The NCAA announced that it will no longer accept credits awarded by 24 virtual charter schools, all of which are operated by Michael Milken’s corporation K12.
This is huge.
All of these virtual schools are highly profitable. The K12 corporation, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, receives full tuition for each student; the district loses the tuition, and the student gets a computer and textbooks. K12 is known to have a high dropout rate and low graduation rates.
This is the first time that a major accrediting body has rejected the education offered by K12 and declared that its credits were unacceptable.
NCAA No Longer Accepting Coursework from 24 High Schools
Today the NCAA announced that 24 schools which use a company called K12 Inc. to provide their curriculum were no longer approved. All of the schools are nontraditional high schools, and their courses were found to not comply with the NCAA’s nontraditional course requirements. The schools are:
California Virtual Academy – San Joaquin
California Virtual Academy – San Diego
California Virtual Academy – Los Angeles
California Virtual Academy – Sutter
California Virtual Academy – Jamestown
California Virtual Academy – Kern
California Virtual Academy – San Mateo
California Virtual Academy – Kings
California Virtual Academy – Sonoma
San Francisco Flex Academy (CA)
Silicon Valley Flex Academy (Morgan Hill, CA)
California Virtual Academy – LA High
California Virtual Academy – Santa Ysabel
Colorado Virtual Academy Cova (North Glenn, CO)
Georgia Cyber Academy (Atlanta, GA)
Nevada Virtual Academy (Las Vegas, NV)
Ohio Virtual Academy (Maumee, OH)
Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy (Nicoma Park, OK)
Agora Cyber Charter School (Wayne, PA)
South Carolina Virtual Charter (Columbia, SC)
Washington Virtual Academy – Monroe (Tacoma, WA)
Insight School of Colorado (Westminster, CO)
Insight School of Washington (Tacoma, WA)
IQ Academy Washington (Vancouver, WA)
As a result, the NCAA will stop accepting coursework from these schools starting with the 2014–15 school year. Coursework completed from Spring 2013 through Spring 2014 will undergo additional evaluation on a case-by-case basis when a prospect tries to use it for initial eligibility purposes. Coursework completed in Fall 2012 or earlier may be used without additional evaluation.
In addition to the 24 schools above, other schools affiliated with K12 Inc. remain under Extended Evaluation. This means the NCAA will continue to review coursework coming from those schools to see whether it meets the NCAA’s core course and nontraditional course requirements. Prospects with coursework from those schools must submit additional documentation no matter when the coursework was completed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Am I missing something or isn’t the NCAA an athletic association and not an academic organization? Someone help me out.
Yes they oversee Athletics, but the students must still meet certain academic requirement to be admitted to a particular college. They are “Student-Athletes”.
They also act as gatekeepers for scholarship money. No matter how athletically gifted, a student athlete has to meet NCAA requirements in order to be eligible for scholarship monies. The NCAA is known for some pretty strict (crazy?) rules that govern everything…even the amount of pasta on student athletes’ plates.
Rejecting K12 would most likely hurt student athletes who are elite level competitors in more individual pursuits like gymnastics, fencing, tennis, and more. Such athletes often sacrifice their educations for an elite level career, hoping for a free ride in the end. Those who do endorsements completely lose the NCAA eligibility. We really need better school options (within the system, not in opposition to it) for such student athletes.
Yes, this is critically important. Students who want to go on to play at Division I, II or III schools MUST fulfill certain academic requirements while in HS. I learned about this as a school administrator when NCAA informed us that they would no longer accept a certain course as fulfilling their math requirement, as the course did not introduce a sufficient level of new content (as compared to the pre-requisite course) and was not sufficiently rigorous. So I sat down with a couple of strong math teachers and our curricula, studied the course and we all had to agree: the NCAA was right. This meant that, for our student scholar/athletes, WE had to ramp up our game–ensure that our students were well-prepared for and successfully completed more rigorous coursework in secondary math. By the way the course in question was Algebra II/Trig–the school had created a watered-down Algebra II course and the NCAA called us on it.
