The National Education Policy Center in Boulder, Colorado, released a report today about the performance of the for-profit online corporation K12. This is the biggest of the online operators, which has been criticized repeatedly for poor academic performance yet continues to expand. Just recently, Ohio and Pennsylvania added more for-profit virtual charters, as North Carolina rejected them and New Jersey deferred making a decision.
The new NEPC report found that students who enroll in these virtual schools do worse in academics than those who attend a brick-and-mortar school.
The authors of the report urged states to slow down in their headlong rush to open more such “schools.”
Here are the major findings, as reported in the press release:
New Report Shows Students Who Attend K12 Inc. Cyber Schools Falling Behind
Students at K12 Inc., Nation’s Largest Virtual School Company,
Are Lagging in Reading, Math and Graduation Rates; Researchers Say Evidence of Success Needed BEFORE Further Expansion
Few Dollars Dedicated to Instructional Salaries and Special Ed, Despite Lower Overhead Costs
WASHINGTON — A new report released today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado shows that students at K12 Inc., the nation’s largest virtual school company, are falling further behind in reading and math scores than students in brick-and- mortar schools. These virtual schools students are also less likely to remain at their schools for the full year, and the schools have low graduation rates. “Our in-depth look into K12 Inc. raises enormous red flags,” said NEPC Director Kevin Welner.
The report’s findings will be presented in Washington today to a national meeting of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), where the report’s lead author, Dr. Gary Miron, is scheduled to debate Dr. Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the International Association for K–12 Online Learning. The report is titled, Understanding and Improving Full- Time Virtual Schools.
“Our findings are clear,” said Miron, an NEPC fellow, “Children who enroll in a K12 Inc. cyberschool, who receive full-time instruction in front of a computer instead of in a classroom with a live teacher and other students, are more likely to fall behind in reading and math. These children are also more likely to move between schools or leave school altogether – and the cyberschool is less likely to meet federal education standards.”
K12 Inc. schools generally operate on less public revenue, but they have considerable cost savings, says Miron. They devote minimal or no resources to facilities, operations, and transportation. These schools also have more students per teacher and pay less for teacher salaries and benefits than brick-and-mortar schools.
“Computer-assisted learning has tremendous potential,” said Miron. “But at present, our research shows that virtual schools such as those operated by K12 Inc. are not working effectively. States should not grow full-time virtual schools until they have evidence of success. Most immediately, we need to better understand why the performance of these schools suffers and how it can be improved.”
Earliier this week, New Jersey education officials postponed granting approval to a K12 Inc. full- time virtual schools for one year. In many states, however, policy is headed in exactly the opposite direction. In Michigan, for example, legislators decided earlier this year to lift the cap on full-time virtual schools, even though the state was in the second year of a pilot study to see whether these schools work and what could be done to ensure they work better. That pilot study had provided no findings to support such a scale-up.
Student performance results from the current study are clearly in line with the existing body of evidence, which includes state evaluations and audits of virtual schools in five states as well as a more rigorous study of student learning in Pennsylvania virtual charter schools conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University. CREDO’s study found virtual-school students ended up with learning gains that were “significantly worse” than students in traditional charters and public schools.
New Report Shows K12 Inc. Cyber School Students Falling Behind/ 3
Miron and co-author Jessica L. Urschel, a doctoral student at Western Michigan University, analyzed federal and state data sets for revenue, expenditures, and student performance. In terms of student demographics and school performance data, the researchers studied all of K12’s 48 full-time virtual schools. In terms of revenues and expenditures, they used a federal data set that includes seven K12 Inc. schools from five different states (Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Ohio and Pennsylvania), although these seven schools accounted for almost 60 percent of all of K12 Inc.’s enrollment from 2008-09, which is the most recent year of available finance data.
In terms of the number of students enrolled, K12 Inc. is the largest private education management organization (EMO) and the largest private operator of virtual schools in the United States. It had contracts to operate 48 full-time virtual schools in 2011-12. In addition to these contracts, K12 Inc. provides services and support to dozens of other schools that have more limited online offerings.
