It's afternoon at a home outside Carlisle, and Liam Mulholland is sitting on the back porch. The eighth grader's laptop is open, and instead of a whiteboard, he has a sunny view of North Mountain and his assignments for the week.
Liam is in public school, but his computer is his classroom. He's one of about 60,000 students across Pennsylvania enrolled in a cyber charter school, an online alternative to traditional elementary, middle and high school.
"Less distractions," said Liam, 14.
Instead of going to the Carlisle Area School District, to which Liam's mom, Deloris, and any other district residents pay taxes, Liam — a motivated and extremely busy ice hockey player with NHL dreams — has chosen Agora, one of Pennsylvania's 14 cyber charters.
"If we didn't have Agora, he would already be written up and kicked out of school for as many days as he's been absent," Deloris Mulholland said.
That convenience, however, comes at a cost. Liam has been a star pupil at Agora, yet research shows cyber students on average have worse educational outcomes than brick-and-mortar students.
Also, the way cyber charters are funded — school districts foot the bill per student — costs many districts millions of dollars annually.
But the families who have children in cyber charters love them, and they're not going anywhere since debuting more than 20 years ago.
INSIDE THE CYBER EXPERIENCE
Cyber charter schools are independent public schools organized as nonprofits — including with a board of trustees — and greenlit by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through an application process.
They don't cap enrollment and can take students from anywhere in the state. As public schools, they follow Pennsylvania school code like districts do, and they can't exclude children based on ability or demographics.
"Our goal is to get kids across the finish line," whether that's to higher education, the workforce or the military, said Tim Eller, Commonwealth Charter Academy chief branding and government relations officer.
Families choose cyber charters for myriad reasons. Children may have long-term health problems, need special education or fear bullying or school violence. Maybe they live in a small district and want more opportunities.
Other students, however, may have never stepped foot in a district school. They may have been homeschooled before or have always been cyber students by choice.
Amanda Price, who lives in the South Middleton School District, enrolled a fourth of her five children in Commonwealth a few weeks ago: a second-grade daughter with "debilitating anxiety."
On her first day, Price's "high-functioning autistic" daughter who had never spoken in a district school was suddenly speaking to teachers and classmates.
"It has been a whole different world for her, and all positive," Price said. "She's doing amazing."
Liam Mulholland needs the flexibility because of hockey. Last week was typical for him: Monday night in Chester County for goalie training, Tuesday night in Lancaster for league practice, off on Wednesday, back in Lancaster Thursday, then three days in New Jersey for a tournament.
Cyber charter school is "very ideal for me," he said, "because I can just focus on it and then come back to it later if I need to go somewhere."
Liam's daily schedule is structured similarly to a public school district. It would be more so if he worked synchronously — where teachers give live lessons and students follow a bell-like schedule — but he's done well enough to learn asynchronously (at his own pace).
While Pennsylvania law requires a typical school day to be about five hours long, Liam said he can sometimes complete a day's work in "an hour or two." There are also no bus rides, walking to classes or waiting in the lunch line.
"It slows you down," he said. "Less efficient."
In cyber school, it's also a lot easier to reach out for help to understand, he said.
"In a public school [district], you'd have to talk to them and schedule something or get a tutor or something like that," he said. "On Agora, you can just email the teacher and ask for like five minutes to help you figure something out."
Agora and Commonwealth are two of Pennsylvania's largest cyber charters. Like most, they have students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and students come from a variety of racial and geographic backgrounds.
Each student receives a computer, printer and all resource materials needed for their schooling — from books to art supplies.
Agora also has NCAA -certified classes, Deloris Mulholland said, which means Liam can feel secure shooting for a college hockey scholarship.
"He really wants to go far," she said of her son's hockey hopes, "and with Agora we have that ability to give him access to the training that not so many of the other kids have."
Cyber charters are structured similarly to school districts.