Correction–Eligibility requirements are for Division I and II, not III. Sorry. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Quick_Reference_Sheet.pdf
Obviously the NCAA is a sports organization that validates MINIMAL academic requirements considered acceptable for its student-ATHLETES. Its interested in directing its enormous financial resources and revenue base, which at least for some sports, is lucrative and a key institutional image builder. Its academic bar is pretty low – that they rejected K12 says a lot about just how weak these programs must be. I’m agnostic about the educational issue of the value of online learning (but deeply skeptical it can stand alone – because learning is a deeply social process), but anytime a leader of an educational institution makes more than 1 million dollars (and this Ron Packard is no Nobel prize winner or discoverer of the cure for cancer) or even a great visionary teacher or researcher or philosopher, I’ve got to be deeply skeptical about intentions – it just doesn’t pass the smell test! I know of no institution of learning, at any level, that became great by pursuing a profit motive. It’s just the wrong driver, and it sets up the wrong priorities, and the contradictions just eventually catch up and they self destruct or become diploma mills which nobody respects but which exploits the needs of the worst off and the desperate, and which do a lot of damage. These in particular, by siphoning finds from already underfunded public schools is dramatic in the damage it has already done.
NCAA is not an accrediting agency.
A thought to ponder – could it possibly be that the NCAA is wrong in this decision? That perhaps they do not understand the ability for a student to progress academically in a virtual environment?
Yes, they certainly are wrong. Although I can speak only to the Flex Academy. Flex Academy is a hybrid school with teachers on-site. A student with a question raises his or her hand and waits for an academic coach to help. Originally they approved all of my son’s courses. He signed his letter of intent, and the NCAA re-processed his transcripts and now his last semester of high school(which was Spring 2013) courses are not being accepted. This is insane. Why would you go back and disapprove classes when (1) the classes were cleared and (2) the student has graduated? I will likely seek legal assistance from one of the attorneys with which I work. UGH!!!
Here is a challenge for the bloggers – try to get standards or rubric of determination of their non-traditional legislation from ec-highschool@ncaa.org
K12, Inc. paid CEO Ron Packard $19 million from 2009-2013
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12314/cmd-exposes-america%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Chighest-paid-government-workers%E2%80%9D
It’s a shell game. MIlken established K12 Inc but his education companies can’t get government funding because he’s a felon who was convicted of securities fraud, so after starting them, he feigns uninvolvement in his companies and appoints someone else as CEO.
He’s gotten away with that at the state level, but he failed at the federal level when he owned a non-profit university which could not get Title IV financial aid for students. It was too obvious that he was calling all the shots, because the school was run by one of his for-profit companies and the board was stacked with his cronies and execs from some of his other companies. When the college’s regional accrediting body put the school on notice for this, he just had yet another one of his companies take over the school’s management. He does not give up quickly. But it was too easy to see through the ploy and the college ended up losing accreditation. Then he sold it. I doubt he’ll be selling off K12 any time soon though.
Bill Bennett was also involved in establishing this scam. Because of K-12’s ties to Milken, it should not be allowed in any state in the union. People should pressure various education licensing boards to get rid of this scam.
Felons can’t teach in any public school district in the country, and school operators are supposed to be held to the same rules.
So, before Arne Dunkin Duncan started issuing waivers, 60 percent of US schools were on track to become officially designated as “failed” schools under the insane NCLB plan for 100% proficiency by this year.
Under that NCLB plan, you will remember, districts had to provide alternative schools for all those failed ones. I was wondering, at the time, where those were going to come from.
Enter the virtual charters, and in particular, one with the former Secretary of Education as a founder. K12 started out trying to be yet another educational publisher. It produced a few really, really dreadful products. But then this enormous opportunity presented itself.
So, you see, NCLB was the enabling legislation.
That’s called a “public-private partnership” these days. One could also call it state crony capitalism.
And, of course, without the waivers, 100 percent of public schools would have been “failures” under NCLB because of the 100 percent proficiency requirement. I think of the “teacher” of the kid in Orlando, born with barely more than a brain stem, who was being warned by the State Department because of her student’s failure to show progress on the FCAT.
This was perhaps the stupidest legislation ever written. And now we have Son of NCLB, NCLB Fright Night II: The Nightmare Is Nationalized. But this time, the enabling legislation, the ESEA, hasn’t even been passed. So, to switch metaphors, it’s an undeclared war on US schools this time around, unlike the declared war the last time.
OMG…
And now Ron Packard has left K12, Inc to lead a yet-to-be-named company focused on the “expansion and integration of technology-based learning programs in pre-K through college across the globe through the management and expansion of several existing early stage businesses and targeted investments within the education services sector.”
Basically, there’s about to be no more money to be made in the United States education market, so this Wall Street opportunist is getting a foothold in the global education market.
