Chalkbeat

Former superintendent of Indiana virtual charter schools pleads guilty to wire fraud

2025-06-05T20:29:59+00:00

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The former superintendent of the two virtual charter schools at the center of a statewide enrollment scandal has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Percy Clark has agreed to pay a judgment of roughly $1.3 million, the amount he received as part of what federal prosecutors have called a broader conspiracy to defraud the Indiana Department of Education, according to a plea agreement submitted to a federal judge last week.

If accepted by the court, the plea deal would be one step towards recovering funds from the alleged scheme that generated both a federal indictment and a separate lawsuit from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

Both cases allege that Clark, along with school founder Thomas Stoughton and other defendants, falsely inflated enrollment figures at Indiana Virtual Academy and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Federal prosecutors allege they defrauded the state of $44.6 million. Rokita’s lawsuit has alleged $154 million in fraud.

The legal actions follow a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation that found enrollment at the schools ballooned, and that state funds went to a for-profit company founded by Stoughton. After both schools closed in 2019, a 2020 Indiana State Board of Accounts report called on the schools to repay over $85 million in state money.

It’s unclear what party would receive Clark’s $1.3 million payment.

Clark has agreed to forfeit other assets if he is unable to pay back the judgment in full. He has also agreed to 60 months of probation, the first 24 of which he would be confined to his home without an electronic monitoring device.

Clark initially faced 18 counts of wire fraud and 11 counts of money laundering in the federal indictment, but prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the remaining counts.

Clark’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. A person who answered a phone number listed for Clark said that he was not home.

Plea agreement acknowledges ‘high probability’ of fraud

In the plea agreement, Clark admits that there was a “high probability” that the schools inflated enrollment and that “he avoided learning whether or not that was in fact the truth, which it was.”

Separate from the monetary judgment, Clark has also agreed that the scheme ultimately requires $44.6 million in total restitution which he and other defendants in the federal case are responsible for repaying. But it’s unclear how much of that he could end up paying, or whether the $1.3 million monetary judgment could count toward his portion of the total restitution. The federal case involving Stoughton and a third defendant, Phillip Holden, is ongoing.

Other former employees who also faced federal legal action will be responsible for paying back the $44.6 million in restitution as outlined in their plea agreements — although exact amounts per defendant are unclear.

School operations manager Christopher King pleaded guilty in November 2023 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to court documents. Kyle Schroeder, a manager of student service representatives, also pleaded guilty to concealing a felony in March 2024, according to court documents.

Federal prosecutors have also alleged that Stoughton ultimately used state money to make over $40,000 in campaign contributions to Republican candidates in 2018. He is also accused of using state funds to purchase a Cadillac, gold coins, Tiffany jewelry, and tuition to the private Park Tudor school.

The state’s lawsuit — which also lists Stoughton’s wife, Rhonda Stoughton, as a defendant — is ongoing.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Virtual school funding in Indiana could spike. But by how much?

2025-03-10T19:20:53+00:00

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Indiana lawmakers could soon approve a big spending hike on students who attend virtual schools, giving them the same base funding as students who attend in-person classes.

This would be a change after lawmakers slashed funding in 2019 for virtual schools to 85% of the per-student amount that in-person schools receive, citing concerns about their low performance.

House Republicans have recently pushed to equalize these two funding levels. House Speaker Todd Huston’s office said in a Friday statement that caucus members “believe parents and families should have the freedom and flexibility to educate their children in the way that works best for them.”

As a result, the two-year budget approved by House lawmakers and now moving through the Senate would increase per-student base funding for some virtual public schools by as much as 50%, according to projections. Meanwhile, the budget would provide districts that primarily educate students in person increases in base funding that are much smaller.

The new funding system would reward virtual schooling, which has a checkered track record in the state, and by extension the for-profit companies that have partnered with districts to provide it.

Two virtual charter schools in Indiana are facing an ongoing federal criminal case as well as a civil suit brought by the state’s attorney general. Another virtual program landed in hot water for offering what state lawmakers described as enrollment incentives in violation of state law.

At the same time that they are moving closer to this huge funding boost for virtual students, lawmakers also appear to have drastically undercounted the number of students from low-income backgrounds who attend virtual schools. As a result, the extra funding these schools receive to educate these students has dropped by as much as 100%.

Wade Coggeshall, a spokesperson for Indiana House Republicans, attributed this to “some inconsistencies in this data” that budget analysts are working with the Indiana Department of Education to identify.

It’s not clear how many schools the data “inconsistencies” affect, or what adjustments lawmakers might make as a result.

If legislators don’t revisit this issue, they could be cutting money earmarked to help districts educate these particular students, known as “complexity funding.”

But if lawmakers do revise this specific student count upwards, then state funding for virtual students could rise still further. It would also mean that districts who send students to virtual school could get a significant funding bump, which others that only provide in-person learning would miss out.

One trend that this budget plan doesn’t address: Indiana school districts’ complexity funding — which pays for additional teaching and counseling positions — has been declining for years due to what critics describe as a flawed methodology for counting children who live in poverty.

Indiana calculates this funding for every school based on the number of students who are in foster care or receive benefits through two federal programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But districts say this method adds barriers for families, and misses students who would qualify under another metric like the National School Lunch Program.

“When you put the onus on individuals, it’s a big hindrance,” said Rep. Greg Porter, a Democrat and the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee

Statewide, the draft budget passed by the House would cut complexity funding by $50 million from 2025 to 2026, from around $710 million to $660 million, according to the bill’s fiscal note compiled by the Legislative Services Agency. In the last budget, this funding remained basically flat year over year.

Base funding grows for virtual schools despite complexity issue

Even without a future adjustment in complexity funding, base funding for virtual schools is poised to grow if virtual students are funded at 100% of the per-pupil amount.

In some cases, much of this funding will go to private, for-profit online education companies that have contracted with public Indiana school districts to run virtual schools. While the details of these partnerships are not readily available, typically the district keeps a small portion of state funding and pays the rest to a company to operate a virtual school.

The programs are typically free to students and open to enrollment outside the school district’s boundaries.

Because these students are public students, they deserve “the same resources and opportunities, regardless of their location or mode of instruction,” said Brooke Gabbert, senior director of communications for Stride, a for-profit online education company previously known as K12 that operates six virtual programs in two districts and one charter school in Indiana.

“We believe all public school students should be funded equitably,” Gabbert said in a Friday statement. “Indiana’s school funding policies should not tell thousands of families that their children are worth only 85% of what other public school students are worth.”

The Clarksville School Corporation represents how the proposed budget could be a boon for virtual school funding.

The budget projections estimate Clarksville schools will enroll 1,500 brick-and-mortar students and around 6,700 virtual students by 2026. Its base funding is projected to grow by 52% to around $57 million in 2026, but its complexity funding would decline by 76% to just $1.6 million.

District spokesperson Brian Shaw said the administration is aware of the decline but unsure of the reason, and has asked the Indiana Department of Education for an explanation.

Clarksville contracts with Stride to provide virtual schooling. Shaw said the district shares 94% of its virtual school program revenue with Stride, but did not give a dollar figure for the contract. Stride is responsible for hiring and paying teachers.

The school’s 2021 financial report, the most recent available, indicates the school paid $12 million in 2021 for the education of around 2,300 virtual students.

The superintendent of Clarksville schools is Tina Bennett, the wife of Tony Bennett, the former Indiana schools superintendent who is now president of schools at Stride. In 2013, Bennett resigned as Florida’s top K-12 official in connection with questions about how he handled an Indiana charter school’s rating on the state’s accountability system.

In a statement, Shaw said: “Dr. Tina Bennett filed all necessary public disclosures for potential conflict of interest since Clarksville Schools engaged in the contractual relationship with Stride, and the Clarksville Community Schools Board of School Trustees has accepted that disclosure in a public meeting each year.”

During the 2023 budget session — the last time Indiana lawmakers attempted to raise funding for virtual students — Indiana Capital Chronicle reported that Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston consulted for Stride. At the time, Huston said at the time that he stayed out of the discussions on funding for virtual charter schools, but that his caucus wanted to see equal funding for students.

Huston also previously served as Tony Bennett’s chief of staff when he was Indiana’s state superintendent.

Gabbert said in her Friday statement that Huston ended his consulting relationship with the company on March 1. (Huston’s office said the end date was Feb. 28.)

Both Huston’s office and Gabbert said Huston has not performed work on Stride’s behalf in Indiana.

Gabbert also said that Tony Bennett would retire from the company on March 21.

Like Clarksville, the Union School Corporation contracts with Stride.

The district is projected to enroll just 224 brick-and-mortar students but 8,000 virtual students. Union schools’ base funding would increase by 25% to around $58 million in 2026, according to budget projections. It’s not clear how much of those dollars will go to Stride. The district paid $41 million to the company in 2021 for the education of around 6,000 students, according to its 2022 financial report.

But the same budget estimates show that Union schools’ complexity funding would fall from $10.5 million this year to $1.2 million in 2025, a decline of 82%.

Representatives for the district did not return a request for comment.

Representatives for Indiana Connections Academy and Indiana Connections Career Academy referred a request for comment to House Republicans. The virtual charter schools are operated by the for-profit company Pearson and this year enroll 5,400 and 900 students, respectively, according to budget projections.

Indiana Connections Academy would receive an increase in base funding of around 28% to $37.8 million in 2026. Yet it would lose all but 0.2% of its $4 million in complexity funding.

Its sister school would get a 34% foundation amount increase to $7 million in 2026 but would lose all of its complexity funding, which is currently $521,000.

Complexity funding for districts is complicated — and declining

Porter, the Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee said the potential data issues with complexity funding don’t affect funding for Indiana’s brick-and-mortar public schools, although he did not explain why.

But irrespective of those issues, some of Indiana’s largest public school districts are also projected to lose the complexity funding for students from low-income backgrounds in the next two-year budget, due to the way the state counts students who qualify.

This has been an ongoing trend, according to studies by groups like the Indiana Urban Schools Association. Ahead of the last budget session, Fort Wayne schools officials told lawmakers in 2022 that around 67% of students qualified for the subsidized meals, while just 29% were identified under the method based on food assistance and foster care.

This steady decline in funding is linked to a decline in the number of students in qualifying programs. But the actual numbers of these students is not readily available. House Republicans said that information rests with the state education department, which did not reply to a request for the number of students included in the complexity count this year or in past years.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear the state budget bill in its March 11 meeting.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org

Virtual school officials used money for students on political donations instead, prosecutors say

2025-02-12T12:00:00+00:00

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The founder of two shuttered virtual charter schools used state funds meant for “underprivileged and at-risk” students to make over $40,000 in campaign contributions in 2018 to support Republican candidates, prosecutors allege in an ongoing federal criminal case.

The federal case against operators of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is one of two that allege that Thomas Stoughton, the schools’ founder, and other defendants defrauded millions from the state by inflating student enrollment. Stoughton and other defendants also face a civil action from the state attorney general’s office over alleged fraud.

Federal prosecutors allege that Stoughton created a number of educational service providers to contract with the schools’ organizer, the Indiana Virtual Education Foundation, to conceal substantial amounts of money that Stoughton paid himself, the schools’ superintendent Percy Clark, and others affiliated with the schools.

One of those providers, Educational Innovation Research, LLC, allegedly paid $40,100 to political campaigns for 43 Republican candidates for the Indiana General Assembly, the Senate Majority Campaign Committee, and the House Republican Campaign Committee in the three months leading up to the 2018 election, according to prosecutors.

“The purpose of the political contributions was, of course, to curry favor with state lawmakers who were responsible for school funding legislation,” prosecutors said in a Nov. 18 court filing to introduce the contributions as evidence in the trial. “Legislation that the Defendants hoped to have amended in ways that would be favorable to them.”

Stoughton did not respond to a request for comment left at a number listed for him, and his court-appointed attorney for the federal prosecution — which the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana originally filed about a year ago — declined to comment. Clark’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, and a person who answered a number listed for Clark said he was not present and repeatedly told Chalkbeat to call back.

Clark has pleaded not guilty in the federal case. Stoughton is contesting the charges against him, according to federal prosecutors.

The legal actions follow a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation into the virtual schools that found ballooning enrollment figures, and also found that state funding went to a for-profit company founded by Stoughton. The political donations came roughly a year after that investigation, prosecutors say.

The two schools closed in 2019, and in 2020 the Indiana State Board of Accounts released a special investigation report that called on the schools to repay over $85 million in state funds.

In the civil case brought by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in 2021, a judge recently ordered the assets of Thomas Stoughton and his wife Rhonda to be placed in receivership, after finding that they violated a 2022 order not to transfer or sell personal property worth over $5,000. That lawsuit seeks over $154 million from the defendants.

Clark, Thomas Stoughton, and Rhonda Stoughton — who are named as defendants in the state’s civil action — have also denied the allegations against them. (Rhonda Stoughton is not a defendant in the federal criminal case.)

The alleged campaign contributions are part of a lengthy legal battle that could leave the state struggling to recoup millions of dollars meant for students. Prosecutors in the federal case allege that the schools accepted over $44 million from the state using inflated student counts.

The House Republican Campaign Committee said in a statement to Chalkbeat that House Republicans who received the contributions donated those dollars to local education foundations or other charities.

The committee also reiterated its support for school choice.

“For over two decades, the House Republican caucus has led the charge to give all Hoosier families the ability to choose the education opportunity that best fits their kids’ needs, whether that be traditional K-12 schools, charter schools, or school choice vouchers,” the statement said.

The Senate Majority Campaign Committee also said in a statement to Chalkbeat that it suggested that members who received the donations contribute it to an education-related cause in their district — although it’s unclear whether every caucus member did so.

Chalkbeat attempted to reach all 41 Republican candidates still living whom prosecutors listed as receiving donations in 2018. Of those, 11 whom Chalkbeat was able to reach said they did not know either Thomas Stoughton, Clark, or Education Innovation Research; did not recall the donation; or recalled returning the donation to local education-related charities or nonprofits. And one senator referred a reporter to the Senate campaign committee’s statement.

Some were unaware of Education Innovation Research’s ties to the virtual charter schools. Others who did recall returning the donations told Chalkbeat that such donations would not have garnered them favor.

“Nobody’s ever came to me and said, ‘Here’s money, this is what we want to do,’” said former Rep. Jeff Ellington, who said he doubled the $300 donation he received and gave it to a local educational nonprofit in Greene County.

The trial date in the federal criminal case, which includes charges of wire fraud and money laundering, is set for April 1.

School leaders lobbied to change funding, prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors allege that Education Innovation Research’s 2018 campaign donations were part of broader money laundering efforts that ultimately enriched Stoughton and Clark.

Under state law, charter school operators are required to be tax-exempt, nonprofit entities and therefore are prohibited from contributing to political campaigns.

But Education Innovation Research’s campaign donations, prosecutors argue, came from the Indiana Virtual Education Foundation after passing through at least one shell company controlled by Stoughton.

The company was one of several that Stoughton created to move money out of the foundation “and conceal where (and to whom) the money was going,” according to the Nov. 18 court filing.

“If the Defendants did not conceal their actions, then IVEF would lose its exempt status, which would result in the loss of its charter and end to the influx of state funds,” federal prosecutors said in the November filing. “Simply put, if the Defendants did not hide their actions, then they would kill the cash cow.”

Donations ranged from $300 for various lawmakers across the state to $5,000 for Brian Bosma, then the speaker of the house, and $5,000 each for the Senate and House Republican campaign committees. Bosma did not respond to a voicemail or email seeking comment.

Chalkbeat checked the donations in the court document against campaign finance records, and found matching amounts from Education Innovation Research except in four cases — although three of those exceptions did list a donation from Alpha Consolidated Services, LLC, a company listed as a defendant in the state’s civil case.

Federal prosecutors plan to call multiple witnesses to testify that Stoughton and other defendants “were lobbying to change the enrollment and attendance requirements in Indiana’s school funding law to make the law more favorable to them,” they said in the filing.

Six current and former lawmakers — former Reps. Sharon Negele, Woody Burton, and Tim Brown, former Sen. Jon Ford, Sen. Jean Leising, and Rep. Christopher Judy — told Chalkbeat they did not recall the donation or whether they returned it to local causes. Rep. Heath VanNatter said he recalled talking about the donation when it happened, but did not recall whether he returned the donation.

These lawmakers also said they were unaware of the donation’s ties to the virtual schools.

“I just know if I was instructed to do that, I would’ve done it,” Negele said of the directive from the Republican campaign committee to return the donation to charity.

Four former lawmakers — Ellington, former Rep. Tony Cook, and former Sens. John Ruckelshaus and Philip Boots — told Chalkbeat they recalled giving the money back to local educational causes.

After Chalkbeat’s investigation into the two virtual schools generated increased scrutiny, lawmakers changed state law in 2019 to increase oversight.

Indiana law now forbids school districts from authorizing virtual charters, and requires students who are habitually truant to be withdrawn from virtual schools. The legislature also approved a funding cut for virtual schools, which now receive 85% of the state funding that students at brick-and-mortar public schools receive.

Some Democrats said the changes did not go far enough.

Indiana may not recoup funding meant for students

It’s unclear whether Indiana will ever recoup the money the Stoughtons, Clark, and others allegedly squandered.

After failing to pay the attorney he initially hired in the federal criminal case, Stoughton has received a court-appointed attorney instead, court documents show.

In the state civil action, the court placed the Stoughtons’ assets into receivership last month after it determined they violated a 2022 order restricting them from transferring or selling property.

The court found that the Stoughtons violated the order due to their transactions related to a luxury beachside Florida condominium they initially bought for roughly $1.5 million in 2016.

The state alleged that a Florida court ordered a foreclosure on the condo in 2024, after the couple failed to make payments on a $1.8 million mortgage issued the year prior.

The Stoughtons’ assets include a Cadillac, a Corvette, a boat, seven pieces of Tiffany jewelry, and a lakeside home in Syracuse, according to a Feb. 5 court filing in the state case.

Hamilton County property tax records also show the couple owes over $19,000 in unpaid taxes on their Carmel home.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Virtual charter school that wanted to offer Indiana parents cash withdraws application

2022-10-28T18:12:50+00:00

A virtual charter school that wanted to expand to Indiana using its model of offering parents cash to purchase curricular materials has withdrawn its application to a charter authorizer.

Colearn Academy, a virtual school based in Arizona, applied earlier this year to open a school in Indiana, offering three learning pathways and the option for parents to purchase their own curriculum and activities with $600 yearly stipends.

But as reported by Chalkbeat, offering families such an incentive to enroll is illegal in Indiana. This year, lawmakers expanded a ban on the practice to include “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card.”

The school withdrew its application this month following a September hearing that garnered 177 responses from the public about whether it should open. Around 88% of those responses were negative.

Home schooling advocates had expressed concern that the school was trying to attract home-schooling families to the program with the promise of monetary help, but that those families would lose the educational freedom they’d sought in home education by enrolling at a charter school.

Michael Staton, a founder of Colearn, did not reply to a request for comment about whether the school would try again in Indiana. A website for Colearn Academy Indiana remains live, with an option to join a waitlist.

The school had sought authorization from Education One, the charter authorizing arm of Trine University in Angola, Indiana.

Lindsay Omlor, executive director of charter schools for Education One, also did not reply to a request for comment.

In 2020, Chalkbeat reported on another virtual school, Tech Trep Academy, that first offered cash, and then points, for parents to order educational materials like textbooks, Netflix, and educational toys.

Though some lawmakers said the points system still functioned as an incentive, the school has disagreed, and continues to use the system.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

A new Indiana law cracks down on enrollment incentives. Is it being enforced?

2022-07-22T14:38:38+00:00

A new Indiana law strengthens previous bans on schools offering gifts or perks to parents in exchange for enrolling their students. But so far, officials don’t appear to be enforcing the stricter provision at schools that receive public money.

The omnibus House Enrolled Act 1093, which Gov. Eric Holcomb signed in mid-March and went into effect July 1, tightens a previous rule that bans schools and their representatives from offering “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card” as an incentive to enroll.

The bill came about following a Chalkbeat report on the growing criticism of a virtual school that first offered parents cash, and then a debit card-like points system, to order educational materials that include textbooks, Netflix, educational toys, and museum memberships.

The school, Tech Trep Academy, still uses its points system, saying it’s not an enrollment incentive.

Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis), the new law’s author, declined to comment. But he previously told Chalkbeat that Tech Trep’s points system still represented an incentive because all students received a set amount of points upon enrollment.

Weeks after the law went into effect, the Indiana Department of Education hasn’t reached out to any schools about changing their policies, said spokesperson Holly Lawson. But Lawson said the department did reach out in May to Cloverdale Community Schools, which oversees Tech Trep, about concerns over the program.

“With the enactment of this new law this month, IDOE will continue to work with all school districts to help them maintain compliance with state law,” Lawson said in a statement.

It’s unclear how widespread enrollment incentives are in Indiana, but home school charter programs in other states have come under fire for similar practices.

School purchases wishlist items for parents

Tech Trep Academy is a virtual school operated by a Utah-based company through Cloverdale Community Schools, which keeps a portion of the state funding for each Tech Trep student.

