e-schools eat shit, especially on the primary and secondary school level. Make a pledge to dedicate one half-second of your brain power as to why and you’ll get there.
University Diaries, of course, spends most of its time on the nation’s wretched online universities; but we need to keep reminding ourselves of the grand experiment going on at the pre-college level with our children.
Ohio, for instance, has been particularly excited about online schools, and the results are now coming in.
From the Plain-Dealer:
Ohio’s publicly funded online schools are a disastrous alternative to public schools that should be under more scrutiny, according to a study released Thursday by a left-leaning think tank.
Turns out their graduation rates are pathetic. Dedicate two seconds of your brain power to the online experience as experienced by a fifteen-year-old and you’ll get there.
With five of the state’s seven largest e-schools posting graduation rates lower than that of the state’s worst traditional public school district, and six of seven rated less than “effective,” a liberal policy group said yesterday that the state is wasting money on the poorly performing online schools.
Good old Treca Digital Academy has a 24.1 percent graduation rate. (Here’s their website, with Frequently Asked Questions. Turns out no one asks – even frequently – what their graduation rates are.)
A high-ranking politician, asked if his crucial legislative support for e-schools has anything to do with really big campaign contributions from e-school entrepreneurs, says that’s a “damn lie.”
Kind of strong language, huh? I think he’s e-nnoyed.
Truly lurid details here.
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Think about it for a moment. Think of the life of an Ohio schoolchild, her high school career entirely online, and then her college career also entirely via distance technology. Ain’t it wonderful – to imagine that? That’s why hard-working, concerned parents throughout the state are fighting to make this their children’s educational destiny.
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Gail Collins weighs in.
May 15th, 2011 at 2:44PM
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