Data & Information

Arkansas

Arkansas has one main supplemental program, one fully online school, and a digital learning graduation requirement.Arkansas’ state virtual school, Arkansas Virtual High School (AVHS), relaunched in SY 2012-13 as Virtual Arkansas, serving online supplemental courses to member districts of the Arkansas Distance Learning Consortium (ARDL) and one full-time, statewide charter school, the Arkansas Virtual Academy (ARVA). Act 1280 (2013) implements a new digital learning provider approval process and puts in place a statewide online learning requirement beginning in SY 2014-15. The ADE and the Arkansas Distance Learning (ARDL) content providers (including AVHS) have combined resources to form the ARDL Consortium beginning with the 2011-12 school year. Arkansas school districts that wish to schedule courses with the consortium will pay a $2,500 annual membership fee. This fee affords schools the opportunity to schedule courses with any of the state-funded providers. In addition, it streamlines policies and procedures statewide, coordinates a master schedule, and centralizes billing for school districts.

Fully online schools

ARVA is an open enrollment public charter school and is overseen by the ADE (prior to 2013 legislation, oversight was from the Arkansas State Board of Education). In SY 2013-14, it served 1,334 students in grades K-8. The ARVA enrollment cap was raised to 3,000 for SY 2013-14. ARVA operates as its own school district and is funded through the same student average daily membership (ADM) formula as other open-enrollment public charter schools. It received $6,267 per ADM for SY 2012-13, and it expects that to increase to $6,393 in SY 2013-14 through the state’s student growth calculation. An internal evaluation of Arkansas Virtual Academy released in 2012 by the University of Arkansas found positive results for ARVA students.

Cooperative; courses are available only to students in districts that have joined the ARDL consortium. There were 180 such districts as of August 2013, about three-quarters of the districts in the state. The other four ARDL providers (Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center, Arkansas Early College High School, Dawson Center for Distance Learning, and the Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences & the Arts) deliver courses synchronously using compressed interactive video.

An Internal Evaluation of the Arkansas Virtual Academy School released in 2012 by the University of Arkansas found positive results for ARVA students.

Overall, ARVA students outperformed their comparison peers in math, with an average increase of 9.6 percentile points.
ARVA students outperformed their comparison peers in literacy; these differences were positive and substantial (+ 4 percentile points).
These positive trends were apparent in nearly all grade cohorts.
Economically disadvantaged students did particularly well at ARVA; free- and reduced lunch-eligible students outperformed their comparison peers in math and literacy.
There were no statistically significant negative effects in any of the numerous analyses conducted.

The study excluded first-year students to avoid data from “transition shocks” and matched each virtual student with two students from a traditional school.

State virtual school

The ARDL consortium served 12,000 students in SY 2012-13. Arkansas school districts paid a $2,500 annual membership fee to schedule courses with any of the state-funded providers. The fee allowed unlimited enrollment on a first-come/first-serve basis. In 2013, Virtual Arkansas replaced the statewide AVHS, which had been the state virtual school since spring 2000. In SY 2013-14 Virtual Arkansas served core, elective, and advanced placement courses, including 3,734 supplemental online course enrollments to students previously enrolled in the statewide AVHS, the state virtual school since 2000. In addition, roughly 12,000 digital students enrolled through the ARDL consortium (the same number as in SY 2012-13). These will all be Virtual Arkansas students from SY 2014-15, as ARDL is now part of Virtual Arkansas. Virtual Arkansas is funded through an annual Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) grant; it provides online courses delivered with both synchronous and asynchronous components. Virtual Arkansas is managed by the Arch Ford Education Cooperative; courses are available only to students in districts that have joined the ARDL consortium. There were 180 such districts as of August 2013, about three-quarters of the districts in the state. The other four ARDL providers (Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center, Arkansas Early College High School, Dawson Center for Distance Learning, and the Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences & the Arts) deliver courses synchronously using compressed interactive video.

District programs

In addition to AVHS and ARVA, online courses are available through a number of the state’s Educational Service Cooperatives (ESC), though the district must provide the instructor for these.

Online learning policy history

The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) published formal rules in 2005 covering AVHS and distance learning in Arkansas and updated them with the Arkansas Department of Education Rules Governing Distance Learning in February 2012. The new rules establish guidelines requiring a calendar and bell schedule aligned with local schools to allow students to “optimally participate in synchronous distance learning and local courses. Unchanged from the 2005 rules are:

Defines management of the Distance Learning Coordinating Council, created in SB592 (2005).

The ADE must approve all distance learning courses prior to the course being offered or taught by a public or charter school. Courses must have a licensed or approved primary instructor.
An adult facilitator must be present to proctor any assessments used to determine a student’s final grade. A student’s final grade is determined by the teacher of record for a course.
Class size for synchronous distance learning courses shall be the same as for courses not taught by distance learning as specified in the Arkansas Standards for Accreditation. Class size requirements do not apply to asynchronous distance learning instruction.
Student interaction with the primary instructor or an appropriately licensed teacher(s) shall be available at a ratio of no more than 30 students per class and 150 students each day for both synchronous and asynchronous courses.
An adult facilitator must be present whenever a group of distance learning students meets. As a charter school, ARVA must adhere to all charter school accountability rules, which include administration of all state-mandated testing.

New provisions of the rules include:

The Arkansas Distance Learning Development Program (ADLP, now known as the Arkansas Distance Learning Consortium) is to be conducted by the ADE and funded through donations, grants, or legislative appropriation. It is designed to help “alleviate the increasing shortage of available qualified teachers; provide additional course-scheduling opportunities for students . . .; provide an opportunity for students to access an enriched curriculum and additional courses . . .; and to develop and make available online professional development and instructional resources for all teachers and administrators.”
Defines management of the Distance Learning Coordinating Council, created in SB592 (2005).
All providers must be approved.
“A public school district or open-enrollment public charter school that teaches or offers a distance learning course to one or more home-schooled or private school students . . . shall be entitled to an amount equal to 1/6 of the state foundation funding amount for each course taught to a private school student or home-schooled student, up to the equivalent of one ADM per student.”

Act 1420 (2007) limited enrollments in virtual charters; it has since been updated by .

Act 827 (2009) created a three-year pilot program that explores mobile learning with students who must ride a school bus for long distances to and from school. Each participating district will equip up to three school buses with wireless Internet service, 15 laptop computers, 40 portable video storage devices, two media screens, and math and science software for the computers.

Act 1280 (2013) expands digital learning opportunities to all Arkansas public school students. Act 1280:

Requires that the ADE annually publish a list of approved digital learning providers.
Presents criteria for becoming an approved digital provider, including mapping to state standards and utilizing teachers not necessarily certified by the state.
Eliminates a seat-time requirement for digital learning courses.
Creates an online learning requirement that will be piloted in a few districts in SY 2013-14, and expanded statewide in SY 2014-15, when all public school districts and public charter schools must provide at least one online or blended learning course with outcomes measurable through student assessment.
Prevents the SBE from limiting the number of digital learning courses for which a student may receive credit through a public school or a public charter school and ensures that courses may be used as both primary and secondary methods of instruction.
Directs the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee (in collaboration with the ADE, the Department of Information Systems, and Arkansas service providers) to prepare a study on methods to deliver a quality digital learning environment in each school district and public charter school. The report will be delivered in December 2014.

Act 1309 (2013) alters caps to any open-enrollment public virtual charter school. In SY 2013-14, it raises the cap for ARVA from 500 to 3,000; 2,500 of these students must have been enrolled in an Arkansas public school for the first three quarters of the prior school year.

last updated October 9, 2014

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