UNDERSTANDING ONLINE K-12 STUDENTS THROUGH A DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY

1. UNDERSTANDING ONLINE K-12 STUDENTS THROUGH A DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY DR. MICHAEL CORRY DR. WILL DARDICK DR. ROBERT IANACONE JULIE STELLA

2. Overview of the Presentation • Background – About Us • Demographics of Online K-12 Learners • About The Project • Academic Literature • Data & Methodology • Findings • Discussion and questions

3. About Us • The George Washington University Center for the Advancement of Research in Distance Education (CARDE) was chartered in March 2012. • CARDE serves as a platform to conduct research on online learning, disseminate results, and use the findings to both improve best practices and influence policy making.

4. About This Project • The purpose of this study was to better understand the demographics of the students in online K-12 classrooms. • The outcomes can be used by practitioners and researchers in a useful, actionable form, which they can use to inform decisions.

5. The Academic Literature • According to the conceptual framework developed by Marsh, Pane and Hamilton (2006) for data-driven decision making, educational data can be classified into four categories: (a) input data, such as expenditures or student/population demographics; (b) process data, such as financial operations or instruction quality; (c) outcome data, such as student achievement test scores or graduation rates; and (d) satisfaction data, such as opinions at the student, parent, teacher, district, and community level.

6. The Academic Literature • Input data (such as demographic data) is unique because it may provide important insight for practitioners and researchers to plan, manage expectations, and shape the future. In other words, input data may allow school administrators and teachers to make proactive rather than reactive decisions.

7. About the Data & Methodology • The dataset for the study includes 119,155 online K-12 student records. • The data for each record comes directly from parents of online K-12 students who completed a questionnaire when registering their student for online classes. • Identifying variables have been removed for confidentiality purposes. The records have been examined and any incomplete records were removed. • The dataset represents online K-12 students enrolled full-time in public schools in 43 states.

8. About the Data & Methodology • Descriptive analysis was performed on the data. • The results of the data analysis were compared to U.S. National data* (when available) and grouped in relevant categories to provide information to practitioners, researchers and policy makers. *National data from the National Center for Educational Statistics - https://nces.ed.gov/

9. Distribution by Grade

10. Gender – Online Compared to Nationwide

11. Distribution of Race/Ethnicity

12. Race/Ethnicity - Online Compared to Nationwide

13. Free and Reduced Lunch – Online Compared to Nationwide

14. Gifted and Talented Students – Online Compared to Nationwide

15. English Language Learners– Online Compared to Nationwide

16. Special Education Students– Online Compared to Nationwide

17. Conclusion • The purpose of this study was to better understand the demographics of the students in online K-12 classrooms. • The results of the study form a base upon which researchers and practitioners can identify and dig deeper into selected areas/topics/issues and to inform decision and policy makers. • The study will be done annually to provide an opportunity to examine changes in demographics over time.

18. Questions? • Contact us: CARDE@gwu.edu • Our website: http://carde.gsehd.gwu.edu/ • Our blog: http://cardeblog.wordpress.com/ • Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/OnlineEdRsrch • Friend us on Facebook facebook.com/CARDE • Sign up for our contact list

19. Thank You