Online learning
Online learning remains in the majority, with survey results indicating that only 27 percent of participating high school principals do not offer any online courses for students.
Surveyed principals said they offer online learning options to their students in order to:
- Keep students engaged (69 percent)
- Offer academic remediation (62 percent)
- Provide advanced coursework (47 percent)
- Find a solution for hard-to-staff subjects (44 percent)
While only 8 percent of 2013 surveyed high school students said they were interested in fully online learning, 24 percent of this year’s participating students said they would like to take all of their classes online.
This growing interest is reflected at the middle school level, with 44 percent of surveyed students reporting a desire to take math classes online.
The survey also shows that 28 percent of surveyed students in fully online learning environments create and post digital content, compared with 18 percent of traditional students in the survey.
STEM learning experiences
This year’s survey compared student data from three different STEM environments (after-school computer programming/coding clubs, STEM academies, and school-sponsored tech support teams) against students who did not participate in those environments.
Data showed that early STEM engagement is key to sustaining girls’ interest in STEM subjects.
Middle school girls in the survey are 38 percent less likely than male peers to express interest in a STEM career, and 32 percent of surveyed high school girls reported the same.
Sixty-four percent of surveyed elementary school girls in grades 3-5 said they were interested in programming and coding.
In addition to defined classroom technology-supported learning, self-directed learning is growing in leaps and bounds, and surveyed students provided anecdotal evidence that they pursue learning outside of structured classroom time.
One possible reason for this growth could be students’ increased access to digital tools, resources, and the internet at home.
“Two big questions emerge from this year’s report: Are we ready to support a new kind of educational ecosystem that acknowledges learning as a 24/7 enterprise, and what do we need to do today to enable and empower these kinds of student-centric digital learning experiences for all students?” asked Evans.
In fall 2014, Project Tomorrow surveyed 431,231 K-12 students, 35,337 parents, 41,805 teachers, 2,485 librarians, 680 district administrators, 3,207 school administrators, 442 technology leaders and 6,653 members of the community representing 8,216 public and private schools from 2,676 districts. Schools from urban (30 percent), suburban (30 percent), and rural (40 percent) communities were represented. Just over one-half of the schools (56 percent) that participated in Speak Up 2014 were Title I eligible schools (an indicator of student population poverty). The Speak Up 2014 surveys were available online for input between October 6th and December 19th, 2014.
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