Accountability Problem

Accountability Problem

Introduction

United States of America, in the recent past has witnessed an astounding growth in online education. In the year of 2002, approximately 1.5 million pupils took at least one course online at the school level education. By the year of 2006, the number of enrollment in online education has increased to 3.5 million. The growth rate in online admissions was projected to increase 19.8% by every passing year, although by 2012 this booming growth faces decline, because of the fact that families cannot adequately provide support and environment to the children, which should help them in learning. At present, more than 96% of large education institutions offer courses online. However, this issue may adversely impact the growth of online education in future. This demands the need for thorough researches on various dynamics of this issue. Researchers in this regard point out lack of accountability from either parents or teachers side. In connection to this problem, in this study I am going to discuss the issues and will strive to highlight the accountability problems in this educational system.

Background of the Case

The main objective of accountability is to increase productivity of educational outputs in response to societal needs. I work at The Student Success Academy. It is a charter school based on a hybrid model in which the students are delivered their curriculum online and they work from home. At the K- 8 level, parents are responsible for helping students learn content, check assessments and mark progress (Armstrong, 2002). Students are expected to come to the school to work with their teachers once a week for their four core classes (usually about 50 minutes long each course). Teachers base grades for report cards and progress reports on the marked online progress from their parents.

My Accountability Problem

Parents are not delivering instructional support needed to demonstrate consistent proficiency at home and in the classroom with their children.

The Main Problem

Children's education as an investment in human capital has become a matter of priority for both parents and teachers. Teachers are finding that parents have been doing more than just assist in many cases. Students come to school not knowing the content they should have covered online. Teachers feel that students are being short-changed because either the parents are doing too much of the work for them (just to check off progress) and they see too big of a discrepancy between progress made in class versus what they show online.

Dramatic Increase in K-12 Online Learning

At the K-12 level, online education also went through a rapid development since its emergence in late 1990s. Thousands of students were attracted to online education because of the advantages it brings such as flexible and expanded learning time, more educational opportunities, and increased access to resources. By 2016, this number is anticipated to reach 5-6 million and will keep growing in the future. Only public school students were included in the above prediction; the number will be higher if all other students are included, such as those in ...