trends

**Educational Trends and Research**

 * __About online school enrollments in the United States__**
 * Enrollments in high school virtual learning courses increased 60% from 2002-03 to 2004-05, for a total of 506,950. In 2006, enrollments increased another 38% and reached 700,000 students. There were 1 million students enrolled in online courses across the United States in 2007-2008. ([|www.nacol.org]).
 * In 2007-2008, the Florida Virtual School had 100,000 high school students enrolled in online courses ([|www.flvs.net]).
 * Researchers found no significant difference in student achievement between students engaged in online learning versus traditional teaching or students engaged in video-conferencing versus traditional teaching. ( Learning Point Associates. 2004. “The Effects of Distance Education on K-12 Student Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis.”).
 * By 2019, 50% of courses taken by high school students will be online. (Christensen, Horn and Johnson. 2008. //Disrupting Class//.)
 * In California, during 2006-2007, there were 5112 students who attended full time online charter schools (http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/).
 * __State requirements for online high school courses__**
 * Alabama, Michigan and Florida have passed a state law requiring students to attend at least one online course for high school graduation. ([|www.nacol.org]).


 * __Online learning in colleges__**
 * 22 percent of American college students took at least one web-based class in the fall 2007 semester, or 3.94 million students. That marked an increase of 12.9 percent from the fall 2006 semester. (Sloan Foundation, 2008. Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States).
 * The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system’s goal is to have 25% of all credits earned through online courses by 2015.


 * __About Charter Schools in the United States, California and Clovis__**
 * As of April, 2008, across the United States, there were 1.2 million charter school students in 4128 charter schools. The number of charter schools and students attending charter schools increases every year. ([|http://www.edreform.com])
 * In California, since the Charter Schools Act was passed in 1992, the number of charter schools has grown steadily. There were 617 charter schools operating in California during the 2006-07 academic year with a combined enrollment of 225,095 students, or 3.6 percent of all K-12 students in California.
 * In California, the number of students enrolled in online charter schools has increased by more than 60% each year since 2004-2005 (5112 students in 2006-2007). (http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/).


 * __About drop outs in the United States, California, Fresno County and Clovis.__**
 * //During the 2006-2007 school year//** :
 * In the United States, there were 1.2 million students who dropped out of high school or 7,000 students every day (Balfanz and Legters, 2004. http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report70.pdf.)
 * In California, there were 170,000 students who dropped out of high school (Rumberger, 2008. Solving California’s dropout crisis. [|www.lmri.ucsb.edu].)
 * 62% of students who drop out have a “C” grade point average or better. (Gates Foundation, 2006. The Silent Epidemic. [|www.silentepidemic.org])
 * In Fresno County, there were __5121__ student drop outs (as compared to 2,032 in 2005-2006). One in three students in Fresno County drop out of high school - the highest percentage of any other large county in the state (http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/).
 * “Drop out students need a support system I call the “Magnificent Seven” composed of )


 * __About home schooled students__**:
 * In 2003, there were an estimated 1.1 million students being home schooled across the U.S. (home schooling is increasing by 2.2% each year according the latest NCES report released in 2004).
 * In California, numbers of home-schoolers are not reported. However, estimates suggest that in 2008, there were 200,000 home schooled students. (In 1990, it was estimated there were 6,000 children and in 1995, there were 13,849). The number of estimated home-schoolers increases each year.
 * __About Generation Y - also known as the //Net Generation// or the //Millenials//__**
 * 80 million in this generation, currently ages 11 – 31, born 1977-1997. (Tapscott, Don. 2009. //Grown Up Digital//. [|www.grownupdigital.com])
 * Defining moments: Challenger Explosion, Columbine school shootings, fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
 * From their perspective, there has always been the Internet, iPods, color TV, and 100 cable TV stations. (Jason Dorsey, Presentation in Clovis Unified, August 2008, [|www.jasondorsey.com]).
 * Characteristics: instant gratification, outcome driven, values relationships and lifestyle over career, no sense of history (because they can Google what they need when they want it). (Dorsey, 2008)
 * The __eight net generation norms__ are: freedom, customize and personalize, scrutinize, integrity and openness, entertainment and play, collaborate, need for speed, innovate. (Tapscott, 2009)
 * __Strategies to teach the net generation__ include: empowering students to collaborate; focusing on lifelong learning; using technology to get to know each student; designing educational programs that allow choice, customization, transparency, integrity, collaboration, fun, speed and innovation in their learning experience; cutting back on lecturing; changing the pedagogy of teaching. (Tapscott, 2009.)
 * Some 93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction -- a place where they can share creations, tell stories, and interact with others. (Lenhart et al, 2007. Pew Internet Research Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp).