Key among these allegations is that, although Packard stated that the test results from one of its largest online schools, Agora Cyber Charter, were “significantly higher than a typical school on state administered tests for growth,” data released weeks earlier showed “that 42 percent of Agora students tested on grade level or better in math, compared with 75 percent of students statewide. And 52 percent of Agora students had hit the mark in reading, compared with 72 percent statewide.”
The article suggested that students’ poorer performance was because K12 “tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload, and lowering standards.”
Other allegations said K12 doesn’t provide adequate support for students, yet it collects millions of dollars in profits from its schools. One anonymous source in the article states that “these folks are fundamentally trying to do to public education what the banks did with home mortgages.”
Both Agora Cyber Charter and K12 have released statements adamantly denying the Times’ allegations and calling the article “unfair and one-sided.”
Packard and K12 say the article aims to undermine virtual learning and its benefits to students. In a response posted on Flypaper, a blog for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Packard said:
- Academic performance of virtual schools: K12 data show that a large and growing number of students coming into virtual schools are below grade level. The high growth rate of virtual schools means that a large portion of students taking the state tests are in their first year. This makes static test scores poor measures of a school’s overall performance, because students perform better on state tests the longer they are enrolled. To measure academic growth, K12 administers third-party, norm-referenced tests. Data from these tests show students are making positive academic gains relative to national norms.
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