The Public School Response to Cyber Charter Programs: Fiscal Considerations, Retention and Recruitment Strategies, and Participant Experiences

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to determine contributing factors for students' and parents' decisions to remain in, or return to, a district's cyber school program. This study also sought to determine the efficacy of a school district's cyber program, and how efficacy specifically contributed to students' and families' decision-making process about where to attend online learning. This study examined the practices that one public school district employed in its management of cyber programming, as well as its retention and recruitment plans as they related to in-district cyber education in K–12 schools. The primary research questions of this study were: What are the experiences of administrators, students, and parents involved with the in-district program? Why are students remaining in the district's cyber program? Why are students returning to the district's cyber program? What are the factors that influence a student to either remain in or return to the district's cyber program? What role do teachers have regarding student persistence and student retention? The researcher used semistructured interview questions to determine the most effective means of student retention, recruitment, and cyber program development while understanding experiences of students, parents, and school administrators. The researcher attempted to find a relationship between district cyber programmatic design and student academic interest or need as well as parental responses that indicated vital programmatic characteristics from their perspective. Ideally, the results of this study will eventually lead to the development of a template for K–12 in-district cyber program success after viewing the results from the district in this case study research. Seven themes emerged from the semistructured interviews: teacher quality, retention and recruitment, program perception, support, flexibility, social interaction and costs/financials. Results points toward the importance of having in-district teachers involved in the program to ensure quality feedback from teacher to student both online and face to face, which is important in supporting student success. Schedule flexibility is an excellent byproduct of the in-district program; increasing program understanding through advertising as it could further support retention and recruitment. It is also important to pay close attention to costs associated with students leaving the district for cyber charter programs, as they can be extremely high. Recommendations point toward increasing advertising associated with in-district cyber programming, analyzing the quality of purchased cyber courses, and reviewing current retention and recruitment practices.Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201