Education reformers talk a lot about providing disadvantaged kids access to great schools, and for good reason. Countless institutional barriers exist to thwart students from choosing the best nearby schools, and solutions like open enrollment and private school scholarships are justly lauded as escape routes for families caged by circumstances of class.
But there are also much more literal obstructions to educational choice, and they aren’t arrayed solely against low-income learners trapped in huge, failing urban districts. To choose just one example, children enrolled in rural and remote schools—separated by hundreds of miles from the auxiliary services available in many cities, and usually passed over by the most sought-after teaching talent—are simply subjected to geographic dislocation instead of (or often in addition to) economic deprivation.
This new report by the Foundation for Excellence in Education (which has already released one worthy analysis of the issue) looks at the successful implementation of state-level course access policies by ten districts and charter management organizations across the country. The programs bring outstanding options to students who would otherwise have trouble finding them—typically through online tools that offer academic relief to district budgets, but also by incorporating embedded resources like local trade schools for in-person career and technical instruction. The possibilities they present are exciting.
The case of Guthrie Common School District perfectly encapsulates the benefits of course access for rural communities. Located in tiny Guthrie County, Texas (a lilywhite dot on the panhandle that counts as the third-least-dense county in America), the district currently serves exactly ninety-one students. After years of struggling to attract foreign language instructors, educators there partnered with the language software company Rosetta Stone to create a comprehensive set of Spanish courses. Its growing slate of offerings, known as the Guthrie Virtual School, now employs ten teachers, both inside and outside Texas, and is used by some 850 students around the state.
The situation couldn’t be more different in Palm Beach, Florida, home to nearly 185,000 students and the eleventh-largest school district in the country. Rather than relying on third-party providers to supplement an otherwise-meager curriculum, its schools take advantage of virtual teaching to cater to the many competing needs on order. Palm Beach students—far more diverse, more in need of financial supports, and more likely to stumble on the way to graduation than their Guthrie County counterparts—can use course access to seek out classes that wouldn’t normally fit with their schedules; kids transferring into the district can find outside providers to help recoup credits and catch up with their new classmates; and high-fliers can take part in more advanced course options in middle and high school. The concept of broad selection and availability, in other words, isn’t just a boon to those in rural hamlets.
Course access is a critical piece of the reform puzzle because it reflects and affirms the fundamental virtue of choice: Schools and students alike can choose the kind of education that best fits their constraints, their priorities, and their ambitions. Whether you’re clutching a surfboard or a mechanical bull, that’s pretty appealing.
SOURCE: “Leading in an Era of Change: On the Ground: How Districts and Schools Can Make the Most of Course Access,” Foundation for Excellence in Education (July 2015).
