Article Notice – Online Course-Taking and Expansion of Curricular Options in High Schools

An article that scrolled across my electronic desk over the past few days.

Online Course-Taking and Expansion of Curricular Options in High Schools

• January 2023
• Peabody Journal of Education 98(3):1-23

• DOI: 10.1080/0161956X.2023.2160108

• License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

• Cassandra M. D. Hart
• Robert Linden
• Brian Jacob
• Susanna Loeb

Abstract – A common rationale for offering online courses in K-12 schools is that they allow students to take courses not offered at their schools; however, there has been little research on how online courses are used to expand curricular options when operating at scale. We assess the extent to which students and schools use online courses for this purpose by analyzing statewide, student-course level data from high school students in Florida, which has the largest virtual sector in the nation. We introduce a “novel course” framework to address this question. We define a virtual course as “novel” if it is only available to a student virtually, not face-to-face through their own home high school. We find that 7% of high school students in 2013–14 enrolled in novel online courses. Novel courses were more commonly used by higher-achieving students, in rural schools, and in schools with relatively few Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate offerings.