Key findings include:
- Math scores for K12 Inc.’s students are 14 to 36 percent lower than scores for other students in the states in which the company operates schools. Across grades 3- 11, the scores were between 2 and 11 percentage points below the state average in reading.
- The on-time graduation rate for students the K12 Inc. schools is 49.1 percent, compared with a rate of 79.4 percent for the states in which the company operates schools.
- Only 27.7 percent of K12 Inc.’s schools reported meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards in 2010-11, compared to 52% for brick-and-mortar schools in the nation as a whole.
- Student attrition is exceptionally high in K12 Inc. and other virtual schools. Many families appear to approach the virtual schools as a temporary service: Data in K12 Inc.’s own school performance report indicate that 31% of parents intend to keep their students enrolled for a year or less, and more than half intend to keep their students enrolled for two years or less. K12 Inc. also noted in this report that 23% of its current students were enrolled for less than a year and 67% had been enrolled for fewer than two years.
• K12 Inc.’s schools spend more on overall instructional costs than comparison schools – including the cost of computer hardware and software, but noticeably less on teachers’ salaries and benefits.
New Report Shows K12 Inc. Cyber School Students Falling Behind/ 4
- K12 Inc. spends little or nothing on facilities and maintenance, transportation, and food service.
- K12 Inc. enrolls students with disabilities at rates moderately below public school averages, although this enrollment has been increasing, but the company spends half as much per pupil as charter schools overall spend on special education instruction and a third of what districts spend on special education instruction.Among the take-aways from all this is that K12 Inc.’s cyberschools reduce costs by having more students per teacher and by reducing overall spending on teachers’ salaries and benefits, particularly for special education instruction. “Part of K12’s problem seems to be that it skimps on special education spending and employs few instructors, despite having lower overhead than brick-and-mortar schools,” said the NEPC’s Welner, who is a professor of education policy at the University of Colorado.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To say that K12 students are “falling further behind” or “more likely to fall behind” necessarily implies a causal claim: students had higher test scores at one point but then fell further behind once they started K12.
To be able to make such a claim, the researchers would have had to know individual students’ pre-K12 test scores. I cannot find any evidence that they had any such thing. All the researchers looked at were statewide average test scores (pages 32-33) and AYP rates (pages 30-31).
If all you have are AYP rates and statewide average test scores, you cannot state that students are “falling further behind.”
I didn’t pay too much attention to the online school craze until recently when the Pittsburgh Public School District, where my two boys attend, announced its entry into the online school market for the purpose of bringing back students (800 of them) that left the District.
Here’s the pitch from the Pittsburgh Public Schools website:
“Welcome to the new Pittsburgh Online Academy!
If you left the District in search of an online experience, or if you are interested in exploring online schooling as an option for your child, I am happy to announce that Pittsburgh Public Schools can now meet your needs.
For the 2012-13 school year, the Pittsburgh Public Schools is looking to enroll students entering grades 6-9 into our NEW online academy. Our Online Academy will have the same graduation requirements and will mirror the scope and sequence of the curriculum of all other Pittsburgh Public Schools students.
Not only will students receive a quality education, but they could be eligible for thousands of dollars in college scholarships through the Pittsburgh Promise®.”
After the Pittsburgh Public Schools board voted to approve this measure, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported,
“For the school district, one of the big incentives is saving money.”
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/city-schools-take-on-cyber-rivals-642213/#ixzz20z7yYFlc
So much for policy decisions based on what is best for the students!
Exactly– furthermore, thinking logically, how many parents of students who are succeeding academically / satisfied with their current educational setting are out “shopping” for educational alternatives? Probably not as many as those parents who are not happy with their child’s educational setting or academic performance. Virtual schools often enroll students who are academically behind by more than 1 year. This report judges virtual schools by antiquated traditional measures and leaps to conclusions that are grossly erroneous.
