Unfolding the story of learning coaches in cyber charter schools
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Descriptive study on learning coaches, that is parents who act as educational facilitators for their children who attend cyber charter schools
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Unfolding the story of learning coaches in cyber charter schools
- 1. Unfolding the story of learning coaches in cyber charter schools Lisa Hasler Waters University of Hawaii
- 2. Table of Contents The Story Line The Setting: cyber charter schools The Back Story: parental involvement in children’s education The Characters: learning coaches The Plot: what do they do and how? The Problem: challenges they face The Resolution: support, evaluate, maximize The Finale: conclusions
- 3. The setting: cyber charters • What • Status • Effectiveness • Operations
- 4. The story line Cyber charters are publicly funded schools that: Blend traditional, virtual and home schooling; Abide by state and federal school regulations, standards & testing; Partner (often) with for-profit EMOs; Assign teachers to students; and, Engage parents to serve as educational facilitators, Yet: Little is know about these learning coaches
- 5. The back story: parental involvement in children’s education Studies have shown links between parental involvement and student achievement in traditional and virtual schools Might be due to school-home partnerships, socio-economic statutes, parenting styles, expectations HDS Model or Parental Involvement has 4 mechanisms of behavior: encourage, reinforce, model, instruct
- 6. The characters: learning coaches Who are they? Why do they enroll their children in these schools?
- 7. The plot: why, what and how Why the concern? What exactly do they do? How do they support their students?
- 8. Behaviors: Beyond the Model They created a learner centric environment, that was: Fueled by their awareness of the child and his needs, plus their own beliefs and the challenges they faced; Enabled by the 4 behaviors included HDS Model: encouraging, motivating, reinforcing and instructing; plus, Adapting and leveraging
- 9. Dimensionalized Examples Behavior Continuum of Examples Encouraging Give high-fives Use of Kindle as reward Reinforcing Use of online media Real life experiences Modeling Show how to research Practice work ethos and validate online Instructing Guide on the side Help student connect lesson to his own life Adapting Enable student to move Alter daily schedule to during lesson focus on one lesson/day Leveraging Engage family math Rely on teacher as “go-to” expert person
- 10. Beliefs • Ultimately responsible • Set expectations • Confident • Isolated
- 11. The problem: challenges they face Shortage of time Difficulty juggling multiple learners Lack of immediate access to teachers Challenges with discipline
- 12. The resolution • Support • Evaluate • Maximize
- 13. The finale: conclusions Harness Learn Evaluate
- 14. Thank You! For more information contact: Lisa Hasler Waters Hasler@hawaii.edu
Editor's Notes
- My goal is to help you form a better idea of who learning coaches are, why they are important, what they do and what more we can do to support their efforts to help their children be successful in cyber charter schools. Today’s agenda (read list) I will take questions throughout presentation.
- Nomenclature : Cybers are also referred to as online charters, virtual charters, hybrid schools, blended schools, etc. Status : Estimated 92k students in 170+ schools (yet, some suggest there are 200k students in 400+ schools nationwide) Effectiveness : Little empirical evidence exists concerning their effectiveness. EMOs show positive results. However, recent studies & state audits comparing cybers with traditional schools have found problems, including (a) failing grades in reading and math, (b) higher dropout rates among high school students; (c) lack of governmental oversight, and (d) improper use of funds Operations : 75% are operated by EMOs; flexible environments; technology-dependent; teachers and parents provide student support
- Research on parental involvement and HDS model
- Who? Learning coaches have demographics similar to home school parents: White, middle class, college educated Why? They enroll their children for a variety of reasons: Serve special needs of gifted or learning disabled student Enable student to move through curriculum at his own pace Provide quality education to a disabled child who may not be able to attend traditional school Access academic programs which might not be available in remote areas Provide continuous and consistent education for a child who may be a professional athlete or performer Pushed away from traditional school because of bullying, etc. Note: pedagogical and ideological reasons are no longer primary drivers for parental choice
- Generally, it is accepted that younger students need more help to learn online than adults because they haven’t developed certain problem-solving skills required in such an independent environment and may not be ready to assume responsibility for their own learning; It has also been suggested that the lack of teacher’s physical presence in virtual schooling may be problematic for young learners. However, some suggest that parents may be able to step in to fill this void; Yet, some are concerned that parents are non-qualified teachers doing a teacher’s job. Others are worried that they are doing more student work than they should. Some find lack oversight problematic. These issues, and others, have caused debate over the effectiveness of relying upon parents to serve as educational facilitators. Not much is known about parents of cyber charter students. We do know that they (a) help the student to organize school schedules and daily agendas, (b) perform administrative functions like logging student attendance, (c) guide student through the content as needed, and (d) communicate with school and teachers regarding student’s status This study concerned five learning coaches at a cyber charter to better understand: How do learning coaches support their children academically? What do they believe are their responsibilities as learning coaches?
- Ultimately responsible : for child’s academic progress and instructing the child Set expectations : tests were “markers,” but above and beyond tests, they set their own expectations for child and looked for how child could make real life connections to content Confident: their own college-education, work experiences and technology-comfort levels fueled their confidence to be learning coaches Isolation: they did not seek outside groups or courses to facilitate their roles as learning coaches primarily because they did not have time, they believed the curriculum was self-contained and they found training remedial
- Shortage of time prevented opportunities to engage in their own training, or extracurricular lessons, and might cause some to return to traditional schooling Lack of immediate access to teachers often led them to rely on the Internet for support since it was immediate Difficulty juggling multiple learners with differing needs Disciplining children as a “teacher/parent” was frustrating and support was sought
- So, what can we do to help learning coaches? Support them with immediate access to expert teachers, and make professional development training for them mandatory (where necessary) and convenient Evaluate the quality and application of the curriculum to qualify it as “self-contained” and implement evaluations scheme or peer review opportunities for learning coaches Maximize technology as a gateway towards ecologies of learning, where they and their children can engage in 21st century skills building
- This study gave voice to ed facilitators yet to be heard from! There is still much research to be done: Harness the way they provided a learner-centric environment to personalize learning for students Learn more about how they deliver academic support to their children Evaluate best practices to develop more effective training and support for learning coaches