As always, FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Somebody needs to be looking out for the interests of prospective student athletes earlier in this process, and assuring that adequate educational resources are available to them. At various times in my career, I’ve worked with athletically talented students, and I know that scouts sometimes start tracking them early in their high school careers. In Boston in the early 1990’s, I taught in an alternative program where the players could maintain eligibility for their BPS school team, while they studied at our non-profit site.
Are there charlatans counseling student athletes into K12inc virtual programs? If so, they should be disbarred from further student contact, by the schools they scout for.
I’m wondering at what point California can demand its money back from the K12inc hucksters?
ChemTchr, the scouts are now tracking the athletes in middle school and offering them the moon. It is a scandal.
and the research behind this is…
this is fantastic regardless, like diane states this is huge because it challenges them (profit only schools) that their product is inferior, gets ’em right where it hurts; financially, when students find out they cannot get accredited then they’ll run…this is the correct message, i’m so happy with this report and surprised actually.
I find this news to be somewhat ironic. The NCAA has much work to do ensuring that the students who make millions for their universities get a solid education. Now that NCAA addressed scandalous virtual charters, I hope their next step is to verify that the classes student athletes attend, and the grades they receive, in their own institutes are valid.
I take your point overall and I don’t disagree — but, let’s make one distinction: MOST NCAA athletes are good students. My daughter swam Division I and both she and her teammates were very good students. Many, but not all, male esp. football and basketball, not so much. It is hard to deal with these students, particularly if they took the “I don’t have to be a good student because I’m a good athlete” attitude while they were in high school.
NCAA’s action suggests the K12 schools took advantage of this and took in and processed through some wannabe college athletes who weren’t able to get their traditional high schools to agree with them that because they are good athletes that regular schoolwork is beneath them, and so now NCAA is saying “no” to this. This can only be good.
You can take a look at the Div. 1 qualifications — they really are fairly tough — some athletes do junior college just because they can’t play Div. 1 due to academics. Four years of math, four years of English, other classes. Few states require this much of their general high school graduates, but Div. 1 does. You can look at ncaaclearinghouse.net for the requirements.
Good response Julie.
I realize most NCAA athletes are good students. That does not excuse the fact that the NCAA does not pay attention to the education many of their star athletes receive at their schools. Most of these athletes do not go on to professional sports careers and their academic credentials are seriously lacking.
I am certain, at least some of the time, the athletes who bring in the big money for their schools, are held to more relaxed standards than what the NCAA claims.
I doubt that charters are the only schools being lax with their student athletes. Even private K-12 schools recruit athletes.
Maybe colleges should get out of the business of football and basketball and find another way to finance their operations.
I suspect that part of what has happened is that K12 has filled a void created when the NCAA cracked down on unaccredited, basketball-focused diploma mills such as the former Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia. For more about these former “schools” –
As you correctly noted this is primarily an issue related to football and basketball, though it is not exclusive to those two sports. The fundamental problem with football and basketball is that the the NFL, NBA and the major athletic powers don’t want any fundamental changes to the current system. In particular none of them are interested in seeing a viable minor league system established in either sport. Moreover, as long as athletic powers are wedded to the idea of maintaining the illusion of amateurism and athletes are primarily interested in honing athletic skills for future professional athletic employment, people are going to continue to find ways to keep disinterested athletes academically eligible through academic fraud. IMO this move though warranted is just another in a long history of disingenuous, but very public measures taken by the NCAA. There will still be academic fraud, it just won’t be committed through K12.
However, as a Georgia resident and a friend of a former GA Cyber Academy teacher who has almost nothing positive to say about her experience there, anything that can be done to shine a light on the waste of money there and with K12 in general is certainly welcome by me.
Where does the college’s responsibility end and the student’s begin. The vast majority of student athletes are responsible students just like the students who do not compete is a sport. If a student athlete is not following through with classes, etc. they should have their scholarship revoked.
While it is true that the vast majority of student athletes are responsible, it is also true that the vast majority of student athletes do not bring in millions for the school, millions that fund all the athletic programs. Colleges are not going to give up these talented athletes or hold them to the same academic standards that they hold student athletes who participate in sports that do not bring in considerable money.
However, I also agree that the individual needs to be more responsible and in the case of minor children, parents who send their minor child(ren) to for-profit charters are responsible for the growth of these schools.
I’m so thrilled to see that Georgia Cyber Academy made the list! Local school systems and the state DOE here in Georgia have been turning to and pushing them more and more for classes for credit. Thanks, drext727, for the clarification. And, yes, concerned mom, I completely agree with you!