Thank you for this post, Diane. Lee Barrios, a Louisiana blogger, referred to this press release in her blog this morning.
http://www.geauxteacher.com/2012/07/i-told-you-so-moment-3-virtual-schools.html
This morning in a local paper there was criticism from opponents and defense from proponents as to the status of Louisiana Connections Academy. There are two virtual schools operating in Louisiana at the present time. Enrollment caps were raised in the ed reform legislation for this genre of school choice.
http://theadvocate.com/news/3371805-123/virtual-schools-scores-disputed
Thank you Mr Buck. I think everyone is also assuming that these schools are siphoning students and resources away from B&M schools but many of the families at our K12 school had actually home schooled previously.
Why do so many families choose virtual schools? I assure you that it is not for the free but painfully slow computer that they send. The answer became clear when I brought my child to her first high stakes test arranged at a local hotel this past spring. I haven’t see so many special needs kids in one place since I accidentally wandered into the cafeteria in high school during the time designated for special education classes. There were other issues at play too, including the young lady sporting her own ankle monitor to the 8th grade test. I’m actually surprised that our school did as well as it did after seeing the student body in person.
In my opinion, the demand for virtual schools can be seen as another indicator of the rising special education crisis being caused by “school choice”. The sad thing is that a virtual school is a poor delivery system for special education services. They’re not even good at identifying students who might qualify. How could they be? But that’s not a good reason to abolish them. Many parents feel like this is their last resort.
If we are going to acknowledge that standardized test scores are neither an accurate judge of what makes a good public school nor a reliable way to evaluate teachers, then I think those same allowances need to be extended to virtual schools.
The demand for virtual schools is a sure indicator of the dumbing down of the American public and the triumph of American capitalism at its greediest.
Diane, I think that’s over the top and inappropriate.
Individual parents have legitimate reasons for their interest in online schools. I expect most or all of them assume it will be a high quality experience – after all, why would the state pay for it if it wasn’t?
Certain kids and families would benefit from good online options. Consider, for example, a family whose kids are an hour or more worth of travel from the nearest school, or kids whose families are traveling constantly. Consider a child who is working so far above grade level that she has no local peers. I can see that for me as a high school student, an online option might have saved a lot of people a lot of angst, even as I recognize that my daughter would not do well in one.
The idea of virtual academies is not the problem. The problem is expecting that those academies are appropriate for all kids, and in using them to siphon money out of the public sector.
Don’t let the for-profit opportunists box you into positions and statements you don’t really mean. 🙂
With all due respect, Diane, as you are well aware, there are multiple reasons why parents are looking for alternatives to traditional B&M schools. The quality of instruction, the increasingly sick social environment at many schools, and the parents’ desire to have more of a role in one’s children’s education are just some of the reasons. For sure online learning needs great improvement if it is to offer something worthwhile to large numbers of students, whose talents and needs vary greatly. And yes, the profit motive is problematic. But that is not the only reason, as your comment states, for the increase in demand for virtual schools. You would help the debate much more by not boiling all this down to profits and ignoring the sad state of learning and the poor social environment many parents and students are resisting.
Carl, you have a good idea. Why don’t we take the profit out of online learning and see where it goes? There are some childen who need to stay home for some reason…a recent story identified a teen who wants to be an Olympic skater who skates several hours a day, but she doesn’t seem to represent a large class of students. Did you read the NEPC study that I linked to yesterday? Do you feel okay about the abysmal results that these “schools” get? Children need to learn social skills, not just academics. With the cybercharters, most learn neither.
I would be thrilled with rules that required all public charters and options to be not-for-profit. I think we have to focus on that more than on the specific forms of various charters.
There are many ways and places to learn social skills. Schools are not the only and in some cases not the best places to learn them. (Often I think the biggest lure for parents for school choice is toxic classmates.)
A high quality not-for-profit online academy that was focused on the well being of its students would be a welcome addition to the educational community.