The school allows parents to choose their own curriculum and obtain supplemental materials, as well as take virtual classes from teachers, all using points. Students have access to a homeroom teacher, take state testing, and receive pass/fail grades.

An online FAQ says parents can spend up to 850,000 points per semester on courses and electives directly through Tech Trep, as well as outside curriculum. Other examples on the FAQ include online subscriptions, computers, tablets, and other tech items, internet fees, extracurricular classes, tutoring, and museum passes.

The school switched to the points system after coming under fire in 2020 for initially giving parents a $1,700 stipend to spend on resources.

Orders using the points system are now done through the school. Families create wish lists on Amazon or RainbowResources.com, then meet with the school’s direct ordering team to have the school purchase the items.

A list of items not eligible for the points system is available to parents after students enroll in Tech Trep, according to the FAQ. The school did not provide an example of items not eligible for the points system to Chalkbeat by deadline.

Lauren Bailey, Tech Trep Academy’s assistant director, said there are many reasons why resources may be ineligible for reimbursement with points.

“Numerous safeguards and rules are in place to ensure that any supplemental material aligns with material that is available to students who attend Cloverdale’s traditional brick and mortar schools,” Bailey said.

But are the points themselves an incentive? The school says no.

“The point system is not an enrollment incentive because it provides (1) material directly related to a student’s curriculum, which is designed by the licensed Indiana teacher and (2) educational resources that students need for their personalized learning,” Bailey said.

She added that while “something different and innovative can make people uncomfortable,” the school demonstrated creativity while still following state law and state education standards.

Kylene Varner, an advocate with the Indiana Association of Home Educators who testified in support of House Enrolled Act 1093, said the Tech Trep program first came to her attention after some families asked about potentially receiving state funding to home school.

“There’s no law that says it’s okay for the state to hand over public funds to a parent to spend how they wish,” Varner said.

Varner said a points system acts as another form of currency. She said 1093 made the previous provisions of Indiana code crystal clear — but that enrollment incentives have long been illegal in the state.

Before 1093, Indiana code banned schools from giving students “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card that may be used at a retail store, grocery store, online store, or other commercial enterprise.”

The new law removes language about where the monetary incentive can be spent, and clarifies that certain school representatives cannot offer incentives.

A short-lived amendment to the bill that became 1093 would have excluded curricular materials from the ban on incentives — but the language was taken out of the final bill.

“State agencies have not been doing what they need to do to protect taxpayers,” Varner said. “Any program that’s trying to come into our state needs to follow the laws.”

This story has been updated after publication to clarify a description of Tech Trep Academy.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

What IPS parents need to know about remote learning options

2021-07-28T23:46:52+00:00

Are you an IPS parent who has signed your child up for virtual school? Are you thinking about signing your child up? What are you concerned about? We want to hear from you. Write awashington@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Schools students who want to learn remotely this school year will need to give up their in-person IPS seat and register at one of two virtual charter schools.

The two online charter schools are Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy and Paramount Online Academy. Phalen is open to students in grades K-12 and Paramount is open to students in grades K-8. While IPS and Paramount start on Monday, Aug. 2, Phalen will start Thursday, Aug. 12.

In May, IPS board members approved two virtual charter school partnerships that would move remote IPS students out of their home school and into a virtual charter for the school year. The partnerships have joined the district as innovation schools, which means they are operated independently with oversight and additional funding from IPS.

Schools across the country have grappled with whether to provide a remote option to students and how to do it. IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in May that it was “incredibly challenging and not sustainable long term” for district teachers to instruct virtual and in-person students at the same time.

“We need to make sure we have an option that does not put that lift on our individual classroom teachers but could still respond to our families who want that virtual option in the future,” Johnson said.

Here’s what we know so far about IPS virtual school options:

What students are eligible to apply?

Both Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy and Paramount Online Academy are open to students from anywhere in Indiana.

Enroll for virtual school at Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy here. Enroll for virtual school at Paramount Online Academy here.

When is the deadline for applying?

There is no deadline to sign up for either Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy or Paramount Online Academy. Students can apply to transfer at any time.

Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy will offer learning coach and parent orientations the week of Aug. 6-11. Tora Townsend is the founding school leader at the one-year-old PLA virtual school. Paramount will have a back-to-school information session on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Brandalyn Hayes is the school director for the new Paramount Online Academy.

How many seats are available?

Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy has 2,000 seats for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and 500 seats for high school students. As of July, three-quarters of its 211 statewide students come from IPS, according to Earl Martin Phalen, the chief executive officer of Phalen Leadership Academies.

Paramount Online Academy has space for a total of 558 elementary and middle school students. As of mid-July, nearly 60 IPS students have signed up for this virtual school option. About 100 other students come from various districts and charter school networks.

What does remote learning at these schools look like?

Students will have live instruction daily with teachers at both schools with cameras and mics on. Both school partners are promising small class ratios, typically 25 students to one teacher.

Are digital devices provided?

Yes, Chromebooks or tablets will be provided.

How good are these schools academically compared to the school district?

At Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy, 22.5% of students passed both English and math ILEARN tests, compared to just 10% of IPS third through eighth-graders. This school year will be the first for Paramount Online Academy, but for the three in-person schools operated by Paramount Schools of Excellence — Englewood, Brookside, and Cottage Home — students passing rates for math and English exceed those of IPS. Two of the schools have higher passing rates than the statewide average. At Brookside, 36.7% of students passed both tests, while at Cottage Home, 32.4% passed both.

Tommy Reddicks, the chief executive officer for Paramount Schools of Excellence, said Paramount has a tutoring program and will offer monthly parent training seminars. Online students can participate in extracurricular activities on campuses as well as sports and field trips, according to the IPS website.

Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy will have small-group rotations across virtual classrooms and will use a learning program called Edgenuity to help students master academic concepts at their own comfortable speed. Students will receive small-group tutoring where three to five students will work on the same skill, practice the skill throughout the week, and then get assessed on it on Friday, according to Phalen.

“If they master it, then they go on to a new skill,” Phalen said. “If they haven’t mastered it, we continue to teach that.”

Phalen students will still be able to participate in their home school sports teams and clubs, if they choose to.

Both schools will have a family call center open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for support with online learning and technology.

Can families switch from remote learning to in-person learning later on?

Yes, families can switch from remote learning to in-person learning, but only if the neighborhood or choice school has enough room for them to enroll.

According to the IPS website, if a family wants to return to in-person learning, they must re-enroll at the neighborhood school or through Enroll Indy.

Indiana sues ex-virtual schools and officials for $154 million in alleged fraud

2021-07-12T21:40:55+00:00

Indiana officials have filed suit against two defunct online charter schools and their officers for allegedly defrauding the state of $154 million by padding student enrollment.

State Attorney General Todd Rokita alleged that former officers and others related to the Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy fraudulently received and spent tuition paid to educate online students.

Last winter, a state audit covering eight years alleged that the schools dramatically inflated enrollment over their actual number of students, thus wrongly receiving more than $68 million in state payments.

A Chalkbeat investigation in 2017 found financial conflicts of interest at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy as well as dismally low academic results. The two virtual charter schools shut down in 2019 after the allegations of enrollment fraud.

“This lawsuit is historic because it represents the largest amount of monetary damages ever sought by our office following a State Board of Accounts investigation,” Rokita said in a statement. “This massive attempt to defraud Hoosier taxpayers through complex schemes truly boggles the mind. This case demonstrates once again that public servants must remain ever vigilant in our work to safeguard the public treasury from opportunists.”

The lawsuit names school founder Thomas H. Stoughton and 11 other officers and officials. Other defendants include the former schools’ vendors. Stoughton could not be reached for comment.

A statement from Daleville Public Schools, which chartered the two virtual schools, applauded the suit against the schools but expressed disappointment that it names David Stashevsky, now the district’s assistant superintendent, as a defendant. Stashevsky, the district said, reported irregularities to the State Board of Accounts. He could not be reached for comment.

“David has always been and remains a trusted and well-respected school administrator who has served our school community with distinction. It is worth noting that Mr. Stashevsky played a key role in bringing the IVS/IVPA enrollment irregularities to the attention of SBOA in the first place,” said a statement signed by Daleville Superintendent Greg Roach.

Chalkbeat’s reporting on the problems at Indiana Virtual School prompted state lawmakers to take steps to cut virtual school funding and tighten rules around how virtual schools count active students.

Rokita’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in Hamilton Superior Court 5, seeks to recover costs plus damages, totalling $154 million.

The state’s audit report sought repayment for more than $85 million in public funds the state said were inappropriately spent on companies connected to school officials. Over three years, the two schools sent 83% of their total funding to related companies, the report found.

According to the audit, the misspent funds include more than $68 million that the schools improperly collected from the state — far more than initially reported — by recording inactive students more than 14,000 times over eight years.

State auditors also echoed the findings of Chalkbeat’s investigation that the Daleville district, which had chartered the schools, failed to hold Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to their charter contracts, review the schools’ finances, or press for improvements.

Virtual school officials previously denied wrongdoing, but they offered little explanation for the discrepancies and deflected the blame. After Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy closed, board members said they were no longer responsible for the schools, despite the institutions owing millions to the state, being under investigation, and still needing to transfer student records.

However, the Board of Accounts report outlined a ledger of who was responsible for each instance when enrollment was misreported or a check was improperly cut — and how much each misappropriation was worth.

Carson TerBush contributed to this story.

For the first time, private virtual schools seek to accept vouchers in Indiana

2021-06-01T19:47:55+00:00

Two new private schools hope to join the growing wave of online education in Indiana and accept state funded-vouchers to subsidize tuition — a first for virtual schools.

Both are spin-offs of existing schools, with the virtual branches allowing them to extend their reach to students across the state. Columbus Christian School is launching FaithPrep Indiana, a virtual K-12 private school with a religious mission. The GEO Foundation, which runs several charter schools in Indiana, is creating Geo Focus Academy, also serving grades K-12 and enrolling high schoolers in college classes.

“It’s going to be an opportunity for families to really take advantage of a Christian education, and to be able to do it if they want their kids at home, if they want to travel with them,” said Columbus Christian Superintendent Kendall Wildey, who will serve as head of school for FaithPrep. “We’re still going by all the state guidelines. It’s just more flexible with people’s time.”

The Indiana State Board of Education will consider Wednesday whether to accredit the schools, which would pave the way for them to participate in the state’s expanding voucher program. State education officials recommend granting initial accreditation and note this would be a first for the state, which has not yet accredited virtual private schools.

Online education was on the rise in Indiana long before the pandemic, and the challenges of the past year have supercharged the push for new programs despite virtual schools’ spotty track record. This school year, about 17,800 students attended 13 dedicated public virtual schools, according to state data.

Both of the new private virtual schools will use curriculum and teachers through Stride, an online education provider formerly known as K12 Inc., that also operates state-funded virtual public school options in Indiana.

Wildey said he hopes to add faith components to Stride’s curriculum, such as online chapels, guest speakers, hubs where students can gather for fellowship, faith advocates to counsel students, and collaboration with Christian colleges for high school students to earn college credits.

“We’re excited about being able to do it and put the biblical worldview into the curriculum,” Wildey said.

FaithPrep expects to enroll up to 500 students its first year, Wildey said, and potentially expand to serve several thousand students. The school is proposing to set tuition at $6,250 for elementary students and $7,250 for middle and high schoolers — slightly higher than Columbus Christian’s tuition because of the additional costs of setting up hubs and hiring faith advocates.

With this year’s significant voucher expansion, Wildey expects most families will qualify for at least a partial voucher. Still, for families with the highest financial needs, vouchers still may not cover the cost of tuition. Their value varies based on state funding levels for a student’s home district, with full vouchers largely ranging from about $5,000 to $6,500.

FaithPrep will likely require students and staff to follow a code of ethics that keeps with the school’s religious beliefs. Wildey said those details were still being worked out but noted that its sister school, Columbus Christian School — a nondenominational school of about 175 students — does not accept openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender students or staff.

The other new private virtual school, Geo Focus Academy, would replicate an existing charter school model. Kevin Teasley, president and founder of the GEO Foundation, sees launching a private school as key to reaching students statewide, instead of being limited to serving students through charter schools in Indianapolis and Gary.

Geo Focus Academy, which will initially enroll up to 700 students, would create a pipeline of K-8 students and expand access to its college immersion model, which signs up high school students for college classes at Ivy Tech campuses. The nonreligious private school plans to charge about $7,000 per year in tuition.

As a proponent of school choice, Teasley likes that private schools can foster more competition while making education accessible through vouchers. He wants to add the private school option to his foundation’s charter school offerings to help “spread the eggs in multiple baskets rather than to keep it in one.”

After revelations that two virtual charter schools allegedly inflated enrollment numbers with unengaged students, Teasley said he’s determined to validate enrollment and ensure students are participating.

“It’s an opportunity for us to succeed in serving kids,” Teasley said. “It’s an opportunity that frankly, it’s a risk to GEO, but at the same time we think it’s a risk worth taking. We’ve learned from what others have done, and frankly, our model is quite unique.”

Why COVID could fuel a surge in funding for Indiana virtual schools

2021-02-16T22:13:59+00:00

A year into a pandemic that has forced more than 350,000 Hoosier students to learn remotely, Indiana House lawmakers have proposed full funding for schools that provide virtual education — including online-only schools that have long received lower allocations.

Nearly 18,000 students now attend dedicated virtual schools — a 65% jump from last school year. That figure is dwarfed by the number of children in brick-and-mortar schools who are now learning virtually due to the pandemic.

The proposal to inject more money into virtual education, part of the draft budget released by the House Republicans last week, is a victory for advocates of online-only schools who say growing awareness is helping them win support for full funding. Indiana has long funded virtual schools at a lower rate than in-person schools based on the theory that online education is less costly than traditional instruction.

Just two years ago, lawmakers cut virtual funding even further because of years of low performance. The schools now receive 85% of the per-student allotment that the state provides for in-person instruction.

But as the coronavirus upended education in Indiana, hundreds of thousands of families experienced their first virtual instruction. Schools that once shunned online education have been forced to embrace it.

“A lot of people had misconceptions about online,” said Jeff Kwitowski, senior vice president of public affairs at Stride, a for-profit virtual school operator that used to be called K12. “There are a lot of folks who just didn’t realize what it really takes — all of the support that it takes.”

Amid fears that schools that usually operate in person would face a precipitous loss in funding, the state Board of Education intervened to provide the full allocation for students who were learning remotely in the fall because of the coronavirus.

A plan to extend that policy to spring has won wide support from many Indiana lawmakers.

That decision opened the door for online-only schools to seek more money, and they are winning some powerful allies.

In a briefing before the draft budget was released, House Speaker Todd Huston said that while he has previously supported full funding for virtual schools, the pandemic now has led some skeptical lawmakers to see the light.

Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, a critic of virtual schools, framed it differently: “They’re trying to take advantage of the circumstances.”

The state should not increase funding because it still does not know how much it costs to educate students in virtual schools, Delaney argued.

That sentiment was echoed by some Republican lawmakers in the state Senate.

“I’m in favor, at this point in time, to leave everything exactly the way it is until we learn what’s best for students,” Sen. Jeff Raatz, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development, told Chalkbeat before the House budget was released.

In a committee hearing last month, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ryan Mishler raised concerns about providing full funding for students who are virtual due to COVID-19 because he believes it would be a mistake to encourage students to learn remotely.

Virtual schools have a troubled history in Indiana. The state’s first online school closed due to chronic poor performance. A study released last year found that students fell further behind after transferring to virtual charter schools.

The problems go beyond academic results.

Last year, two defunct virtual schools were accused of misspending more than $85 million in state funding. And last month, auditors alleged another virtual school owes the state more than $300,000 because it inaccurately described its program as operating more than 50% in-person — a model that would entitle it to full state funding.

Proponents of virtual education say that those problems are isolated. They also argue that cutting funding because of poor academic performance makes little sense.

“You don’t improve performance with fewer resources. It’s just counterintuitive,” said Elizabeth Sliger, head of school for Indiana Digital Learning School, which is run by Stride.

Pointing to a jump in the high school graduation rate last year, Sliger said the school is improving. But low state funding ties her hands, she argued.

Because virtual schools get less state funding than brick-and-mortar campuses, they have less money to support students who are behind, Sliger said. “Virtual doesn’t mean easy or cheap.”

The pandemic has helped fuel rapid expansion at Indiana Digital Learning School, which now enrolls 6,000 students.

Sherri Shell, whose daughter is in first grade, plans to keep her in Indiana Digital Learning School even after the coronavirus numbers improve.

Her daughter, who has autism, struggled at her first school and was eventually sent to a special needs school, where she was unhappy.

At Indiana Digital Learning School, Shell said, her daughter is doing better. She likes her teacher and she can take breaks when she is frustrated.

Shell said she would like her daughter to have more live instruction. “They could do a lot more if they had the full funding that brick-and-mortar schools do,” Shell said.

While online schools save money because they don’t have to pay for such expenses as transportation and building maintenance, these costs are typically covered by property taxes at traditional public schools.

State funding is supposed to support the cost of instruction, and it should be the same for online instruction, virtual school supporters say.

But skeptics of virtual education say that there can be other cost savings at virtual programs, including the need for significantly fewer teachers.

Students in virtual schools often work independently for much of the day, doing assignments and watching videos without a live teacher. Virtual schools also rely on parents to supervise their children, especially in early grades.

Indiana Digital Learning School has about 28 students per teacher, officials said. Statewide, public schools have an average of 17 students per teacher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“There’s no question that with more money they could afford more teaching,” said Delaney, a Democrat on the House Education Committee. “The question is, would they deliver it?”

When the school year started, Amy Thornburg chose the virtual option the district offered. But there was no live instruction or support from a dedicated teacher. Thornburg pulled her two children out. She enrolled one daughter in a charter school for students with autism and the other in Indiana Digital Learning School.

Her third grader only spends about an hour a day in a live video class with a teacher at Indiana Digital Learning School. The rest of the day she works independently.

The schedule works for their family, Thornburg said, because she is working from home during the pandemic and her daughter is tech-savvy and interested in school.

Overseeing virtual school is an exhausting, time-consuming responsibility, said Thornburg, a nonprofit management consultant. But she said she likes being involved in her daughter’s education, and her daughter enjoys the flexibility.

“I will say my local school has more competition now than I ever thought that they would,” Thornburg said. “This is a viable option for my daughter now.”

Indiana parent sues education board over virtual funding in the pandemic

2021-01-27T23:18:42+00:00

An Indianapolis mother is suing the Indiana State Board of Education over a policy that sought to prevent brick-and-mortar schools from facing funding cuts when students were educated virtually due to the coronavirus.

Letrisha Weber, who has two children who attend virtual schools in Indiana, argued that a rule to fully fund students who attend remotely because of the pandemic violates several laws and is unfair to children who were already enrolled in virtual schools.

The suit seeks to increase money for online-only schools that existed before the pandemic by threatening the funding bump that the state awarded schools that shifted to remote learning due to the coronavirus.

Indiana typically provides 85% of the per-pupil allocation for virtual school students. With the rise of virtual education this fall, school leaders were afraid state support would plummet. To stave off cuts, the state board used emergency powers to approve a widely supported policy to increase per-pupil funding for students who would normally be in classrooms but are learning online because of the pandemic.

The new policy left funding at 85% for students such as Weber’s, who were already enrolled in online programs last year or students who transferred to virtual charter schools.

“The timing of when the student went online determines the ‘worth’ of the student and some students are worth 15% less than others,” Weber said in a press release from the Indiana Chapter of the National Coalition for Public School Options. “In my opinion, all students are equal and should be funded equally.”

The coalition lobbies in support of virtual schools. In a September letter to the state board arguing that the proposed virtual funding policy was unfair, Weber said she was the chair of the Indiana chapter of Public School Options and a member of the board of the national coalition.

Virtual schools have traditionally received less money in Indiana, and lawmakers further cut per-student funding for virtual schools in 2019 after years of dismal performance. A year ago, a special investigation by state auditors found that officials from two Indiana virtual charter schools misspent more than $85 million in state funding.

The complaint, filed this week in the Marion County Superior Court, names the Indiana State Board of Education and Executive Director Brian Murphy. It calls for the court to invalidate the rule and prevent the state from appropriating money under it “until the General Assembly fully and fairly allocates funding for all public school students.”

The spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Education declined to comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit claims the rule fully funding schools exceeds the state board’s rulemaking authority, goes beyond the scope of the governor’s emergency order, and violates the equal protection provisions of the U.S. and Indiana constitutions.

But one legal expert said the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail.

“My guess is this lawsuit will be quickly dismissed,” said Brad Desnoyer, an associate professor at Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law.

It made sense for the board to maintain funding for schools that would have faced a funding cliff because those campuses still had fixed costs for maintaining buildings, he said. Fully virtual schools simply don’t have the same expenses.

For the courts to overturn an agency rule, it must be considered “arbitrary and capricious,” Desnoyer said.

“This is not an arbitrary rule. This decision was made to keep our schools funded,” Desnoyer said. “What she’s asking for is so detrimental to the students of Indiana that I don’t see it happening.”

The purpose of the lawsuit is to boost funding for fully virtual schools, not to reduce funding for brick-and-mortar schools, Ann Coriden, the Columbus attorney representing Weber, wrote in an email.