Seconded as a fellow Georgian. This news is especially important given recent efforts to try to require students to complete an online course (often offered through K12) to graduate.
I’m not accepting that if it comes to Ohio. That’s not “choice”, it’s a cheap replacement for real instruction.
I plan to oppose that. This is a rural area and I just know they will try to stick us with cheap online garbage to replace core classes.
I’ll accept the replacement of live classes with online instruction when high income and private schools do it. They can lead. We’ll follow.
Anyone who believes states aren’t going to use this to cut costs on ed is a fool. I want a guarantee that teachers won’t be replaced by screens in low and middle income areas. I’m not in any rush. If this is so fabulous they can test drive it in well-funded public schools. We’ll be late adopters.
Chiarra, I believe that you are going to see more of a push towards online/virtual schools. This is consistent with the “deformers” greed. You can have one person sitting by a computer watching 1000 students work, therefore saving millions of dollars. It fits with their “efficiency” model; more results for less money.
drext727,
You are so right!! This IS consistent with the deformers’ greed. And, Chiara, get ready to fight–fight hard and loud!! Because “screens and on-line garbage” are quickly coming to a school near you!!–EVERYWHERE!!!
Our school district in Florida requires kids to take at least one online class in order to graduate. I understand partly, the reason for this is to get kids use to taking online courses because they will be available at the college level, but to make it a graduation requirement is ridiculous. It’s through Florida Virtual Academy. My oldest daughter said it’s hard to navigate and makes absolutely no sense. Good for the NCAA to crack down on academics….not everyone will make the pros!
Indiana Mom in Florida, that graduation requirement is Baird. It was bought and paid for by the beneficiaries, the tech industry. Check out who sponsors Jeb’s Foundation for Educational Excellence
Likewise, I was happy to see that 3 Washington ones had made the list. I’ve had more problems getting kids back from a year of their “tutelage” only to find them further behind than when they left. Plus lots of shady things went on they were allowed into Washington – like several legislators jumping ship to work for Washington Virtual Academy shortly after legislation was passed to let them in. Plus WEA has found that some teachers have been responsible for 60-80 kids.
That’s EXACTLY what’s happening in Georgia!!!
This is great. There is a K-12, Inc Charter School in Farmington, NM, which is in the far western reaches of New Mexico. Forty (40) percent of the students are from Albuquerque and more from the eastern side of the state. Very few from the Farmington District. This is a money maker for K-12, Inc without necessarily providing students with a proper education. I am very happy NCAA is looking into the standards of the virtual schools.
Retweeted by ASU+GSV Summit
Excellence in Ed @ExcelinEd 12h
And here we go! Margaret Spellings introduces @JebBush to @asugsvsummit! #EDinnovation
Wow! What a diverse group of thought leaders! Cheerleaders and pom pom wavers for online ed for children, all of whom work in the industry.
Next up: the founder of Kaplan! Now there’s a disinterested party, right? What do you think Kaplan believes about online ed for children? “Fabulous!”, I bet.
This is an echo chamber.
Celebrating the demise of K12 with Whitney Tilson; cheering along with Jay Greene as Common Core goes down in flames in Indiana . . . expect the unexpected when logging on to dianeravitch.net!
Don Graham, former CEO of WashingtonPost & CEO of Kaplan, interviewed by CEO of Edsurge at @asugsvsummit pic.twitter.com/aa1Qz8dCXK
Now that must have been a tough interview. Two interested parties. Which one is the interviewer, again? Why not just run an ad for ed tech and be done with it?
Diane,
I’m surprised to see you have so much faith in the NCAA, especially when they refuse to provide any measurable standards or guidelines for what they view to be acceptable teaching criteria: http://bit.ly/1f2ca6d
There are thousands of excellent teachers in online, blended and traditional schools that would take issue with the NCAA’s academic and instructional determinations.
Jeff, there are many studies showing that cyber charters in general supply an inferior quality of education, and many documenting that K12 is especially deficient, with high attrition, low tests ores, and low graduation rates.
but they at least do spell check – ‘ores’?
I apologize – that was a cheap shot – what are you basing your conclusion on?
Diane,
As a veteran educator of over 30 years in public schools and university settings, I have always sought first to understand first hand before criticizing. In that spirit, I invite you to meet with a group of K12 teachers who will be able to educate you in the quality and integrity of virtual public education. I would be happy to arrange.
G. Smith,
I met with some of the original educators of K12 who quit in disgust when they realized that K12″s highest priority is making money, not education.
