By: Rae Lymer and Beth Holland
Diving into the Evidence: Virtual and Hybrid Models as High-Quality School Choice Options
The White House recently issued an executive order making “school choice” a top education priority for the current administration. Although the order cites declining test scores and parent rights as the rationale driving this decision, it does not specify criteria for either the design or quality of these choices. For the many students who have been disengaged by traditional public education – with the typical school day presenting a significant barrier to academic success and personal well-being – “choice” that solely presents brick-and-mortar options is not an actual solution.
Significant confusion exists, reinforced by negative experiences with pandemic emergency remote learning, about virtual and hybrid learning (VHL) as a tool for greater opportunity despite the existence of high-quality models that have long demonstrated their efficacy in meeting the needs of learners. As public school systems seek to offer more choice to the students in their community, VHL models that address gaps in course access, engagement, personalization, and scheduling, present a viable pathway forward. However, we need an evidence base to give the field an understanding of what a high-quality VHL choice looks like and how it can be a catalyst for expanding learning opportunities for ALL students.
To develop smart policy and scale decisions, we need to understand VHL models as distinct entities that offer tailored educational opportunities beyond traditional brick-and-mortar schools. At The Learning Accelerator (TLA), this led us to wonder: What can we say about the national landscape for virtual and hybrid school models and the students they serve? To answer that question, we are working to produce rigorous evidence based on high-quality programs with existing evidence of accelerating learning for students.
Mapping the Virtual & Hybrid Learning (VHL) Landscape
To begin, we conducted an in-depth landscape scan of 64 VHL models to understand the range of high-quality, public options across the U.S. We unpacked what each school, system, or program offers, who it serves, and the outcomes it regularly measures and reports. This analysis revealed that virtual and hybrid learning occurs in various contexts, from state-based, fully virtual programs to individual, hybrid schools. In addition, the design and implementation of these models is often driven by the specific needs of different student populations, including those underserved or disengaged by traditional education systems.
Our landscape analysis identified three core concepts:
- Fully virtual and hybrid models have distinct components and cannot be treated as a monolith;
- Different models serve different types of students who have diverse needs depending on their contexts; and
- Given that these models have been designed to meet unique student needs, understanding their efficacy and impact requires incorporating different forms of evidence alongside more traditional academic measures.
Identifying Six Sites to Help Us Understand What’s Working, For Whom, & How
Our landscape scan served as a catalyst for connecting with virtual and hybrid school leaders to design a study that would help us understand who these models are working for, how, and why. From the broad list of 64, we conducted interviews with 13 leaders representing state-, system-, and school-based models. This helped us understand more about their instructional model as well as available student data. A second round of interviews with nine of those leaders, which also included a discussion of the logistics of our proposed project, then allowed us to identify a final set of six high-quality models:
- Bismarck Public Schools Empower[Ed] offers a hybrid personalized, standards-based learning experience that accelerates both academic as well as college and career readiness outcomes.
- Da Vinci Connect TK-8 leverages project-based learning, community engagement, and family co-teaching to accelerate student learning through its hybrid homeschool model.
- Friendship Online Academy combines a full-time virtual high school to boost learning outcomes in core subjects and expand access to dual enrollment as well as Advanced Placement courses.
- Novi Virtual offers full- and part-time virtual learning options for K-12 students within their district and partner districts, creating a flexible learning opportunity and reengaging students who have otherwise disengaged from a traditional, brick-and-mortar, system.
- St. Vrain’s AGILE hybrid program combines virtual coursework with in-person engagement, giving students across Colorado access to high-quality courses while accelerating learning and maintaining local school connections.
- Virtual Innovators Academy, part of Big Picture Learning, uses project-based learning, real-world internships, and career-connected education to improve outcomes for its virtual high school students.
Each of the sites – three virtual and three hybrid – serve uniquely different student populations in diverse contexts; and yet, they also have demonstrated evidence of student success. To understand how and why these models have been able to achieve positive student outcomes, we collaborated with each site leader to co-design a study that will allow us to answer our broader questions about VHL’s role in learning acceleration, while also addressing questions core to each site’s interests. Together, we built working theories of change that we will test throughout the 2024-25 school year and identified relevant student outcomes, including both traditional and broader measures.
Building a Rigorous Evidence Base for Quality
Throughout our study, we will be intentionally engaging with each model’s community—connecting directly with students, educators, and other key stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences with VHL. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, we are capturing insights that are crucial for shaping the future of VHL while supporting policymakers and practitioners interested in expanding access to student choice. By taking a mixed-methods approach that includes both academic and qualitative data, we’re building a rich evidence base that reflects the diverse needs of students, helping us define what a high-quality VHL choice looks like across diverse contexts.
The six models we are studying highlight the power of high-quality choice in public education. They demonstrate that when high-quality learning options align with students’ unique needs, engagement and outcomes improve. By sharing the successful strategies behind these models, we aim to help other educators and policymakers replicate these efforts, fostering innovation and expanding opportunities for students.
Virtual and hybrid learning has proven to be a powerful tool for expanding access to high-quality learning experiences, especially for students with unique needs or those who face barriers to traditional schooling. As we continue to shape the narrative around VHL, we’re committed to using evidence to define what a high-quality choice looks like. Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to the education they need to reach their full potential.
Stay up to date with the latest findings and insights from our study at learningaccelerator.org/exponential.
Beth Holland is the Managing Director, Research, Measurement, & Policy at The Learning Accelerator.
Rae Lymer is the Partner, Research, Measurement, & Policy at The Learning Accelerator.
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