Pearson is also trying to get into this market with their Nexus schools.
Follow the money. Results are optional!
10th Period: Ohio's Dropout Recovery Schools Embarrassingly Poo...: The data on Ohio's dropout recovery charter schools is so bad I'm wondering if anything can ever really be done to repair this porti...
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Impervious to failure, E-Schools
An
excellent article by Kevin Huffman, former Tennessee’s education commissioner
on his battle with K12 Inc.’s e-school in Tennessee. Follow the money. He concludes that there is little evidence
that for-profits succeeding. Too many
conflicts in chasing the money over results.
We have the same situation in Ohio.
Some
excerpts:
“This
past summer, the state released the school results from the 2014-15 school
year. The Tennessee Virtual Academy earned a Level 1 in growth for the fourth
year in a row. It clocked in at #1312 out of 1368 elementary
and middle schools in the state. It is no longer the most improved lousy school
in Tennessee. It is just plain lousy. It is, over a four-year time, arguably
the worst school in Tennessee.
The
K12 saga raises a lot of difficult questions for me. Is it possible for a
for-profit company to run schools? Our very best charters all over the country
are non-profits, and I see little evidence of for-profits succeeding in the
school management business. I may be platform-agnostic, but the data is telling
a compelling story on this one.
And yet, the “marketplace” fails when we are not able to ensure that parents know that the school they are choosing has a running track record of failure. Clearly, there is a critical regulatory role, and we cannot simply assume that an unfettered choice environment will automatically lead to good outcomes.
In theory, K12, Inc’s stock should be hammered by its terrible performance in Tennessee, but it’s actually up in 2015. And why wouldn’t it be? The corporate shareholders aren’t looking for student results — they are looking for K12 to expand and grow and add more students.
Nobody asks me for stock advice, but I say: Buy! Buy K12 Inc.! It is the rarest of breeds — a company utterly impervious to failure. It fails again and again, and yet it lives and breathes! “
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
The worm is turning for the online school scam
As it should be:
Online schools are losing support, creating divisions in the national charter school movement.
They will gladly take the money and promise result sometime in the future. What is the cost to the students and taxpayers? Online schools have been very good for the owners.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/11/online_schools_are_losing_supp.html
Poor test results at online schools are creating divisions in the charter school community in Ohio and nationally, leading some national leaders to question whether e-schools should even be part of the charter school movement anymore.
At the top of the list is Nina Rees, head of the nation's largest charter school organization, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, who is distancing herself from online schools and the damage they are causing to the public perception of charters overall.
After a visit to Ohio earlier this month, Rees said e-schools - schools where kids take all their classes by computer at home, instead of in classrooms - are dragging down the overall performance of charter schools in Ohio and other states.
"If you were to eliminate the (test scores of) online schools, the performance of the state would dramatically improve," Rees said.
Stanford study creating waves
The study in question, and one that has sparked a renewed debate over the entire online school model, came late last month from Stanford University's Center for Research of Educational Outcomes (CREDO). Researchers found that students in online schools – – learn far less than students in other schools.
Nationally, students learned the equivalent of 72 days of school less in reading and 180 days less in math, each school year, CREDO found.
CREDO found the scores of kids not only fell when they switched to online schools, but they rose when students went back to traditional schools.
Marie Hanna, executive director of Ohio Connections Academy, also had criticisms of the CREDO report, saying the virtual twin comparison "doesn't make sense."
That school is owned by Pearson, the international education giant that recently drew criticism in Ohio for its handling of the PARCC Common Core exams.
Hanna was far more reserved than the others and said that despite her reservations, CREDO's report is a call for more research.
"CREDO brings up some concerns," Hanna said. "No doubt about it. It brings up the need for more research in the e-school environment to really understand what's working and what isn't.''
Online schools receive about $6,800 per student a year in state tax dollars to run their schools, regardless of how much students learn.
Online schools are losing support, creating divisions in the national charter school movement.
They will gladly take the money and promise result sometime in the future. What is the cost to the students and taxpayers? Online schools have been very good for the owners.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/11/online_schools_are_losing_supp.html
Poor test results at online schools are creating divisions in the charter school community in Ohio and nationally, leading some national leaders to question whether e-schools should even be part of the charter school movement anymore.
At the top of the list is Nina Rees, head of the nation's largest charter school organization, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, who is distancing herself from online schools and the damage they are causing to the public perception of charters overall.
