Online charter schools are an “epic” fail, as proved by the disaster of the EPIC online charter school in Oklahoma.
Here is the latest EPIC story:
Like many teenagers, Maggie Waldon caught a sort of senioritis halfway through a traditional high school. She was ready to be done.
With two years left, she enrolled in Epic Charter Schools, the Oklahoma City-based online public school that is now one of the largest virtual schools in the country.
At Epic, Waldon said she easily raised her grades from Cs and Fs to As and Bs. She said she did so with little interaction with her teacher, spending long days clicking through the curriculum. “There were days I asked my teacher for help. But mostly, I just figured it out,” Waldon said.
She was able to fast-track her remaining credits, finishing in one year what would have taken two in a traditional school. She was one of 2,500 students in Epic’s class of 2019.
That’s when she discovered she wasn’t prepared for college, she said. On the ACT exam, she “failed, majorly.” She has put her dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher on hold.
“I wish Epic actually helped prepare you for a future, because we all grow up and become adults. That’s something they didn’t do,” Waldon said.
In a five-month investigation into Epic’s college-going rates, Oklahoma Watch found that fewer than one in five 2019 graduates enrolled in a public Oklahoma college or university last fall. Its rate was lower than rates for all of the state’s 10 largest school districts, according to an Oklahoma Watch analysis of education data. The data was collected from every college and university in the state.
EPIC has more high school graduates than any of the state’s 10 largest school district, but only 14.7% of their graduates enroll in college or university.
Clearly, state legislators in Oklahoma like to send public money to EPIC, despite its horrible statistics.
Do they care about the education of the next generation of Oklahomans or do they just prefer an uneducated population?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It took Ohio ed reformers a decade to conduct even an ordinary audit of ECOT, let alone shutting it down.
When they finally did audit the school, 60 million dollars had gone missing.
So, no, ed reform will never, ever admit that the virtual schools are a disaster- too many influential ed reformers promoted and sold them and too many lemming-like state legislators swallowed the sales pitches whole.
The DEFORMERS can’t admit anything about the SCAM or loose their payola monies.
Chiara,
To be clear, the state auditors did not shut down ECOT. They asked ECOT to pay the state $60 million for billing for non-existent students (ECOT had collected $1 billion for 20 years without state audits). Rather than pay back $60 million, ECOT declared bankruptcy.
What’s the expression for this?
Oh yeah–EPIC fail.
Where were the people to advise this person that her dreams went out the window with the onset of “senioritis?” Nonwithstanding the failure of on-line schools to do anything but graduate students, it still should be the student’s responsibility to be able to see that their choices are resonant throughout their lives, and that consequences exist for their behavior. We should also be teaching them this by telling them that these experiences would not replace study and earnest effort.
And, Roy, states should close down worthless for-profit virtual schools that collect millions but do not provide education.
Districts should develop their own online courses, not rely on profiteers.
We should also be teaching them this by telling them that these experiences would not replace study and earnest effort.
I agree, but the student seems to have had no “we” in her corner to advise against doing a rip-off online program.
Hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in these sham schools.
States have a duty to supervise and license schools in their jurisdiction.
The for-profit virtual charters where no one learns anything should be closed.
an important point: no one allowed to tell the kids that they are being used
Do people here generally think that failing the ACT exam is evidence that a student was not prepared for college?
Hypothetically, I would say that a student who scored zero on an ACT was not college-ready? Do you agree?
Do ACT scores measure more than family income?
In my experience with standardized tests, having served for 7 years on the NAGB board that oversees NAEP, ALL standardized tests are highly correlated with family income and family education.
Look up the SAT scores that show family income, and the correlation is extraordinary. A stair step with each additional $20,000 in family income producing a higher SAT score. No variation.
Are TEs questions anything more than snide remarks that he believes are clever?
If they had been college ready in kindergarten, they would not be confronted with this problem as high school graduates (regular or online)
In fact, if they had been college ready in kindergarten, they could have dispensed entirely with the whole “through 12” part of “k through 12”
Arne Duncan was a genius.
And prolly still is.
A regular Stephen Hawking.
“In a five-month investigation into Epic’s college-going rates, Oklahoma Watch found that fewer than one in five 2019 graduates enrolled in a public Oklahoma college or university last fall.” That’s aweful, it’s really too bad that some are only in this business for the money.
She was an 11th grader when she enrolled at EPIC. I don’t know about you, but the majority of my friends took the ACT in middle school. If we needed to retake it, we did so our 10th grade years. So her failing is the issue of her school district, TPS.
I assume you work for EPIC fail virtual charter school, which ripped off Oklahoma taxpayers
EPIC was an epic scam. You must be an employee. Or the owner.