“This lawsuit is not about reducing funding for others. Ms. Weber would like the legislature to fully and fairly fund all public school students, including her children,” Coriden wrote. “The rule adopted by SBOE creates a situation where two students at the same school receiving the same education can be funded at different levels. Ms. Weber does not believe her children are worth only $0.85, when another student participating in the same program is worth $1.00. This is patently unfair and should be addressed by the legislature.”

When the state board made the funding change in September, it relied on special power granted by the governor during the pandemic. But the board did not make the same change for spring funding, because staff said its authority was limited to a public health emergency and it was unclear whether the outbreak would improve.

Five months later, with thousands of Hoosier students enrolled virtually and the pandemic unabated, lawmakers have pledged to keep school funding intact.

The same day the lawsuit was filed, the Indiana House approved a bill that would continue the policy of fully funding some virtual students for the spring semester. The change must be approved by the Senate and the governor before going into effect.

To woo home-schoolers, a new Indiana virtual school offers $1,700 stipends

2020-10-01T16:43:24+00:00

When Amy Cannon heard about a new home education program that promised support from trained teachers and a $1,700 stipend for supplies, she was intrigued. Her daughter struggled with e-learning in the spring, and she wanted to home-school her 5- and 7-year-old children.

“I don’t think I would have felt confident enough to home-school without the support,” said Cannon, an Indianapolis stay-at-home mother. “Going in person wasn’t an option for our family, and seeing how virtual school has gone, I’m so glad we’ve home-schooled.”

Cannon’s children enrolled in a new K-6 public virtual school, called Tech Trep Academy, that caters to home-schoolers. Families have the flexibility to teach their children however they wish because the school doesn’t require students to take traditional classes or complete homework. Officials assume students are in attendance unless a parent says otherwise.

But unlike traditional home schooling, Tech Trep is publicly funded.

Within weeks of launching, it’s come under scrutiny for wooing families with dollars, which state education officials say could be an illegal enrollment incentive. The state will pay more than $860,000 toward Tech Trep this school year with scant assurance that the money will be spent on education. The Middlebury Community Schools district is overseeing the school and stands to gain nearly $1,000 in state funding for each student it enrolls.

The program’s unusual approach has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. It’s not certain if that attention will curtail Tech Trep’s growth in Indiana.

“They’re diverting money from public control for private benefit,” said Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who sits on the House education committee. “If you wanted to create a situation for chaos … this is the structure you would set up.”

Rep. Bob Behning, the chair of the House education committee, raised concerns about whether the program fits into current state law and how much it could cost if it attracts families who are currently home schooling without state funding.

“It appears to be realistically more support for home-schoolers than what I think the current definition of virtual education is,” said Behning, an Indianapolis Republican. “We may need to do a better job of defining what a program like this looks like and how we are going to fund it moving forward.”

‘It’s not a blank check’

The school, which is called Inspire Digital Learning School in state records, accepts virtual students from across Indiana. It has enrolled 173 students this year, fewer than 20% of whom live in Middlebury boundaries. Daily management is handled by Tech Trep, a Utah-based for-profit that runs virtual programs under the same brand in several states, including Idaho, Wyoming, and Tennessee.

The company is hiring five certified teachers, or about one per 35 students, according to Middlebury. Teachers advise parents and review learning plans and student work. Tech Trep will also arrange for students to take required state tests.

The district plans to closely oversee the management company, according to officials. Middlebury has staff monitoring enrollment, services for English language learners, special education, testing, and accuracy in reporting data. The district will also track student performance by requiring students to meet goals every two weeks, and students will receive report cards with their grades.

“This is certainly not a hands-off type of partnership,” said Middlebury Assistant Superintendent Robby Goodman. “We want to know what our students are learning. We want to make sure that they’re being held accountable. We want to see their progress.”

Goodman said the school is designed to attract parents who want their children to learn at home even though they are too young to study online independently.

Cannon never intended to home-school. When the pandemic ends, she plans to send her children back to school. But this year, she believes the support Tech Trep offers is especially valuable to her as a new home-schooler. When she submits work showing what her children have learned, the teacher writes feedback and notes of encouragement for them. And her children are taking online classes in science and social studies that meet once a month.

The funding has helped the family pay for textbooks, math manipulatives, refurbished Chromebooks, and piano lessons, Cannon said.

“It’s being monitored,” she said. “It’s not a blank check to spend the money on whatever you want. It’s to get your kids supplies for school.”

A warning from the state

The education stipend is one of the most unusual and controversial elements of Tech Trep’s program. Parents can use it not only for textbooks, but also for music lessons, educational toys, museum passes, and even Netflix subscriptions if they plan to access its educational content, said Janet Cox, program director for Tech Trep in Indiana. When the program launched, parents could make purchases themselves and request reimbursement from Tech Trep after submitting receipts.

Home school support programs in other states also offer this type of financial benefit to families. But in Indiana, Tech Trep is hitting a speed bump. In September, officials from the Indiana Department of Education told Middlebury administrators that they could not offer the stipend because it violates a state law meant to prevent incentives from influencing enrollment choices, according to spokesman Adam Baker.

As a result, Tech Trep has tweaked how parents receive the $1,700 benefit. Instead of buying items themselves, the company will make the purchases for them, according to a letter from Tech Trep to parents that the department of education shared with Chalkbeat.

Cox and Middlebury did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about new restrictions on the stipend or if parents would be reimbursed for purchases they made before the new policy.

In a Facebook group for parents, Cox said Tech Trep would make sure it was within the law. But, she added, “we will honor our promises to parents as well and not leave you stuck with expenses for educational materials that you bought expecting us to pay for.”

In the same Facebook group, a post from Tech Trep promised it would approve additional online sites where parents could choose materials that the school would purchase for them.

Baker referred questions about the legality of the arrangement to the State Board of Accounts. “We do not audit or approve expenditures,” he wrote.

The State Board of Accounts did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat.

Indiana’s troubled history of virtual schools

Even before the pandemic made online schooling a more popular option, district-run schools across the state have been launching lucrative virtual programs run by outside companies. Like Tech Trep, many of them are created to compete with fast-growing virtual charter schools.

State lawmakers have raised concerns about whether school districts can properly oversee large, statewide virtual programs, and they banned districts from chartering virtual schools after two online schools under the watch of the Daleville district siphoned tens of millions of dollars in public money.

A state audit found that Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, misspent more than $85 million over three years.

The state hasn’t stopped districts from starting their own online schools — which aren’t subject to the oversight called for in state charter laws.

Districts can make a lot of money through online schools. In Modoc, Indiana, for example, a booming virtual school tripled enrollment for Union School Corp. and rescued the tiny rural district from budget shortfalls.

Where the public funding goes

The state will pay more than $4,990 for each student who enrolls in Tech Trep. Middlebury will keep a 20% cut for oversight, and Tech Trep will receive the rest, or nearly $4,000 per student, to run the program and pay for supplies for families, according to the contract.

For the 173 students enrolled this year, the state will hand out more than $860,000. And that could be just the beginning. A Tech Trep partnership with a rural district in Idaho helped fuel surging enrollment. Two years after launching, it grew to about 1,000 students, according to reporting by Idaho Ed News.

Because virtual students and teachers don’t come to school in person, experts and advocates worry that many students are not actually attending classes or studying class material. Indiana law requires elementary school students to have at least five hours of instructional time, but at virtual schools, that doesn’t mean they have to be online for five hours a day.

Although Tech Trep requires parents to submit student work every other week, when it comes to attendance, it uses the honor system. It counts students as absent only if parents explicitly say their children are not in school, said Cox.

The Indiana Department of Education requires schools to submit calendars. The department offers guidance and leaves it up to corporations to ensure they provide enough hours, Baker wrote.

“If we discover they have not provided sufficient instructional days or instructional time, we will take action up to and including tuition support reductions for failure to provide 180 days of instruction,” he said.

A critical time for home education

Middlebury officials said that in light of problems with other virtual schools, they are working to ensure they provide proper oversight of Tech Trep. For example, they will require the company to provide semi-annual financial reports that show how the money the company receives is spent.

Despite the problems virtual schools have had in Indiana, families want alternative options, said Goodman, the assistant superintendent. Middlebury already offers online high school courses, he said. Tech Trep seemed like a good option for younger children, who need more parental support.

“It’s important for us to make sure we have the pulse of what our families are needing and wanting and asking for,” Goodman said.

At a moment when many parents are anxious about the health risks of the coronavirus and frustrated that their children are spending hours on computers each day, Tech Trep is appealing to families from across the state.

When schools closed down last spring, Shaina Dwiel had to educate her 6- and 8-year-old daughters at home. But she didn’t want her children to spend hours online learning each day. So this year, she decided to home-school.

Dwiel, a stay-at-home mom in Bloomington — 200 miles south of Middlebury — enrolled her daughters in Tech Trep because it helps pay for curriculum and classes such as ballet while also giving her flexibility.

“If we’re going to all have to school at home,” Dwiel said, “we want to do it our way.”

By blending elements of home schooling and elements of traditional public school, Tech Trep could be an ideal fit for some families, Cox said. While parents direct how their students learn, the program provides support including state-certified teachers, curriculum advisers, educational materials, and parent training sessions.

“If I can provide something to those kids who aren’t successful in public school, but maybe need more support than traditional home schooling,” she said, “it’s just another choice.”

Online learning blurs the home schooling line

Interestingly, the most vocal criticism of Tech Trep comes from home-school parents, who see the model as potentially threatening their liberty.

In early August, Kylene and Bryan Varner drove nearly three hours to attend a Middlebury school board meeting. The home-school parents raised a host of concerns about Tech Trep — from how the district would monitor issues such as attendance to whether it would violate state law to give money to families.

Indiana has among the most lax home schooling regulations in the country. Home-schoolers don’t need to take state tests, provide documentation of their education, or tell officials that they are educating their children at home. They are only required to track the number of days of instruction.

As a result, it’s impossible to say how much students are learning, whether they are keeping up with peers in public schools, or even how many Indiana students are home-schooled.

Historically, parents have often chosen to home-school to avoid government involvement in their children’s education. Many parents oppose taking public funding in part because doing so invites state scrutiny of the education they are providing. Those same parents are often vocal critics of publicly funded virtual schools because they blur the distinction between public education and home schooling. Tech Trep goes a step further by specifically targeting home-school families.

With its new program, Bryan Varner told the board, Middlebury is “creating a poison pill … which may be used to encroach on home-school liberties and parental rights for the entire state of Indiana.”

Although publicly funded home-school support programs are common in some states and communities, their reputations are mixed. In California, for example, charter schools that specifically serve home-school families stirred controversy last year, because parents were using state funding to buy luxuries such as Disneyland passes.

Some advocates for oversight of home schooling say that well-run programs can have clear benefits. In Alaska, for example, a program supports families while still imposing restrictions on what they can spend public money on and requirements to monitor children’s education, said Rachel Coleman of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a group that supports regulation of home schooling.

“It is simply the case that having access programs like the ones in Alaska improve the education that children receive,” Coleman said — and accountability measures are key to ensuring programs are not “pocketing a bunch of public money.”

Why an Indy charter network is planning a virtual school for next year

2020-09-09T00:27:05+00:00

A small Indianapolis charter network is seeking to open an entirely virtual school next academic year — and making a bet that many parents will want to keep their children at home for months to come.

Paramount School of Excellence, which has a reputation for strong test results, plans to model its first virtual school on its in-person campuses, with a maximum of about 550 students in kindergarten through eighth grades. Leaders say the plan responds to demand fueled by the coronavirus for virtual schooling that they anticipate could continue even if the pandemic recedes or a vaccine proves effective.

“This isn’t a choice that the education sector is making. This is a choice that parents are making,” said Tommy Reddicks, CEO of Paramount, which runs three schools on the near east side. “We can either tell our parents, ‘I’m sorry, we refuse to serve you in that manner. You can go look elsewhere.’

“Or we can try to create something that’s more responsible.”

Several new virtual programs have opened or are in the works in Indiana, including one from Phalen Leadership Academy, a fast-growing Indianapolis charter network that launched a virtual school this fall.

The new virtual schools could help transform online education by serving more diverse families. Typically, students in online schools are more likely to be white and less likely to come from low-income families than are their peers at other schools. For example, at Indiana Connections Academy, over 77% of the 5,000 students enrolled last year were white. Statewide, about 67% of students were white.

By contrast, both Phalen and Paramount are dedicated to improving results for low-income students and children of color. More than 75% of Paramount students, for example, come from low-income families, according to state data.

Phalen is known for overhauling struggling neighborhood schools, and it operates several campuses in a heavily Black community on the far east side of Indianapolis. In their charter application, Phalen leaders wrote that they “expect that many more parents of all races” will pursue virtual education because of COVID-19 and the disproportionate number of deaths the virus has caused in the Black community.

Education One, the charter office of Trine University, has authorized the Phalen charter and is considering Paramount’s request for a charter. (The Indianapolis mayor’s office, which oversees the other Paramount campuses, cannot authorize a virtual school under state law.)

These new virtual schools will test whether schools that have produced strong results for students in person can replicate their success for online students. Virtual schools typically have among the worst test results in the state.

Not that long ago, Reddicks of Paramount said he would have described virtual education as “unethical, immoral, and a money grab.” But the coronavirus forced him to rethink his views, and about half of Paramount students are currently enrolled in a virtual program offered because of COVID-19.

Educators at the school, which once shunned virtual instruction, are now dedicated to figuring out how to do it well.

Paramount tested students when it shifted to remote instruction in March and at the end of the semester, said Kyle Beauchamp, chief academic officer for the network.

“We had academic growth during that time that was very close to on par with the growth we typically see in the on-campus environment,” Beauchamp said. “We’re very excited about that trend.”

If Trine approves the charter request and the network launches the school next year, Paramount’s virtual program would mirror much of its in-person model, officials said, with similar curriculum, teacher training, and support for families. The planned school would have no more than about 30 students per teacher. Staff would work in an office at one of the Paramount campuses, where they would attend weekly meetings and work with other teachers in the network.

Students in the virtual school would also have some of the same opportunities as their peers attending school in person, such as getting tutoring, visiting the school’s farm, or joining the robotics team.

Report: Indiana trusts schools too much to catch funding fraud

2020-08-07T19:56:40+00:00

A new report in the wake of Indiana’s virtual charter school enrollment scandal reveals how most of the state’s $7.5 billion school funding system is largely based on trust — and lacking controls that could flag potential fraud.

The state relies on schools to record how many students they enroll in order to calculate funding and doesn’t compare those numbers to other data sets that could help identify problems, noted the special report from state auditors released Friday.

That’s why state education officials didn’t catch signs in data reports that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had for years been claiming millions in state funding for students who weren’t actually attending the online schools.

But the Indiana Department of Education contends that it can’t audit all the data reports that schools submit, and for charter schools, the ultimate responsibility for oversight lies with authorizing agencies, not the state.

“The system of data collection and verification underlying all data submission to IDOE relies on a foundation of trust that school data personnel and school officials are doing their best to provide truthful and accurate counts of students when required,” the department wrote in a response to the state auditors’ report. “IDOE does not have the resources or capacity to conduct even a sampling audit of the 1.13 million student records collected each year to support tuition support allocations.”

Instead, it has been the state auditors’ responsibility to investigate data discrepancies, the department said. Education officials added that they would support “greater accountability and oversight for virtual charters schools, particularly as it relates to membership, attendance and enrollment.”

This is the third report in a series of investigations by the State Board of Accounts into the alleged $86 million enrollment fraud and self-dealing scheme at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Another report Friday called for the virtual charter schools’ oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, to repay $2.2 million in fees collected based on the schools’ inflated enrollment numbers. A report earlier this year detailed the misspending at the virtual schools.

Friday’s report on the flaws in the state funding system found that the education department doesn’t compare data reports on real-time enrollment, course completion, or attendance with the enrollment report that schools submit for state funding. The state also relies on schools to verify that students live in the state.

In the case of the two virtual charter schools, the state also relied on several enrollment reports that didn’t bear the required signatures, the report said.

The Department of Education pointed out that Indiana has an “inconsistent definition” of what counts as virtual attendance but acknowledged that Indiana Virtual School’s claim of 100% attendance for six years “likely should have raised the attention of state officials.” Officials “would never expect a school that was accurately reporting attendance would report at 100%,” the response noted.

Following the auditors’ investigation, the state education department noted that it analyzed district-level data on course completion, students who leave Indiana schools, older students, and changes in enrollment between the fall and spring semesters. Some of that data could flag irregularities in enrollment figures. But it’s not clear whether any changes or inquiries resulted from the analysis, or whether the department will run those reviews regularly.

Indiana seeks $2.2 million from Daleville district after alleged virtual charter school fraud

2020-08-07T17:07:47+00:00

Daleville Community Schools is being asked to repay $2.2 million that the state says stems from fraudulent enrollment inflation by two virtual charter schools overseen by the rural district.

In a special report released Friday, state auditors echoed the findings of a Chalkbeat investigation that Daleville failed to hold Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to their charter contracts, review the schools’ finances, or press for improvements.

“Daleville’s lack of meaningful oversight and monitoring may have contributed to ineligible students being included [in enrollment reports],” resulting in virtual school officials allegedly defrauding the state of $68 million and sending millions more to their own or related companies, the report said.

In one of the nation’s largest virtual charter school scandals, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy were shut down last year after Daleville officials discovered the chronically low-performing schools kept thousands of inactive students on their rolls, bolstering their state funding. The rise and fall of the schools, chronicled through a Chalkbeat investigation, illuminated how many students cycle through virtual schools and the challenges of keeping them on track, pushing lawmakers to tighten regulations.

Earlier this year, state auditors called for the two virtual charter schools to return nearly $86 million in misspent funds. State officials held back about $7 million in funding before the schools closed and are awaiting the results of a federal investigation before taking further action. Officials from the two schools have previously denied wrongdoing.

In a 20-page response, Daleville officials disputed the criticism of its oversight and said they did not believe they needed to repay the state. They questioned whether the State Board of Accounts had conducted a thorough review of thousands of pages of records provided by the district and how auditors identified the $2.2 million amount.

The $2.2 million was among more than $3 million in authorizing fees that Daleville collected from the two schools. Daleville officials contended that the oversight fees were not public funds and instead came through a contractual agreement, even though the schools paid them using their state funding.

In a vigorous defense, Daleville officials reiterated their claims that they had limited access to school data but pushed to obtain records that led them to uncover the wrongdoing and eventually shut down the schools.

The district “provided near constant oversight, monitoring, and feedback to the Charter Schools through almost daily communications and frequent on-site visits throughout its time as Authorizer,” wrote Sara Blevins, an attorney for Daleville schools. “DCS did take a less formal approach to oversight as it found that the daily informal contacts were more conducive to the creation of a relationship of collaboration and innovation to drive the educational mission of the Charter Schools.”

The report acknowledges that Daleville did not have oversight of the enrollment process, but it highlighted how the district did not receive or seek records that could have alerted officials earlier to problems at the schools, such as contracts with education service providers. Nor did the district conduct regular formal performance reviews or follow up on audits showing financial issues, the report said.

“For the records they received,” the report noted, “we saw no evidence of detailed analysis of those records for reasonableness.”

In a statement Friday, district officials said they viewed the report as “vindication of our conduct” and said many shared blame for the virtual charter schools scandal. They noted that the report’s call for repayment is not an obligation, and the district will wait for the courts to decide if it is liable should the state attorney general pursue the funds.

“In hindsight, it is easy to play a game of ‘what ifs’ because we know now what we could not have known then,” Daleville’s statement said. “But this game is not one of real blame or cause for a multi-million dollar punishment (which ultimately will only hurt local taxpayers and innocent students), but rather is an opportunity to learn from the past to make the system better to deter and prevent similar future schemes.”

The report and the district’s response letter were compiled in March, when schools were abruptly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Indiana schools won’t face lower funding for online learning during coronavirus pandemic

2020-06-12T22:53:41+00:00

Indiana education officials said they don’t plan to cut funding for schools offering online instruction in the fall.

In a memo Friday, the Indiana Department of Education asks schools to identify in the upcoming academic year which students are learning mostly online due to coronavirus concerns. But the department noted that it plans to fund schools at the regular rate for those students — not at the reduced 85% level that full-time virtual schools receive.

That’s not set in stone. State lawmakers or the state education board could overrule the funding model, and the education department memo notes that “conversations with state education policymakers are ongoing.”

“As the memo states, this is how we intend to implement the funding formula, and with any decision we try and signal to schools as quickly as possible so they can plan a path forward,” Indiana Department of Education spokesman Adam Baker said. “The legislature or state board could take action opposite our intentions, but we are moving ahead.”

The threat of fewer dollars for online learning is particularly concerning as traditional brick-and-mortar schools are already planning for the fall and bracing for potential funding cuts from an economic downturn or lower enrollment.

Gov. Eric Holcomb skirted a question Friday about whether K-12 schools could see cuts, saying he planned to provide more information on education funding next week. The state has already reduced budgets for state agencies and proposed reductions for public universities in the wake of significant revenue shortfalls this spring.

