Archives for category: On-Line Education
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Funniest Story of the Month

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2012 //
8

As I was doing some research about virtual charter schools, I came across an article that caused me to laugh out loud.

It appeared in the Star-Ledger, the main newspaper in New Jersey. It was titled “State Has Virtually No Reason to Not Give Online Charter Schools a Shot.”

It said the state should stop “dithering” and should promptly approve an online charter school. No delay, no moratorium, approve the online school now.

It was published on July 11, 2012, as the state’s Acting Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf and the state board of education were mulling a decision to authorize the megacorporation K12 to open an online charter school in New Jersey.

The reason I laughed out loud was that the article appeared on the same day that the FBI raided the offices of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter. See here too.

And it appeared several months after the New York Times published a withering expose of the terrible academic record of K12.

And it appeared fourteen months after the CREDO study of virtual charters in Pennsylvania, which showed they get awful results.

The invaluable New Jersey blogger Jersey Jazzman showed the fallaciousness of the claim that the state should not wait for more research but should promptly approve a virtual charter school.

Truly, this is one of those laugh out loud moments. They are so few these days that we should enjoy them.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, K12 Inc., New Jersey, On-Line Education

Do Cities Need Virtual Schools?

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2012 //
9

Carly Berwick writes about K12’s plan to establish a virtual charter school in New Jersey. It was turned down, but only temporarily, to provide a year of “planning” time.

The poor academic results of K12 cyber charters are well known. They were written about in the New York Times and the Washington Post. They were reviewed negatively by the National Education Policy Center. The most startling statistic –of many–is that K12’s Colorado Virtual Academy had a graduation rate of 12 percent in 2010, compared to 72 percent statewide in regular public schools.

And let’s not forget the money! K12 had revenues of $522 million last year, and its CEO was paid $5 million of taxpayer dollars.

What’s to like?

Yet the “reformers” continue to demand more of these for-profit schools despite their poor academic performance. They continue to insist, despite the evidence, that they are a good choice for children.

Berwick raises an important point: If virtual charters take hold in cities like Newark and Jersey City, what will it do to urban life? Schools are now the center of their community, a place not only for children during the day, but for athletic events and community activities in the afternoons and evenings.

Will it weaken cities to turn their schools into vacant lots? Of course it will.

When will our public officials think of what is good for society and for our shared future?

The only beneficiaries of a new virtual charter in urban New Jersey, as she points out, would be the investors, not the residents of cities struggling to make a comeback.

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, On-Line Education

Campaign Contributions Matter

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2012 //
7

A reader reports on the campaign contributions of a major charter school owner in Ohio.
Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Ohio, On-Line Education, Privatization

Investigating The E-Scam in Ohio

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2012 //
1

Ohio is utopia for sham reform. In that state, two major charter operators have given generously to politicians, and their campaign contributions have been ilke yeast in an oven. A small amount goes a long, long way in returns to them.

The good news is that the word is getting out. This article in a Cincinnati journal sets out the indisputable facts about the e-schools: Big profits for the owners, poor education for the kids.

Eventually the public will understand that they are being bamboozled, and some politicians might stand up and stop this raid on the public treasury–and the lives of kids. It’s just a shame that the U.S. Department of Education is not launching a nationwide investigation into e-scam.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Ohio, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers, U.S. Department of Education

Join This Webinar Today

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2012 //
3

When they talk about “customized” and “personalized” instruction, do they mean sitting in front of a computer that provides questions at the level of the student? Is this cost savings by removing teachers? Tune in, join the conversation and ask questions.

 

AEELogo vert color 301U TIF
The Alliance for Excellent Education
Invites You to a Webinar on the

Working Draft of Suggested Legislation for Personalized and Digital Learning and the Opening of a Public Comment Period

Monday, July 30, 2012
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., ET
Participants
Jessica Cardichon, Director of Federal Advocacy, Alliance for Excellent Education
Chip Slaven, Senior Advocacy Associate, Alliance for Excellent Education
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education
Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education on Monday, July 30 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., ET for a live webinar to discuss and seek feedback on a working draft of suggested legislation for personalized and digital learning that is currently being developed by the Alliance.
Over the past several years, the Alliance has been developing digital learning policy that supports the effective use of technology as a way to drive higher student achievement. More states are taking policy actions to implement innovative types of student-centered learning and seeking guidance in the legislative drafting process. This working draft of suggested legislation is meant to assist states as they plan strategically for the future, develop workable timelines for implementation, and create important quality safeguards and transparency guidelines. The webinar also represents the opening of a public comment period, during which the Alliance will seek feedback and comments from policymakers and the public.
This webinar will highlight the recommended legislative actions and language that have been developed so far in the working draft. Following the discussion, there will be an interactive conversation among the panelists using questions submitted by participants from the around the country.
An executive summary of the legislation is available at http://media.all4ed.org/sites/default/files/EachChildLearns_executivesummary.pdf .
Register and submit questions for the webinar at http://media.all4ed.org/registration-jul-30-2012.
Please direct questions concerning the webinar to alliance@all4ed.org.
NOTE: If you are unable to watch the webinar live, an archived version will be available at http://www.all4ed.org/webinars usually one or two days after the event airs.
The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve national and federal policy so that all students can achieve at high academic levels and graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. For more information about the Alliance, visit http://www.all4ed.org.
Categories On-Line Education

Another Virtual Charter School Scandal

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2012 //
7

These scandals happen so often that at some point they won’t be newsworthy.

