Virtually Forgotten: Special Education Students in Cyber Schools

Can virtual schools thrive in the real world?

“…While prior literature argued, in general, no marked difference was found in student demographics between virtual schools and traditional schools (Carnahan & Fulton, 2013;Hubbard & Mitchell, 2011;Ryman & Kossan, 2011), the research on Ohio's virtual schools depicted a different picture. Ohio's virtual schools, according to Wang and Decker (forthcoming), are seen as an alternative to traditional schooling, signifying that they attract marginalized students and this may partially explain why they experience poorer student performance.…”

“…In other words, the lower student performance may be due to the online delivery format and may not necessarily be tied to the type of students who attend. Carnahan and Fulton (2013) found that special education students at Pennsylvania's virtual schools scored 6% lower on proficiency measures than the state average. Specifically, in 2008, special education students' proficiency rate was 39.9% at the state level and 33.9% within virtual schools.…”

Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits of online instruction for students with special educational needs

“…According to Miron and Urshchel (), ‘full‐time virtual schools have gone from barely a blip on the radar screen a decade ago to enrolling approximately 275,000 students in 2011–2012’. It would seem that parents and policymakers are finding the value of this alternative to traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ education, and policymakers are dedicating time to evaluating the overall quality of online education (Miron & Urschel, ; Carnahan & Fulton, ) as it increasingly becomes a school of choice.…”

“…Student‐centred approaches, collaborative learning, independent inquiry and research and student discussions are all teaching practices associated with many online programmes (Cavanaugh, ). The integration of multimedia, simulations and interactive software to gain a broader perspective of a given curriculum can also enhance instruction via online education (Paige, ; Carnahan & Fulton, ). Additionally, teachers can utilise multiple tools not only to enhance course curriculum, but also to support teacher–student communication (DiPietro et al, ).…”

Virtual schools: The changing landscape of K-12 education in the U.S.

“…These authors claim that virtual school programs, which are aligned with the 5Cs, have closed achievement gaps and increased completion rates among students with disabilities. Carnahan and Fulton (2013) called attention to the fact that the population of special education students in cyber schools mirrors the population of special education students in brick-and-mortar classrooms, thus it is important to understand the characteristics associated with educating these learners in a virtual setting.…”