When schools reopen in the fall, many could rely on online options for students who do not want to risk being exposed to the coronavirus in school buildings or if there’s an outbreak that requires students to return to at-home learning. Schools could also offer online instruction for students some days of the week to reduce in-person class sizes. It’s up to each district, charter school, or private school to determine reopening plans in consultation with local health officials.

The state will also ask adult high schools and private schools that accept publicly funded vouchers to report how many students are learning virtually due to COVID-19. “We believe that the question of virtual status due to COVID is a relevant data point for all Indiana students,” the memo said.

The state will try to distinguish between students who are learning online as part of a contingency plan due to the spread of the virus and students who have chosen full-time online learning for another reason, such as to avoid bullying or to meet a learning need. Students already enrolled in full-time online schools, those who transfer to an existing online school, or those enrolling in new online programs launching next year not in response to COVID-19 will draw the reduced 85% funding amount, according to the memo.

That raises a sticky issue, said state House education leader Bob Behning, as some students may have transferred to online schools because of the changes wrought by COVID-19, but those schools are not eligible for the full per-student funding.

“Is it an equity issue then? Should we also be changing the funding structure for a total virtual program? Because it sounds to me we now recognize that [online education] is not as easy as it seems,” Behning said.

Indiana has given less money to virtual schools since they typically don’t have physical classrooms, and lawmakers recently further decreased the allocation in light of an enrollment scandal at Indiana Virtual School.

The scandal, in which the online charter school reaped millions in state funding for students who weren’t actually attending, highlighted a lack of accountability for Indiana’s fast-growing online education sector. The new reliance on online learning in response to the coronavirus has raised some of the same questions for traditional brick-and-mortar schools, including how attendance is tracked and how much students are learning.

Indiana is a pioneer of virtual charters. What do those schools tell us about at-home learning?

2020-03-27T20:50:29+00:00

In a time of unprecedented disruption, it’s mostly business as usual at a handful of schools in Indiana.

While brick-and-mortar schools have sent students home for at least six weeks, full-time online schools didn’t have physical classrooms to close amid the new coronavirus. Their students are already set up to work from home. Their teachers are accustomed to leading remote lessons.

“The students are seeing so much change in their world that we want to be something that doesn’t [change],” said Liz Sliger, who leads Indiana Digital Learning School.

Long before the COVID-19 outbreak, Indiana was experimenting with whether students could learn just as effectively without physically going to school. For nearly a decade, the state’s virtual charter schools have recreated classrooms at home, allowing students to interact with teachers and classmates through computer screens.

Full-time online schools aren’t exactly comparable to the temporary e-learning being used as a stop-gap measure while campuses are closed in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic. But what we know about online schools, their long-standing problems, and the state’s years-long battle to improve them suggests that the “new normal” of stay-at-home learning could present challenges — something families are no doubt discovering already.

Research has shown that full-time online settings aren’t as productive for students as in-person learning. A recent study revealed that Indiana students saw a decline in both math and reading after switching to virtual charter schools.

Plus, the recent $86 million enrollment scandal that shut down Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy was a hard lesson in how easily problems in online education can fly under the radar.

The inactive students at those two troubled virtual schools — who drove up the schools’ state funding, allowing millions of dollars to go to a web of companies with ties to school officials — prompted state lawmakers to drill down on how the state’s remaining online schools interact with students and ensure participation. Those issues also set off a federal investigation.

Here’s what Indiana’s experience with virtual schools can teach us about remote learning.

🔗Students, especially those who were already struggling, could flounder.

Virtual learning offers the potential for many students to access education in a way that wouldn’t have been widely available several years ago.

“In-person school is better than virtual school, but of course we don’t have the option for in-person right now,” said Susanna Loeb, director of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. “Really what you want to know is whether virtual school is better than nothing. And I think in many cases, it is.”

But not everyone is on equal footing.

“Virtual tends to work better for students who do better in school anyway,” Loeb said. “Students who have a harder time engaging in school also have a harder time online.”

A family’s situation plays a huge role in how students learn online, she said: whether families have computers, internet, and a quiet place to work; how much time families can devote to helping children with their lessons; and what other stresses may be going on in the home, especially now, as the coronavirus continues to affect people’s health, employment, and economic security.

🔗There’s a learning curve for online learning.

Some schools that incorporate blended learning into regular school days hope that familiarity will help students transition to learning exclusively from home amid the coronavirus crisis. But even virtual schools say it takes a little while for new students to get used to a different way of learning.

That’s part of the reason why state lawmakers decided virtual schools need to be upfront with families about the expectations for online learning. Such schools are now required to have an onboarding process for students and families.

Chandre Sanchez Reyes, executive director of Indiana Connections Academy and Indiana Connections Career Academy, two virtual charter schools, said brick-and-mortar educators will need to get used to over-communicating, such as explaining how long students should spend on each assignment.

🔗It can be harder to get students to participate.

“It’s not easy to do virtual learning. Some people think it’s super easy — that you put some stuff online and kids just do it,” Sanchez Reyes said. “We know that’s not the case.”

Virtual schools originally launched to serve specific niches of students often self-motivated to work through online courses: gifted students, elite athletes, or students with significant health challenges.

But for others, staying on task can be a challenge. When the state started requiring virtual schools to address inactive students, hundreds of truant students were kicked out of those schools. That’s why many virtual schools have built-in “nudges” to reach out to students who have been inactive, and schools like Connections require students to have “learning coaches” — such as a parent — to help with education at home.

🔗Students still need face-to-face interactions.

Some might assume that online learning mostly consists of video lectures for large virtual classes. But effective online education requires a human touch, Sanchez Reyes said. Online schools have platforms that allow students to break into small groups, and teachers to reach out to students one-on-one.

Full-time online schools also still have in-person activities, such as field trips and graduation, where students and teachers can connect face-to-face. Getting to know each other in person can help students through online learning, educators say — but, for now, the coronavirus has forced virtual schools to cancel plans to gather.

🔗Online learning might not be for everyone.

Families and teachers usually get to choose whether they want to be in an all-online environment. With everyone now thrown into remote learning, some students and teachers might gravitate toward online lessons while it might not be a good fit for others.

Some students — especially younger ones, like kindergartners — may have never otherwise considered an online learning platform. Some traditional schools don’t usually send devices home with younger students and have had to change those policies.

“One size does not fit all, even for educators, families, and students,” Sanchez said.

New online school will close amid concerns over Indiana Virtual School connection

2020-03-11T21:57:18+00:00

An Indiana district will close its new online school after Chalkbeat revealed that its manager is caught up in a state investigation into alleged enrollment inflation and misspending at two virtual charter schools.

Following an internal district investigation, the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson school board decided Tuesday to cut short the manager’s three-year contract to run Indian Creek Online Academy. The school, which opened this year and serves about 120 Indiana students in grades 6-12, will close at the end of June.

“This was a mutual agreement,” Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Superintendent Tim Edsell told Chalkbeat. He did not elaborate on the district’s internal investigation.

Gar Hoover, the businessman hired to manage Indian Creek Online Academy, was named in the State Board of Accounts’ investigation into Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, two virtual charter schools that shut down last year amid allegations of an $86 million enrollment fraud and self-dealing scheme.

Hoover served as an Indiana Virtual School board member and later worked for a company providing services to the two virtual schools. The investigation lists him among more than a dozen other individuals responsible for repaying some of the misspent funds. During the 2016-17 school year, Hoover signed off on a request for more than $96,000 in state funds based on inflated enrollment numbers, the state investigation said.

A federal investigation has been launched into the fraud allegations. It is unclear whether Hoover’s role is included in that investigation.

Hoover said he was not involved in any of the problems found at the two virtual charter schools.

“I have always and continue to act in the best interests of the students,” Hoover wrote in an email to Chalkbeat this week. “In that vein, and to avoid disruptions, I am ending my management in the education industry on June 30, 2020.”

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson does not plan to hire another management company to keep Indian Creek Online Academy open, Edsell said. Instead, the district will look for ways to offer students online instruction through its educational service center or help students transfer to other online schools.

Hoover’s online management company also provides services for Michigan Online School, a charter school in Michigan that serves about 430 students. Michigan Online School plans to stay open and find a new management company, board president Chris Van Winkle said.

“We’re just in the process of changing management companies, in light of some of the allegations,” Van Winkle said. “I don’t know what’s all true or whatever, but we’re moving away from anything related to that.”

He added that Hoover “has done nothing but good for us.”

Indiana virtual charter schools linked to a decline in student test scores, a new study shows

2020-03-09T21:13:43+00:00

Faced with low academic results at online schools across the country, supporters often defend virtual education because it provides a haven for struggling students.

But a new study in Indiana found that students fell further behind after transferring to virtual charter schools. The findings suggest that online schools post low outcomes not simply because the students they serve face challenges, but because of problems with how online learning works — and the shortfalls of not having a physical classroom.

The new research, to be published in the journal Educational Researcher, is in line with other studies that have shown that students who transfer to virtual charter schools saw significant drops in their math and reading scores.

“Parents need to know that as they’re making these choices,” said Mark Berends, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Research on Educational Opportunity.

Berends, along with three other researchers, tracked seven years of recent test scores to look at how Hoosier students in grades 3-8 performed before and after they transferred to virtual charter schools. The study compares students at virtual charters to peers in brick-and-mortar classrooms with similar profiles at the same academic level.

The declines equate to a student who was performing at an average level (50th percentile) sinking to the 35th percentile in math and the 40th percentile in reading, Berends said.

It didn’t make much of a difference which virtual charter school they attended or which teachers they had, according to the study. And the negative effects weren’t just due to the disruption of switching schools — unlike students who transferred to brick-and-mortar charter schools, students’ scores didn’t bounce back after the transition.

Even if students had been struggling before changing to an online setting, researchers concluded that they would have fared far better had they stayed at a traditional public school.

Researchers couldn’t exactly pin down why those declines happen. Their theory is that the problem could lie in the very nature of a virtual environment being “inherently limiting” when it comes to how teachers interact with students and how many more students are in each class. It can be hard to track how long students really spend at their computers and to make sure students keep up with their schoolwork.

“Policymakers better have their eyes wide open about virtual charter schools,” Berends said. “While we don’t know what virtual charter schools are actually doing with students, we know that student achievement drops in math and reading to a significant degree.”

Profound problems at two virtual charters spurred lawmakers to look more closely at how online schools monitor student activity and what they do when students stop logging onto classes. A critical challenge lies in not being able to actually “see” what’s happening in online classrooms. A State Board of Accounts investigation recently found that two large virtual charter schools, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, inflated enrollment for years with inactive students, taking in $68 million more in state funding than they should have.

It’s too soon to tell whether recent changes to state law, such as requiring student onboarding and withdrawing truant students, have paid off with improved performance at the state’s remaining virtual charter schools.

Virtual charter school enrollment fell to about 6,500 students after Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy collapsed and shut down last August. But thousands of other students attend virtual programs in traditional districts, putting the number of Indiana students in all-online environments well over 10,000.

This latest study on Indiana virtual charter schools backs up a broad consensus among several other studies showing online schools cause a drop in academic achievement. A widely cited national study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that students attending online schools lost a full year’s worth of math and nearly half a year in reading.

But one administrator for a local virtual charter network said the Indiana study doesn’t capture why families choose virtual schools. Many students look to online learning because of factors such as bullying or health challenges — which isn’t necessarily reflected in test scores.

“Something has happened to that student and family so that the student is not just trying to academically succeed, but emotionally succeed as well,” said Chandre Sanchez-Reyes, who oversees Indiana Connections Academy and Indiana Connections Career Academy.

Sanchez said she doesn’t discount the research and wants her schools to be high-performing. Connections, which serves grades K-12, is rated a D by the state. Connections Career hasn’t been open long enough to receive a school grade.

But she also pointed out that some students turn to virtual charter schools for only a few years while they’re going through challenges. Frequently switching schools can be detrimental to students, and Sanchez said outcomes are much better for students who stay with Connections for a longer time.

The study’s findings of academic declines, however, could indicate that online schools are not providing enough support for their students, said Carycruz Bueno, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University who has studied virtual education outcomes in Georgia. Online schools might suit some particular needs, but Bueno questioned whether they work for most students.

“It is a big deal that [students] are not receiving the education that we think,” Bueno said. “Maybe this is not the best solution for the average family.”

Internal tracking at virtual charter schools could reveal a lot about how much time students are spending on lessons, but researchers haven’t been able to access that type of data, which is typically owned by the private companies running the schools.

Berends, who has studied academic outcomes at different types of school options in Indianapolis, said he wants to continue to unpack what accounts for differences in school quality — such as whether the agencies overseeing charter schools or the companies running charter schools have an effect.

“Let’s figure out the conditions under which charter schools are effective or not,” he said. “So we can learn some lessons that people can follow so we can improve the sector as a whole.”

Is it a virtual school or not? An Indiana farm school draws a warning for relying too much on online classes

2020-03-02T22:24:06+00:00

The arrangement raised eyebrows from the start — an all-online school that also wanted to have a farm where students could learn.

Before Indiana Agriculture and Technology School opened in 2018, officials there found themselves answering questions about whether the land deal would benefit the school’s co-founder and how much time students would actually spend at the farm.

Now, the charter school is under scrutiny again after state education officials say students aren’t spending enough time learning in-person and many students live too far from the farm campus.

Indiana Agriculture and Technology School could lose its charter authorizer and potentially be forced to close unless it runs more like a brick-and-mortar school, a letter last week from the State Board of Education said. Its oversight agency, the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson district, told Chalkbeat on Monday that officials are working on a plan to keep the school open. The district has until March 10 to formally respond to the state.

Indiana Agriculture and Technology School executive director and chief academic officer Keith Marsh did not return a call for comment.

A Chalkbeat investigation in 2018 raised concerns over whether Indiana Agriculture and Technology School should have been allowed to operate as a fully online school. State lawmakers didn’t want to let small districts like Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson oversee big virtual charter schools but left a loophole in state law that the agriculture school tried to use.

A small district has been blamed for the lax oversight of two troubled Indiana virtual charter schools that the state found inflated enrollment, taking $68 million in state money that they should have never received and funneling funding to a ring of private companies connected to school officials.

Under pressure from state education officials, Indiana Agriculture and Technology School backed down from its all-online model in the wake of the Chalkbeat investigation and conceded to run a blended school where less than half of instruction would happen online. The shift also allowed the agriculture school to receive the same per-pupil funding amount as brick-and-mortar schools, rather than the reduced amount for virtual schools.

But the school apparently didn’t really change, state education officials said.

When Indiana Agriculture and Technology School applied for a state charter school grant last fall, education officials took a closer look and found it was essentially operating as a virtual school. It described itself as a virtual school in its own handbook and defined attendance based on online participation, state officials said.

“Although IATS is currently asserting that slightly less than 50% of its education content is delivered via its virtual program, its self-published materials appear to contradict this contention,” the State Board of Education wrote last month, upholding its decision to deny the grant request.

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Superintendent Tim Edsell said he believes the agriculture school is conducting most of its learning in-person, based on meetings with school officials and the school calendar.

The school, which enrolls about 200 students in middle- and high-school grades, hosts “Active Participation Days” at two locations, a leased farm in Morgantown and St. Joseph’s College, a shuttered private college in Rensselaer.

The farm in Morgantown was originally purchased by the school’s co-founder to whom the school would pay rent. The co-founder has since stepped down from the board, though he still appears to be serving as treasurer. It’s not clear what the current lease agreement is.

A calendar shows the school hosts in-person lessons about once a week, occasionally twice a week, with a four-day “Farm Week” in May. Daylong lessons have included farm safety, agricultural machinery and drones, and syrup production and tree tapping. Tuesday’s lesson is tentatively scheduled to be “livestock newborn processing.”

Students have to find their own transportation to in-person lessons, which can present an access challenge. But the state also says Indiana Agriculture and Technology School is only supposed to enroll students from within the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson district.

Students also must supplement their farm participation with 140 “educational experience hours” on their own each semester, according to a handout on the school’s website. That can include going to 4-H, Boy Scouts, or Girl Scouts meetings, attending farm shows, volunteering, or working at a job.

Last year, Indiana Agriculture and Technology School received about $800,000 in state funding. It’s unclear whether the state’s determination that it has been operating as an online school could affect its past or future funding.

“We are paying close attention to the corrective action they take and will continue to have discussions based on the school’s response,” Indiana Department of Education spokesman Adam Baker wrote in an email.

How the state missed thousands of ‘ghost’ students at two Indiana virtual schools

2020-02-26T19:17:27+00:00

An alleged $86 million education scam has exposed a troubling weak spot in Indiana: For years, two virtual charter schools appear to have duped the state’s school funding system.

How did the thousands of “ghost” students go undetected by the Indiana Department of Education — the gatekeeper of student counts and school funding — leading Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to draw millions more in state dollars than they should have?

In a memo sent to state lawmakers this week, the IDOE said it “takes all measures available from a data validation standpoint to ensure schools are not being improperly funded.” The department runs some 70 rounds of checks on enrollment counts used for funding, including steps to clean up data and verify that students aren’t being claimed by more than one district.

But the department largely relies on schools signing off on the accuracy of their student counts — and officials say it’s up to charter school authorizers, not the education department, to make sure charter schools are complying with all the rules. (It was the Daleville district that oversaw the two virtual charter schools that eventually noticed the enrollment discrepancies.)

“The more we continue to open up education and almost make it a free-for-all… the more we also have to make sure we have the capacity to shore up any regulation that’s necessary,” IDOE spokesman Adam Baker told Chalkbeat.

The virtual school scandal — a case of charter schools breaking the rules — has led to a spirited blame game. As the department and Democratic minority see it, the funding abuse points to a vulnerability in how Republican leaders set up the education system. As Republican leaders and school choice advocates see it, the alleged scam stems in part from a serious failure of the department.

“It’s just not acceptable,” said Betsy Wiley, president and CEO of the Institute for Quality Education, an organization that supports school choice. “The primary role of the department, if they do nothing else and get nothing else right, is to make sure they’re properly administering tuition support dollars.”

As state lawmakers examine how to prevent problems at virtual schools in the wake of the alleged enrollment fraud and misspending, the debate is falling along ideological lines — and stirring an ongoing education power struggle.

The legislature is set to continue discussing virtual school regulations Thursday. With critical eyes on its role in school funding, the state education department suggests capping virtual charter school enrollment, putting authorizers directly on the hook for virtual charter school operations, and throwing open virtual charter schools’ books to publicly report data such as course completion rates.

“We’re pointing the finger back to say, here’s how we fix this,” Baker said.

Some of the ideas from the IDOE, led by beleaguered Republican Jennifer McCormick, fall in line with Democrats’ slew of suggestions for significantly reining in virtual charter school operations, some of which would reverberate among the charter sector at large.

State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, described the virtual school scandal as a symptom of Indiana’s education reforms, creating layers of government and making it difficult to pinpoint who exactly is responsible for what.

“A lot of these ‘innovative’ or aggressive policies are starting to catch up, in terms of maybe some inefficiencies or ineffectiveness when it comes to administering, tracking, and providing overall quality of education,” said Melton, who has unsuccessfully advocated for capping virtual enrollment.

He also defended the Department of Education, saying the state has taken power away from the agency through both school choice and the recent battle to give the governor more control over education decisions.

But Republican House education leader Bob Behning maintained that the Department of Education should have been more diligent and should have questioned suspicious patterns, such as the high number of older students enrolled at the troubled virtual schools.

He also criticized the department for doling out funding even though a recent State Board of Accounts report shows that in some years, virtual school officials failed to sign off on enrollment counts.

“By state law, this should never have happened,” Behning said. “It’s like walking into a bank and saying, here’s my check. I have no signature on it. The bank gives you the money.”

Baker pointed out that the missing signatures happened before McCormick took office.

Even though Democrats insist that the state must take action, Republicans have largely dug in, decrying the Indiana Virtual School scandal without proposing changes. Some seem hesitant to pass new laws on virtual schools, saying the right regulations are already in place but were skirted by an apparent bad actor.

Other Indiana virtual charter schools unconnected to the scandal have said the new proposed regulations seem like unnecessary reactions.

Behning also pushed back on focusing only on the charter sector as the root of virtual problems, pointing out that traditional districts also run online programs.

“It kind of shows unfortunate bias,” he said.

They worked for companies accused in the Indiana Virtual School fraud. Now they run a new online program.

2020-02-25T15:36:34+00:00

Last summer, as two large Indiana virtual charter schools collapsed under the weight of fraud allegations, a small new online program made its debut.

Indian Creek Online Academy was launched by a 2,000-student district south of Indianapolis experimenting with new ways of reaching students.

Officials with the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson district said they wanted to avoid the mistakes of the troubled virtual schools. But they also picked an outside management company whose leader had a history with those very institutions, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Businessman Gar Hoover, the head of Indian Creek Online Academy’s management company, had previously served as chief operating officer for AlphaCom, a company accused in the $86 million alleged enrollment fraud and self-dealing scheme at the two virtual charter schools.

A state auditors’ investigation released earlier this month alleges that Hoover, who also served as a board member for Indiana Virtual School, signed off on a request for more than $96,000 in state funds based on inflated enrollment numbers. He’s listed as one of the parties personally responsible for repaying that amount, plus the cost of the auditors’ investigation.

