Protecting the virtual charter school option means championing CA’s youth: An exclusive interview
California’s charter schools serve 600,000+ children/year, roughly 10% of our state’s K-12 students (and in SCC, over 11%). Yet since 2020, CA EC Section 47612.7 has prohibited petitioning to create new charter schools, which face even further restrictions from proposed federal rules. April Warren—Head of Schools at California Virtual Academies—describes the advantages of fully-online charter schools, and why local parents’ choice is an important consideration when developing policy. To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.
Opportunity Now: Post-COVID in particular, remote learning is at times criticized in comparison to traditional face-to-face instruction. But this model clearly isn’t going anywhere; online programs from K-12 to baccalaureate and beyond continue to thrive.
What advantages does a fully virtual school provide for Californian students?
April Warren: Overall, a fully virtual school gives students the opportunity to approach their learning in “out of the box” ways.
In brick-and-mortar schools, class starts and ends at a certain time and tends to be fifty-five minutes long. However, if students are advanced in a particular subject, they may not need fifty-five minutes to work on it, or they may need an hour and a half for a subject that’s more challenging for them. Traditional schools don’t allow for these kinds of efficient modifications, whereas at a virtual school, we have that option.
At California Virtual Academies (CVA), we do still have synchronous classes, in which teachers use a live, online platform. Also, lessons can be re-accessed at any time later—for instance, if the student realizes they didn’t quite understand something. And they can speed through the parts they know well already. This allows education to be accessed at any time, anywhere, as much or as little as each individual student needs. Fully online schools like ours get to individualize in ways that you’re not able to, for the most part, in brick-and-mortar schools.
Furthermore, the fully virtual model provides a safe schooling option for students. Students might select an online school because they are medically fragile or immunocompromised, live in a neighborhood that isn’t the safest, or have been victims of bullying or classroom violence.
There are students who need to work an “after-school job,” and virtual schooling gives them more flexibility to prioritize both work and school. And there are students who are young parents, who may feel that in the traditional school setting, the choice is to prioritize either school or taking care of their child. Fully virtual charter schools help show these students that there is flexibility, that they can value their education while being an effective parent.
ON: Are there advantages that a fully virtual school offers Californian parents, or is it just a hassle for them?
AW: In online academies, parents have greater visibility into what their students are learning. All learning occurs in the home. Parents don’t have to go to a board meeting or parent teacher conference to know what their students are being taught. Their computer and all their books are at home; everything they’re learning is right there, and parents can see all of it. Also, to make it work, parents need a partnership relationship built with the teacher. In a brick-and-mortar school, they may only get fifteen minutes before or after school or parent-teacher conferences to connect with their child’s teacher. But virtual schools such as ours require teachers to meet with parents regularly, and there’s much more 1-1 support for families.
Parents also get insight into how their children are learning, as well as what. Online, they can view every past and upcoming assignment (not to mention test scores and benchmarks) along with the teacher’s feedback; this helps them better assess their students. Traditional public school parents don’t always know this information until it’s too late.
Parents can make their children’s learning go deeper, too. For instance, when a 4th grade student is learning how the state works, their family can choose to visit the capital and some of the sites they’re learning about. Similarly, students interested in arts can devote more attention to that.
Overall, virtual schools are a needed and viable option for students across California and the United States.
ON: How does CVA’s charter school status benefit families? In other words, why not just attend a conventional school or enroll in private education?
AW: CVA is free public education; there’s no charge to come. It’s not only available to families that can afford the private school option.
Also, many private schools are unable to fully accommodate all students. At a public charter school, this is our mandate. Accordingly, we intentionally and consistently make our education accessible to all students: English Language Learners, special needs students, etc.
ON: How does CVA’s charter school status benefit teachers?
AW: They remain part of the state teachers’ retirement system. Also, some teachers have a deep calling to public education, which they can fulfill at CVA in a more flexible way.
ON: Bureaucratic support for charter schools is a tricky issue, as politicians often don’t do more than sign additional checks. How might the California state government make it easier to start and grow charter schools besides throwing money at them?
AW: Right now, it’s most important to lift the ongoing moratorium in California that’s restricting the building of any new charter schools.
There also needs to be a greater understanding that the charter school is a viable option that families are actively seeking. There is a need for it.
Along with this, I’d like for public schools themselves to acknowledge that we’re all in this together because there can be this sense of competition. No single schooling option is going to work for every child and meet the needs of every family. What works for some may not work for others.
I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years now. We’re so much better in certain respects, but we’re unfortunately working through many of the same conversations from when I began. Again, trying to understand that we’re all in the same space and are not each other’s competition. We’re all public schools, whether officially designated charter or traditional brick-and-mortar.
We should be cheerleaders for parents to make the best and most informed choices.
ON: Finally, it’s no secret that California legislation is highly anti-school choice, despite over half of our residents being open to initiatives like education savings accounts (ESAs). Parents are too-often gridlocked into choosing between their local face-to-face public school and costly, inaccessible alternatives like private or cooperative “pod” schooling.
Accordingly, how might our state government make it easier for parents to choose the best school option for their child?
AW: The government needs to be transparent about all the available options. It can be hard for families to find a path that best fits their students; and when they ask the local district for help, they’ll only hear about options within that district. If a charter school is out of that district, parents may not realize that’s an option they can take; and because education has changed so much over the years, parents may not know that there’s schooling options outside of local or private settings.
That’s why I believe the state should create a standardized list where parents can read about all available public schooling options for them (traditional, hybrid, and virtual options). This resource would be honest about the pros and cons of different models and help direct to specific selections based on what parents are wanting. In sum, it would give parents access to the information they need instead of putting that responsibility on local districts, which may not be equipped to answer those types of questions.
GreatSchools’ directory offers an example of what this could look like, but it wasn’t written by the state.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
Image by Katerina Holmes