A virtual school in Ohio was put on a one-year probation because an audit showed it has a deficit of $800,000.

Hard to know how it ran at a deficit when virtual schools get full tuition and don’t have any of the expenses of brick-and-mortar schools.

And one minor detail was that the charter had hired the wife, brother and son of the superintendent in the district where it was headquartered.

Little details like this can easily be overlooked.

The audit said that hiring those folks might conflict with the state’s ethics laws, but let’s not rush to judgment.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, On-Line Education

Please Explain—UPDATE

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
18

No, I am not a Luddite. No one can use technology as intensively as I do and be fairly accused of being anti-technology.

I am just naturally skeptical of the claims made for all miracle cures, whether it is snake oil, video game-playing, or the Land of Oz.

I promise you, when I see a guy with a crown who is buck naked, I’ll be the first to say so even if he is an emperor.

So I want to know: Can you really learn to be a carpenter at an online college? Can you learn HVAC online? Can you become a master electrician online?

My rant was brought on by an article in the Wall street Jpurnal. Someone said you can’t read it without a subscription. The quote follows this post.

Maybe it’s possible. I am not passing judgment. I’d like to know.

I’m not saying it can’t be done.

But I just finished a basement renovation, and I am afraid that the guys I hired learned their trades online.

Just wondering.

·

The Regulatory Power to Destroy

The Department of Education and the unjustified ruin of a for-profit col

Dark Knight Rises” hits theaters this week, and no surprise some liberals are comparing the villain Bane to . . . care to take a guess? In this comic conception of the world, corporations always play the Bane to government’s Batman. Regulators may have expansive powers, but they’re rarely so heroic. In fact, they’re often the real bane.

Take the case of for-profit Decker College, which a federal bankruptcy judge has concluded was driven into bankruptcy seven years ago by its accreditor’s falsehoods that followed unusual regulatory intervention. A fact-finding report by Judge Thomas Fulton of the Western District of Kentucky last week vindicates the college, but it comes too late to save the company and many of its creditors, who include students and workers.

***

Decker spiraled into insolvency in the fall of 2005 after the Council on Occupational Education unfairly withdrew accreditation of its online programs in carpentry, electrical science and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). That made Decker ineligible for federal student aid, its largest revenue source.

CEO William Weld, the former Massachusetts Governor, had no choice but to close up shop and hand control to bankruptcy trustee Robert Keats to settle $57 million in claims. Some 500 employees lost their jobs, and stories about Decker undermined Mr. Weld’s attempt to run for Governor in New York in 2006.

Mr. Keats has sought to recoup some federal student aid by challenging the Council’s statements to the Department of Education that it had never accredited Decker’s online programs. As a parenthetical, it may seem odd to teach construction over the Internet, but about 100 proprietary schools now do….

Categories On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Race to the Bottom with Cybercharters

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
1

In an effort to compete with the big for-profit online companies that take away their students and their state tuition money, school districts in Pennsylvania are considering the creation of their own cyber schools.

This shows the fallacy of competition and the bottom line.

It makes perfect economic sense to compete with K12 by opening another cybercharter.

It makes perfect economic sense to encourage your own students to stay home and learn online, because that is what the competition is doing.

But it makes no educational sense because study after study shows that online learning is not right for many students, that it provides an inferior quality of education for many, that test scores are lower, graduation rates are lower, and dropout rates are higher than in traditional schools.

Yes, public schools can compete. But they should compete by doing what they do best: Providing a place where human beings who are caring and well-prepared teachers can interact with students on a face-to-face basis. Inspiring them, encouraging them, bringing out their best, teaching them as only a human being can.

Categories On-Line Education, Pennsylvania

About the “School of One”

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2012 //
3

One of the much-hyped new ideas of our time is the “School of One.” This is a new use of technology in the classroom.

It was declared a success in 2009 by Time magazine before it was ever implemented anywhere.

It was created by TFA alum, Broad-trained, ex-Edison, ex-NYC DOE executive Joel Rose and implemented on a pilot basis in the New York City public schools.

There are two different stories embedded in The School of One.

There is the story of the business of education, and School of One is a cutting-edge venture in edu-business.

The other is whether it is pedagogically sound. On this count, Gary Rubinstein has posted an informative review.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, NYC, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Murdoch’s Bold Move into Education Market

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2012 //
24

Make no mistake. The privatization movement is in full cry.

There are big profits to be made in the education industry.

Rupert Murdoch’s corporation just split into two divisions, with one focused on education and publishing, headed by Joel Klein.

Says the story: Mr. Klein said being a part of the spunoff publishing company (which would include the troubled British tabloid The Sun) could help ease concerns among educators.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any data about my grandchildren in Murdoch’s data base.

According to the story linked above, Rupert Murdoch tweeted: “Only way to restore American dream and have real meritocracy is fix terrible public K-12 education.”

And of course, Murdoch and Klein know how to fix it.

Trust them.

I wish someone would tell them that NAEP scores are at their highest point in history, in reading and in math, for grades four and eight, for whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

But they wouldn’t listen.

They have a business to run.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization
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