A .0375 GPA, again......

Good article here.  Links to other reports, scandals and test results.


https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017/10/18/virtual-charter-schools-foundations-performance


I have not posted much on this blog lately.  There has been lots of publicity on the virtual schools, none of it positive.  I am not sure there is a need.  They are no longer trendy and cool.  They are scams making some people very rich at the expense of the children.


ECOT is on its deathbed.  Trying to reorganize itself into some other structure to keep the school tax funds flowing.


Ohio Connections Academy, owned by Pearson Education, received its report card.  1 C, 2 D's, and 5 F's which I think works out to a .0375 GPA




"Some have blamed the fallout from ECOT for the disbanding of Ohio's largest charter school advocacy organization. In December 2016, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools announced it would close at the end of 2016, after more than a decade in which it was an influential player in the state's charter school policy. Critics say poor performance by Ohio charter schools—80 percent of which received an "F" in the state's report card system—caused funder support for the alliance to dry up. In years past, the Ohio organization had counted the Gates Foundation, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation among its supporters, but by the end of 2016, none of those organizations were listed on the alliance website as current funders, according to the Columbus Dispatch."


Event the politicians are bailing. 


In the words or our President, sad, just sad, what a bunch of losers.  Too bad his education secretary does not see it as it is....

Ohio Connections Academy Report Card 2015-2016

Three F's, Two D's and a B
A 0.8333 GPA  Seriously?


Shameful. 


I note that there is no Principal listed.  The superintendent is nowhere on the report.


http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Pages/School-Report.aspx?SchoolIRN=000236


Time for some accountability.  End this scam!

Charter Schools: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

At least we are not Nevada! Ohio gets a special mention! 




Profits over students.




Online schools, what a scam!

Alumni of White Hat Management make the news again.

Cambridge Education Group, an apparent offshoot, now wants to open a new school in Ohio.


Finances are tricky.  A charter school cannot make money.  They are non-profit. But the management company can make all the money it can by controlling the money and can be quite profitable for the company and its employees.


This would be akin to the school board collecting all the money and then doling out what they believe is necessary to the school while keeping what they can for their services.


More Charters Cut Ties with Newpoint Partners Management Company

By dianeravitch

June 20, 2016 //

3

Last month, a grand jury in Florida indicted employees of Newpoint Education Partners and three other companies for grand theft, money laundering, and other crimes. The company, started by former employees of the White Hat management company in Ohio, lost the charters for several schools that it was running where the alleged crimes occurred.
Now, two more charter schools are cutting their ties with Newport, following an investigation by a local TV news station.
One week after an 8 on Your Side investigation uncovered $235,000 in bogus school loans, two charter schools funded with state tax dollars in Jacksonville have decided to sever ties with a for-profit management company we’ve been investigating for months because of the financial chaos it helped create in Pinellas charter schools.
The Jacksonville charter school loans by Newpoint Education Partners which are cited in a 2015 financial audit do not exist, something that caught even the treasurer of San Jose Preparatory High School and Academy by surprise after 8 on Your Side uncovered and reported it.
Are there any law enforcement officials in Jacksonville, or is it left to the media to investigate criminal activity?

Ecot Exposed

https://ecotexposed.org/


Wow, a whole website devoted to one e-school.


Shameful that this school exists!


The others are trying hard to catch up and grab a piece of this action.  Like pigs to a trough.


When I lived with a charter school administrator, they were always trying to catch up to ECOT.  Why can't Connections Academy produce the same kind of enrollment was the question being asked from the home office in Baltimore.

The Ohio auditor

Another E-School Investigation

A great expose on K-12 in California.  From The Mercury News:
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_29780959/k12-inc-california-virtual-academies-operator-exploits-charter


This the playbook for the Ohio E-Schools




Some key findings:

Teachers employed by K12 Inc.'s charter schools may be asked to inflate attendance and enrollment records used to determine taxpayer funding.

Ohio E-School Charters are fighting this accountability issue right now.

Fewer than half of the students who start the online high schools earn diplomas, and almost none of them are qualified to attend the state's public universities.

Check out the report cards for the Ohio E-Schools.  Dismal at best.

K12's heavily marketed online model has helped the company reap more than $310 million in state funding over the past 12 years.

Market! market! market! Where do they get the money for the radio and TV ads?  SOme interesting accounting.  Make sure the school never makes a profit and write off the loss.

Students who spend as little as one minute during a school day logged in to K12's school software may be counted as present in records used to calculate the amount of funding the schools get from the state.

About half of the schools' students are not proficient in reading, and only a third are proficient in math -- levels that fall far below statewide averages.

School districts that are supposed to oversee the company's schools have a strong financial incentive to turn a blind eye to problems: They get a cut of the academies' revenue, which largely comes from state coffers.

Also note the governance issue.  K-12 sets up and loads the boards.  Same as they do in Ohio


I like pictures