Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019

Complete report

As reported in previous National Education Policy Center virtual schools reports, the number of virtual schools in the U.S. continues to grow. In 2017-18, 501 full-time virtual schools enrolled 297,712 students, and 300 blended schools enrolled 132,960. Enrollments in virtual schools increased by more than 2,000 students between 2016-17 and 2017-18, and enrollments in blended learning schools increased by over 16,000 during this same time period. Virtual schools enrolled substantially fewer minority students and fewer low-income students compared to national public school enrollment.

In 2018 virtual schools continued to be a focal point for policymakers. As proponents con-tinued to make the case that virtual education can expand student choices and improve the efficiency of public education, full-time virtual schools (also sometimes referred to as virtual charter schools, virtual academies, online schools or cyber schools) have attracted a great deal of attention. Many argue that online curriculum can be tailored to individual stu

dents more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms, giving it the potential to promote greater student achievement than can be realized in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. These claims are not supported by the research evidence; nonetheless, the promise of lower costs—primarily for instructional personnel and facilities—continues to make virtual schools financially appealing to both policymakers and for-profit providers. 

This report provides disinterested scholarly analyses of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; reviews the relevant available research related to virtual school practices; provides an overview of recent state legislative efforts to craft virtual schools policy; and offers policy recommendations based on the available evidenc

 • While the population in the nation’s public schools was split nearly evenly between females and males, virtual schools enrolled more females (53.9%), and blended schools were nearly evenly split.  

Student-Teacher Ratio

 • The average student-teacher ratio in the nation’s public schools was 16 students per teacher. But virtual schools reported having 2.7 times as many students per teacher (44) compared to the national average, and blended schools reported a little more than twice as many (34).

 School Performance Data  

• Many states continue to have frozen accountability systems or to have implemented new systems that do not include an overall rating. Therefore, overall school performance ratings assigned by state agencies were available for only 21 of the 39 states with virtual and/or blended schools Overall, a surprisingly low proportion of virtual and blended schools had school performance ratings available: In the states with available school performance ratings, 56% of the virtual schools and 50% of the blended schools had no ratings assigned to them.

 

 • Overall, many virtual and blended schools continue to show low performance ratings, although the proportion of schools with acceptable ratings was higher than reported in the previous year. Of the virtual schools with ratings, 48.5% received acceptable performance ratings. Among the blended schools with ratings, 44.6% received acceptable performance ratings. 

 • Among virtual schools, far more district-operated schools achieved acceptable school performance ratings (56.7% acceptable) than charter-operated schools (40.8%). More schools without EMO involvement (i.e., independent) performed well (59.3% accept-able ratings), compared with 50% acceptable ratings for schools operated by nonprofit EMOs, and only 29.8% acceptable ratings for schools operated by for-profit EMOs. The pattern among blended learning schools was similar, with highest performance by district schools and lowest performance by the subgroup of schools operated by for-profit EMOs. On-time graduation rate data were available for 290 full-time virtual schools and 144 blended schools. The graduation rates of 50.1% in virtual schools and 61.5% in blended schools fell far short of the national average of 84%.