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Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Another Study: Students Experience Academic Decline in Virtual Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Another Study: Students Experience Academic Decline in Virtual Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Another Study: Students Experience Academic Decline in Virtual Charter Schools


I have posted repeatedly here about the dismal academic results of virtual charter schools. Students have high attrition rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates.
This finding has been reported again and again. In 2015, CREDO at Stanford said that students lose almost a year of learning in math when they attend virtual charter schools. In many states, the virtual charters are the state’s lowest performing schools. Pennsylvania has many virtual charter schools, and none of them has ever met state benchmarks in reading and math.
The latest study comes from Indiana, as reported by Stephanie Wang in Chalkbeat.
Faced with low academic results at online schools across the country, supporters often defend virtual education because it provides a haven for struggling students.
But a new study in Indiana found that students fell further behind after transferring to virtual charter schools. The findings suggest that online schools post low outcomes not simply because the students they serve face challenges, but because of problems with how online learning works — and the shortfalls of not having a physical classroom.
The new research, to be published in the journal CONTINUE READING: Another Study: Students Experience Academic Decline in Virtual Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog