Online Schools in Arizona: An Overview

1. Online Schools in Arizona: An Overview Chris Kotterman Deputy Director, Policy Development & Government Relations, ADE

2. Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) • Formerly known as TAPBI (technology assisted project-based instruction), was created by the Legislature in 1998. • Both district and charter schools may offer AOI. • District schools must be approved by the state board of education, while charters must be approved by the state board for charter schools. • The primary relevant statute for this discussion is ARS 15-808.

3. AOI Requirements • The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools (ASBCS) has developed a rubric to evaluate compliance with the requirements of ARS 15-808 to operate a charter school. By law, the board must evaluate: • Depth and breadth of curriculum choices. • Variety of educational methodolgies. • Safeguards to protect pupils from adult internet content. • Availability of filtered internet access for research. • Availability of confidential email to protect student info. • Availability of experienced faculty.

4. AOI Requirements • Extent to which the school will develop community partnerships. • Services that will be offered to developmentally disabled pupils. • Grade levels that will be served. • Complete rubric: http://asbcs.az.gov/userfiles/file/final-revised-scoring-rubric.pdf

5. AOI Accountability • AOI schools are responsible to the same academic standards as brick and mortar charters, and all students must be administered and pass AIMS. • AOI charters are assigned A-F letter grades and are treated the same as traditional charters under the school accountability system. • All new AOI schools are approved on a probationary basis until they can demonstrate academic integrity to ASBCS. • Schools that fail to exit probationary status within three years may no longer participate in AOI.

6. AOI Accountability • Testing • AOI sites are responsible for testing 95% of their students on AIMS. • AIMS must be administered in person and proctored by employees of the AOI.

7. When do we talk about the money??

8. AOI Funding • AOI charter sites are funded with both base level and additional assistance funding. • For FY2012, this amount is $4,889.69 for grades 1-8 ($3,267.72 Base Level + $1621.97 Additional Assistance) and $5158.10 for grades 9-12($3267.72 BL+ $1890.38 AA). • HOWEVER, AOI schools are funded at 95% for a full time student and 85% for a part-time student by law.

9. AOI Funding

10. AOI Funding • For now, online schools can generate ADM 24/7/365, while other schools are limited to generating funding within their approved 180-200 day calendar. • Therefore, AOI schools are the only institutions that receive funding for summer school students.

11. AOI Challenges

12. Concurrency • Statute limits a student to 1.0 ADM across districts, charters, and AOIs regardless of how much time the student is in school. • The 1.0 must be apportioned between all entities by ADE school finance. • Since AOIs can generate fundable ADM all year, this apportionment is not final until June 30.

13. Concurrency • For example: • Student attends District “A” as a full time student for an entire year. (ADM = 1.0) • Student takes 1 class at AOI “B” during the summer. (4 classes = 0.25 ADM) • Total ADM generated = 1.25 • ADE applies limiting as of June 30: • District “A” = 0.75 ADM • AOI “B” = 0.25 ADM • Who loses?

14. Academic Quality • In the past couple of years, the issue of ensuring quality among AOI providers has presented a challenge for the department, the state board, and the state board for charter schools. • In December 2011, The Arizona Republic ran a 6-day series about questions surrounding online schools. (http://www.azcentral.com/news/education/online-school/) • This led to a slew of proposals to change the nature of how online education is funded.

15. Where are We Going?

16. Where are we going? • This session, Legislators have proposed several fixes to the concurrency problem: • Prohibit AOIs from generating funding during the summer • Change the fiscal year for AOIs to run from May 1-April 30. • Prohibit the department from making concurrency adjustments from April 30 to July 1. • Sen. Rich Crandall has a bill (SB1259) that would fundamentally alter the payment mechanism for online classes from seat time to a milestone/competency-based approach.

17. Where are we Going? • The Crandall Approach: • Limit online courses to core subjects and courses for college credit. • Distribute funding to a pupil’s resident district and have the district distribute the funding as follows: • 35% on the 30th day of enrollment. • 50% on completion of the course with a C- or better. • 15% when the student demonstrates competency on an exam approved by the department. • A major potential flaw in this approach is that it leaves the current system intact, in effect creating two.

18. Where are we Going? • Online instruction, despite being launched 14 years ago in Arizona, has only really begun to take shape, because it was in pilot status until 2009. • There is a fine line between encouraging innovation and providing students with poor options. • The department of education continues to struggle with poor student data systems, and is years behind where it needs to be to competently enable 21st-Century learning.

19. Where are we Going? • Resolving the concurrency issue will go a long way toward smoothing out this process. • The issue of quality will take some time to work through. • The department has begun efforts to modernize its data system to handle the demands of 21st Century education policy. • $32.5M over 2 years

20. So What? • If you want to get into online education, know that: • The finance model is likely to shift in the near future. • The quality of your programs will be under scrutiny. • You will be squabbling with traditional schools over funding for as long as the 1.0 ADM limit is in place.

22. Questions Chris Kotterman Christopher.Kotterman@azed.gov 602-542-3853