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Report: More oversight for online schools

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Glass and Welner found online schools are a fast-growing part of education with 40 states operating or allowing them. Many states are setting up virtual charter schools, and in Florida, districts are turning to online classes because of legal limits on class size, the report said.

There are now about 200,000 students attending virtual schools full time, while 30 percent of high school students say they have taken at least one online course.

“There’s zero high-quality research evidence that full-time virtual schooling at the K-12 level is an adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning,” Welner said.

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Public Schools Also Lose When Online Students Fail

October 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Colorado taxpayers will spend $100 million this year on online schools that are largely failing their elementary and high school students, state education records and interviews with school officials show.

The money includes millions in tax dollars that are going to K-12 online schools for students who are no longer there.

The result: While online students fall further behind academically—their counterparts in the state’s traditional public schools are suffering, too, because those schools must absorb former online students, while the virtual schools and their parent companies get to keep the state funding.

Take the experience of high school senior Laura Johnson.

In the tiny Florence School District outside Pueblo, Johnson was one of 39 students who left Florence High School last year to sign up for online classes with GOAL Academy, one of the largest online charter schools in Colorado.

By January, she was back at Florence, disillusioned by the online experience and trying to make up for her lost time in class. She was joined by a dozen of her former online classmates.

Those 39 students who left Florence High School for GOAL represented one of every 10 students in the school. When they left, so did nearly a quarter million dollars in state funding—the equivalent of four to five teachers’ salaries. When a dozen of the students returned to Florence High mid-year, the funding to educate them did not come with them. GOAL got to keep it.

The I-News Network, a Colorado-based in-depth news consortium, and the nonprofit Education News Colorado, spent 10 months investigating what’s really happening with thousands of Colorado K-12 students who try an online school each year.

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Online schools need oversight

October 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Internet offers great opportunities in education. Online schools provide flexible schedules, expanded class offerings and an alternative for students who struggle in traditional school settings.

But there are pitfalls, as a recent investigative report by Education News Colorado and the I-News Network has revealed.

The system of online K-12 schools in Colorado — offered by GOAL Academy, Hope Online, Insight School of Colorado and other such programs — has become big business, but it’s failing many of the thousands of students who have signed up. The report shows that for every online student who graduates, three drop out. Half of the students who enter online programs in Colorado return to a brick-and-mortar school within a year, though the taxpayer money that follows them to online schools stays there. The online schools are expected to get $100 million in taxpayer money this year.

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Half of online students leave, funding stays

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Colorado taxpayers will spend $100 million this year on online schools that are largely failing their elementary and high school students, state education records and interviews with school officials show.

The money includes millions in tax dollars that are going to K-12 online schools for students who are no longer there.

The result: While online students fall further behind academically, their counterparts in the state’s traditional public schools are suffering too – because those schools must absorb former online students while the virtual schools and their parent companies get to keep the state funding.

Take the experience of high school senior Laura Johnson.

In the tiny Florence School District outside Pueblo, Johnson was one of 39 students who left Florence High School last year to sign up for online classes with GOAL Academy, one of the largest online schools in Colorado.

By January, she was back at Florence, disillusioned by the online experience and trying to make up for her lost time in class. She was joined by a dozen of her former online classmates.

Those 39 students who left Florence High School for GOAL represented one of every 10 students in the school. When they left, so did nearly a quarter million dollars in state funding – the equivalent of four to five teachers’ salaries. When a dozen of the students returned to Florence High mid-year, the funding to educate them did not come with them. GOAL got to keep it.

The I-News Network, a Colorado-based in-depth news consortium, and one of its partners, the nonprofit Education News Colorado, spent 10 months investigating what’s really happening with thousands of Colorado K-12 students who try an online school each year.

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Colorado students losing ground in online programs

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Wide gaps persist. Double-digit gaps in achievement on state exams between online students and their peers in traditional schools persist in nearly every grade and subject — and they’re widest among more affluent students.

A top state education official called the findings “very concerning.”

“We’ve got to ask some questions here and we’ve got to see what’s going on,” said Diana Sirko, deputy commissioner of learning and results for the Colorado Department of Education.

