School Choice & Charters

Tracking Attendance in Online Schools

By Benjamin Herold — November 03, 2016 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Just 1 in 4 students uses GOAL Academy’s learning software each day.

Yet the state of Colorado officially reports an 89 percent attendance rate at the school.

Why the disconnect?

Reason No. 1 is GOAL’s attendance policy: If a student completes two or more “school-related activities” in a week (including logging in to learning software, showing up at a drop-in center, or sending a text message to a coach), he or she is considered to be in attendance for that entire week.

In other words, a student can send two text messages, and GOAL will mark him or her present for five days.

Reason No. 2: GOAL’s authorizer and the state department of education accept that information at face value, no questions asked.

It’s reflective of an “antiquated” system, said Touro University professor Michael Barbour.

There is some momentum behind a new approach. Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah have shifted to counting how many courses online students complete, rather than how often they log in.

But for now, tracking online students’ attendance and engagement remains a challenge, causing problems for schools, states, and cyber operators alike.

To better understand the landscape, Education Week spoke at length with representatives from Connections Education, which supports more than two dozen full-time virtual schools across the country.

Read more here.

A version of this article appeared in the November 02, 2016 edition of Education Week

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Choice & Charters Tracker Which States Have Private School Choice?
Education savings accounts, voucher, and tax-credit scholarships are growing. This tracker keeps tabs on them so you don't have to.
School Choice & Charters Opinion What's the State of Charter Schools Today?
Even though there's momentum behind the charter school movement, charters face many of the same challenges as traditional public schools.
10 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
School Choice & Charters As Private School Choice Grows, Critics Push for More Guardrails
Calls are growing for more scrutiny over where state funds for private school choice go and how students are faring in the classroom.
7 min read
Illustration of completed tasks, accomplishment, finished checklist, achievement or project progression concept. Person holding pencil tick all completed task checkbox.
Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty
School Choice & Charters How a District Hopes to Save an ESSER-Funded Program
As a one-time infusion of federal funding expires, districts are searching for creative ways to keep programs they funded with it running.
6 min read
Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago, Sept. 24, 2020.
Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago, Sept. 24, 2020. In Montana, a district hopes to save a virtual instruction program by converting it into a charter school.
Nam Y. Huh/AP