Their CEOs function like superintendents, chief financial officers like district business managers and chief academic officers like directors of curriculum and instruction. Agora, for example, also has elementary, middle and high school-level principals. They interact with families and lead and observe instruction.
"I would say that the majority of the expectations of a brick-and-mortar are also expectations of cyber charter schools as well," Agora CEO Rich Jensen said.
There are advisers for students, too. At Agora, they're called family coaches, and they check in with students and can answer parents' questions.
Cyber charter schools are bound to the same attendance and curriculum standards as school districts. A vendor provides Agora the content, and teachers have some flexibility, Jensen said. Teacher evaluations are also very similar to how districts do it, he said.
Students take the same state assessments, like PSSAs and Keystone Exams, although they're in person.
Commonwealth charter students can take advantage of dual enrollment with colleges, certificate programs from trade schools and internships to train alongside professionals, Eller said.
Deloris Mulholland's daughter, now a college sophomore, preferred the structure and teacher interaction of brick-and-mortar school. But Liam's Agora curriculum feels "more advanced" than his older sister's in how it teaches history, science and sensitive subjects, she said.
Liam has learned more about the Atlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, she said, and there were times when his Agora middle school work equaled what his sister was learning at Carlisle High School.
"We love the curriculum," she said.
BRICK-AND-MORTAR GOES VIRTUAL
Cyber charter enrollment skyrocketed when districts closed their buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents were frustrated with districts' online options, Eller said, and they wanted a more experienced and transparent provider.
Commonwealth allows parents quicker communication with administrators and allows parents to see the whole curriculum: daily assignments, homework, textbooks, etc., he said.
"Families have complete control here, which is — from our perspective — something that's not offered at school districts," Eller said.
Cyber charter enrollment statewide has eased since the pandemic but still sits at a 57% increase compared to the 2018-19 school year.
"I never would have done this prior to COVID," Deloris Mulholland said. "I really wouldn't have thought about it."
As cyber charters grow — and also because the pandemic increased demand — school districts are beefing up their own tuition-free cyber programs.
Big Spring's Bulldog Cyber Academy "took off" during the pandemic after not being very popular since starting in 2009, said Nicole Donato, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. Its 53 current students are mostly high schoolers.
Bulldog Cyber Academy and some other local districts' virtual options are facilitated by the Capital Area Online Learning Association, which was developed through the Capital Area Intermediate Unit because superintendents wanted a cost-effective online option.
If a Big Spring student is interested — whether for full-time learning or to supplement in-person classes — they meet with a counselor and devise a course schedule with parents. Certified teachers from a Capital Area vendor run the courses, and Big Spring recently hired a distance learning coordinator to assist students.
Big Spring's school board in February also started an initiative to see why students are leaving in-person school for cyber charters. A survey will help determine why several hundred families chose to disenroll their children between 2020 and 2024.
"We don't see that as a tug of war," Superintendent Nicholas Guarente said of districts versus charters. "It's our job to provide the most comprehensive educational opportunity for kids, and families should have choices to what best serves the needs of their students."
But at the Carlisle Area School District, administrators seem to feel more tension about cyber charters, and they're confident in their own program.
Instead of using Capital Area Online Learning Association, the district has offered Carlisle Virtual Academy since 2001. It serves 60 students across elementary, middle and high school.
In grades K-5, students attend four live sessions a week, along with some asynchronous learning. Parents are their learning coaches and have a live meeting with the teacher once a week to talk about progress, needs and support.
In grades 6-12, learning is mostly asynchronous on a platform called Schoology, through which Carlisle teachers teach 89 courses. Students can also have face-to-face meetings with teachers, and parents get biweekly updates from teachers (weekly if the student is struggling).
"They are as important to us as any other student, whether they're in-person or virtual," said Stephanie Douglas, Carlisle's director of digital learning.
Students may want to go to a cyber charter because they want less oversight to stay engaged and learning, Superintendent Colleen Friend said. Carlisle Virtual Academy administrators and "home school visitors" check in with families, and if the child isn't doing well virtually, Carlisle may recommend they come back to the structure of classroom learning.