Fantastic!! We tried K12 in WA state in 2012 for three months. I was shocked at the ridiculous number of hoops we had to jump through every day, the complete LACK of flexibility, but most of all, the shoddy curriculum. I have smart kids, but when they suggested that both of my kids be moved up multiple grades, within just a couple weeks, I had to start looking closer. There were so many fill-in-the-blank type assignments and very few in-depth assignments or projects. And tons of wasted time going back and forth between book and computer, logging in and verifying and checking off boxes and so on. It really felt like a scam. This is really good to hear!!!!!
We are talking a privately run NCAA that is arbitrary in almost all of their decisions right? Except for being a multimillion dollar organization making $ off the sweat of student athletes, who are they to determine what is a good educational organization?
Chaps, NCAA takes seriously its responsibility to accredit secondary programs. The virtual industry is a dud.
I disagree – NCAA does not have any educators monitoring programs – have you seen the credentials of their staff – I have.
And as far as you accusation that virtual industry is a dud – what do you base that opinion on? Have you taught in a virtual environment?
This is a continuation of questionable NCAA tactics that have gone on for more than 15 years. A broad coalition of groups, including the national association of high school counselors, national association of state boards of education, and educators such as Herb Kohl and yours truly successfully challenged the NCAA when it first announced it would require every public school in the US to submit its english, social studies, math and science courses from every public and private school for review.
Who established the NCAA as the national high school course accrediting association?
Football and basketball at the NCAA division 1 Level constantly have scandals based on the NCAA’s inability to regulate colleges and universities.
The NCAA should focus its attention on the quality of courses offered at colleges.
After 3 years of challenge, the NCAA agreed about 10 years ago to accept the judgement of high school principals and counselors as to what were college preparation courses.
Hmm..well I am using K12 with my daughter in Georgia. She is a high-achiever and does very well in school. We made this choice when we didn’t want to sacrifice her education, however she is also pursuing ballet so there are some long hours on certain days that made traditional school not work for her. In all honesty, the curriculum is more robust and detailed than what she was receiving at her brick and mortar school. But there is one big thing you are missing. The teachers for the online schools – at least in our case – are there as more of a helper to the parent. The parent is the actual teacher in these cases – so a ratio of 1:1 in my home is way better than the 1:33 ratio IN the brick and mortar schools. If we have a problem or come up against an area in which we are struggling, we have the teacher there to help us out, to guide us, to give us different tools to teach the subject or concept. This is why they can have more children underneath them – they employ EACH parent to be their child’s best learning coach. It has been wonderful for us this year – so much so that i’m bringing my 8th grader home next year as well. My 5th grade daughter has been learning the things that my 7th grade honors daughter has been learning this year – the curriculum is easily above grade level from everything we’ve experienced this year. It is an absolute great program with many great teachers that can help you if you need it – so far, we have needed very little help from our teacher this year.
Tanya, I am happy to hear that K12 works for you. Numerous studies show it does not work for most kids. Notice the NCAA acted against 24 of its schools, a decision not made lightly.
But made arbitrarily – why can’t the NCAA provide the standard they are judging K12 against? kind of like calling a ‘foul’ but not telling you how committed.
You are right – the decision is not taken lightly. Where is the accountability of NCAA to explain their determination? We have yet to see what standards they are judging virtual education by except for some arbitrary legislation that does not show specific standards.
Diane I would like to speak with you about k12 and how they idly sat by as I was sued by the founder of their public charter school. I have documents and information that will expose the fraud they perpetrate.
Tanya – you obviously have several things going for you that make K12 a success for you. First of all, your daughter is a high-achiever. Secondly, you have stepped into the role of teacher, and quite ably, it sounds like. Third, it sounds like you have a definite need for an alternative learning environment given your daughter’s ballet involvement. Finally, since you are able to be home with your kids and finance your daughter’s ballet activities, you are more than likely in a higher SES than most families.
