Chalkbeat reports that the Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School has earned an F again, yet is opening another virtual school.
When Indiana education officials released school A-F grades this week, only three schools had received F grades for six years in a row.
Two were traditional public schools in Gary and Marion County, and the other was Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter school, which does all its teaching and learning online. For the traditional public schools, the sixth straight F marks the first time the state can potentially close the school.
But for charter schools, the limit is set at four, a milestone Hoosier Virtual surpassed almost two years ago. Despite its poor performance, the state has not taken steps to close the school or restrict state funding to its charter authorizer, Ball State University.
Hoosier Virtual was told in March 2015 to figure out a plan to improve. But while school officials did that, they came back to the board in August of this year with something unexpected: Hoosier Virtual had opened a new school, transferring 663 of its students there…
Here is the most startling sentence in the story:
But Byron Ernest, head of Hoosier Academies’ three schools and also a state board member as of June of last year, said opening the new school, called Insight School of Indiana, was a way for the network to focus on students who needed more help than could be offered in a typical online classroom.
And here is another statistic to think about:
Hoosier Academies is not alone in its struggle to improve its schools. Every online school in the state that tested students in 2016 — including four charter schools — received an F grade: Hoosier Academy Virtual, Hoosier Academy-Indianapolis, Insight School of Indiana, Indiana Connections Academy, Indiana Virtual School and Wayne Township’s virtual high school.
Every study of online schools has concluded that they deliver an inferior education. Even CREDO reported that going to an online charter school is akin to not going to school at all. For every 180 days enrolled in an online charter, students lose 180 days of “instruction” in mathematics, and 72 days in reading.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, believes in online schools. Evidence doesn’t matter to her, only privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is amazing that the head of the online charter schools can also be on the state board of education. In most states this would not could not happen. Amazing to say the least. Does ethics not play a role in this game? Seems like the fox is in the hen house and having a great time at the expense of the Students, Parents, and the taxpayers of Indiana.
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Ohio is the poster child for allowable conflicts of interest.
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Other than the funding kickback they get. why is Ball State going along with this?
Can we get some kind of breakdown on what these authorizers actually do to justify what are fees collected from public school students?
Is that too much to ask? An itemized bill? Public child support agencies collect a fee but they’re responsible for a whole range of administrative and enforcement actions and they’re county entities so they’re transparent. What do authorizers DO, exactly? They rubber stamp the initial application and put their name on it. Then what?
Why are so many of the Michigan authorizers so physically far from the schools they’re supposedly monitoring? Do they ever enter these schools? They’re hundreds of miles away collecting millions in a percentage kickback.
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“. . . why is Ball State going along with this?”
Because, in spite of it’s name Ball State doesn’t have the balls to resist the money.
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The head of the absolute worst online school in existence is Byron Ernest, the guy who is also on the State Board of Education. This whole thing stinks like old fish and it is courtesy of Tony Bennett. I wrote about the details of this guy in my blog last year:
http://mikeandteresakendall.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html
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Thanks for the link.
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New Schools Venture Fund figured out there aren’t enough charter schools to sell “blended learning” to, so they’re lobbying to put it in every public schools.
They want the same group of ed reform billionaires to pony up donations so every lower and middle income child can attend a Rocketship, whether we “choose” it or not:
Click to access Reimagining_Learning_120806.pdf
DeVos pushes this like crazy too- she knows a canned learning program is much cheaper than an actual human being. Snyder in Michigan had a plan where he could use “blended learning” to cut costs from 7k a student to 5k a student. They had to ditch it when it was revealed to the public, but the INTENT of this thing was cheap online training for poor and middle class students- upper income students would still get real teachers.
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NSVF’s “…marching orders…to develop diverse charter school organizations to produce different brands on a large scale.” (Philanthropy Roundtable interview with Kim Smith- founder of the Gates-funded NSVF)
For readers new to the blog, Bill Gates (the man, not his foundation), Pearson, Mark Zuckerberg, … are investors in the largest international seller of for-profit, schools-in-a-box.
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Ed reformers in Ohio are already gearing up for DC’s new “backpack voucher plan”:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/12/want_a_new_school_funding_plan.html
It’s a scheme to disallow local schools from taxing locally. Instead they’ll get a (lower) stipend from the state. They’ll get only as much money as ed reformers in Columbus decide they need. It’s another blatant power grab from the ed reform lobby. We’ll be wholly dependent on anti-public school state legislators for funding.
They’re starving public schools. They have cut state funding for our schools every year since 2010 and they have added tens of mandates. They’re cheating kids and it’s ALL coming from the ed reform lobby in Columbus.
Public schools won’t survive another ed reform campaign against public schools. It gets worse every year this “movement” remains in power.
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Maryland abandons public schools inn favor of private schools and vouchers:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-grading-schools-20161218-story.html
They say the incoming Trump Administration inspired them to forget all about the existing public schools and pursue “choice” exclusively.
Thanks, ed reformers! Once again public schools are dead last on the priority list.
Can we hire an advocate for our schools and pay them privately? The thousands of public employees we’re paying seem to be hostile to public schools.
I just want ONE adult in government who supports public schools. Can we pass the hat at a bake sale or something and hire one? I get that our schools are unfashionable in elite policy circles. Can we hire a private contractor to advocate on our behalf?
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For that “ONE” adult, don’t look to Ohio’s Sen. Sherrod Brown. He asked for and received $71 mil. this year to expand privatization in the state. And, for those who think he’s clueless, he knows that DeVos owes Ohio millions in a case involving an education PAC.
And don’t look to the public university, OSU’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, where Brown sits on the Board.
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The electorate has spoken (albeit with a plethora of outside influences). The USA is inching towards becoming the Weimar equivalency in the 21st century. The Nation online has an article that articulates this most clearly. Please read https://www.thenation.com/article/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/. This has been going on in Indiana for some time now. The rest of the country is sadly catching up.
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NC VPS is equally abominable especially with our lowest performing credit recovery students and our AP students. Abysmal with huge numbers of non-reports make it even worse
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The Indianapolis public school system is so flush with cash, that it is, apparently, the only public school district in the nation, that deemed, joining donors in giving money to TFA (2015 TFA door list) was a wise use of money
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I’m really surprised that the article doesn’t point out that half of this school’s 10-12th grade population is 6 or more credits deficient and almost 70% are new to the school! Where are these children coming from? I believe in accountability but where is the accountability for the schools that these students have left? It’s obvious that our educational system is leaving behind way too many students. The system is failing children with dyslexia. Where is the outrage? I would like to challenge you to write an article that looks at the many children who are not finding success in our public schools.
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C Clemens,
Children in charter schools and religious schools don’t “find success” either. What is your point? Why blame schools for the failure of society?
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We have created a system that is often forcing students to look outside of their district. We have also created a system that rewards schools with a higher letter grade if struggling students move to another school. Until the last legislative session, if a student attended a high school that did not offer the general diploma and the child didn’t meet the requirements for a Core 40, the child had to look for another school that offered the general diploma or be satisfied with a certificate. In addition, many students across the state are struggling to pass the ECA. There is a path for students to receive a waiver but schools are under pressure to reduce their numbers. Some schools will only award a general diploma if a child can’t pass the ECA, even if the student has met the requirements of a higher level of diploma. We encourage those students to look for a school that is willing to provide a waiver and the diploma that they have worked to achieve. Not all students test well. I think we need to understand why the system isn’t working for some students and work to make it better.
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