A federal investigation has been launched into the fraud allegations. It is unclear whether Hoover’s role is included in the investigation.

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Superintendent Tim Edsell said he asked about Hoover’s history at Indiana Virtual School before the district contracted with his new company, American Online Education Services.

But Edsell wasn’t aware that Hoover was named in the state auditors’ investigation until contacted by Chalkbeat. After Chalkbeat sent him the state’s report, Edsell said he opened an internal investigation with the district’s legal counsel into Hoover’s connections to the virtual charter schools.

“I do have concerns,” Edsell said. “I want to be very thorough and comprehensive and accurate in our review.”
Edsell also didn’t know that Hoover had brought in a subcontractor with several other former employees from the web of companies paid millions in public dollars to operate virtual schools that served far fewer students than they received money for.

Some critics and experts say the arrangements raise serious questions about how these new companies were vetted to run another publicly funded online venture — and whether taxpayers can trust that Indian Creek Online Academy won’t repeat the mistakes of the now-shuttered virtual charter schools.

“Why go with people who came out of that network just so easily, especially if there’s an ongoing investigation?” said Diane Swanson, chair of the Business Ethics Education Initiative at Kansas State University. “That’s a huge red flag.”

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Hoover said he was not involved in the troubled virtual schools’ enrollment or finances, and he said he eventually left AlphaCom because he disagreed with the way the now-shuttered virtual schools were being managed.

“There’s nothing I need to hide or want to hide,” Hoover told Chalkbeat. “There’s nothing illicit going on.”

Indian Creek Online Academy, which enrolled about 60 students this fall in grades 6-12 and grew to more than 120 students this month, is specifically intended to remain small, officials said. They hope this will avoid the problems experienced by the other virtual schools, since the program won’t be drawing big pots of state dollars or be large enough to lose track of how many students are legitimately enrolled.

“Our vision and desire is to make sure that we are providing an alternative way for students to learn,” Edsell said. “We’re not doing it to make money.”

***

It was Hoover who had approached Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson officials about starting a virtual school. When the district was poised to approve a contract with Hoover’s company in July, the veil had already been pulled back on the problems at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

The two schools were on the verge of closure after their authorizer and state auditors had revealed initial findings that officials had inflated enrollment for several years by counting on their rolls students who no longer or never attended — including, in one case, a student who died.

State education officials ordered the virtual schools to repay millions in funding they never should have received. But according to this month’s audit, it appeared the funds had already been funneled to a web of connected companies tied to school officials, purportedly to provide services.

The state investigation traced the network of private companies and found, in addition to conflicts of interest due to the businesses’ ties to school officials, that the schools weren’t properly documenting payments to those businesses and sometimes paid for duplicative services.

Hoover served on the Indiana Virtual School board from 2015-16, then went on to work for one of those companies running it: AlphaCom, which had been started by Indiana Virtual School’s founder and is responsible for $14 million in misspending, according to the state investigation.

As COO, Hoover was tasked with strategy but said he butted heads with top officials over their plans for the two troubled schools. He wanted to improve quality and hire more teachers, and offered to help run the business and finance sides.

Those ideas eventually got him demoted, Hoover said. Chalkbeat could not reach other Indiana Virtual School officials for comment.

“If my vision had been implemented, you wouldn’t have seen some of these things,” Hoover said.

Hoover said he was kept out of the inner circle and decision-making. He heard rumors, he said, of questionable practices, and was skeptical when the schools’ enrollment rocketed to more than 6,000 students.

He helped launch Michigan Online School, a sister school to Indiana Virtual School that for a time used the same superintendent and contractors. He eventually left AlphaCom in 2018, he said, and continues to run the Michigan school.

At Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson, Edsell said he asked about Hoover’s connections to the beleaguered schools and was satisfied when Hoover said he wasn’t involved.

“What I can tell you is that the work with us has been very transparent, very up front,” Edsell said.

What Edsell didn’t know, however, was that Hoover is also working with several other former employees with ties to the troubled virtual schools.

A subcontractor, KJH Innovations, provides mentors and technical services to Indian Creek Online Academy. It is led by Josh Headlee, a former executive of Bitloft, a company that the state auditors’ investigation lists as being responsible for $18 million in misspent funds.

Headlee said he was in charge of information technology services at Bitloft and wasn’t involved in the enrollment inflation or inappropriate spending.

“I started KJH because I wanted to operate my own business in a compliant, ethical and proper manner,” Headlee wrote in an email to Chalkbeat. His new company also employs others who used to provide services to the troubled virtual schools.

When asking the district about those ties, a Chalkbeat reporter pointed Edsell to the bottom of Indian Creek Online Academy’s website, where a line reads: “School services provided by KJH Innovations, LLC.”

“I’ll have to check into it,” Edsell said.

The ties to Indiana Virtual School raise red flags, experts say, when taxpayer dollars are on the line. It isn’t flatly inappropriate for Hoover and Headlee to stay in the online education business, but their backgrounds should draw more scrutiny.

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson officials may have considered holding off on the online partnership until the investigations played out, said Swanson, who teaches corporate social responsibility and public policy at Kansas State — or pumped the brakes when it became clear, a month after the contract was signed, that the FBI was investigating the virtual charter schools.

The release of the state auditors’ investigation report identifying Hoover as a responsible party also raised another opportunity for the district to further review the ties. Because Hoover and Headlee’s roles involve taxpayer money, they deserve heightened scrutiny, Swanson said.

“There should be no unearned trust given. … These spin-offs came out of a network that the state has already said misused $86 million of taxpayer money,” Swanson said. “Doubling down on them now in anticipation of warding off any problems would be rational.”

One Indiana lawmaker raised questions over how the companies were vetted and called for more transparency, accountability, and oversight of educational vendors.

State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, said people with ties to Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy should “absolutely not” be allowed to run another publicly funded online school.

“I think what the State Board of Accounts report is showing us should be enough, in terms of determining anyone affiliated or associated with those programs and administering it shouldn’t be eligible for any additional contracts,” he said.

***

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson is keeping a close watch on Indian Creek Online Academy, Edsell said.

Unlike the Daleville district that sponsored Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson officials say they have a more hands-on approach — and more access, because the online program is part of the district instead of being an independently run charter school.

“We have a whole lot stronger level of oversight,” Edsell said.

Hoover’s company, American Online Education Services, handles the programming at Indian Creek Online Academy, but the district still has to provide oversight, Edsell said. The district’s business manager reviews financial reports, its testing coordinator looks over exam plans, its data reporting official looks over numbers, and its assistant superintendent acts as principal since Hoover doesn’t hold a school administrator’s license.

“In the Indian Creek district, those folks over there, they want a serious operation,” Hoover said. “They don’t want to be in a situation where they could be at harm or put themselves in any way, shape, or fashion.”

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson also oversees a part-time virtual charter school. Indiana Agriculture and Technology School had originally intended to be an all-online school, with a farm for in-person lessons. But the charter school switched to a hybrid model when state officials raised questions about Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson’s ability to oversee an all-online program.

So far, Indian Creek Online Academy has received about $180,000 in state funding, according to information provided by Edsell. The school doesn’t receive per-pupil funding directly — it flows through Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson. The district retains 5% for administrative costs, though Edsell said it hasn’t yet spent those funds.

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson assistant superintendent Andy Cline, who observes the district’s other classrooms, added the online school to his rounds. Before the end of December, 77% of students were on track to finish and pass their classes, he said — about on par with how students perform in the district’s alternative program.

In the first semester, five students graduated and six students were withdrawn for being inactive.

“Look, you gotta be active in our classes,” Hoover said. “You can’t be a ‘ghost’ student. You can’t not do anything. We can’t have students like that.”

Online school, Hoover said, isn’t for everyone. He wants serious students who have the self-discipline to work through the coursework, which is provided through the national online education company Edmentum. Edmentum supplies the teachers, too.

Success at Indian Creek Online Academy might mean students don’t stay for long. The goal is to help them where they are right now, Hoover said, even if that means simply building up their confidence to return to brick-and-mortar schools.

Hoover’s management company is a for-profit business, and he said he expects to make some money from running the online school: “It’s not large, but we’ll make some.”

“We want to run a good, quality operation,” Hoover added. “If you run services, you’re not going to get rich.”

Chalkbeat reporter Koby Levin contributed to this report.

‘We can’t just be giving this money away’: Who’s to blame for the $85 million Indiana Virtual School scandal?

2020-02-14T03:26:56+00:00

Amid the outcry over a new state investigation detailing an alleged $85 million self-dealing scheme at two Indiana virtual charter schools, state leaders are asking why it took years to catch large-scale enrollment inflation and widespread financial conflicts of interest.

State leaders, education officials, and charter school advocates have pointed to several players who they believe share the blame for the apparent misdeeds at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. And, as Chalkbeat has reported, some officials were made aware of red flags years ago, but didn’t step in.

“We can’t just be giving this money away without accountability,” said Democratic state Rep. Ed DeLaney, of Indianapolis. “The scope of this is stunning. … There appears to have been every kind of misfeasance or malfeasance you can imagine.”

The alleged wrongdoing at the two online schools prompted Indiana officials to ask state and federal law enforcement agencies to look into the case. No criminal charges have been filed.

So how did this happen? And who could have intervened along the way?

School officials apparently flouted their responsibilities.

The report released this week on state auditors’ investigation into Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy lists the names of school officials and vendors whom they believe are responsible for the over-reporting of enrollment numbers and inappropriate spending.

The ledger included virtual school administrators who signed off on inflated reports or bore responsibility because it was their job to verify enrollment, the report said, including the number of students who qualify for extra funding because they come from low-income families or have special needs.

Virtual school officials appeared to ignore many state requirements for charter schools, the state report said, including rules about vendor contracts and annual audits. The first line of defense should have been school board members, but state auditors found they “had no meaningful oversight” of the schools and didn’t appear to have approved expenses.

The authorizing school district didn’t keep a close watch.

As the virtual schools’ authorizer, Daleville Community Schools permitted the programs to open and were responsible for overseeing them.

A Chalkbeat investigation in 2017 highlighted potential conflicts of interest, with Indiana Virtual School contracting with companies tied to the school’s founder, Thomas Stoughton.

But documents show that the Daleville district discounted the story and didn’t press the school on the reported conflicts of interest.

Later, Daleville told state auditors they were unaware of the schools’ contracts with a tangled web of vendors associated with school officials.

Daleville officials have defended themselves by saying they didn’t have access until recently to data showing the extent of the enrollment issues at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy — and, as soon as they received the data, they brought their concerns to the state.

But critics say Daleville did a poor job keeping a tight rein on the virtual schools, in part because the district agreed to a weak contract from the start.

It took six months for Daleville to close the two troubled virtual schools last year after it discovered the enrollment inflation.

State policymakers were quick to pin Daleville for allowing the problems to persist. But it’s unclear whether state lawmakers ever really intended to give districts like Daleville the power to oversee fast-growing statewide virtual charter schools — that was “a big loophole in Indiana law, unfortunately,” one charter advocate once told Chalkbeat.

Neither state lawmakers nor state education board members intervened, until lawmakers amended state law last year to stop Indiana school districts from overseeing virtual charters.

Indiana Virtual School blurred academic results by opening a new school.

Daleville approved the opening of a second school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, in 2017 — even though virtual school officials had been unable to improve dismal academic performance at their first virtual school.

The new school opened as Indiana Virtual School was on the brink of receiving its second straight F grade from the state. The state steps in after schools have received four failing grades.

Daleville officials have said the new school was meant to provide special support for struggling students. But they later discovered that huge numbers of students had transferred from the failing Indiana Virtual School to the new Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which allowed Indiana Virtual School to sidestep accountability.

Enrollment inflation didn’t sound state alarms.

Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy enrolled students who didn’t want to attend the schools — keeping students on the rolls after they had moved away, were withdrawn, and, in one case, had died, Chalkbeat has reported. The schools also enrolled students who had merely requested more information through their websites, the state audit revealed. In addition, they counted many students who were 22 or older, which might be unusual but is not prohibited, state officials have said.

It’s unclear whether those patterns would have triggered alarms in the state’s data system. It’s possible that inactive students who remained on the virtual schools’ rolls never enrolled at other schools in Indiana, which would allow them to go undetected more easily. But it also raises questions about whether the state should have noticed some of those reported to have been enrolled likely weren’t students.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, an Indianapolis Republican, said Thursday that the Indiana Department of Education bears some responsibility for not auditing the virtual schools’ enrollment counts: “I think there will be a lot of questions asked about that as well.”

An education department spokesman said the blame was “unwarranted,” but didn’t respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about how the state reviews student counts.

The state could see most students never showed up for tests.

So few Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy students showed up for state tests in 2018 — just 65 out of nearly 350 10th-graders — that the school couldn’t receive an A-F grade. (It would have been an F, based on the single-digit passing rate for students who did take the tests and the school’s 2% graduation rate.)

The 19% test participation rate, paired with the dismal graduation rate — both far lower than at other virtual charter schools in the state — could have been a sign that many students were inactive.

Federal requirements call for schools to test at least 95% of students, or schools’ state letter grades can be affected. But Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy simply didn’t receive a grade and didn’t face other consequences for its low test participation rates.

The schools didn’t face immediate consequences for not filing annual audits.

Indiana Virtual School didn’t file its required annual audits with the state for several years, starting with the one that was supposed to have been completed for 2015-16. Those audits could have shown some of the spending patterns that state officials deemed inappropriate.

Even if the school had filed audits in a timely matter, charter schools can choose their own third-party auditors. The state investigation shows Indiana Virtual School had hired an accountant, Greg Bright, who was connected to the web of related companies. Bright is named as one of the dozens of parties responsible for the $85 million due back to the state.

State lawmakers have been slow — and loathe — to regulate virtual schools.

While Indiana is widely lauded for its charter-friendly environment, even charter school supporters have pointed to the state’s lax regulations on virtual charter schools as an area of weakness.

As virtual charter schools showed continued low performance, lawmakers took some steps to improve the quality of education. But some say they haven’t gone far enough to ensure state money is well-spent on online learning, and it’s not yet clear what effect new regulations passed last year have had on the state’s remaining virtual schools.

“The legislature bears responsibility,” said DeLaney, the Democratic state representative, who is a frequent charter school critic. “We allowed this program to explode, and we didn’t monitor them effectively.”

Lawmakers did not put caps on growth at virtual charter schools, which allowed Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to collect significantly more state funding over the years. Some advocates recommend performance-based funding, where schools are paid only for the courses students complete, or prohibiting virtual charter schools from contracting with for-profit management companies.

But regulating online education has been a tenuous balancing act in Indiana, as school choice supporters seek to protect what they see as a critical option for students who aren’t succeeding in traditional environments.

Some argue that it might have been difficult to stop the problems at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, if officials manipulated the rules as the state report shows.

Even after the state began requiring virtual charter schools to have a policy about withdrawing truant students, those virtual charter school officials kept inactive students on the books, the state report found.

“It’s difficult to legislate against conduct that’s criminal, and this appears to be criminal in nature,” Bosma said.

In a damning audit, Indiana calls on two virtual schools to repay $85 million in misspent state funds

2020-02-13T03:02:11+00:00

A special investigation by state auditors found that officials from two Indiana virtual charter schools misspent more than $85 million in state funding by inflating enrollment and funneling millions to a tangled web of related companies.

In what has become one of the nation’s largest virtual charter school scandals, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy officials showed “substantial disregard” for following the rules and may have “focused on maximizing profits and revenues by exploiting perceived vulnerabilities” in local oversight and state funding processes, the report said.

The state auditors’ scathing report, released Wednesday, follows a series of Chalkbeat investigations revealing financial conflicts of interest at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy and their dismally low academic results. The two virtual charter schools shut down last summer after allegations of enrollment fraud first emerged.

The state report seeks repayment for more than $85 million in public dollars inappropriately spent on companies connected to school officials. In the past three years, the two schools sent 83% of their total funding to related companies, the report found.

According to the report, the misspent funds include more than $68 million that the schools improperly collected from the state — far more than initially reported — by recording inactive students more than 14,000 times over eight years.

In some cases, those were people who merely requested information through the schools’ website or students who had moved out-of-state — and in one instance, a student who had died.

“Taxpayers are literally paying tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to a school for students who aren’t even there,” said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president for state advocacy and support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Virtual school officials have denied wrongdoing, but they have offered little explanation for the discrepancies and deflected blame. After Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy closed, board members said they were no longer responsible for the schools, despite these institutions owing millions to the state, being under investigation, and still needing to transfer student records.

But the Board of Accounts report outlines a ledger of who was responsible for each instance when enrollment was misreported or a check was improperly cut — and how much each misappropriation was worth.

The report places blame on virtual school administrators, including Superintendent Percy Clark and administrative director Phillip Holden, for signing off on inflated enrollment counts. It puts responsibility on officials for writing checks to related parties or without proper invoices. Those officials include founder Thomas Stoughton and Merle Bright, who owned or was part of a dozen companies that contracted with the schools.

Bright had access to the schools’ bank accounts and could approve payments despite never holding a position at the schools that would have justified that authority, the report noted — and he signed checks for more than $6.8 million to companies he was associated with.

Chalkbeat could not reach Bright, Clark, or Stoughton for comment. An attorney for Holden declined to comment.

The problems at Indiana Virtual School prompted state lawmakers to take steps recently to cut virtual school funding and tighten regulations on how virtual schools count active students. But some worry that lawmakers didn’t go far enough to ensure that public money is being well spent on virtual schools.

For charter school supporters, virtual schools have presented a particular quandary: how to improve school quality and oversight, while also preserving what they see as a critical school option. But for charter school critics, the Indiana Virtual School scandal embodies their worst fears — that private organizations can profit off public dollars meant to educate students.

The State Board of Accounts sent its report to local and federal law enforcement agencies “due to the potential violations of federal and state law.” Federal authorities have already been investigating Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. No charges have been filed.

It’s particularly difficult to verify enrollment — and continued engagement — at full-time online schools, where teachers don’t necessarily see students in their classroom every day. But since public schools in Indiana receive state money for each student they enroll, that also opens the door to potential abuse of how virtual schools report enrollment.

The investigation found the school officials “enrolled students that had not expressed any intention to enroll.” School officials were aware that many of the students on their rolls were inactive, the report said: Every two weeks, teachers received a report of “active” students in their classes, which included just a few of the students registered.

The messy accounting by Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Pathways Academy detailed in the report shows what can happen when financial conflicts of interest meet limited oversight.

Out of nearly $100 million paid to the schools’ largest vendors, almost every expense raised some type of red flag. The schools hardly ever received details about what they were paying for — sometimes shelling out money for duplicative services — and the school boards “had no meaningful oversight,” the report said.

The schools paid vendors to recruit 93 teachers and to run 765 background checks on teachers — at a time when the two schools had 54 teachers combined, the state report said. The schools spent money on consulting services for a 401(k) provider, despite not offering or contributing to a 401(k) plan. They hired a political lobbying firm, even though 501(c)(3) nonprofits are limited in their ability to lobby.

In addition to calling for reimbursement for inappropriately collected and misspent funds, the report also holds school officials and vendors responsible for another expenditure — the cost of the state’s special investigation.

How many hours should online students spend learning? Indiana could pick a number.

2020-02-05T23:20:38+00:00

How much time should online students spend learning?

After the state lost $47 million from two now-defunct virtual charter schools enrolling thousands of inactive students, Indiana lawmakers want to make sure online students are showing up.

A new proposal that sailed through the House last week would seek to define online attendance and add steep consequences for students and schools when those enrolled don’t spend enough time on schoolwork or take standardized tests.

“This kind of teaching can be very beneficial, but it’s not beneficial if the machine is never turned on and the student never participates,” said Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis.

State lawmakers have been walking a tightrope on virtual charter schools: In recent years, they have taken small steps to crack down on the publicly funded sector’s low academic results, while not wanting to impose too many regulations on what they see as an important school choice option for students struggling in brick-and-mortar settings.

But at the state’s remaining virtual charter schools, officials protested online education being painted with a broad brush because of the problems at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which they say were isolated incidents of wrongdoing.

“It’s not what’s happening across the board. It’s just not,” said Chandre Sanchez, executive director of two virtual charter schools, Indiana Connections Academy and Indiana Connections Career Academy. “It feels like an over-reaction.”

State and local oversight officials found last year that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy took in about $47 million combined in state funding for thousands of students who weren’t actively attending the online schools. While claiming perfect attendance rates, the two schools over-reported enrollment by keeping on their rolls students who hadn’t logged in for months, students who had moved out of state, and even at least one student who had died.

School officials denied inflating enrollment, but the two troubled virtual charter schools closed in August under the weight of the scandal. The state recovered about $7 million before the closures.

Under last week’s proposal, if a virtual charter school student doesn’t participate enough or doesn’t take the state’s mandatory tests, that student will be barred from continuing to attend virtual charter schools and the school will lose funding for that student.

The two Connections schools, along with the virtual charter network that includes Hoosier Academy of Indianapolis and Insight School of Indiana, have slightly lower attendance rates than most brick-and-mortar schools — between 86% and 90%.

They follow the same state attendance requirements as other schools, officials say: 180 days of instruction, with five hours per day for elementary students and six hours per day for middle- and high-school students.

