1. The Promise and the Reality:
Exploring Virtual Schooling in
Rural Jurisdictions
Michael K. Barbour
Assistant Professor
Wayne State University

2. How are they doing?
Examining student
achievement in virtual
schooling
Michael K. Barbour and Dennis
Mulcahy

3. Newfoundland and Labrador
• the island is 110,000 square kilometers, while
Labrador covers 270,000 square kilometers
• population was 505,469 in 2006 Census
– 551,795 in 1996 / 568,350 in 1986
• 279 schools in 2009-10
– 343 in 2000-01 / 472 in 1995-96
• 69,665 students in 2009-10
– 76,763 in 2005-06
– 110,456 in 1995-96 / 142,332 in 1985-86
• 63.8% of the schools are rural
– only 39.2 of the students
• average school size is 200 pupils
– 50% > 200 and 25% > 100

4. Barbour & Mulcahy – Ed in Rural Australia (2008)

5. Barbour & Mulcahy – ERS Spectrum (2009)

6. Is this consistent with other student
performance research?

7. Student Performance
• performance of virtual
and classroom students
in Alberta were similar
in English and Social
Studies courses, but
that classroom students
performed better
overall in all other
subject areas (Ballas &
Belyk, 2000)

8. Student Performance
• over half of the students who
completed FLVS courses
scored an A in their course and
only 7% received a failing
grade (Bigbie & McCarroll,
2000)
• students in the six virtual
schools in three different
provinces performed no worse
than the students from the
three conventional schools
(Barker & Wendel, 2001)

9. Student Performance
• FLVS students performed
better on a non-mandatory
assessment tool than students
from the traditional classroom
(Cavanaugh et al., 2005)
• FLVS students performed
better on an assessment of
algebraic understanding than
their classroom counterparts
(McLeod et al., 2005)

10. Meta-Analysis
• Cavanaugh (2001)
– +0.147 in favor of K-12 distance education
• Cavanaugh et al. (2004)
– -0.028 for K-12 distance education
• Means et al. (2009)
– +0.14 favoring online over face-to-face

11. Let’s look a little closer...

12. Students and Student Performance
Ballas & performance of virtual and participation rate in the
Belyk, 2000 classroom students similar assessment among virtual
in English & Social Studies students ranged from 65% to
courses, but classroom 75% compared to 90% to
students performed better 96% for the classroom-based
in all other subject areas students
Bigbie & over half of the students between 25% and 50% of
McCarroll, who completed FLVS students had dropped out
2000 courses scored an A in of their FLVS courses over
their course and only 7% the previous two-year
received a failing grade period

13. Students and Student Performance
Cavanaugh et FLVS students performed speculated that the virtual
al., 2005 better on a non- school students who did
mandatory assessment take the assessment may
tool than students from have been more
the traditional classroom academically motivated and
naturally higher achieving
students
McLeod et FLVS students performed results of the student
al., 2005 better on an assessment performance were due to
of algebraic understanding the high dropout rate in
than their classroom virtual school courses
counterparts

14. Student Performance and Students
So are we really comparing
apples to apples?

15. The Students
• the vast majority of VHS Global
Consortium students
in their courses were
planning to attend a
four-year college (Kozma, Zucker &
Espinoza, 1998)
• “VHS courses are predominantly
designated as ‘honors,’ and
students enrolled are mostly
college bound” (Espinoza et al.,
1999)

16. The Students
The preferred characteristics
include the highly motivated,
self-directed, self-disciplined,
independent learner who
could read and write well,
and who also had a strong
interest in or ability with
technology (Haughey &
Muirhead, 1999)

17. The Students
• “only students with a high
need to control and structure
their own learning may
choose distance formats
freely” (Roblyer & Elbaum,
2000)
• IVHS students were “highly
motivated, high achieving,
self-directed and/or who liked
to work independently” (Clark
et al., 2002)

18. The Students
• the typical online student
was an A or B student
(Mills, 2003)
• 45% of the students who
participated in e-learning
opportunities in Michigan
were “either advanced
placement or
academically advanced”
students (Watkins, 2005)

19. Does this represent all online students?

20. US Student Reality
• two courses with the highest enrollment of online
students in the US are Algebra I & Algebra II
(Patrick, 2007)
• the largest growth in K–12 online learning
enrollment is with full-time cyber schools (Watson
et al., 2008)
• many cyber schools have a higher percentage of
students classified as “at-risk” (Klein, 2006)
• at-risk students are as those who might otherwise
drop out of traditional schools (Rapp, Eckes &
Plurker, 2006)

21. Research
literature
indicates K-12
online learning
students are...

22. … but is this the
reality of most US
K-12 online
learning
students?

23. Canadian
distance
education
students are
primarily in
rural school

24. How are they doing?
Examining student
achievement in virtual
schooling
Michael K. Barbour and Dennis
Mulcahy

25. Academic tracks in
Newfoundland & Labrador
• English language arts
• mathematics
• academic stream - graduation,
college, university, etc.
• basic stream - graduation,
trade school
• virtual school program only
offers academic streamed
courses

26. Enrollment - English Language Arts

27. Enrollment - Mathematics

28. Mulcahy, Dibbon and Norberg (2008)
• study of rural schooling in three schools on the
south coast of the Labrador
• found two had a higher percentage of students
enrolled in basic-level courses
• speculated because the only way students could
do academic course at their school was online,
some students specifically chose the basic
stream to avoid taking an online course
Students who enroll in the basic stream are not
eligible for post-secondary admittance!

29. United States - 2% of all
students
Canada - 2.8% to 3.4% of
all students

30. United States
• 40,000 - 50,000 in 2001
• >1,000,000 in 2009
Canada
• 10,000 - 15,000 in 1999
• 150,000 - 175,00 in 2010

31. But what do we really know about
teaching and learning online??

32. Literature Reviews
1. Rice (2006)
– Journal of Research on Technology in
Education
1. Barbour & Reeves (2009)
– Computers and Education
1. Cavanaugh, Barbour, & Clark (2009)
– International Review of Research in Open

33. What do we know from the literature?
• “based upon the personal experiences of
those involved in the practice of virtual
schooling” (Cavanaugh et al., 2009)
• described the literature as generally falling
into one of two general categories: the
potential benefits of and challenges facing K-
12 online learning (Barbour & Reeves, 2009)

34. What about research?
• “a paucity of research exists when
examining high school students enrolled
in virtual schools, and the research base
is smaller still when the population of
students is further narrowed to the
elementary grades”
(Rice, 2006)

35. There must be a better way!!!