June 17, 2010

Mr. Duncan Wyse Chair State Board of Education 255 Capitol St. NE Salem, OR 97310

Dear Mr. Wyse:

I am writing to you on behalf of the thousands of families in Oregon who rely on full- time virtual public schools to deliver education services to their children. We have reviewed the “staff straw proposal” developed by the State Board of Education that seeks to set forth a governance model for virtual public schools in Oregon. We respectfully submit the following comments for your consideration.

Let me state up front that the Oregon Virtual Public Schools Alliance is a coalition of parents who seek a long-term, stable system for online learning that focuses on our core objectives of parent access, choice, sustainable funding, quality programs, and accountability. Since we started our coalition and began engaging our elected officials during the 2009 session, these have been our guiding principles. Our families have a tremendous amount of personal investment in their children’s education, so disruptions, whether they be minor or major, can cause significant stress and uncertainty. We aim to avoid that, and we know you do too.

Policy Goals/Principles

We note that the staff straw proposal adds in the most important element missing from the board proposal’s list of policy goals: access. But, each mention of the word “access” carries with it a qualifier that would undoubtedly serve to narrow, not broaden, access for parents. In discussions with literally hundreds of virtual public school families I can report that there are hundreds of individual reasons why a family selects this option. Yes, some choose it because it’s better for “individualized learning.” But, it’s not always simply “pace and content” or even for “underserved student populations.”

Our concern is that once you start putting conditions on access you are empowering administrators, not parents, to determine when it is appropriate for a student to be enrolled in an online learning program. Parents are ultimately accountable for the education of their children. If the state determines that virtual public school should

PO Box 40665, Portland OR 97240 866.961.3731 [email protected] Mr. Duncan Wyse June 17, 2010 Page 2 of 3 be made available to parents, then the parents should be the ones to determine whether it is the best learning environment for their children.

We recommend that the final board recommendation simply state that parents should have access to a virtual school if the school meets the standards of quality and accountability, not if the student meets a written definition that deems him or her eligible. You can simply not codify in statute or regulation the many complex reasons why a family would see this as the best option for their child.

Student Enrollment

Many of our parents who have children attending the Oregon Virtual Academy have had difficulty with school districts denying access. Indeed, during the May State Board of Education hearing several provided oral testimony about their children being denied enrollment in ORVA after they’d already been enrolled in the school for one or two years. This kind of annual uncertainty is counterproductive when it comes to the education of a child, who ought to be able to continue in a school where he or she is excelling. But, even an initial denial is harmful because it robs parents of a legitimate public school choice that has been approved by the state and is enjoyed by many other families who have the fortune of living in a school district with a more progressive attitude toward online learning. This presents a real issue of equitable treatment of children on a district-by-district basis.

We believe that the state should set up a broad framework for managing the treatment of virtual public schools, thoroughly analyze programs to ensure that quality education services are being offered, require that each district offer these options, and then let parents decide whether to enroll their child.

As a result, we recommend that the Board adopt the option of “open enrollment – no veto, no cap” in this section. No appeals process would be required if this option were selected.

Quality Criteria

The outline of the quality standards in the staff straw proposal seems to capture the issues we believe are necessary to ensure effective instruction. We note the mention of “class sizes” and believe that the size of a class should correspond to the teachers’ ability to provide adequate education instruction. We’ve heard many policy makers make an analogy to class size in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting, but we caution against making such comparisons.

As parents who live virtual learning everyday, we understand how different the education experience is, and setting a rigid ratio based on a different model is unwise. If virtual schools can function with higher student / teacher ratios effectively, as we believe they can, we would rather see their funding go into Mr. Duncan Wyse June 17, 2010 Page 3 of 3 curriculum and other investments that improve student learning. The same is true for other quality requirements. The Board should strike a balance between ensuring effective instruction and not draining resources for extraneous standards that take away from student materials.

Finally, we would like to make an appeal on behalf of the many families who are currently enrolled in full-time virtual public schools already operating in Oregon. We strongly believe that the Board is playing a critical role in developing a framework to ensure access for the many Oregon families who may choose this educational option in the future.

Those of us who are currently enrolled in these schools, however, want to know that our schools will continue without disruption. We urge you to take any steps necessary in the formulation of your recommendations to allow these schools to continue operating in their current form. You’ll find that many of our comments have been made with an eye towards limiting uncertainty for our families. Any new policies that alter the delivery of education for our children already in a virtual public school would be an unwelcome development.

Thank you for your continued leadership on the issue of virtual public education. While it may seem as though the Board is spending an inordinate amount of time on an issue affecting relatively few Oregon children, please know that the decisions you and your colleagues make will have a profound impact on families across the state.

If I can provide any additional information on behalf of our parent coalition, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Cindy McGraw President