Test participation rates at those four virtual charter schools hover just under or at the state average. Getting students to show up for standardized tests is one of the toughest challenges virtual charter schools face, since they have to arrange test-taking sites across the state and sometimes provide transportation for students.

For 2017-18, the most recent state A-F grades available, Hoosier Academy and Insight received Cs. Connections had a D, and Connections Career Academy was not rated because that was its first year open. Another school in the Hoosier Academies network, Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School, closed in 2018 after eight straight years of F grades.

Officials raised concerns that the proposed legislation would single out virtual charter schools — not applying the same consequences for truant students or students who miss state tests at brick-and-mortar schools or fast-growing district-run virtual programs.

“It just doesn’t seem very fair,” said Jeff Kwitowski, senior vice president of public affairs for K12 Inc., the national for-profit online education company that manages Hoosier Academy and Insight. “If it’s a good policy to do it, do it across the board.”

Officials also pointed out that a law approved last year already requires virtual charter schools to withdraw truant students and report attendance policies to their local oversight agencies.

In addition, state education officials are working on new rules for online programs that could craft mandates for onboarding, tracking attendance, and engaging students, though it’s unclear how far those regulations could go. The state board of education expects to discuss potential new rules later this year.

DeLaney said his proposal offers “a way to honestly monitor the virtuals. [Officials] don’t have to insult them, but they can put them under a limitation that’s effective.”

Despite last year’s fraud allegations at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, state lawmakers were poised to skip addressing virtual schools this session until DeLaney tacked these last-minute provisions onto another education bill about enrollment.

House education leader Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, had said he wanted to see the results of pending state and federal investigations into the two troubled virtual charter schools before considering new legislation.

The late addition of virtual school matters means there wasn’t a chance for much public debate, but it could get more discussion as the bill moves to the Senate for consideration.

Still, the Democratic-led proposal received an unusual show of bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled House.

After his party shot down a flurry of Democratic suggestions, the Republican lawmaker behind the enrollment bill asked his colleagues to back DeLaney’s addition on virtual charter schools: “I hope you vote for it,” Rep. Robert Cherry said.

DeLaney paused, unsure.

“He … he said he liked it, Ed,” House Speaker Brian Bosma explained to a bewildered DeLaney, prompting laughter in the chamber.

The virtual school provisions passed 93-0. Republicans, including Behning, backed the proposal “to send a message,” he said, “that there are concerns.”

To recover missing paychecks, Indiana Virtual School counselors file a federal lawsuit

2020-01-28T01:21:32+00:00

Three former Indiana Virtual School counselors are suing to recover their final paychecks from the rocky weeks before the troubled online school unceremoniously dissolved last summer.

If the lawsuit proceeds, it could suss out who shoulders responsibility for the mess left behind by Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which collapsed under the weight of a $47 million enrollment scandal.

The lawsuit names as defendants the two schools, the nonprofit that held their charters, the schools’ founder, two businesses contracted by the schools, and the school district that authorized and oversaw the virtual charter schools.

The counselors — James R. Stanbrough, Angela M. Holmes, and Carrie L. Bennett — were not paid for work in July and August, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court this month. The state had cut off funding after auditors found the two virtual charter schools had artificially inflated their enrollment numbers by nearly double. Confusion swirled as the schools threatened closure but claimed to remain open, despite laying off support staff and their office going dark.

As they helped students finish courses and transfer to new schools, educators said they were told they would be paid. The three counselors each made about $5,000 per month, according to the lawsuit.

It wasn’t until Aug. 22 that a lawyer for the virtual charter schools said 38 teachers and a handful of administrators wouldn’t receive paychecks for their July and August work.

Robert Hunt, a Carmel employment attorney representing the three counselors, declined to comment on the lawsuit. The filing in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Indiana notes that the counselors filed wage claims with the state and were directed by the Indiana attorney general’s office to pursue litigation.

When the online schools lost their charters in August, school board members immediately resigned — despite pending state and federal investigations, an unpaid state debt of $40 million, and thousands of student records still needing to be transferred.

The lawsuit zeroes in on the school’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, who it claims was responsible for the day-to-day management of the schools, the nonprofit board, and the companies running the schools, AlphaCom and Bitloft. His ties to the companies benefitting from lucrative contracts with Indiana Virtual School — creating a potential conflict of interest — were the subject of a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation.

Chalkbeat could not reach Stoughton for comment. Officials from Bitloft, a creative agency that features the Indiana Pacers as a client on its website, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

An attorney for Daleville Community Schools, the virtual charter schools’ authorizer, declined to comment on pending litigation. Virtual school officials had sought funds from the district to pay teachers after they said the schools had run out of money — a request that Daleville did not grant.

While some blame Daleville’s lax oversight for leading to the problems at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, Daleville officials have contended that they intervened as soon as they discovered potential wrongdoing at the schools.

A tiny Indiana town saw promise in virtual charter schools. Then things started to unravel.

2019-12-23T12:00:27+00:00

When Indiana’s largest charter network collapsed earlier this year after an enrollment scandal that triggered state and federal investigations, the resulting mess left hundreds of students scrambling for transcripts, dozens of teachers unpaid, and $40 million still owed to the state.

The downfall of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy also placed under the microscope Daleville Community Schools, a tiny rural district that runs just two brick-and-mortar schools serving fewer than 1,000 students in total.

Despite having no experience as a charter authorizer, Daleville took on an oversight role when Indiana Virtual School opened in 2011 and, over the years, accepted more than $3.2 million in state funding to monitor them and ensure their success.

Daleville officials saw it as a unique opportunity to help students who were failing in traditional schools or those who had medical conditions and needed flexible schedules. But the district struggled to rein in the fast-growing, low-performing virtual charter schools, which in July were found by auditors to be artificially doubling their enrollment and collecting state funding for thousands of students who they weren’t educating.

A Chalkbeat review of thousands of pages of charter records and multiple interviews with the authorizing school district show that, until recently, Daleville relied largely on informal or undocumented conversations to monitor Indiana Virtual School.

“Call us naive, but I think we were trusting educators to do the right thing,” Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison said in a recent interview, referring to the charter operator.

“We were working with people that we trusted, that had the same love and outlook and concern for the kids that they were serving that we had,” Garrison explained. “Well, that’s how we looked at them. We assumed — maybe falsely.”

Virtual school officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. They have previously denied wrongdoing through an attorney. That attorney also didn’t respond to requests, and it is not clear whether she is representing the schools anymore.

Daleville’s inability to prevent the alleged abuse of public dollars has become a cautionary tale for charter authorizers, and for small districts with ambitions that exceed their expertise or bandwidth. The situation has led to a new state law this year that prevents districts from being in charge of virtual charter schools and has prompted state leaders to call for more safeguards.

Marcie Brown Carter, executive director of the Indiana Charter School Network, criticized the district for letting problems persist for too long, leading to the schools’ sloppy shutdown: “That’s inexcusable. It’s been horrible for the students and families and employees involved.”

Daleville officials say they did the best they could in uncharted territory. In defending their oversight, they pointed to their data analysis that uncovered the schools’ alleged misdeeds and called on the state to better regulate virtual schools, including defining what virtual attendance should look like.

The district says it raised concerns about academics with the virtual school from the start. But emails show Daleville administrators brushed off concerns raised in a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation into how Indiana Virtual School was spending little on teachers while pumping public dollars into lucrative contracts with businesses tied to the school’s founder and his son — financial arrangements that are now being investigated by state and federal agencies.

Daleville’s first formal evaluation of Indiana Virtual School later flagged those same issues and raised several others, prompting the district to create a school improvement plan. However, it wasn’t until early 2019 — three years after the virtual schools allegedly inflated enrollment — that Daleville took steps to shut down Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Daleville, Indiana.

An optimistic but troubled start

Situated about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, Daleville is a quiet rural railroad town, home to fewer than 1,700 people. Those driving along I-69 might notice it as an exit on the highway, offering gas stations and fast food. Its own residents have described Daleville as a place that “lacks an identity.”

The Daleville school district offices are inside a converted house with front windows looking out onto the junior-senior high school, home of the Daleville Broncos. A C-rated district, Daleville serves almost all white students, and just under half of them qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Four out of five school board members have served in their roles for at least 15 years; two of them have been on the board since the 1980s. Garrison, the longtime superintendent, sometimes signs emails with, “Blessings.”

Daleville is not the kind of district that would usually attract statewide attention. Critics would later argue, too, that it wasn’t the kind of district that had the capacity or the knowledge to effectively monitor such large and unconventional charter schools — schools without walls and with students scattered across the state taking classes online.

Back in 2011, Daleville had “a natural interest” in helping to launch Indiana Virtual School, Garrison said, because officials could see from its own schools how some students needed an alternative to traditional classrooms. Enthusiastic about pioneering a new way of learning, Daleville administrators wanted to be part of the growing national conversations on virtual schools. Across the country, virtual schools — where students take all or most of their classes online — were becoming increasingly popular options, even as they were linked to poor academic outcomes.

Indiana Virtual School also provided another benefit: money. The district wanted to use its oversight fees to upgrade its technology and provide supplemental online courses for students at its two district schools — perks that administrators said also helped them monitor Indiana Virtual School.

But Indiana Virtual School experienced problems from the start. There were operational issues, such as occasionally missing teachers’ paychecks and administering state exams incorrectly, and there were academics ones, including consistently low state test scores. Virtual school officials have in the past publicly contended that those results were a reflection of its unconventional students, many of whom had fallen behind at other schools. Online schools, they said, shouldn’t be judged by the same metrics as traditional ones.

Beginning in 2011, Daleville had checklists to evaluate Indiana Virtual School’s academics, finances, and operations. Daleville officials said they were concerned about the school’s academic performance and were constantly pressing for improvements. But there’s little documentation of these efforts or the issues they brought to light.

In 2015, despite its reservations about weak academics, Daleville renewed Indiana Virtual School’s charter for five years. No public document explains how they assessed the school’s performance or their decision to renew the charter, though Daleville officials say they were optimistic after the longtime Indiana educator Percy Clark signed on to lead the virtual school.

Optimism aside, Indiana Virtual School wasn’t showing significant academic improvement by 2017. Its statewide enrollment had grown substantially, but passing rates on standardized tests remained far below state average. The school had the lowest graduation rate out of all public schools in the state that year. It had received two consecutive F grades from the state and was about to earn its third.

That’s when virtual school officials came to Daleville with a plan to open a second school.

Daleville Community Schools, a small rural district in Indiana, oversaw two statewide virtual charter schools that collapsed in 2019 after an enrollment scandal.

Ballooning problems

The second school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, was supposed to fix the problems at the first school. It would provide alternative education pathways through internships and industry certifications, which officials hoped would re-engage struggling students who had grown disenchanted with school.

The school board unanimously approved the proposal in 2017, making Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy the second virtual charter school under Daleville’s oversight. Meeting minutes don’t describe any discussion on the matter prior to the vote.

Garrison said he had been hopeful that Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy would solve the academic issues. Even now, he still thinks the model could prove the potential of online education: “Our thought process at the time was, wow, if they do all of this, in our best guess, this is going to succeed. And I still believe that.”

A few months later, Chalkbeat published an in-depth investigation into Indiana Virtual School. It highlighted the school’s academic problems and raised questions over the school’s spending of millions in state funding.

In emails to the virtual schools, Daleville officials discounted the story.

Garrison praised Clark, the virtual schools superintendent, for sending an email to the staff calling the investigation an attempt to “smear us.”

“I applaud you on your message,” Garrison wrote to Clark, asking for student success stories to send to the Daleville school board to “expose a totally different view of the school” than what the Chalkbeat investigation had described.

Around the same time, Daleville conducted its first formal evaluation of Indiana Virtual School. It paid a Fort Wayne company to develop a customized rubric to fit the nontraditional school, weighing factors like the personalization of education, not just test scores.

The review raised many of the same issues as the Chalkbeat investigation. But it also revealed more significant concerns, according to documents, including that Indiana Virtual School wasn’t regularly checking which students were inactive despite knowing many students were habitually truant.

Daleville officials, while publicly supportive of the schools, say behind the scenes, they were growing increasingly skeptical of Indiana Virtual School’s rosy claims about how their students were flourishing. They wanted to know how many credits students were earning, and emails show they campaigned for access to the school’s data.

“As we look back, you got a lot of different excuses and reasons, and the difficulties in doing this or that were explained pretty heavy,” Garrison said.

Daleville officials have often portrayed their relationship with the online schools as one of uneven power. They said they were bound by their contracts with the schools — and their requests for more data were ignored.

“We had nothing available except what they gave us,” Garrison said. “That was our frustration that whole time — getting information that we could check out and verify.”

Charter experts say such a dynamic could signal a weak charter contract. It also shows one of the disadvantages of small or inexperienced authorizers, who can feel overpowered by lawyered-up charter operators.

When the district finally obtained the information it had been requesting last year, officials were alarmed to see just how few students were completing courses and how hundreds of students on its rosters weren’t enrolled in classes at all.

Meanwhile, huge numbers of Indiana Virtual School students had switched to Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, with some 7,000 students statewide reportedly enrolled at the two schools. It wasn’t clear whether students were being shuffled between schools without parent permission, but Daleville noted the suspicious timing of the transfers partway through the year. Because they spent part of the year at each school, students’ test scores wouldn’t count toward either school’s state grade.

But the first year of Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy wasn’t going as planned. The extras it was supposed to offer — such as internships and individualized support — never came through.

Now, instead of one troubled school under Daleville’s purview, there were two.

An office for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy was dark and locked on a Monday morning in July during business hours.

Picking up the pieces

Many of Daleville’s critics are charter supporters who say the district wasn’t paying enough attention to red flags, and because of that, it failed to protect students and taxpayers.

“There are some portion of closures that happen across the country because authorizers are asleep at the wheel,” said Karega Rausch, acting president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, speaking broadly about charter oversight. “Authorizers need to do their job, because they do have incredible power and responsibility in this space.”

Daleville officials point out that they sought guidance from national and local groups on both virtual education and charter authorizing. Online schools add a layer of complexity, because it’s harder to see how students are learning, and states across the country are still trying to figure out the best way to run these institutions.

In light of the school scandals and criticism of Daleville, state lawmakers have prohibited all school districts from overseeing virtual charter schools. But Daleville officials don’t think larger or more experienced authorizers would have identified the schools’ wrongdoing any sooner than they did.

Daleville officials took their data analysis to state officials. In February, citing the high numbers of enrolled students who weren’t attending or completing classes, the district started the process to revoke the virtual schools’ charters — which ended up extending over seven months.

Virtual school officials largely evaded having to publicly answer to the controversy. They struck a deal with Daleville for a three-month wind-down without having to publicly respond to the allegations against them. And when the state took action over the alleged enrollment fraud in July to recoup the $47 million it determined the virtual schools received in overpayments, it was Daleville that had to stand up and explain how this could have happened.

While Garrison weathered the criticism from the state board of education members, Clark, the virtual school superintendent, watched from the audience without saying a word.

When Chalkbeat reached Clark by phone for this story, he hung up on the reporter.

The virtual schools’ closures didn’t go smoothly. Despite the deal with Daleville, the schools didn’t properly notify students and families of the closure. Thousands of students and teachers were left in limbo when, months before they were scheduled to close, the virtual schools slowly pulled services and stopped answering calls.

At one of the Daleville district’s final board meetings on the virtual school closure, a Muncie couple showed up, frustrated after they said Indiana Virtual School lost their daughter’s records. Going to Daleville felt like their only recourse, they said.

“We think that Daleville is trying to do the right thing,” Becky Gregory said.

In the end, Daleville took responsibility for wrapping up student services at the schools, processing transcripts after Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy abruptly closed in September and immediately disbanded their boards.

During the two years of public controversy, Garrison said he felt the most betrayed when he saw virtual officials “walk away from the kids” when it was clear that the schools would shutter. His voice broke, and his eyes teared up.

“And then we’re just left to pick up the pieces,” Garrison said.

The virtual school saga isn’t over yet. No results have been released from a federal inquiry and a state audit. The state only recovered about $7 million from the two online schools before they closed, and it’s not yet clear whether the state education department will pursue the remaining $40 million.

State lawmakers are already pledging to pass more regulations on virtual education, concerned that students still aren’t learning enough and too many aren’t engaged in online coursework.

In an interview with Chalkbeat this month, state schools chief Jennifer McCormick suggested that the state should review the same course completion data that revealed problems at Indiana Virtual School.

“That needs to be monitored closely,” McCormick said. “I feel like we’re letting [virtual education] just continue down a track that isn’t productive, and it’s not going to lead to student success.”

Despite the scandal, many education leaders see virtual schools as a critical option in a sector that will only continue to grow. Even Garrison remains staunchly supportive of online education, although Daleville’s foray into virtual schools is over.

“If we were doing it again, would we do things differently than we did, as far as evaluation and all of that? Sure we would,” Garrison told Chalkbeat. “We’ve learned enough that I think we could do it very well now, but we’ve also learned enough that I think we don’t want to venture another try, either.”

Board members quit after two embattled Indiana virtual schools lose their charters

2019-08-28T02:08:29+00:00

After losing their charters Monday night, two embattled virtual charter schools were scheduled to hold board meetings Tuesday night to discuss finishing the process of shutting down.

But that discussion never happened because Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy no longer had any board members.

“There’s no one left,” said the schools’ attorney, Mary Jane Lapointe.

Two board members, Thomas A. Krudy and Sam Manghelli, resigned during an executive session held in the lobby of an Indianapolis office building because they were locked out of the virtual schools’ fourth-floor suite.

“We lost the charter, and in effect, there is no school,” said Krudy, the former board president and a bankruptcy trustee. “So there wouldn’t be any kind of decision on my part.”

The two other board members were not present. Dave Milligan could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. By phone, Mitch Smith told Chalkbeat that the board had dissolved. He said he believed any outstanding business with the schools would be handled by the company that had been paid to run them, AlphaCom.

With the board’s dissolution, it’s unclear who remains responsible for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. The schools have stopped operating, but even as teachers are no longer getting paid, they say they’re still helping students transfer to new schools.

The decision comes as the two virtual schools face questions from state and federal investigators over their enrollment practices and finances. The state has found that the schools over-reported their enrollment in recent years and took in $47 million more in state funding than they should have.

Lapointe said she believed the schools were still going to respond to a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Indiana to provide information to the FBI.

With no board members, the nonprofit organization that held the charters for the schools, the Indiana Virtual Education Foundation, will likely dissolve, Lapointe said. She said the schools had no assets, and she did not know about any liabilities.

Lapointe directed questions to Daleville Community Schools, the schools’ oversight agency that unanimously voted Monday night to immediately revoke the charters.

“When it revoked its charter, it took responsibility for the students,” Lapointe said. “So, the foundation is no longer involved.”

She did not answer other questions, saying, “I can no longer speak for a nonexistent board,” and adding that she didn’t know whether she still represented the schools.

Sara Blevins, a partner at Lewis Kappes, the law firm that represents Daleville, said she was “disappointed but not surprised” by the board’s disbanding.

“Frankly, we never expected much help from the charter schools in the closure process, and we’re trying to set things up so we can do as much ourselves as we can,” Blevins said. “Which is not as much as we’d like to be able to do, but our hands are tied to some extent, and they just tied them a little bit more. I was hopeful that someone would take some measure of responsibility for the students’ sake.”

Blevins said the schools still had financial obligations under the closure process that they needed to address.

Several teachers and counselors who showed up for the meeting seeking answers appeared stunned by the decision.

“We showed tonight because we were trying to support the kids,” said counselor Carrie Bennett. “It’s sad that the board members who were supposed to have them at their highest priority didn’t bother showing and resigned just before they could have the opportunity to do anything.”

Board members told reporters they could not answer several questions about where this leaves the schools because they were not involved in the day-to-day operations. Krudy added that they were “deeply disappointed.”

“We thought this was the wave of the future and a way of educating kids,” Krudy said. “And we believed in it.”

Smith said the schools took in students who were getting failing grades and enrolled students throughout the year.

“I’m not sure what really went wrong with the situation, but I feel sorry for all the kids,” Smith said.

Teachers who continued to work at failing Indiana virtual schools won’t get a final paycheck

2019-08-23T21:24:33+00:00

When Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy agreed to close amid enrollment scrutiny earlier this summer, special education teacher Andi Helms started looking for another job.

But even after she found a position at another school, Helms kept working for the troubled online schools at night, reviewing special education plans and helping students finish classes and transfer to new schools. Even as the schools began to collapse — their state funding cut off entirely — Helms felt strongly that she couldn’t leave students in the lurch.

“We were pretty sure we weren’t going to get paid,” she said. “They knew there were no funds a month ago. They simply wanted us to finish the job, because they knew we wouldn’t leave our kids high and dry.”

This week, Mary Jane Lapointe, an attorney for the two virtual schools, delivered the anticipated bad news: Teachers wouldn’t be paid for the work they did between July 15 and Aug. 15.

In the email to teachers Thursday, Lapointe wrote, “For those of you who have asked specifically whether [school founder] Tom Stoughton or any vendor will provide the funds, the answer is no.”

The missing paychecks for 38 teachers and a handful of administrators come as the state claims the schools collected $47 million more than they should have after over-reporting enrollment, and as federal investigators are examining the schools’ financial records.

