So you could have your cousin Vinnie calling students and asking how they’re doin’. In my home state of Pennsylvania, only 75 percent of cyber charter teachers need to be certified and even those are not subject to the same educator effectiveness accountability regulations as traditional public school teachers. Their job is to contact students every now and then, but – get this – in most states they don’t even have to be certified. Read the book, answer the questions at the back, and call it a day.Įven though it’s an online school, you do need a few flesh and blood “teachers” occasionally. This is like giving out nothing but worksheets and expecting high academic performance. The lesson will contain a few paragraphs introducing the topic, they will have the students read a section of a chapter, they will ask the student to do a few problems from the book, and lastly, there will be some form of graded assessment, taken from textbook review problems. They choose a textbook from one of the major textbook companies, and cut it up into lessons. When Aventa creates a course it is fairly bare bones. My school gets the majority of its high school material from a mail order company called Aventa. “Most cyber schools get their curriculum from K12, a company started by William Bennett, a former federal Secretary of Education. Here’s how a cyber charter teacher describes the reading curriculum at his school: Then sit back and watch the money roll in.įrom an education standpoint, the model is clearly unsound. Give a child a computer with Internet access.īuy a cheap, generic programmed package of study. Well caveat emptor, suckers! Thank goodness for the ignorance of the public!īut at least it’s easy to set up these failure factories. Not only do they have fewer learning days in math and reading, they have a higher student-teacher ratio and much more limited opportunities for live-contact with teachers than brick and mortar schools.įor instance, student-to-teacher ratios average about 30:1 in online charters, compared to 20:1 for brick and mortar charters and 17:1 for traditional public schools.Īnd THIS is somehow a viable alternative to traditional public schools!? They have an “overwhelming negative impact” on students, according to researchers. The same study found that 88 percent of cyber charter schools have weaker academic growth than similar brick and mortar schools. You’d get more instruction if you only went slightly more than every other day! ![]() So at a traditional public school you’d get a better education in reading if you simply took off at the end of February. They only provide 72 days less instruction than traditional public schools. When it comes to that essential skill, online charters come out much better. Rodgers Neighborhood, the Teletubbies – all are more mathematically rigorous than cyber charters! So cyber charters provide less math instruction than not going to school at all.Įver watched an episode of Sesame Street? Then you got a better math education than an entire year at an online charter!ĭora the Explorer, Barney the purple dinosaur, Mr. There are only 180 days in an average school year. By every discernible report, the education provided by these online charters is truly execrable.Ī recent nationwide study found that cyber charters provide 180 days less of math instruction than traditional public schools. Like brick and mortar charter schools, they are funded by taxes but are free from much of the regulations and oversight of which traditional public schools are subject. Nowhere else can such terrible academic results reap such tremendous financial gain.Ĭyber charter schools are elementary and/or secondary institutions of learning where all or most lessons are given online via computer. Nowhere else is the goal of corporate education reform as starkly clear as in the cyber charter industry. Just press the button and print however much cash you want! If you’re a parent, you’d literally be better off having your child skip school altogether than sending her to a cyber charter.īut if you’re an investor, online charters are like a free money machine.
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