Not all kids who move to the online K12 environment have those advantages. Of my students who went to an online school environment and came back, only one was what I would consider a high achiever, and she did not like the lack of social contact at home, thus she was back before the end of the year. The reason she left – her mother felt public school was holding her back and that online school would allow her to work at her level. She changed her mind after trying to help her daughter with math and not getting much help from the online teacher. Another child whose mother was the driving force behind this change due to a conflict with another parent and the PTA, was not prepared for the amount of “teaching” she was expected to do. It infringed upon her usual activities – coffee with her friends, hair dresser, shopping, etc. She reenrolled her daughter in a different school in my district, then returned to my school the following year. And a former student of mine who enrolled in a K12 virtual school did so because his older brother was expelled from HS, and his mom felt that K12 was his only option to graduate from HS. So she kept both boys home and enrolled them both in K12. Beyond the technical issues they had connecting online, they rarely had contact with a teacher; the older brother skated through classes with minimal contact and work. The younger brother fell further and further behind and began imitating the older brother’s actions – doing as little as possible. Eventually the mother figured out it wasn’t working, and when he returned to public school, he had to repeat 5th grade because he was so far behind in math that there was no way he could catch up. I’ve heard similar stories from other teachers in my district, and in other districts. In fact, K12 even admits that their program isn’t suitable for at-risk or “inner-city kids” (their term).
We also had teachers who left to teach in these K12 virtual charters and quickly returned. They left thinking they could teach in their pajamas, be home for their kids, etc. What they found was overloaded class sizes, non-certificated teachers (which are not allowed in Washington State, but is happening online with K12 even though it is not supposed to), pressure to pass kids even though they’d had very little contact with them, and lots of other nasty little surprises. One teacher who came back said she spent way more time trying to jump hoops for K12 than she ever did teaching in a brick and mortar school. She said there were many ways for “teachers” to cheat the system and do very little work, falsify contact records, but she could not do that and live with her conscience. News reports tend to verify her claims.
http://thenotebook.org/blog/135532/ex-workers-claim-operator-cyber-charters-played-games-enrollment-figures
So while I am glad K12 works for you, consider yourself the exception rather than the rule. I would say that given your own education level, SES, and your daughter’s work ethic, that pretty much anything would work for her and your family.
I can definitely say that if a parent is not involved and does not become the teacher at home – whether it is an online charter school or a true homeschool situation – that it will not work and the child will not get a good education. It is not an easy way out – it is one that must be thought about, researched, prayed through, and decided upon after knowing all of the facts. As there was a reason to remove her from traditional school hours, yet I was unwilling to be the one choosing the curriculum and felt that I needed the lesson plans to help keep me accountable as well, we chose the cyber school for her. I still have another child that is in brick and mortar as well and she is excelling there and there is no reason to move her at this time. I think that quite possibly the problem may come in when the parents do not realize that they are required to be on top of their children. Sure, the program we use it would be easy for the parents to go in under their login and doctor things for their child to make it look like the child made a better grade, or finished an assignment that they did not, but I’m not sure that should reflect on the actual curriculum as much as on the parent themselves. Perhaps there are better ways for cyber schools to organize their computer components to avoid that type of scenario. It seems there are two separate entities here at play. Is the curriculum bad? Does it not teach what it should at the age/grade level that it should? Or, is the curriculum itself fine, but the accountability in how it is delivered, graded, etc..questionable? But even then, if a high school junior sits for the SAT and scores very well, yet has attended a cyber school, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that the child actually did learn what they should have learned during those years in the cyber school?
UNC is in the midst of a athletic scandal involving no-show, paper courses. This occurred at UNC Chapel Hill, (supposedly) the top academic school in the system.
Here is the latest on the UNC scandal:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/21/3800584/unc-whistle-blower-resigns-after.html
The article gives some of the background as well.
I wasn’t sure I’d live long enough to see this house of cards come tumbling down…nice to know the first card has been pulled…
I think part of the research should include studies that show how well a student from key does at the college. The colleges are still allowed to admit k12 students.
K12 schools have very low graduation rates so it would be a tiny study.
The barbarians who took over education this last decade, are finally crashing down. Inbloom, K12, M. Rhee, etc….one can almost hear the edifice’s columns cracking and buckling under the weight of its utter (albeit well financed) nonsense. And their reach is all over the world – it will be decades more before we recover from the damage and confusion they have planted!
I am torn by this because I don’t want to see kids who are gifted athletes but not academically talented have their options closed. I suspect that I will take heat for saying this. I’m no fan of virtual charters. But I am a big fan of not expecting all “outputs” from our “schools as factories” to be the same. I’m not so sure but what some big lunk football players might not get quite a lot that others are not hip to, not having had their life experiences, from courses that are less challenging than those taken by others. I HATE WITH EVERY BIT OF MY BEING the insistence on uniformity of “output” from schooling. Kids differ. Our goal should be to recognize and build upon and give outlet to their gifts and to show them how to develop those. And sometimes those gifts are the ability to sink 400 free throws in a row.
