Virtual Schools offer virtually nothing...

Here come the virtual schools. It’s another Republican magic trick that plays on the insecurities manufacture around the “horrors” of the public school system.

Creating a the image that parents are desperate for change, and willing to grab at anything that comes along, Republicans have the freedom now to end public education with the next best thing.

Virtual schools are getting extra attention in Wisconsin too, so consider the following, a warning:

Edweek; The National Education Policy Center has renewed its call for states to curb the growth of full-time virtual schools until they can demonstrate dramatically improved academic results.

"Understanding and Improving Virtual Schools" stems from an analysis of federal and state data sets for … K12 Inc. the nation's largest for-profit online learning provider.

Students in virtual schools run by K12 are performing worse academically and dropping out of courses at much higher rates than their brick-and-mortar counterparts … less than 28 percent of K12-run schools were found to meet the federal measure for Adequate Yearly Progress during the 2010-11 school year, compared with 52 percent of brick-and-mortar schools nationwide.

“…at present, our research shows that virtual schools such as those operated by K12 Inc. are not working effectively. States should not grow full-time virtual schools until they have evidence of success. Most immediately, we need to better understand why the performance of these schools suffers and how it can be improved."

(The) report pertains only to fully online solutions, and not to blended-learning models that mix virtual learning with face-to-face instruction.