Kim Rogusky spends her days helping high school seniors plan for life after graduation, responding to teens鈥� occasional crises, and plowing through endless administrative tasks鈥攖he typical work of a school guidance counselor.
But Ms. Rogusky, who works for the 8,000-student Commonwealth Connections Academy, the third-largest full-time online school in Pennsylvania, does nearly all of her work in cyberspace, interacting with students across the state primarily from her small cubicle in an office building in Harrisburg.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely a challenge to my counseling skills,鈥� Ms. Rogusky said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard when [students] can鈥檛 see that I鈥檓 smiling at them.鈥�
Nationwide, an estimated 310,000 students in 30 states now attend 鈥渕ulti-district, fully online鈥� schools such as Commonwealth Connections, according to the Evergreen Education Group, a consulting firm based in Durango, Colo. As the sector grows, those running the schools鈥攗sually states or charter school boards, both of which often contract with private companies for management services鈥攁re wrestling with how to better support the academic, social, and emotional needs of students they rarely see in person.
鈥淭he challenge is to make sure [full-time online schools] are really providing a comprehensive school counseling program to students,鈥� said H. Eric Sparks, the assistant director of the American School Counselors Association, or ASCA, based in Alexandria, Va. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very much a developing field.鈥�
Proponents say that virtual school counseling has its advantages, particularly for students more comfortable interacting online than in person. And some of the counseling practices utilized in full-time online schools are now being taken up by traditional schools seeking to catch up with their tech-savvy students.
But how to best respond to at-risk children who may be located hundreds of miles away and how to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive student information disclosed online remain challenges.
Cost is also an issue: Watchdogs maintain that, given their generally poor academic performance and high student turnover, full-time online schools鈥攑articularly independent cyber charter schools run by for-profit management companies鈥攏eed to be more transparent about how much they invest in support services.
鈥淲e have to be able to compare them to traditional brick-and-mortar schools so policymakers can make good decisions about how we鈥檙e going to fund these schools,鈥� said Gary J. Miron, an education professor at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
Emotional Support
The Stanford University Online High School in Stanford, Calif., which charges $16,600 a year in tuition and serves exceptionally motivated students, isn鈥檛 the typical full-time online school. But it does embody a trend in virtual guidance counseling.
In 2010, Stanford University Online High had one counselor for its 500 students, twice ASCA鈥檚 recommended student-to-counselor ratio of 250:1.
Three years later, the school employs two full-time counselors, who focus primarily on students鈥� social and emotional needs and offer help with issues such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders; two academic advisers, who make sure students are enrolling in the right courses; and two full-time college counselors. Roughly 10 percent of the school鈥檚 full-time online students receive short-term virtual counseling from the school鈥檚 staff, who will refer the students to local professionals for more in-depth treatment when appropriate.
鈥淲e realized that full-time online students have the same needs as any adolescent,鈥� said Tracy Steele, the school鈥檚 director of counseling. 鈥淪o we became more of a school and less a set of online courses.鈥�
Publicly funded, full-time online schools are starting to embrace a similar approach, said Mr. Sparks of ASCA. But the challenge, he said, is figuring out how to effectively deliver well-rounded services online while safely storing and limiting access to confidential information that is disclosed via email or an online chat.
鈥淣ot having face-to-face interaction can make it more difficult to assess what鈥檚 happening with students,鈥� Mr. Sparks said. 鈥淒istance can also be a problem鈥攊f there鈥檚 some type of emergency, the counselor may not even know where the student is.鈥�
Ms. Steele said a nascent network of virtual school counselors has begun exploring protocols for such situations, as well as guidelines for online counseling caseloads and use of specific technologies. But 鈥渢he best practices are still being developed,鈥� she said.
College Preparation
Maurice E. Flurie III, the CEO of Commonwealth Connections Academy, said his school recently hired four new counselors, to bring its total to 12. It also launched a new online career-planning course, part of a larger shift from making sure students accumulate the credits needed to graduate to helping them prepare for college and careers.
鈥淚t all meshes together pretty well,鈥� said Ms. Rogusky, now in her second year at the school. 鈥淭he time spent with career planning, that鈥檚 bringing to the surface more of the social and personal concerns students have.鈥�
Mr. Flurie touted the new approach as beneficial to Commonwealth Connection鈥檚 students. The school鈥檚 most recently published four-year cohort graduation rate, for the 2010-11 school year, is 83.1 percent, slightly above the statewide rate of 82.6 percent for all schools and second-highest among the dozen cyber charters in operation at that time.
But like many full-time online schools in Pennsylvania and across the country, Commonwealth Connections has struggled with student retention and academic performance. In its most recent annual report filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the school indicated that 1,622 students鈥攔oughly 1 in 3鈥攚ithdrew during the 2011-12 school year. And like the rest of the state鈥檚 cyber charters, Commonwealth Connections failed to make adequate yearly progress towards its federally mandated academic performance targets that year, the most recent for which data is available.
Mr. Miron of Western Michigan University said that type of student churn and poor academic performance likely has something to do with the scope and quality of the counseling being provided to students. But he said many such schools鈥攅specially those managed in part by for-profit companies, including Commonwealth Connections, which contracts with Connections Education, a division of education publishing giant Pearson鈥攑ublicly report very little information about what they spend on supportive services.
鈥淲hen we try to look at these schools鈥� expenditures, it鈥檚 hard to tell how that money is being used,鈥� Mr. Miron said.
Mr. Flurie said his school spends an average of approximately $10,400 per student but has not broken out how much of that goes to counseling services.
Despite the questions, many are excited about the potential for virtual counseling to help further personalize each child鈥檚 school experience鈥攊n both online and traditional brick-and-mortar schools.
Ms. Steele of Stanford University Online High said that shift is already underway: In a recent survey of ASCA members, she and her colleagues found that more than one-fourth of counselors are already using technology to remotely deliver services to their students, and that almost half believe that online communication can be an effective counseling technique.
鈥淚 think there is an opportunity for this model to serve a wider range of students,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is just the start.鈥�
