Sunday, August 16, 2009

Fun With On-Line Schools

The passing rate on the 10th grade math WASL for the Insight Academy, an on-line charter school run by the Quillayute Valley School District in Forks: 17.9%

The statewide average: 45.2%.

Must be the vampires.

Also check out the Columbia Virtual Academy, operated by the Valley School District in Stevens County. The Valley School is a K-8 building with about 200 students, while Columbia Virtual is a cash cow that had more than 700! students enrolled in October of last year. Note, first, that they don't have any WASL scores listed. Note, too, that though they started with 707 kids, they only finished with 225. I may have to do more research into the why on that one.

You could also try Columbia Virtual Academy of Colville, where 10% of the kids pass the math WASL in 10th grade.

There's nothing wrong with on-line learning. Some of these aren't looking like they're really on-line learning.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Jim Anderson said...

I wonder how many online students are essentially in a stopgap situation before dropping out; I also wonder how many are homeschooled, and thus not required to take the WASL in the first place.

8:34 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

Agree on a couple of different levels--a school district doesn't have to count a kid as a drop-out if they're at home taking on-line classes, and if they never finish taking those classes, hey, not their problem!

If they're homeschooled, though, and enrolled in one of these virtual schools affiliated with a school district, shouldn't they still be taking the WASL? If state funding is following the kid, then the state accountability should too.

12:38 PM  

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