by David Safier h/t to Three Sonorans for reproducing this tribute to Curtis Acosta, one of the teachers in the now-dismantled MAS program, from student Julianna Leon. Even if you were never a teacher, try to put on your teacher eyes and teacher ears when you read this so you can appreciate it fully. There's … Read more
by David Safier This doesn't qualify as good news/bad news. It's status quo/bad news. The status quo part is, Brewer didn't make things worse on the online education front. She vetoed a bill that would force school districts to accept online courses and boost the amount of money paid to the online corporations. This is … Read more
by David Safier The election season is upon us, and it's never too soon to try and win votes by ginning up fear of brown people. Also, it's just possible one or more judicial decisions could come down in favor of the dismantled Mexican American Studies program. Time for Tom Horne to unveil his latest … Read more
by David Safier
[*Source of "87% bunkum" figure: I pulled it out of my own head.]
The for-profit, publicly traded online education corporation, K12 Inc., expends a great deal of effort recruiting new students. With a "churn rate" (students who leave each year) close to 33%, it has to replace a third of its students every year just to stay even, and it also needs to grow to make a profit. The corporation is known for resorting to all kinds of high pressure, deceptive practices to lure and keep students — the kind of behavior that makes me question whether K-12 Inc. has the ethical integrity needed to educate students successfully.
I recently ran across an online ad for Arizona Virtual Academy that proclaims, "96% satisfaction rating* from parents." See that asterix in the statement? Follow it to the bottom of the page and you find, "*Source: K-3 Experience Survey, TRC."
The survey by TRC Market Research, which advertises it tailors its research to meet a company's needs, only includes parents of very young children, not the entire K-12 population of the schools, something you only learn by reading the fine print no one reads. It's likely parents of younger children are going to find the online environment more satisfactory than parents who have to take responsibility for the education of their older children. But even so, it's hard for me to believe, with a churn rate of 33% — probably lower for the early grades — only 4% of parents would be dissatisfied. There had to be a far larger number of unhappy campers.
That 96% satisfaction figure has an interesting history in K12 Inc. literature. More below the fold.
by David Safier This isn't local news, unless you acknowledge that the justly maligned, for profit Imagine Charter Schools corporation runs 14 schools in Arizona. Six Imagine Schools in St. Louis were closed by the state because of their students' shamefully low test scores, leaving 3,800 students with no place to go. Of course, the … Read more