Online learning became an essential part of K-12 education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote learning during the pandemic revealed specific challenges to student learning, such as students’ social presence and their engagement in online classes. Therefore, within the framework of community of inquiry (CoI) theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between social presence, engagement, and achievement of urban charter high school students in asynchronous online classes that were offered through the Edgenuity platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary data from six midwestern U.S. charter high schools included the perceptional input and final course grades of 395 students in Spring 2022. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed that social presence and engagement were highly correlated. Although the impact of engagement on final grades was found not to be statistically significant, social presence had a significant positive impact on students’ final grades. However, when social presence was employed as a mediating factor, engagement had a fully mediated effect on students’ final grades. This finding is important as it serves as an extension of CoI theory, demonstrating how constructs of COI, such as social presence, can support the academic success of K-12 students in online settings.
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