"We have some families that don't appreciate that," Friend said, "and they will leave for a cyber charter program."
Michelle Guistwite's 11th grade son, Owen, tried a cyber charter school for a semester, she said, but it wasn't willing to accommodate the demands of his sports schedule. Carlisle Virtual Academy was, with a "fully customized" program.
Owen is a five-star tennis recruit and the No. 2-ranked junior player in Pennsylvania. With dreams of Division I college and going pro, tournaments take him from Georgia to California to Canada.
"The flexibility that he can do school any time" is why Carlisle Virtual Academy works and not cyber charters the Guistwites looked at, Michelle said.
Owen can be logged out for a few days to play tennis as long as he tells his teachers beforehand and finishes the work. "It's truly asynchronous," she said.
Owen also has a disability plan because of dyslexia-like reading issue stemming from a concussion.
Carlisle has been "fantastic in accommodating that," Michelle Guistwite said, including having a reading specialist at the district to whom he can talk. She's been "very pleased" with Carlisle's online curriculum, too.
"I can't say that we've been disappointed," she said.
What do cyber charters think of districts' online options? Jensen, at least, doesn't feel threatened, because Agora still provides a more personalized and "comprehensive" cyber program than many districts.
"In the end, we want what's best for kids," he said. "So, if there are families who actually feel that that model might be more successful, so be it. I'm fine with more competition. It doesn't faze me."
DISTRICTS SQUEEZED BUT FAMILIES PLEASED
Liam Mulholland tried Carlisle Virtual Academy in fifth grade, but he found it not very user-friendly.
Price's eighth grader did a math class in South Middleton's virtual option, and he liked it, but Commonwealth offers a more established and academically diverse option for her children, Price said, and the transitions from in-person school to Commonwealth were "impeccable."
"I'm happy with the choice I made," she said.
Liam has excelled in cyber school, and he feels he hasn't missed anything by not attending Carlisle. But he's also the ideal cyber student: he's self-motivated, has close parental support and needs the flexibility because of his unique sports schedule.
Carlisle administrators worry about the students and families who think they're set up well for cyber charter schools but aren't.
"The way they're marketed is a little concerning," Douglas said, because parents may believe cyber charters are an easier experience but are not prepared for the self-motivation required of their children to succeed online.
If a child struggles with organizational skills and time management, they may think "the pressure is going to be off if I attend this cyber charter, but we know they're going to flounder in that situation," Friend said.
"There are times when those students who have spent time in a cyber charter environment have not progressed as they could have or should have," Douglas said, "and they then come back to us. And we have to then work with our services or supports to get that child to a grade level in a particular subject or field."
Cyber charter students get less social interaction than school district students, a trade-off that parents acknowledge but accept. The schools do offer field trips and in-person events for students, including a local bowling event the Mulhollands attended one year.
There are also dozens of clubs, although most are virtual.
School districts will argue that their virtual offerings, coupled with the district's resources in-person or not, make for a more comprehensive experience.
Carlisle Virtual Academy students can still see district counselors, play on sports teams, access health services, use district libraries, be in clubs and go to dances.
"I would say our program exceeds cyber charter programs in totality," Friend said, "not only academics but the experiences a student has with our staff."
Price acknowledged that her older children are losing out on school sports opportunities because of cyber charter school. But it's not "the end of the world," she said, because Commonwealth's learning experience has been so life changing, especially in lowering their anxiety.
"My son was able to completely go off of his ADHD meds," she said. "He's a whole different child than he was a year and a half ago."
Liam starts high school next year, and he plans to stick with Agora until he graduates.
If his goals of junior hockey, college hockey and then the NHL materialize, Liam and his mother can partially thank Pennsylvania's cyber charter schools, controversy and all.
"We like everything about it," Deloris Mulholland said.
©2024 The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
