Online learning: How do brick and mortar schools stack up to virtual schools?

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many American schools to hastily transition to online learning. I assess how the online learning experience of students enrolled in brick and mortar schools that transitioned to online learning in Spring 2020 compared to the experience of students who were already enrolled in virtual schools when the pandemic began. Absent formal assessments to quantify learning loss, such comparison can help contextualize the performance of brick and mortar schools in their transition to online learning, and perhaps inform how policy can promote higher-quality online schooling, a burgeoning policy concern amidst widespread school closures forecasted for the 2020–2021 academic year. I hypothesize that, owing to experience and expertise, virtual schools provided a higher quality education than did brick and mortar schools operating online. I test this hypothesize by administering surveys to parents of students enrolled in online schools. When applicable, parents also complete a survey about the online learning experience of siblings enrolled in brick and mortar schools that switched to online learning in Spring 2020. I compare survey outcomes across four constructs: active learning, communication, pedagogical efficacy, and classroom management. Overall, I observe that virtual schools earned substantially higher marks across the four constructs.