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CAVA, as such, has taken full advantage of this window to create for itself a structure that offers academic excellence to its students in spite of forsaking the predominant “brick and mortar” standard. As the study detailed in this book presents a comprehensive exposition of the evolution and organization of the virtual charter and related phenomena (e.g. home schooling and charter school movements), the purpose of this update is to provide details of relevant occurrences since the study was completed. A brief look at current literature, recent data, and post-study accomplishments and projections of CAVA will be provided.
Home Schooling
Home schooling, the oldest of the three reform movements presently addressed, still continues to thrive and influence the educational choice. It has become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional schooling and is now recognized as more mainstream, given the diversity and numbers of the movement (Collom, 2005). No new estimates on population size have surfaced with the largest estimates still between 1.9 and 2.4 million students, as cited in Chapter 2 (Ray, 2006). Research continues to be limited, but parental motivation for this choice remains a common topic or at least the beginning point for further inquiries into this phenomenon. The research of Montes (2006) found top motivators for home schooling to be religious convictions (41.31%), better education provided at home (47.12%), and poor learning environment at school (23.47%).
Collom (2005) used data that identified: “critical of public schools,” “attracted to Home Charter” (a charter operated by a group of home schoolers in Southern California and representative of academic and pedagogical concerns), “ideological reasons” (religious motivations), and “family needs” to test for determinants of student achievement on standardized test scores.