Sirko said the CDE will launch a “comprehensive review” of online standards and accountability under the guidance of a newly hired choice and innovation chief, Amy Anderson, who began work Aug. 29.

Poor achievement has done little to stem the popularity of virtual programs, with online enrollment growing last year at a pace seven times faster than that of traditional schools. Online schools in Colorado are now a $100 million a year industry.

“We know online in general does not do as well as traditional schools,” said Randy DeHoff, a former State Board of Education member who now works for GOAL Academy, one of the state’s newest and largest online programs. “That’s because so many are coming in so far behind. Online tends to be kind of their last option.”

DeHoff’s program targets, at least in part, students who have struggled in conventional classrooms. In 2009-10, nearly 400 GOAL students identified as homeless.

The analysis of state data shows, however, that most online school students do not appear to be at-risk students. Only about 120 students of the more than 10,000 entering online programs last year were identified as previous dropouts returning to school, and only 290 entered online schools after spending the prior year in an alternative school for troubled youth.

In addition, the analysis looked at the 2,400 online students who had taken a state standardized reading test in a brick-and-mortar school the year before. More than half had scored proficient or better.

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Online Schools Take Tax Money But Fail Many Students

October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Millions of tax dollars go to private corporations to run online schools, which often have poor academic performance records, a CALL7 investigation found.

CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski exclusively obtained internal records from one online school, Insight School of Colorado, showing only 21 percent of students were passing classes at the time and on average students spent less than four hours a day at the online school.

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Virtual schools an emerging trend in Douglas County

August 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In Colorado, most online schools have the same accreditation standards and testing as traditional public schools. The curriculum at Colorado Connections, which is contracted through the Mapleton Public School District, meets state standards and all teachers are certified in the same way. Because per-pupil funding follows the student in Colorado, virtual schooling does not cost any more than the typical education. However, greater oversight from parents is required, particularly with younger students, said Stefanie Clarke, public relations representative for the academy.
After the approval of Senate Bill 215 in 2007, the Colorado Department of Education created the Unit of Online Learning, which is dedicated to the growing phenomenon. It serves and supports online schooling programs and families, and facilitates the certification of multi-district online programs.
Latcham says the flexibility for schedules is not the only draw. Each of her children have particular learning needs that were not being met by a charter school they previously attended. Her kids seem to have taken easily to the idea of virtual learning. When given the option to attend a traditional high school in Highlands Ranch, they chose to stay with online schooling.
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Online vs traditional schools: is one better?

May 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For some, school can be boring, long and tedious. However, a growing number of students are ditching the traditional school setting to learn through online schools – a method that comes more natural for some.

Eighth grader J.D. Elvrum goes to school online because he said traditional schools don’t challenge him enough.

“I would finish up a subject and would have to wait at least 30-40 minutes for my entire class to finish,” Elvrum said.

Elvrum is now one of 40,000 students who attend Connections Academy, an online school featuring students from all over the country.

“It’s kind of like a public school except I work at home, mostly on a computer,” Elvrum said.

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Colorado student count up, area districts up and down

January 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Online schools fluctuate in numbers for many reasons, including because students find that type of education isn’t for them.

“The students try out different online schools. We can be up one year and down the next.”

He added, “Our brick and mortar school is up five to 10 kids, which is really huge for us.”

He said the uptick is from families who want their kids to go to a smaller school. “It’s like one-on-one teaching out here, and we have good test results.”

Because they are a small district they receive about $9,000 for each student. That may sound good, but he noted, “We still have the same overhead costs.” The district’s operating budget is around $1.5 million.

In comparison, per pupil funding in larger districts such as District 49 and District 20 is about $6,400.

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Douglas County schools may explore school-choice options

November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The concept of a public school district offering vouchers for private or religious schools is sparking an outpouring of emotion in Douglas County, long considered among the most innovative school districts in Colorado.

In the past, the district has stood up for charter and online schools and supported the controversial teacher-evaluation reform passed this year in the legislature.

“If it’s a new idea, an innovative idea, we are going to explore and consider it,” said school board president John Carson.

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