Lapointe declined an interview request. Earlier this week, she asked Daleville Community Schools, the small rural district that oversees the virtual schools, for money to pay teachers and wrap up the schools’ closures. She told Daleville officials that she didn’t know why the schools had no cash balance and had run out of money.

It’s unclear how many students remain at the two schools, but Lapointe has estimated in a note to Daleville officials that “finishing and finalizing all transcripts for each and every student could take at least 3 months.”

In her email this week, Lapointe wrote that teachers, who are all independent contractors rather than school employees, were not expected to continue working and wouldn’t be paid if they did.

The online schools’ superintendent Percy Clark “has no additional information, so we ask that you not call him to complain since he cannot invent funds that are not there,” she continued, “and he is devastated by what has occurred.”

Lapointe told teachers to direct their complaints to the Daleville district, which owes the virtual schools about $650,000 in overpaid fees. Lapointe has asked for those funds to be released to facilitate the closure of the schools. But the repayments aren’t due until next month.

Donna Petraits, a spokeswoman for the Daleville district, said officials won’t make any decisions about those funds until after board members meet again Monday to vote on revoking the schools’ charters.

In an email statement, Petraits said that district officials are assisting students with transitions but “cannot provide assistance or guidance” to the unpaid teachers.

Helms and another teacher told Chalkbeat that even though they won’t get paid, they will help students for as long as they can still log into the schools’ systems. One of the largest concerns among students, families, teachers, and Daleville officials has been that the schools will shut down unexpectedly without providing student records.

“We don’t ditch kids like that,” Helms said. “It’s not fair to them at all if we don’t finish them up and get them finalized.”

Still, Helms said she felt like virtual school officials “tricked us,” taking advantage of teachers’ devotion to students. For weeks, as the virtual schools threatened to shutter without state dollars, teachers asked whether they would be paid but said they didn’t get a direct answer.

“Please help our students,” Clark wrote at the end of July in an email provided to Chalkbeat. “The expectation is that everyone will be paid.”

“No one ever said ‘stop working’ or released us from our contracts,” said Carrie Bennett, a counselor for the virtual schools.

Some teachers who did unpaid work could consider legal action, Bennett said. She’s unsure what she’ll do next. Since the school year has already started, it might be difficult for her to find a position at another school. But Bennett is a single mom, and without this last paycheck, she said she’s getting close to depleting her savings.

“For me, it’s been devastating,” Bennett said, “but I still did it, because of the kids.”

Federal investigators seek student records and spending details at Indiana Virtual School

2019-08-20T23:00:07+00:00

Federal investigators are scrutinizing the enrollment and financial practices of two Indiana virtual schools on the brink of collapse amid allegations that they took funding for students they never educated, according to a subpoena made public Monday.

And investigators also want to know who got paid with the millions of public funds that flowed to Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment Tuesday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not respond to a request for comment.

But a subpoena was included among dozens of documents provided Monday night by the two virtual schools in response to a move to revoke their charters.

The subpoena summoned representatives of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to testify in front of a grand jury Aug. 6 with requested documents, ranging from student files to bank information.

But in front of the Daleville school board on Monday, the online schools’ attorney, Mary Jane Lapointe, disputed any errors in enrollment, contending that “there were no overpayments — in fact, that there were no miscalculations, none. And that in fact, there were always more students enrolled than they were getting paid for.”

The subpoena does not spell out exactly who is being investigated, and why. Grand jury proceedings are secretive — prosecutors present evidence to a grand jury behind closed doors. The 16 to 23 grand jury members are tasked with determining whether there is probable cause to charge an individual with a crime.

Often, grand jury considerations only come to light if an individual is indicted. Then, a case proceeds in court. If a grand jury decides not to indict someone, the public often never finds out, and grand jurors are ordered by law not to disclose their discussions.

Lapointe indicated Monday night that the schools are still compiling their response to the request for documents. She did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

“There’s a tremendous amount of virtual and hard paper that is being collected by the attorneys handling the subpoena,” Lapointe said.

Here’s what we know so far.

Investigators are digging into the schools’ enrollment practices.

A couple of lines in the subpoena appear to be redacted, but the document request includes student files and records on “attendance, course participation, or student presence.”

The subpoena also asks for extensive documentation on enrollment — communication from families or other schools about students enrolling, enrollment applications, and both incomplete and complete enrollment forms. It seeks information about whether people were paid based on recruitment, and any discussions the schools may have had with its authorizer, the state education department, or the U.S. Department of Education about enrollment.

Two other agencies have already looked into enrollment issues at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Daleville Community Schools, which oversees the two online schools, analyzed course data and said most students never earned any credits throughout the year, and many were not even signed up for any classes.

State auditors discovered that the schools reported re-enrolling students who had moved out of state or students who had been kicked out of the schools for not participating. In one case, Indiana Virtual School kept a student on its rolls after he had died.

State auditors deduced that the schools were likely reporting twice as many students as they actually had enrolled, and their examination of the schools’ finances is still ongoing. The state education department said the schools should return $47 million in state money and cut off future funding.

A line in the subpoena also asks about special education funding — federal dollars that come with strict regulations on how they’re spent.

Lapointe provided numbers on monthly enrollments and withdrawals, pointing out that students enroll throughout the year and that the schools did not have a process for removing inactive students. The numbers contradicted Daleville’s findings, claiming that most students were enrolled in five or more courses.

On Monday night, Lapointe said the schools were holding off on making copies of copious student records for the response to the subpoena. Officials could also waive their right to appear and provide them to an FBI agent to present to the grand jury instead, according to the subpoena.

Investigators also want to know where the money went.

The documents requested through the subpoena could create a detailed map of who has been involved in running and providing services to the two virtual charter schools. The subpoena asks for information on who’s in charge of the two virtual schools and who has any ownership interests in the schools’ businesses. It looks for a list of vendors, contracts, invoices, and receipts.

A Chalkbeat investigation in 2017 raised the question of conflicts of interest between the school’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, and lucrative contracts that the school forged with businesses led by him and his son. An attorney for the schools contended at the time that they could not have started up without support from Stoughton’s business.

Stoughton stepped down from Indiana Virtual School’s board and sold his interest in a business hired to manage the schools, AlphaCom, Inc. It’s unclear whether he is still affiliated with the schools or businesses contracted by the schools.

AlphaCom — which has no online presence — was allowed to charge the schools monthly fees for each student, with extra fees for special education services, according to contracts. AlphaCom could charge more for “supplemental services,” developing or modifying courses, or other special projects. At one point, Indiana Virtual School agreed to pay AlphaCom up to $500,000 for “course gamification.”

In 2018, however, it appears a company called American Pathways Academy took over many of the services that had been provided by AlphaCom. The company is listed at the same address used by both AlphaCom and the schools. An attorney that formerly represented AlphaCom described it as “defunct,” though it still appears active in state business records, and its name repeatedly came up in Monday night’s discussion in Daleville about the problems at the virtual charter schools.

The subpoena hones in on any communications that Stoughton had with the two schools. It also names another individual: Merle Bright, who once signed an agreement with Indiana Virtual School as president of AlphaCom. Contracts show Bright also managed a Florida company called Cyber Educational Services that worked with Indiana Virtual School in 2016 and 2017.

An attorney for Stoughton declined to comment. Bright could not be reached Tuesday.

On Monday night, Lapointe said AlphaCom was building its defense against the allegations of enrollment miscalculations and overpayments.

The group’s response, she said, “is going to be, ‘didn’t do anything wrong at all.’”

It’s possible that some information might never come to light.

The subpoena indicates that investigators are preparing for the possibility that some of the records they have requested may no longer exist. The final line instructs recipients to share information about missing records — including who is responsible for their absence.

“If you have knowledge of any documents that would be responsive to this Subpoena, but has been lost, destroyed, redacted, or discarded,” the subpoena reads, “you shall identify the document to the extent possible, and provide an explanation of the loss, destruction, redaction, or discarding, including identification of each person authorizing or having knowledge of the loss, destruction, reaction, or discarding.”

As they ask for more money, two Indiana virtual schools say they are all but closed

2019-08-20T02:06:47+00:00

As two scandal-plagued virtual charter schools face losing their charters, their attorney appeared before an authorizing board Monday night and described the schools as effectively closed: Students have been told to wrap up their work this week. Teachers haven’t been paid. School bank accounts have been shuttered.

Federal investigators have been looking into enrollment discrepancies and how Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy spent tens of millions in public dollars, the schools’ attorney, Mary Jane Lapointe, confirmed to the board.

But despite painting a picture of schools that are all but shut down, she asked the oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, for money to finish closing the schools — or even to keep them open, saying the schools’ problems could “go away eventually.” Lapointe also disputed the state auditors’ recent findings that the schools had over-reported enrollment and taken in $47 million more in state funding than they should have.

Monday night’s meeting was the two virtual schools’ chance to defend themselves as the Daleville school board considers for a second time revoking their charters — a largely symbolic move, since the schools have already agreed to close and appear to be shutting themselves down even earlier than mandated.

Lapointe said she didn’t know how many students were still enrolled in the two troubled schools.

Daleville has been bearing down on the two virtual charter schools since February, when the small rural district outside of Muncie revealed data showing the schools had been enrolling thousands of students who never logged in or signed up for classes. The schools came to an agreement with Daleville to wind down their operations, and the state cut off funding.

If the schools close, Lapointe said, they will still need money to pay staff members to help students transfer elsewhere.

According to Lapointe, AlphaCom Inc., which had been under contract to manage the schools, claimed “there were no overpayments — in fact, that there were no miscalculations, none. And that in fact, there were always more students enrolled than they were getting paid for.”

The confusion, she said, “lies in the difference between virtual and brick-and-mortar schools.”

The virtual schools have been subjects of Chalkbeat stories for years, with a 2017 investigation revealing ties between the schools’ founder, Thomas Stoughton, and companies hired by the schools, including AlphaCom.

Reached by phone Monday night, the attorney listed for AlphaCom told Chalkbeat he had stopped representing the company and believed the business was no longer in existence. In more than 300 pages of documents the schools sent to the Daleville school board, the index notes AlphaCom’s “successor” as a company called American Pathways Academy, which appears to share an address with the former AlphaCom.

The documents also included a subpoena for school officials to testify in front of a grand jury earlier this month and provide information on student enrollment, school contracts, and payments made to vendors. Daleville board members said the papers, including another stack that Lapointe handed to them at the meeting, contained information that they had been seeking for months.

“When you refuse to provide information that is in your charter that you are to provide, it definitely makes you suspicious,” Vickie Rees, a board member, said. “Why would you have not come forward with that early on?”

When Daleville board members criticized the virtual schools’ superintendent, Percy Clark, apparently the only remaining staff member, and members of the schools’ board of directors for not showing up to defend the schools, Lapointe said Clark was “at his wits end,” and volunteer board members seemed “not willing to do much more.”

During the meeting, Daleville board members asked why the schools had run out of money, to which Lapointe responded, “I don’t know.”

Even though the Daleville school board is scheduled to meet again next Monday to make a final decision, revoking the charters may not have a practical effect. Indiana Virtual School had already been scheduled to close Sept. 17, and students had been referred to its sister school. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is slated to close at the end of the school year, though classes are apparently winding down this week.

Two Indiana virtual schools face swift closure as they shrug off blame for enrollment scandal

2019-07-26T02:44:46+00:00

The superintendent of a tiny Indiana school district that oversaw two scandal-plagued virtual charter schools read Thursday night from an eight-page script, recounting a series of missteps at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Those schools, which had been slated to close by the end of the 2019-2020 school year, had “let their students down,” Daleville Community Schools Superintendent Paul Garrison said at the sparsely attended meeting. “There are many things that led us to this place, but that has been the most disappointing failure of them all.”

That latest blunder — failing to tell students and families that the schools would be shutting their doors — will likely hasten the schools’ demise, the Daleville school board voted unanimously at Thursday’s meeting. The vote could leave some 2,500 students scrambling to get their transcripts and transfer to other schools. It marks the second time this year that the rural district outside Muncie moved to pull the schools’ charters.

Indiana Virtual School had been slated to close at the end of September, and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. Now, Daleville could issue a final decision in a month that could close both schools at the end of September.

The online schools, which were subjects of a series of Chalkbeat stories highlighting their dismal academic performance and financial conflicts of interest, set off confusion this week when teachers told unsuspecting students that the schools had closed — though they remain open for now. That’s when students found out the schools were in trouble.

Indiana has cut off funding to the two virtual charter schools in light of state auditors’ findings that they overreported their enrollment and collected twice as much public money as they were supposed to in the last three years — about $40 million too much.

A newly retained attorney for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, Mary Jane Lapointe, addressed Thursday’s meeting, saying she didn’t know why the schools hadn’t notified students. She blamed the company contracted to run the schools for the enrollment issues and said school officials “did not have anything to do with the operations of the schools or with enrollment. They’re blindsided by this too.”

The board denied Lapointe’s request to hold off on the revocation process. If Daleville ultimately revokes the schools’ contracts, she said, “the work stops,” which could leave students in the lurch.

Daleville school board member Ron Halbert Jr., asked why the superintendent of the virtual schools, Percy Clark, was not at Thursday’s meeting.

“Frankly, he was concerned he was going to be a target,” Lapointe said.

After the meeting, Halbert said, “If you’re willing to fight for your kids, you’re going to show up and make an appearance.”

A school counselor and a parent pleaded with the Daleville school board to keep the schools open for the sake of students. They feared that students could be at risk of dropping out, since some students chose the online options after struggling and falling behind in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

Mismanagement at the virtual schools was “wrong,” but “it’s also wrong to punish the kids,” said an Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy parent, Angie Pogue. “You’re punishing these children that have nothing to do with what’s taking place.”

The president of the Daleville School Board, Diane Evans, countered that the district cares about the well-being of students, but given the circumstances, “sometimes, things can’t be helped.”

The virtual charter schools have 15 days to respond to the charter revocation. Daleville, which has chartered Indiana Virtual School since 2011 and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy since 2017, has at least a month to make its final decision about whether to revoke the charters.

Daleville officials indicated that if the charters are ultimately revoked, the schools will likely both shutter by Sept. 30. Although Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy are year-round schools, most Indiana schools are starting the school year this month and in the coming weeks.

Indiana virtual schools’ shoddy communication around its closures could force an earlier shutdown

2019-07-23T20:46:42+00:00

As turmoil engulfs Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, its oversight agency is moving to shut the schools sooner than planned.

The Daleville school board will consider Thursday night whether to speed up the closures of the two troubled virtual schools, which are accused of over-reporting enrollment and wrongly taking in millions of state dollars.

Daleville officials say that after negotiating a deal last month to begin shutting down, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy failed to notify students and families that the schools would be closing in September and at the end of next year, respectively.

“People don’t know what’s going on, and they can’t get ahold of any information,” said Donna Petraits, a spokeswoman for Daleville schools. “There’s no communication.”

Virtual schools superintendent Percy Clark did not return a message seeking comment. Petraits said the schools did not adequately respond to several concerns raised by Daleville less than a month after they agreed to close.

If the Daleville school board votes to begin revoking the virtual schools’ charters again, the schools will have 15 days to respond in writing, according to the agreement they signed last month. The school board could decide within 30 days whether to shutter the schools at that time.

A closure could throw students and families into even more upheaval as they scramble to find schools at the last minute, since Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had been slated to stay open this school year. Because many students choose virtual options after struggling in traditional brick-and-mortar schools, some families have said they worry about finding another school that fits their students’ needs.

But it’s unclear how functional Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy still are. The state has stopped funding the schools after the enrollment scandal, and some current and former employees have told Chalkbeat that the schools went through significant layoffs last week.

Some students and families were taken by surprise over the weekend by emails from teachers saying the schools had gone dark — and then by a follow-up email Monday from Clark saying the schools remain open. It was the first time that some families realized the schools’ troubles, throwing them into confusion over what to do next.

One major concern looms over student records. Teachers worry that without support staff to process paperwork, students will be unable to get their transcripts in order to transfer to new schools. The virtual schools were supposed to give Daleville access to student records, but Daleville contends that’s one of several required steps in the closure process that the schools failed to follow.

Daleville could pursue legal action to gain access to those records, Petraits said.

The Daleville school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the boardroom of the superintendent’s office, 14300 W 2nd St.

Open or closed? Parents and students at troubled Indiana virtual schools receive mixed messages

2019-07-22T21:14:23+00:00

Confusion is swirling over whether two beleaguered online schools, at odds with the state and their oversight agency, are still operating, potentially leaving thousands of students and teachers in limbo.

Several teachers emailed their students and families over the weekend that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had unexpectedly closed.

“I cannot imagine how disappointing that is to read,” the emails said.

But on Monday, Superintendent Percy Clark sent out an email blast to students and informed the state that both online schools remain open.

Still, a school office on the north side of Indianapolis was dark and locked during business hours Monday morning, and the phone line instructed callers to leave messages. School officials did not respond to multiple calls and emails from Chalkbeat seeking comment.

The confusion is the latest chapter of the messy mismanagement at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Under fire for allegedly over-reporting enrollment, the two online schools have taken in tens of millions of state dollars in each of the recent years — about twice as much as they were supposed to, state officials say — without disclosing spending.

Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy are under investigation by state auditors and have been cut off from state funding.

School officials have threatened that taking away public funds would force the schools to close immediately. The schools were already slated to close under pressure from their oversight agency, with Indiana Virtual School shuttering in September and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy closing at the end of the next school year.

According to several current and former employees, the virtual schools let go most of the support staff last week, leaving few if any people to take calls or process paperwork. Teachers didn’t know whether to keep working, whether they’d be paid, or what to tell their students, several told Chalkbeat.

For some families, who were unaware of the scandals surrounding the schools, the weekend emails came as a shock. They wondered what a sudden shutdown would mean for their children, who often chose the virtual charter schools after struggling at other schools.

It’s unclear whether the 2,500 active students had even been notified about the scheduled school closures. Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy were placed on notice last week by their oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, for allegedly not following outlined steps for closing the schools.

Among the concerns: The schools claimed to have sent letters to families about the closure, but Daleville said it was unclear whether the letters were actually sent. Some families have told Chalkbeat that they hadn’t been told about the pending closures.

Indianapolis mother Angie Pogue said she hadn’t heard about the closure until her son, a senior at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, received the email from teachers on Saturday.

The teachers’ emails advised students to stop doing classwork, saying many teachers had stopped grading, and credits wouldn’t be recorded. They indicated that families will likely have few supports and face challenges in getting student records.

“As for your credits and transcripts, I am hopeful that there will be a way for you to access those,” one email said.

Pogue’s son, who is on the autism spectrum and also has anxiety, began panicking that his school — “his safe haven,” Pogue said — would shut down before he could graduate.

Her son worked through the night to complete as much coursework as he could.

“What’s sad about what’s happening is it’s not the kids’ fault, it’s not the staff’s fault, it’s not the teachers’ fault,” Pogue said. “But they’re being punished for the mismanagement of funding.”

She contended that the consequences the schools face from Daleville and the state ultimately harm students, many of whom already feel like they have been failed by public schools in the past. She worried that if the schools close suddenly, many students like her son will be at risk of dropping out before they finish high school, and said she wants the schools to remain open long enough for students to be able to finish their work or navigate a smooth transfer.

“How is the money more important than these kids?” Pogue said.

Another Indiana Virtual School parent, who asked to be identified only by his first name, James, also said the teachers’ email was the first he heard about a potential closure.

When his son reached out to teachers asking for more information, one responded, “I have no answers.”

“If you are close in my class, finish quickly, and I will make sure you are finalized in the gradebook,” the teacher told James’ son.

James’ son is halfway through four classes that he started last month, which James said he now realizes was right around the time when the schools first came to a decision to close.

“The entire summertime he’s had here in the last month is now down the drain,” James said. “Which, for a kid who was trying to catch up in the first place, isn’t very fair.”

On Monday, James was trying to find another school for his son. But without his transcript, James could have trouble enrolling him in another online school or even in their local school district.

That was another problem that Daleville highlighted: Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy haven’t given them access to student records.

The schools are at risk of getting shut down sooner than planned by Daleville if they don’t address the issues raised over their closure process.

If the schools stay open for now, it’s unclear how well they can truly serve the students. One former employee said a stack of signed diplomas sits in the virtual schools’ office, ready to go out to families but with nobody around to send them.

Indiana Virtual School parent Rhonda Williamson said her son recently graduated, and they have been waiting for his diploma for a month.

“What a nightmare,” she said.

Document: Notice of default from Daleville to Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, July 15, 2019

State cuts off funding to Indiana Virtual School and sister school. But will Indiana get its money back?

2019-07-12T23:12:32+00:00

In attempt to recover state money that two virtual charter schools received for allegedly non-existent students, Indiana has cut off public dollars to Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, according to letters sent Friday by the state education department.

But with the threat of the schools’ closures looming, the state might not be able to get all its money back.

Indiana is withholding funds from the two virtual charter schools until it recovers more than $47 million from the two schools combined, the letters said. An investigation revealed this week that school officials kept students on their rolls who were inactive or had moved out of state. In one case, Indiana Virtual School received public funding for two years for a student who had died.