You are right that one of the big lures of charter schools is the chance to escape “those children.” As we move in this direction, creating more places of escape, where will we be a decade from now? Charter schools for the advantaged, public schools for the troublemakers, the disadvantaged, the rowdy, the hard to control, the weak, the slow. Maybe we can build fences around them and hire teachers as tamers.
(I can’t quite reply to the right comment so I’ll put it here.)
Sometimes “those children” really are toxic, though, and this is where the increased class sizes and the lack of administrators available to support them in these austere times create serious problems.
I would be pretty unhappy to see large numbers of kids doing online-only school for a K-12 education. But I can see value in having the option available, perhaps especially just for a year or a semester.
They just need to be real public schools run by real educators to benefit students, not for-profit mills.
I agree with that. I see the value in taking courses online that you can’t get in your own school, like Chinese or advanced physics. I don’t see why children benefit by staying at home with their parent (who may be poorly educated) as their guide. You can’t hide from the world. At some point, you have to join it.
Take the profit out of the virtual charter business. Cap the salary of the high-level executives to not more than that paid in the district that is their headquarters, and you will see what happens.
On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Diane Ravitch wrote:
> I agree with that. I see the value in taking courses online that you can’t > get in your own school, like Chinese or advanced physics. I don’t see why > children benefit by staying at home with their parent (who may be poorly > educated) as their guide. You can’t hide from the world. At some point, you > have to join it. > >
Homeschooling is not about hiding out from the world. It’s about guiding YOUR children according to your principles and teaching them what you, as their parent, feels is important. For many, there is a religious connection, but for growing numbers there is not. Getting an education is not just about test scores or book knowledge., it’s about preparing students for life and most schools, sadly don’t do this. You can get straight A’s and have no street smarts or common sense for that matter. And what makes schools such a great place to get socialized? In the real world, you are surrounding by people of different ages, not just others who are your own age, so school is not really representative of what it will be like in the adult world. I agree, some parents have been poorly educated and thus would not be a good educator as far as school subjects go. And as far as hiding out from the world, you can give your homeschooled student plenty of REAL world experience than contrived experiences in school. There are plenty of people who attend school and still have poor social skills. There is no one solution to education, public school is not for everyone, and not everyone is concerned about cranking out kids with an education that fits society’s needs.. My first concern is my child, not society.
I respectfully disagree. My son has attended a brick and mortar school and this year alone has come home with two swollen eyes, a laceration on his arm, a swollen face, etc. because there is a LRE Mandate that ties brick and mortar schools from removing children with behavioral problems from class. This child kicked my child over and over again last year and once, just once, my son shoved this student away from his body and screamed out, “Don’t you ever hurt me again!” and they suspended my son. This year they sat that child next to my son in class and this child kicked him under the desk over and over again. Despite knowing the situation and my son’s straight 100% on every assignment, the teacher gave my child a final grade of a “B” because she considered him telling this student to stop kicking him to be “disruptive” to class. Many other things occurred and eventually my son came home and told me he had it all figured out. If you are bad long enough and then behave well a little bit, you will be rewarded.
I approached the administration regarding this problem and the Principal defended the other child’s rights, ignoring the rights of my child to be in a safe and healthy environment. Do I want my child to have social skills? Well, yea, and I think he does because he never retaliated against that child for the years of abuse he tolerated (these are 8-10 year olds) so, please explain to me what exactly will we be missing socially? I’ver removed him and we are now in k12 and if you ask me to pick the needs of “one of those children” (as you all have labeled them on this thread) over the right of my child to not be hurt, I will pick my child each and every time.
As a family we tolerated the situation long enough and I feel that I am owed an explanation from someone defending bricks and mortar schools because, I myself, would like teachers to earn good wages, be paid fairly, and not have education turn into a for-profit enterprise. Do you suppose I should have left my son in that environment until he gets impaled by a pair of scissors?
I am happy I had the luxury of a choice because it seems to me that the rights of my child were being trumped by a stupid regulation that doesn’t seem to take into account that there are 29 other kids in the class watching this kid go into the closet 4x/week banging his head on the cinder block wall over and over and over again, or the doctors note allowing this child to not have to stay in his seat and prance around the room yelling over the teacher trying to instruct the kids, taking 4 bathroom breaks an hour and cutting up the teachers materials on her desk, among other things.
So, what exactly are we missing socially, the talks with our pediatrician after he’s injured? The discussions with the other child’s mother wherein she alleges “all ya all’s kids is bad, why are you picking on mines?”, or when the principal calls the police to have me removed from the building when I go to pick my child up, just because she’s being embarrassed by my vocality and opposition to ignoring the classroom problem? I really don’t think we will miss much, in fact, I think doors will open up and the sun will come shining right in, but I’m interested in what you think. Do you suppose we should have stayed there or did we do the right think moving on into k12? As of now, all we really miss is that it was a “gifted” class and my son will have to test up to where he was before, but I think it’s a fair trade off. We aren’t happy about it, but we will just work harder and be better for it.
Diane: I did read the report you linked. It would sure help to assess the true differences in results if the researchers compared apples to apples: do in fact the credentials of those assessed in each environment look similar at the start of their online vs B&M education? Is there a disproportionate share of the virtual academy students who are below grade level to begin with (relative to the B&M peers who were tested)? That would make these comparative test scores more robust and meaningful. As for socialization: yes, indeed. But the kinds of socialization young kids need are less and less found in the public schools you recommend they attend. It’s great to learn about bullying, drugs, physical violence, etc…but not to experience it at the rate all of these now exist. If the environment were changed, perhaps the profit seekers would appear to have less to sell to parents.
Touche. Sound arguments. Keep up the amazing spirit.
I’ve taught in online schools for 4 years. K12 bought each one of my schools, and we were laid off. I would say that only 5% or so of the students I taught had the discipline and/or home support required to be successful at online school. Over 50% of the students were on probation. 80% of the students who finished their probation quit school. 30% of the girls were mothers or soon-to-be mothers. Many of the students worked out of necessity. A very large part of my job was getting the students to actually do something. Log on, answer my phone calls, respond to me emails. One student requested another teacher because I called him at 11:00 am and woke him up. Students who did well: home schooled students who had a solid routine, athletes who were on the road, and socially uncomfortable students who had parents who were with them every minute of the day. Most of my students were left home by working parents, and did not have the habits required to succeed.
I think online school has great promise, particularly as an accessory to get courses not available to students. But the statistics in this report are accurate from my perspective. I don’t think K12 CAUSES the bad scores. I’ve seen their curriculum and some of it is quite excellent. It’s the students that are attracted to online schools. The graduation rate is low because sometimes the only reason the student is enrolled is because the DA has filed a lawsuit against the parent.
Obviously none of the people commenting have dealt with the horrible public school system in this country. Obviously none of the children attending online schools have left their own comments. My daughters all graduated from online school K-12 and then graduated from Universities of their choice and are now in careers not “dead end jobs”.
They had the best social lives during their K-12 years especially since they were not forced to befriend those who just happened to be in the classes. They were in science and math clubs, they each joined track, softball, swimming, and soccer teams. My youngest in 9th grade has been in more science, math and sports clubs than her older sisters. They offer more year round events for K-12 students than you can choose from.
If you have a child with special needs or one that needs tutoring there are more teachers and programs available for FREE in K12 than in “any” public school in this country! One of the tutor centers where we live charges $300 per hour for students in public and private schools but they are free for K12 students. Doesn’t seem like anyone does their research anymore or ask the “right” people the right questions and whoever did this report it is full of LIES!
Mrs. Cooper, your experience and that of your daughters is not typical. 50% of students drop out of online schools every year. They miss the social interaction with real students and real teachers. They lack motivation to sit in front of a computer for their education. Furthermore, these corporations are making millions by taking money away from real schools.