Horry County Schools axes virtual program for 2022-23 school year, but it may be back
Horry County Schools students won’t have the option to attend virtual school next year after new data shows those students are about twice as likely to fail classes as their counterparts in traditional in-person classes.
Board members voted 11-1 on Monday to close the virtual school following extensive discussion about the effectiveness of the program. But board members left the option open to reintroduce the program in the future. Following a motion from District 11 representative Shanda Allen, district administrators are set to work on the program over the next year and propose a restructured virtual school.
The motion passed after two different motions resulted in a split vote. One motion dissolved the virtual school without the amendment to reintroduce the topic next year, and the other kept the virtual school in place for students in grades 4-12 but shut it down for younger students.
Current virtual school students will either return to their brick-and-mortar school in Horry County or enroll in a public virtual charter school.
Virtual students failing twice as often
Drawing on annual data since the 2018-19 school year — the last year unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic — Chief Academics Officer Boone Myrick advised the district’s curriculum and instruction committee to either dissolve the program altogether or majorly restructure it.
The committee recommended the district eliminate the program.
When addressing the board in late January, Myrick originally presented another option to keep the program as is, but said Monday that’s “not a viable option at all.”
Following the conclusion of the 2021-22 first semester, 41.7% of HCS Virtual high school students failed at least one of their classes, compared to around 23% of students in the brick-and-mortar high schools, according to data presented by Principal Specialist Lee James.
Middle school and elementary school data followed a similar trend, despite differences in how grading works for each age level. Around 40% of virtual middle school students failed at least one of their core classes, compared to around 18% of their brick-and-mortar counterparts, according to the district.
Nearly 13% of virtual students failed math and/or language arts classes in grades 3-5, the youngest age group in which letter grades are used. For students in the brick-and-mortar setting, that number was less than 2%.
Around a third of all failures in both the virtual and brick-and-mortar options were related to excessive absences, James said.
The option to eliminate the program altogether drew criticism from some HCS teachers, who say the district has set up the program to fail.
“I’ve worked with some of these teachers who teach these classes,” James said Monday while addressing the committee. “I do not present this data as an analysis of their performance. I know they’re some of the best teachers I’ve worked with.”
Adjusting to pandemic instruction
The teachers had disputed the use of the data presented at January’s meeting because it was taken from Dec. 6, more than a month before grades were finalized. Students often turn in work to boost their grades near the end of the semester, they said, so that number wasn’t an accurate depiction of how many students failed after the semester was over.
The data presented in January showed 46% of high school seniors in the virtual program were failing at least one class. Data presented Monday showed that number was cut in half after the conclusion of the semester, with around 20% of virtual high school seniors failing at least one class, compared to 14% of brick-and-mortar seniors.
Board members weighed the pros and cons of getting rid of the virtual program, and many brought up concerns with doing away with it completely, saying online options are beneficial for many students and remote learning has become a reality following the inception of the pandemic.
James pointed out virtual programs across the country have struggled to adapt from what began as a reaction to school closures to trying to create a sustainable permanent option for students. Superintendent Rick Maxey said the district needs to focus on how to help students gain back what they lost during the early stages of the pandemic, and the current setup of the virtual school could be increasing their deficit, especially for younger students trying to learn reading comprehension.
“I understand that there are some students within the district who are being very successful with the work,” Maxey said. “We’re not reaching everybody, but we’re doing a much better job when it’s in a face-to-face context.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 6:24 PM.