If a student is not able to complete college courses then why are they allowed on campus? Just because of an athletic talent? They shouldn’t be admitted if they are not able to do college coursework. It bothers me that athletes in certain sports get a free pass. They have a free college education (very expensive to most people), tutors, and are gods on campus. I get tired of them portrayed as victims when they are offered so much more than the regular student who gets up every day, goes to class, and completes their assignments for graduation. How much is the university’s fault and how much is the student’s fault if they don’t complete a degree program?
They are admitted on campus because they bring in MILLIONS of dollars for these colleges. The colleges are at fault and use these humans beings to make a lot of money and do very little to make sure they receive even a basic education.
Most athletic programs lose money. At my institution, for example, a portion of the student fees goes to subsidize the athletic corporation. The primary beneficiaries of the revenue college sports generates are the folks that work for the athletic corporations, though success in sports does provide some publicity for the institution.
K12 works if you step up and be the parent. I love my children being at home and I make sure they do their best in all the work they do. Maybe NCAA should look at the the bigger picture and not just the name. What about the extra activities and work the children do at home, not just online many home school families do more than just computer classes. Maybe some parents LOVE there kids a little more than others . Do you people watch the News? Did your children get told in a public school that they were not to use the restroom? Did your child come home and tell you that they heard of the shootings or that they had to be on lock down again, my kids are young why would I want them in any other school when they can be at home learning.
Mandy, I assure you that NCAA reviewed the instructional materials and the assessments and found them wanting.
They did not find materials and assessment wanting. That was not the reason given for pulling eligibility. Please look at the K12 response at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2014/04/ncaa_bans_coursework_completed_by_athletes_in_24_k12_inc_virtual_schools.html
K12 has been studied repeatedly by scholars who find their results pathetic. Children need human interaction. K12 is a profitable way to collect tuition money from the state for home-schoolers. Did you not read the CREDO report from Pennsylvania that found that comparing public schools, brick-and-mortar charter schools, and cyber charters, the cyber charters were the worst of all schools? http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/PA%20State%20Report_20110404_FINAL.pdf
What I find disturbing is that many parents who have chosen these programs to provide a legitimate education are finding themselves caught short.
We’ve been using Keystone School for 10th and 11th grade for my son and plan to do so for 12th grade, and for his sister. We live on a boat and have been sailing outside the U.S. since 2012; homeschooling is the only way we can educate our children. We opted for Keystone because it offers a mix of print and online courses; print is our preference.
We’re both educated people, my wife who does most of the teaching is a physician whose undergrad iIvy league Magna Cum Laude) degree was a B.S. in Applied Math/Biology. So while we’re not trained teachers per se, we have an decent subject matter understanding.
We’ve had exactly one (1) problem with the content of the courses provided – we thought the AP Physics course was problematic and dropped it. Other than that the content has been very good, even the online courses. We feel that we’ve given our son an equivalent or better education than he would have received in the bricks and mortar VERY expensive (as in 10-15X the cost of Keystone) private school he attended through grade nine. The tests and writing assignments are challenging and thorough.
I am guessing a larger problem with a fully on-line school is there is no guarantee that the person doing the work on the class is really the student-athlete. I suspect there is a small minority of students that have abused this. Some courses may be weak; not the ones we’ve done. My son is finishing up Pre-Calculus now; above and beyond the core material he is covering some material in pre-calculus that we did not cover when we took it back in the day.
I’ve always had a huge problem with the Big Money school athletics. It has always been my opinion that the NFL and NBA should really go out and create their own farm teams like MLB does rather than using the university system. College is for learning, sports are there only to enrich. But the BIG money sports mean taking away sports from a lot of kids that aren’t pro-caliber, and it puts a lot of onerous rules on ALL the sports teams, even the non-cash cows. It is disturbing the lengths the NCAA has had to go to in order to keep big money pro sport sleaze away from their students. Sadly this affects everyone, not just the small handful of “scholar” athletes that have no business being on a college campus.
My son is a competitive sailor; that is a club sport at most schools and I do not know if he will be prevented from sailing by this decision. No one offers scholarships. He is receiving an excellent education with his parents through Keystone and will have little trouble getting accepted to a number of quality institutions to pursue his dreams.
Whether he will be able to pursue his athletic passion remains to be seen.
NOTE – Keystone was NOT among the 24 schools listed in this article, however it is a K-12 school and they are telling us during enrollment that their classes are no longer accepted by the NCAA
B.J. Porter,
Some of the online assessments are dumbed-down to a ridiculous level. Some are true-false questions. On some, students get extra chances to guess the right answer. Some students wisely skip the instruction and go directly to the test, just to get the credits.
