Virtual waste: Despite pandemic, schools not taking advantage of state’s robust online course network

With little fanfare in January, Illinois debuted an upgraded collection of online courses featuring hundreds of classes from agriscience to anthropology offered by multiple providers. They were available to any school in the state.

Within months, the global coronavirus pandemic shut down school campuses and pushed every student in the state into remote learning.

The state’s fortuitously timed redesign was poised to fill a desperate new need — education delivered via the internet. But oddly enough, the courses under the state umbrella have remained unused in some areas, even as school districts rushed toward remote learning.

While states like Virginia expanded their virtual programs and made them free to schools, Illinois can’t even say how many students have taken advantage of its online courses this spring. The state didn’t even mention its new catalog in its remote learning guidance.

With the redesign, Illinois kept the non-profit Illinois Virtual School that is run out of Peoria and added five private providers into the mix. But one of those new online course providers, the experienced Arizona State University, attracted no — zero — Illinois students. And some district leaders say they know little to nothing about the newly expanded catalog of courses.

Meanwhile, the state’s decision to expand the number of providers — ostensibly so more students could choose from a larger menu of courses — left less money for its existing familiar program, which was seeing a sudden increase in demand.

The Illinois Virtual School lost a state grant that had accounted for nearly half of its operating budget. It slashed its budget more than 18%, to $1.8 million, and cut teacher salaries by 30% to keep courses available. As demand surges, some of its courses have hit capacity, but the school has scant resources to hire more teachers.

Now, federal coronavirus relief funds intended precisely to shore up remote learning could boost the state’s efforts. But it’s not certain what Illinois’ plan is to seize that opportunity.

It’s also not clear why the state’s expanded menu of courses hasn’t been a savior to desperate districts, but observers say an inflexible enrollment date, a specific mission to only supplement learning and a lack of broad awareness about the five new providers may have hampered enrollment.

John Watson, head of the national Digital Learning Collaborative, said not taking advantage of what the states may already have in place “seems like a wasted opportunity.”

In Illinois, an early wave

When Pamela Shaw’s son was struggling under the social and academic demands of the transition to high school, she turned to the Illinois Virtual School. Shaw, a music instructor at the non-profit course provider, enrolled her son in English and algebra that he could take from home.

Within a year, he was back at his school, and with the support of the online courses, he was able to graduate on time.

“If we hadn’t had that as an option, it would have been rough,” Shaw said.

Illinois, among an early wave of states turning to the internet to augment education, has since 2001 subsidized remote learning for families like the Shaws.

Students who signed up for the Illinois Virtual School, the sole statewide provider of courses, included those seeking to make up classes they failed to pass but needed for graduation, students who want to take online courses to free up their schedule for other classes, part-time students and those with disabilities that keep them from classrooms.

The school, on average, has served about 7,000 students a year from 600 partner schools. A handful of additional providers now also offer classes.

The cost per student generally runs from $90 to $350 per course per semester, which is paid upfront by families or districts, who then apply for a reimbursement from the state board. The state’s catalog now offers 840 accredited courses for students from middle through high school.

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Enter the pandemic

But in March, when districts most needed to arrange courses — shortly after school buildings were shut down, a survey of Illinois school leaders showed two-thirds felt unprepared for remote learning — the programs lacked flexibility to help out because enrollment in the state’s privately offered courses was closed. It only opened later, for summer classes.

And it’s not clear how many districts or schools are aware of the new programs or are enrolling students, in part because state officials say they don’t get reports until requests for reimbursement come in.

Teresa Lance, assistant superintendent for Equity and Innovation in Illinois Unit District 46, which includes schools in several northwestern suburbs, said she had never heard of the course catalog.

The Illinois Virtual School, which did accept mid-semester enrollees, has hired 11 more teachers to meet an increase in demand and more than doubled its per-course enrollment for the summer session from its usual 175 students to 450 students.

But having lost much of their state funding, the virtual program’s officials said they’re struggling to meet the surge in demand.

Cynthia Hamblin, one-time head of the Illinois Virtual School, believes the budget cuts have weakened the program.

“They have years of online experience in delivering programs, in teachers teaching online, and I hope the state would be tapping into that expertise,” said Hamblin, who now heads the Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. A longer version can be found here. Sign up for Chalkbeat newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters