Are online schools doing a good job? Some readers have written to defend them.
The research is clear that students in online schools get lower test scores and have lower graduation rates. And see here. The virtual schools collect more tax dollars than it costs them for each student. Online instruction may be just right for some students, like the home-bound, or the athlete in training for the Olympics, or the child actor with no time to go to school, or some other special cases.
But the online corporations have an incentive to recruit more and more students, because each student represents profit to them (and revenue if the company is a non-profit). That explains why every time you turn on your computer, there is an ad for an online school. The name of their game is recruitment, because in addition to low test scores and low graduation rates, they also have high attrition rates.
This came in response to an earlier post:
I taught online PE. I had a student state they ran a mile in 3 and a half minutes. 0 accountability in online PE programs
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Would online PE be considered an oxymoron?
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Interesting story about the K12 schools performance in Tennessee: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/31/andy-berke-criticizes-dismal-scores-of-for/?politics
What’s truly stunning is that, according to the article, the K12 schools performed in the bottom 11% of all TN schools tested using the state’s value-added assessment. As I recall, value-added assessments have been championed by the same reformers who also push for on-lines schools.
K12’s response has been familiar–move the goal posts and change the game. They claim that current performance is no prediction of future performance–why don’t we who support public education get to use that line?–and their own testing using the private Scranton Performance Series shows they are meeting or beating the Scranton norm group in all categories. In other words, in their own private world they’re doing just fine. So, why don’t the public schools in TN get to use these tests too?
And they’re making improvements to improve future outcomes.
So, let me get this straight–K12 in TN can’t hack the very performance tests the reformers have shoved down the throats of the public schools. In response, they get to claim that current performance is no indication of future performance. But public schools are roundly condemned on the basis of their current performance. K12 then gets to tout its own private testing results that show–surprise!–K12 is doing just fine, compared to norm among the customers of the private testing service. But the public schools have to be tested using national and international standardized tests that are not private. Finally, despite claiming they’re doing just fine in their own little universe, they are working to improve. Of course, the public schools–that are doing better than K12–are beyond help.
Oh-Kay!
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Here is my take. Our school in NYC used an online, computer based reading program for the first time last year. Some of our students were clocked in as reading 600 articles and having their lexile scores increase by 4 grade levels. At the end of the year, the representatives from the program came to the school and gave an assembly for all of the students who participated; giving out prizes and accolades to the most prolific readers. One student in particular kept going up to the stage to receive accolade after accolade. NYS’s ELA and Math scores recently came in, and guess what? – she did not show any growth from last year.
Here’s the problem: When I observed the students who were clocking in an inordinate number of articles, I noticed that they were just answering the questions in order to get the “rewards” that the system gave out. I asked them why they weren’t reading the articles. Their response was that it was boring. You see, it’s like a video game. They are doing it for the rewards that the system produces; not for the enjoyment of reading.
There is always room to game the system. Ask any video game player about “cheats” and they will tell you. Kids will always find a way to game the system. Online publishers will always find ways to game the system as well.
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In Louisiana we pay online charter schools the same amount as brick and mortor schools. Our Parental Options group (a TFA run group over our charter schools) has instructed our virtual charter operators not to exit students once they enroll even if they only log in once a week and never produce any work. They don’t want virtual charters being credited with dropouts so they can only be exited if they enroll in another public school. Failure is not an option, but profit is a guarantee.
We also have virtual school from k -12. What the heck is a virtual Kindergarten?
I guess we are preparing kids for lifetime of zero human interaction? I guess the next step is to plug them into a computer when they’re born and initialize their infant training programs.
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Did you see the NEPC report on K12? And the CREDO report on online charters in Pennsylvania.
Bad news.
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Where does CREDO fit in the political mix? I gave them a huge amount of data from LA before I left, and they are slated to get fresh doses of data for the next few years as it becomes available. They refused to work with me (pesky FERPA and MOUs) but I’m wondering why our DOE agreed to work with them. Nothing would stop me from pointing out interesting places to look though… 🙂
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Found the CREDO report on Pennsylvania. If they produce an honest report on Louisiana it will be worse and that will be the end of any data sharing. Before I left they decided to make it policy to only willingly provide data to people that made them look good and to cut off anyone who produced anything remotely negative (ie truthful)
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