After a visit to Ohio earlier this month, Rees said e-schools - schools where kids take all their classes by computer at home, instead of in classrooms - are dragging down the overall performance of charter schools in Ohio and other states.
"If you were to eliminate the (test scores of) online schools, the performance of the state would dramatically improve," Rees said.
Stanford study creating waves
The study in question, and one that has sparked a renewed debate over the entire online school model, came late last month from Stanford University's Center for Research of Educational Outcomes (CREDO). Researchers found that students in online schools – – learn far less than students in other schools.
Nationally, students learned the equivalent of 72 days of school less in reading and 180 days less in math, each school year, CREDO found.
CREDO found the scores of kids not only fell when they switched to online schools, but they rose when students went back to traditional schools.
Marie Hanna, executive director of Ohio Connections Academy, also had criticisms of the CREDO report, saying the virtual twin comparison "doesn't make sense."
That school is owned by Pearson, the international education giant that recently drew criticism in Ohio for its handling of the PARCC Common Core exams.
Hanna was far more reserved than the others and said that despite her reservations, CREDO's report is a call for more research.
"CREDO brings up some concerns," Hanna said. "No doubt about it. It brings up the need for more research in the e-school environment to really understand what's working and what isn't.''
Online schools receive about $6,800 per student a year in state tax dollars to run their schools, regardless of how much students learn.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
Schools as a business
Another excellent article from Denis Smith. He hits the inherent conflict of interest between operating a business and doing what is right for the students.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/10/27/are-public-charter-schools-also-considered-businesses-mind-the-quotation-marks/
These charter schools are operated as personal fiefdoms. This is another great example
"If people consider a school to be a business enterprise, inevitably the profit motive gets confused with the educational mission, which is what schools are supposed to be all about. The proliferation of for-profit national charter school chains has been a chief contributor toward the blurring of pedagogy and profit. And entities like Imagine and K12, a publicly traded company that is a big player in the virtual school field, only add to the growing perception that charter schools are first and foremost businesses and thus are all about money and privatization."
"Likewise, the nation is indebted to the Washington Supreme Court for its ability to teach us a civics lesson and, in the process, highlight a problem of democracy. When a board that is hand-picked by a private corporation and spends public funds to run what is called a “public” charter school that is a problem of democracy due to the absence of voter input – a violation of the democratic process.
We also should extend our thanks to the League of Women Voters for helping the Washington Supreme Court to understand that a school is not a business, but it nevertheless must be our business to ensure that schools are learning communities, not profit-centered enterprises, governed by citizens chosen in elections by qualified voters, not by corporations."
http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/10/27/are-public-charter-schools-also-considered-businesses-mind-the-quotation-marks/
These charter schools are operated as personal fiefdoms. This is another great example
"If people consider a school to be a business enterprise, inevitably the profit motive gets confused with the educational mission, which is what schools are supposed to be all about. The proliferation of for-profit national charter school chains has been a chief contributor toward the blurring of pedagogy and profit. And entities like Imagine and K12, a publicly traded company that is a big player in the virtual school field, only add to the growing perception that charter schools are first and foremost businesses and thus are all about money and privatization."
"Likewise, the nation is indebted to the Washington Supreme Court for its ability to teach us a civics lesson and, in the process, highlight a problem of democracy. When a board that is hand-picked by a private corporation and spends public funds to run what is called a “public” charter school that is a problem of democracy due to the absence of voter input – a violation of the democratic process.
We also should extend our thanks to the League of Women Voters for helping the Washington Supreme Court to understand that a school is not a business, but it nevertheless must be our business to ensure that schools are learning communities, not profit-centered enterprises, governed by citizens chosen in elections by qualified voters, not by corporations."
Monday, October 12, 2015
Ohio Education Research Center Reviews E-Schools
An extensive report from the Ohio Education Research Center . E-schools are not successful. More dropouts, poor performance with similar demographics. No magic bullet/solution or excuse was determined. It is a failed one billion experiment.
A very thorough report. The conclusion:
E-school students’ performance
on standardized tests are dramatically lower, especially for
math, compared to those
students who attend a brick-and-mortar school. Test scores
plummet the year a student
transitions to an e-school. E-school students’ scores see
incremental increases in the
subsequent years. However, it is important to note, that despite
subsequent increases their
scores remain below the scores they received prior to entering an
e-school.
What is the cost?
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-12/one-year-with-a-bad-teacher-costs-each-student-50-000-in-lifetime-earnings
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