The Digital Learning Collaborative's New Study Analyzes Course Choice Programs, Policies & Enrollments

Course choice policies, which allow students to choose a course and have their public education funding flow to the course provider, are attracting increased attention. Several states have passed new course choice policies in the last couple of years, but do these policies and program achieve their goals? A new study released today by the Digital Learning Collaborative, a membership group made up of school districts, education agencies, non-profit organizations, and companies, analyzes the latest data from more than a dozen states to address this question.

Course Choice: A Review of Policy and Practice, provides an overview of characteristics that define course choice, explores course choice policies and implementation in states that have adopted course choice rules and presents analysis of course choice landscape.

Course choice is one policy strategy to fill a critical need for students who do not have access to a wide range of courses— or access to a specific course they are seeking—within their school.

The report presents the wide variety of experiences in states that have some sort of course choice (or equivalent) policy in place, and suggests that any findings across states must be generalized and will have exceptions. However, some observations appear to hold true.

• Course choice policies supported by a state program attract higher levels of enrollments.
• Often a single entity, or a small number of organizations, has an outsize effect on supplemental course enrollments in a state.
• Data availability varies widely between states but is mostly lacking.

To learn more about course choice, and to explore state-by-state policies and practice, download the full report.

Findings from the Course Choice: A Review of Policy and Practice report will be presented and discussed at the Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC) February 24-26 in Austin, Texas. Additional conference sessions and conversations surrounding course choice are planned as part of this unique digital learning conference. For more information contact us at info@evergreenedgroup.com or call 616-340-8066.