Online Charter School Study 2015 Online Charter School Study 2015 James L. Woodworth, Ph.D. – Lead Analyst Margaret E. Raymond, Ph.D. – Project Director Kurt Chirbas – Graphics and Figures Maribel Gonzalez – Data Collection Yohannes Negassi, M.A. – Research Analyst Will Snow, M.A. – Database Manager Christine Van Donge, Ph.D. – Research Analyst © 2015 CREDO Center for Research on Education Outcomes Stanford University Stanford, CA http://credo.stanford.edu CREDO, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, was established to improve empirical evidence about education reform and student performance at the primary and secondary levels. CREDO at Stanford University supports education organizations and policymakers in using reliable research and program evaluation to assess the performance of education initiatives. CREDO’s valuable insight helps educators and policymakers strengthen their focus on the results from innovative programs, curricula, policies and accountability practices. Acknowledgements CREDO gratefully acknowledges the support of the State Education Agencies and School Districts who contributed their data to this partnership. Our data access partnerships form the foundation of CREDO's work, without which studies like this would be impossible. We strive daily to justify the confidence you have placed in us. CREDO also acknowledges the support of the Walton Family Foundation for this research. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the organizations noted above. No official endorsement of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. The analysis and conclusions contained herein are exclusively those of the authors, are not endorsed by any of CREDO’s supporting organizations, their governing boards, or the state governments, state education departments or school districts that participated in this study. The conclusions of this research do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official position of the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, or the State of Texas. credo.stanford.edu i Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of Study ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Need for the Study ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Questions to Be Addressed ........................................................................................................................ 2 2. Methods and Data ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Identifying Online Charter Schools ........................................................................................................... 4 Consolidating Student Data from Multiple States .................................................................................... 5 Multiple Datasets ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Matched Data ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Selection of Comparison Observations..................................................................................................... 6 Brick-District VCR Matched Sample ...................................................................................................... 8 Mobility Study Data Set ....................................................................................................................... 10 Basic Analytic Model ................................................................................................................................ 11 Mixed Methods Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 14 Presentation of Results ............................................................................................................................ 15 3. Student Mobility ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Characteristics of Online Charter Mobility .............................................................................................. 16 Mobility and Student Characteristics ...................................................................................................... 20 Mobility by Race-Ethnicity ................................................................................................................... 20 Mobility by Student Sub-populations ................................................................................................. 21 4. Impact Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 23 Online Charter Students Compared to Brick-District Students ............................................................. 23 Results by State........................................................................................................................................ 25 Sub-populations ...................................................................................................................................... 27 Race-ethnicity ...................................................................................................................................... 27 Students in Poverty.............................................................................................................................. 28 English language learners ................................................................................................................... 29 Special education students ................................................................................................................. 30 Interpretation of Subpopulation Effects ............................................................................................. 31 Online Charter Schools Compared to Brick-District Schools ................................................................. 35 Network Affiliation ................................................................................................................................... 37 Online Charter Students Compared to Brick-Charter Students ............................................................. 39 Mixed-Methods Analyses ......................................................................................................................... 40 Student Testing Data and School Survey Data ....................................................................................... 40 Self-Paced Delivery .............................................................................................................................. 41 credo.stanford.edu ii Synchronous vs. Asynchronous ........................................................................................................... 42 Class Size .............................................................................................................................................. 43 School and Family Interactions ........................................................................................................... 43 Methods of Class Communication ....................................................................................................... 47 School-Level Data and School Survey Data ............................................................................................ 49 School-Wide Policies............................................................................................................................ 49 Student Support Activities .................................................................................................................. 52 School and Family Interactions ........................................................................................................... 55 Professional Development and Compensation .................................................................................. 55 Non-Significant Findings ..................................................................................................................... 59 Student Testing Data and Policy Changes .............................................................................................. 59 Summary and Implications ......................................................................................................................... 61 Implications ............................................................................................................................................. 63 Appendix A: DESCRIPTIVE PROFILE OF ONLINE CHARTER STUDENTS ...................................................... 64 Appendix B: TECHNICAL APPENDIX ............................................................................................................ 68 Empirical Bayesian Shrinkage ................................................................................................................