Virtual Charter Schools and Home Schooling By Carol Klein

Procedures

This inquiry used several methods for data collection. After permission was granted by the Head of Schools to conduct research with the California Virtual Academies, contact began with school personnel and parents of enrolled students. An online survey was posted for parents to take which obtained demographic information and responses to Likert style and open-ended questions about home schooling and virtual charter school experiences (see Appendix A). Visits were made to the school headquarters for interviews, collection of docu-ments, and observation of staff activities. Other than four scheduled visits, all data were collected over the Internet, via email, or through personal phone conversations. Interviews were conducted with several school employees, including administrators and teachers (see Appendix B for interview prompt). Several parents were also contacted for interviews (see Appendix C for interview prompt) and the filling out of an additional questionnaire regarding description of a typical learning day in their homes (see Appendix D). Phone interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed for data patterns and trends. Finally, student achievement test scores were obtained either from online websites or by email from the academic administrator in charge of learning assessment to compare performance against state averages.

Limitations

The sample used for this study was relatively small, even though the invitation to participate in the parent survey was made available to fami-lies across the state within the California Virtual Academies network. Most contacts for questionnaire completion, as well as personnel and parent interviews, were generated from administrative recommenda-tions. These potential limitations could affect the generalizability to the entire population. Additionally, the instruments used to gather data were constructed by the researcher, based on a review of other instruments used within this field of study and expert opinion.