I’m sure that’s the case with some of the courses. It is NOT consistent with what we’ve seen from Keystone.
Frankly the distance learner has a bit of a challenge, we wanted to enroll our son in AP courses which is one reason we ended up at Keystone. In fact we could not find a single AP level course offered in a traditional correspondence format, ONLY only in online courses.
Perhaps Keystone is different than some of the K-12 charter schools tied to the states, I don’t know – but they are affiliated with K-12 which may be why they are caught in this.
But what you are describing is not consistent with what we have seen in our courses to date.
The good news for us is that while the NCAA regulates both Bowling and Rifle sports, fortunately they are not involved in Sailing so our son will not be adversely affected.
Is it possible to win a college scholarship for sailing? (I’m not being negative, I just did not realize this was a possibility).
To the best of my knowledge it is NOT possible to get a scholarship for sailing. Being sailors with kids in the community, we’ve talked a lot about this amongst other parents and with some sailing coaches.
Most college sailing coaches have little pull. The most they can do is send a note to the admissions office saying “We want THIS kid, if you can see fit to admit him/her” and ope for the best. That request might get your kid a nod over an otherwise equally qualified student, but it won’t get you any money.
In our case sailing is my son’s big passion. We live on a boat so that works our reasonably well, except for racing other kids. The one thing he misses since we left the U.S. is competitive sailing, he started on the varsity sailing team at his bricks and mortar school in 9th grade and has been on boats his whole life. He wants to design yachts for a living, and spent almost every other second he’s not doing that sailing, preferably competitively!
Thanks B.J. Hope he gets into the college he wants and that they help him accomplish his goals & dreams.
I take issue with your statement that some parents LOVE their kids a little more than others. While there are some parents who are truly atrocious individuals, I can count on one hand – possibly even one finger – the number of parents I’ve worked with in all my years who didn’t genuinely want the best for their children. Many times the parents were uneducated themselves and ill equipped to have their children do school at home, but felt this was their best option. They certainly didn’t LOVE their children any less than you LOVE yours.
The NCAA decision isn’t about love. It’s about academics. And it’s about what can be documented as acceptable credits. There are still a number of other cyber charters that the NCAA is willing to work with, just not K12, Inc schools.
And really, unless your child is working through the NCAA Eligibility Center right now, this decision has nothing to do with you.
Very true, TE. A chart that went around Facebook several weeks ago showed that the highest paid public official in most states was either the head basketball coach or head football coach of the state’s Division One University.
My son’s school only offers K12 for credit recovery. The classes take place on school property with a certified teacher present as a mentor/tutor. There is no other option when a student receives an F. None. So is this the type of thing that NCAA will evaluate on an individual basis? If not, how on earth is our school system getting away with using K12?
He is able to graduate high school with this K12 class on his record. The college that he has accepted an athletic scholarship from accepted him academically before the athletic scholarship. And I assume they are aware of the K12 class, because it is on his transcript. So can somebody explain to me how NCAA can make this judgement? I get it if he had taken all of his classes online, but he took one K12 class as a freshman, and the college thinks he’s capable of succeeding at their school, so why the additional oversight from NCAA? I just don’t get it.
The answer is yes they hold their own academic criteria for eligibility. Students must take NCAA approved core classes and the GPA is determined off of those Core Classes. Then the GPA is measured on a sliding scale for SAT and ACT (math and verbal) scores. Example 2.0 GPA must get 1010 ACT score or 86 on ACT. I’m in California and our schools didn’t offer summer school for the past 4 or 5 years and we were told to go to Options for Youth (OFY) which is a Charter School. Before enrolling I checked on the NCAA website to ensure they were accepted courses and they were. In the beginning of 2014 they reviewed the past 5 years of courses and determined they are no longer accepted courses. But why are they making it retroactive? My son’s full scholarship is now in jeopardy because of the two 2nd semester core classes he took in the summer of 2013; before the review. And nobody not the NCAA or the OFY seems to have any answers. I have been told to just wait; but school starts in August. UUUGH
NCAA stated out for great reasons, a needed organization to protect athletes, like Unions used to protect employees but now if you ask me both are corrupted and do not serve a purpose…they need to be abolished and start over again. NCAA has too much power, too much money and this is from a mom of 2 college athletes, so not just saying this off the cuff!
opps sorry started instead of stated should be there.