{"id":1275,"date":"2015-06-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/iowa-grasps-opportunity-for-continuous-improvement-of-fully-online-schools\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T17:24:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T21:24:48","slug":"iowa-grasps-opportunity-for-continuous-improvement-of-fully-online-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/iowa-grasps-opportunity-for-continuous-improvement-of-fully-online-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"iNACOL Quality Assurance Performance Metrics for Online Schools Adopted in the State of Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2012, iNACOL released a ground-breaking report on outcomes-driven quality assurance for online learning. With the growth of U.S. K-12 online learning enrollments rising each year, the report outlines how policymakers and education leaders might thoughtfully approach implementing new student learning performance metrics and quality assurance for these increasingly popular online schooling environments.<\/p>\n

In June 2015, Iowa legislators passed a budget bill SF 510 that both enabled online schools through 2018 and adopted the performance metrics for online schools in order to provide more robust quality assurance<\/a>. SF 510 requires the Iowa Department of Education to consult with iNACOL.<\/p>\n

It is commendable that Iowa legislators used this opportunity to address concerns about quality. The new legislation requires an unprecedented level of data transparency for full-time online schools. These metrics include student achievement levels, retention rates, student participation in extracurricular activities, academic growth measures (including showing progress on individualized student growth trajectories), progress metrics toward graduation, and meeting individualized student goals.<\/p>\n

These metrics are recommended in the iNACOL report, Measuring Quality from Inputs to Outcomes: Creating Student Learning Performance Metrics and Quality Assurance for Online Schools<\/a>. Specifically, iNACOL recommends that states and oversight agencies, such as charter authorizers, require online schools to report metrics in the following categories:<\/p>\n