research into effective K-12 online teaching limits teacher education programs. However, teacher education programs still need to better prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to design, deliver, and support students engaged virtual schooling.

Training Teachers for a Virtual School System

Online learning at the K-12 level is growing exponentially. Students learning in supplemental virtual schools and full-time cyber schools, using a variety of delivery models that include and sometimes combine independent, asynchronous, and synchronous instruction, in almost every state in the US. In some instances the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by teachers in this technology-mediated environment is consistent with what they learned about face-to-face teaching in their teacher education programs, while in many instances, the two are quite different. Presently the lack of empirical research into effective K-12 online teaching limits teacher education programs. However, teacher education programs still need to better prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to design, deliver, and support students engaged virtual schooling.

Strategies for teaching students With Exceptional Needs in cyber schools

Cyber schools for K-12 students are growing in number. It is vital that appropriate strategies are devised in order to meet the needs of students with exceptionalities. The PA Cyber Charter School serves 353 students who have Individualized Education Plans. Parent surveys were thematically analyzed and revealed six predominant themes, including communication, interests, focus, less-stigma from the special education label, education differences in comparison to other methods, and cyber school shortcomings. The study also utilized the action research model to determine and present the techniques and strategies that are working in the PA Cyber Charter School for their students with special needs. Teacher-tested documents included in the Appendix were based on the study, and a model for special needs strategies in the cyber learning environment has been established through this article.

Creating an Interactive PowerPoint Lesson for the Lesson

This article helps classroom teachers create an “Interactive Lesson,” a self-paced, student-controlled, individualized learning opportunity embedded with assessments. These lessons are offered to learners who need individualized instruction; corrective instruction, additional practice, or enrichment activities. Interactive lessons are not new. However, the practical, sequential methodology offered herein provides a practical design model for creating and integrating Microsoft’s PowerPoint for presenting self-paced, personalized lesson content. The presentation can be captured to a floppy diskette, burned onto a CDROM, or sent as an email attachment to students in a classroom, computer lab or at home. The interactive lesson has many practical applications for students needing remedial attention or those attending cyber schools or home-bound students.