The state pays schools for every student they educate, so the higher the enrollment, the more state dollars a school can take in.

With Indiana Virtual School scheduled to close in September, under pressure from its oversight agency, cutting off the funding stream now won’t enable the state to recoup the $21.7 million that the state allegedly overpaid the school.

Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is supposed to remain open for another year. If it enrolls enough students, the state on paper could recoup $25.6 million owed it.

Budget projections estimated Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy would receive about $35 million in state funding next year for more than 6,000 students. It could absorb some of Indiana Virtual School’s students, but school officials have said the number of active students at the two virtual charter schools combined is closer to about 2,500.

Still, stopping public payments could force both schools to close immediately, as Superintendent Percy Clark warned the state in a formal July 5 response to the findings of a state examiner’s investigation.

If that happens, the state could have to turn to a local prosecutor or the state attorney general to seek repayment.

School officials did not immediately return a request for comment late Friday.

‘How did we miss this?’ Indiana officials blast lack of oversight in $40M virtual school scandal

2019-07-10T16:55:54+00:00

Facing a $40 million enrollment scandal at two virtual charter schools, Indiana State Board of Education chairman B.J. Watts had a big question at a meeting Wednesday:

“How did we miss this?”

The question tipped off a round of finger-pointing. The schools’ oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, bore the brunt of the board’s blame for the online schools’ alleged abuse of millions in public dollars.

But Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy officials remained quiet. The schools’ superintendent Percy Clark watched the discussion from the audience but offered no public comments and later declined to answer questions from Chalkbeat.

The state education board voted unanimously to try to recover about $40 million in public dollars from the two online schools, after the state examiner found the schools allegedly inflated their enrollments for three years with inactive and out-of-state students — and, in one case, a student who had died.

Indiana Virtual School is already slated to close in September, and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy will close after the upcoming school year. To claw back the money, the state will likely reduce funding to the schools moving forward and turn to the local prosecutor and state attorney general to consider legal action.

State Examiner Paul Joyce said at the meeting that the schools’ actions could potentially be considered criminal. He couldn’t say whether federal investigators were looking into the case but noted that “in situations like this, we do contact all of our law enforcement partners.”

It’s unclear how Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy spent some $80 million in public funding from 2016 to 2018 because they have failed to file annual audits.

The state is auditing the schools’ finances, and the full audit is still to come.

Clark has indicated that cutting off state dollars will likely lead to the immediate shutdown of the schools, which have been the subjects of investigations by Chalkbeat.

State board members grilled Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison on the oversight of the virtual schools and at one point floated the idea of revoking the district’s authority to oversee charter schools. The board estimated that Daleville collected about $2.4 million from the schools in oversight fees over the three-year period.

“Ultimately, the responsibility falls on Daleville, 100%,” Watts told Chalkbeat. “They’re not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. They’re being paid for oversight.”

Watts said the problems should have been caught earlier, by Daleville or by the state department of education.

“Over the three years in question, did Daleville provide any monitoring or oversight of these schools at all?” state board member Tony Walker asked during the meeting.

Garrison defended the district for raising flags earlier this year over potential problems at the schools and working to close them. He said the district could not access until recently the data that showed the schools were counting thousands of students who weren’t active in classes.

Daleville officials have contested that they should not have to return money from the fees they collected when the state seeks to recoup funding from the virtual schools. Taking back money from Daleville would discourage charter oversight agencies from reporting problems, “even despite legal and moral obligations to do so,” Daleville officials wrote in a formal protest.

But board member David Freitas faulted Daleville for drawing up a weak charter contract, allowing Indiana Virtual School to open its sister school in 2017, and not holding the schools accountable.

“You could have done that when you formulated that contract, to not sign off on the contract until you were comfortable that you had the accountability measures to ensure this would not happen,” Freitas told Garrison.

While some board members, including Freitas, considered Indiana Virtual School’s scandal “an anomaly” among charter schools, state schools chief Jennifer McCormick said it proves systemic problems with the state’s oversight of charter schools. A former district superintendent, McCormick said charter schools need more transparency and stricter rules, and she called for the state to scrutinize other virtual charter schools.

‘It takes your breath away.’ Advocates shocked by special education problems at embattled virtual schools

This Indiana virtual charter school graduated just 2 percent of its students in 2018

‘I’m just at a loss’: This student moved away, but apparently stayed on Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s rolls

2019-07-08T21:31:33+00:00

Every couple of days, Holli Stevenson receives an email that her daughter, Abbey, has been put on probation for not showing up to school.

The email threatens that her daughter could be withdrawn from school, lose her driver’s license, or get called into truancy court if the family doesn’t get in touch within a week.

Stevenson has gotten these emails for five months now — but her daughter has been done with high school coursework for a year. They don’t even live in Indiana anymore. And the family has tried to get in touch with the school multiple times about Abbey’s diploma.

“As long as she’s a student, they’re getting paid,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson believes her daughter is likely one of the thousands of “ghost” students enrolled at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy — inactive students who stay on the rolls and bring in more state funding for the troubled virtual charter schools.

A new report from the state examiner Monday revealed that the two online schools allegedly inflated their enrollments, reporting about twice as many students as they actually educated. The state board of education is expected to decide later this week whether to try to recover about $40 million from the schools.

Indiana Virtual School officials did not explain why they kept thousands of inactive or ineligible students on their rolls over three years. They said that they serve students who have struggled in traditional school settings and might be enrolled at their schools simply to get around mandatory attendance laws.

Among the students recorded as attending Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy were students who had long since moved to another state, a student who had died, and hundreds of students who had been withdrawn from the schools for being inactive.

This is a flaw in virtual charter school accountability, said Gary Miron, a Western Michigan University professor who has studied K-12 online schools. It’s easy for students to sign up, and it’s just as easy for students to leave, he said: “They just check out. They stop attending.”

If students stop going to virtual school but never formally transfer to another school, they don’t trigger a sign to the state that the virtual school should no longer be taking money to educate them.

“It could be intentional or unintentional, but [virtual charter schools] have so many students on their rolls who are not in the schools anymore,” Miron said. “They’re not cleansing their rolls of all the inactive students they shouldn’t be receiving money for.”

Stevenson’s daughter, for example, thought she was supposed to graduate last spring after she finished all her classes. But she missed a test required to graduate. She showed up to take the test but was directed to the wrong place and couldn’t find the right location.

Since then, the Stevenson family said they struggled to get in touch with school officials to sort out how Abbey can reschedule the test she needs for her diploma. They’ve sent emails, made phone calls, and left messages that they say go unreturned or are met with confused responses. Stevenson has missed phone calls from school officials and can’t reach them again.

Meanwhile, it appears Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy continues to consider Abbey a student. She moved to Ohio, but she can’t start college or have career opportunities without her diploma.

“I don’t understand what happened with the school,” Stevenson said. “I’m just at a loss with it.”

State could seek $40M after probe finds Indiana Virtual School inflated enrollment — even counting a student who had died

2019-07-08T21:20:47+00:00

Two school years after a student died, Indiana Virtual School kept him on its rolls and received state funding to educate him.

Five years after two students moved to Florida, they reappeared on enrollment records for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school.

And nearly every one of the more than 900 students kicked out of Indiana Virtual School and its sister school in the 2017-18 school year for being inactive were re-enrolled the next school year, included in per-pupil funding calculations that netted the two online schools more than $34 million in public dollars last year.

These were among the ways that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy allegedly inflated their enrollment to at least twice its actual size, according to the findings of a state examiner’s investigation released Monday.

Now, the state could demand that the schools — slated to close next year amid widespread mismanagement — return about $40 million in funding for students they never educated.

The Indiana State Board of Education is set to discuss at its Wednesday meeting whether to claw back money from the virtual schools, which have been the subject of numerous Chalkbeat articles examining financial conflicts of interest and dismal academic performance. Board members could vote to recover half of the money that the schools received over the past three years by reducing state funding going forward.

But the virtual schools’ superintendent Percy Clark said that if the state asks for its money back, the schools will be unable to pay for teachers and educational services — which “means the end of the road for the Schools and most of their students.”

In a written response to the state education board, Clark did not address the enrollment discrepancies but defended the online schools for serving “last-chance students” who have dropped out of or been expelled from traditional public schools — even if they weren’t active.

He accused state education officials of trying “to remove educational choice and force students to remain in school environments in which success has evaded them and where hope has abandoned them.”

“The beacon of hope has just been doused,” Clark concluded.

Daleville Community Schools, the rural district that oversees Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, also contested the state board’s consideration of recovering funding. Daleville receives 3% of the virtual charter schools’ state funding, a fee for monitoring the schools that amounted to about $1 million last year.

Virtual schools have grown rapidly in Indiana over the past decade — despite largely poor student outcomes and the closure of a large, failing virtual school — with five statewide schools where students learn completely online, a handful of hybrid learning options, and districts opening their own all-online programs.

The allegation that Indiana Virtual School inflated enrollment is the latest incident in a series of online school scandals across the nation.

In California, virtual charter school leaders were indicted earlier this year after officials say they signed up thousands of students — who often didn’t know they were enrolled — to bring in millions in state funding. More than $50 million was sent to companies linked to the school leaders for services that they never provided.

In Ohio, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, claimed to serve some 15,000 students, but state officials found the virtual charter school was significantly inflating its numbers and said the school owed $80 million in funding. The Ohio attorney general is suing the school’s founder, a federal investigation was opened, and a local prosecutor will weigh criminal charges, though none have been filed.

The investigation into Indiana Virtual School and its sister school isn’t over. The enrollment discrepancies emerged in preliminary report Monday from State Examiner Paul Joyce, whose office is auditing the two virtual charter schools after they failed to file mandatory annual financial reports. The full examination, which looks at the schools’ finances from 2016 to 2018, is not yet complete.

Last year, the two schools reported enrolling more than 7,000 students combined, which set them up to receive more than $34 million in state funding.

But, according to the auditors’ investigation, most of those students hadn’t attended classes for months — even though the schools’ policy says inactive students who don’t contact the school will be withdrawn.

In the fall of 2017, for example, more than half of students at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had been inactive for more than six months. Nearly three-quarters of students had been inactive for at least three weeks.

“We have verified that students who IVS staff admitted should have been withdrawn based on their Student Engagement Policy were in fact not withdrawn,” Joyce’s affidavit said.

From 2016 to 2018, the schools’ course data shows 4,535 students didn’t receive any credits for completing classes.

State auditors discovered the enrollment of the two students who had moved out of state and the student who had died after scrutinizing 100 student profiles. The Indiana Department of Education certifies the student counts used for funding to ensure students don’t show up on the rolls for more than one school, but spokesman Adam Baker said it’s a school’s responsibility to verify residency and report when a student’s status has changed.

In his response, Clark said Indiana Virtual School currently has about 500 actively engaged students, and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy has about 2,000 — significantly fewer students than the schools have reported enrolling in recent years.

He did not explicitly say how the schools spent the funding they received for inactive students but indicated the money had been expended, saying that without ongoing funding, Indiana Virtual School would be unable to graduate about 90 seniors in September.

Clark also said students often enroll in the schools simply because they have to be in school until they’re 18. But it’s up to the students to attend online classes and do the work, he wrote: “What follows enrollment is a function of the student and his or her desires.”

Clark also blamed “the present educational system and the shortcomings or failings of the familial support system” for creating the population of struggling, disengaged students who have fallen so far behind in their education. He accused the state of not having enough charter and virtual school regulations, and he claimed the state was being unfair in its process to reclaim funding.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation exposed how Indiana Virtual School was funneling millions from its state funding to companies connected to its founder, Thomas Stoughton, and his son.

In 2015-16, the most recent audit available, AlphaCom billed Indiana Virtual School for more than $6 million for management services but forgave some $463,000 owed. The company also billed the school more than $2 million for software fees for a project that wasn’t completed and extended into the following year. Stoughton’s son’s company charged the school more $1 million for IT and marketing services.

Stoughton sold his interest in AlphaCom, the company providing software and management, administrative, and technology services to the school, and later stepped down from the school’s board.

With little fanfare, Daleville board votes to shutter controversial Indiana Virtual School

2019-06-20T01:35:21+00:00

During a meeting that lasted just six minutes, Daleville school board members signed off Wednesday night to end the yearslong saga of the embattled Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Five stoic Daleville school board members said nothing about their decision except to unanimously approve the closure agreement, leaving many unanswered accusations of flagrant mismanagement at the online schools.

Despite allegations that the two online schools enrolled thousands of inactive students, no officials from Indiana Virtual School showed up at the meeting in the little town outside of Muncie. No families of the thousands of students who enrolled in the schools showed up either.

Donna Petraits, a spokeswoman for Daleville, defended the closure deal as “the better solution over charter revocation” and said the district “was not an investigative agency.”

But she also added: “I think we would all agree that what should have been different was to have greater oversight opportunities since the beginning.”

In February, Daleville recommended revoking the two online schools’ charters, alleging that thousands of students were not signed up for classes or did not earn any credits. Daleville also flagged issues with standardized testing, special education services, missing audits, and low academic outcomes.

Indiana Virtual School officials have never publicly responded to those allegations.

But instead of moving forward with the charter revocations, the schools and their oversight agency hashed out the deal that was finalized Wednesday.

The agreement will close Indiana Virtual School in September. It will not receive state funding for the 2019-20 school year.

Its students can transfer to its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which will remain open until the end of the 2019-20 school year. Petraits defended the decision to let the school, which graduated just 2% of seniors last year, stay open for another year as being “in the best interest of the students, because it gives them an opportunity to find someplace else to go.”

It was not immediately clear how many students would be affected by the closures, since thousands of students churn through the two schools every year, in line with patterns at online schools across the country.

“Ultimately, this resolution affords the schools and their vendors, staff and teachers an opportunity to reassess and improve our instructional model while allowing those students who choose to attend Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy and who have not been able to succeed in traditional brick and mortar schools a second chance to achieve academic success,” said Percy Clark, superintendent of the two virtual schools, said in an emailed statement.

The statement did not address Daleville’s accusations. School officials did not immediately respond to questions from Chalkbeat.

Under the agreement, Indiana Virtual School must stop enrolling students immediately. Families from both schools must be notified of the closure decision within 10 days, and within a month, the schools are supposed to provide a list of nearby schools where students can transfer.

If students don’t choose a new school, they will be assigned to their local school district.

In its final year of operations, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy must purge its rolls of inactive students and can only receive funding for students whose parents explicitly sign a consent form to enroll them, according to the agreement.

The school must later prove that all of the students counted for state funding were actively engaged in their coursework. It cannot enroll students later in the year.

The agreement also calls for Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to rectify some of the issues flagged in February, including providing certain special education services and following standardized testing protocol.

Daleville is working with an outside administrator to monitor Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s final year of operations and the closures of the two schools.

If the virtual schools want to re-open under another oversight agency, the state board of education would have to consider their case.

They will be the third and fourth statewide online schools to close. Indiana Cyber School was shut down by its authorizer in 2015, three years after it opened, due to mismanagement and low academic performance.

Last year, long-running Hoosier Academy Virtual closed, even after getting a second chance to improve low test scores and failing state grades.

The deal to close Indiana Virtual School leaves unanswered questions. Here’s what we want to know

2019-06-19T17:10:26+00:00

With an end nearing for the beleaguered Indiana Virtual School, the deal looks attractive: Close shop, and save face.

The tentative agreement announced Monday would wind down operations first at Indiana Virtual School and then in a year at its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, ultimately shuttering two low-performing and poorly managed online schools widely seen as a blemish on both the charter and online sectors.

But the agreement could leave big questions unanswered about what happened at the schools.

“This is, in a sense, an agreement to bury this problem rather than to expose it to the light of day,” said state Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis. “I think we need an extraordinary audit here: What has gone on, who has made money here, and how much? I mean, this is shocking.”

It appears to be unlikely that the school’s authorizer will ask those questions publicly: The decision to strike the deal means that Indiana Virtual School officials won’t have to respond to accusations of mismanagement at their schools. But ahead of Wednesday night’s meeting to ratify the agreement, here are questions that still aren’t answered about what happened at Indiana Virtual School.

Why did the schools enroll so many ‘ghost’ students?

Four months ago, Daleville Community Schools, the charter’s oversight agency, alleged that the majority of students recorded as being enrolled last year at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy never earned a single credit. Hundreds of these “ghost” students were not even signed up for any classes, Daleville officials said.

Indiana Virtual School officials disputed Daleville’s account as being “inaccurate” but never offered its own explanation of student activity. Now school officials may not have to explain.

What really happened with those students matters. If there weren’t really many inactive students, the picture of the school’s performance could change dramatically. But if Daleville’s data is right, that raises questions about whether Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had inflated enrollment numbers and reaped more state funding as a result — something that one state education official has already concluded happened in what he called “outright fraud.”

Under the terms of the closure agreement, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy has to purge inactive students this fall. How many students are removed from the rolls then could illuminate the extent of the “ghost” student situation.

Will the schools have to repay the state funds they received for those students?

The answer to what transpired could provoke another critical question: whether the schools should have received as much public funding as they did — and whether they might need to return money to the state if enrollment numbers were improperly recorded.

In 2018, the two schools received more than $36 million in state funding.

The Indiana attorney general’s office would not say whether the schools are under investigation.

Indiana Virtual School’s scandal is unfolding against the backdrop of severe mismanagement of some online charter schools in other states. In California, for example, officials for a virtual charter school network were recently indicted on criminal charges, accused of collecting state funding for students who didn’t receive services from the schools and pocketing the money by funneling it through their own businesses.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation revealed how Indiana Virtual School was spending millions on lucrative contracts with businesses that had ties to the school’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, and his son.

At the time, school officials told Chalkbeat that those contracts were winding down, and Stoughton distanced himself from the business and stepped down from the school’s board. But it’s unclear how the schools are spending public money now, because they’ve failed to file mandatory audits in recent years.

What will the state find in the schools’ overdue audits?

Those missing audits led the State Board of Accounts to take an unusual step to examine the virtual charter schools’ finances for 2017 and 2018.

The state’s review is not yet complete. Audits typically show a charter school’s revenues and expenses, highlighting debts, testing internal controls over finances, and checking for fraud or errors in accounting.

Should Daleville’s role be scrutinized?

Daleville has been widely criticized for its poor oversight of Indiana Virtual Schools and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. A new state law this year aims to prevent this situation in the future, barring districts like Daleville from overseeing large virtual charter schools.

But the small, rural district had an incentive to keep the troubled schools running: It received about $1 million last year in administrative fees from the two online schools.

In fact, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had been overpaying that fee, as the closure agreement revealed — by about $650,000 over several years. The two schools only raised the issue of overpayment when Daleville started the process to revoke their charters, an attorney for Daleville told Chalkbeat.

Why is one of the schools staying open so long?

Under the agreement, Indiana Virtual School would close in September, but students can transfer to Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which would stay open for another year.

Charter advocates tout authorizers’ ability to shut down a troubled school as a critical layer of accountability that other schools don’t have. But when schools are at risk of losing their charters, authorizers should step in early in the school year if possible so students have enough time to find new options.

In particularly egregious cases, charter oversight agencies will shut down schools as quickly as possible in the interest of protecting students and not allowing extreme mismanagement to continue.

Erica Irish contributed to this story.

In a surprise deal, embattled Indiana Virtual School and its sister school to close amid scandal

2019-06-17T23:22:13+00:00

The virtual charter school that sparked statewide scrutiny of online education has quietly negotiated a deal to close, avoiding a possibly heated public hearing about its enrollment scandal.

The tentative agreement between Indiana Virtual School, its sister school, and its oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, comes several months after allegations emerged that the long-troubled charter network enrolled thousands of inactive students.

Under the deal — which was approved by the two charter school boards Monday and awaits approval from Daleville — Indiana Virtual School would close at the end of September.

Its students could choose to transfer to its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which would shut down at the end of the 2019-20 school year. The schools — which were the subject of a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation — enrolled more than 7,000 students between them at the start of this past school year, with thousands of students churning through the schools throughout the year.

In an unexpected twist, the proposed agreement also revealed that the virtual charter schools miscalculated and overpaid an administrative fee to Daleville by $650,000 — an issue that the schools raised only after Daleville started discussions about revoking the charters. The deal calls for the school district to repay the funds.

The proposal would require the online charter school to purge its rolls of inactive students in its final year of operations, stop enrolling new students after the school year starts, and open its books to its oversight agency. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy would be required to prove that it is regularly checking in with students, tracking individual student progress, and maintaining certain student-to-teacher ratios.

The process for transferring students to new schools after Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy closes was not immediately clear from the agreement Monday.

Opening in 2011 and 2017, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways have been among the most controversial of a wave of virtual charter schools that have opened in Indiana. In addition to their enrollment issues, the schools have taken heat for their dismal academic outcomes, with Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy graduating just 2% of seniors.

Thomas Burroughs, an attorney for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, declined to comment before the Daleville Community Schools board votes on the agreement. The board is expected to take up the issue Wednesday night, in lieu of a public hearing where Indiana Virtual School was supposed to respond to Daleville’s accusations.

If approved, the agreement would allow the virtual charter schools to sidestep the charter revocation process — a tradeoff that could bring a closer watch but few answers to the problems that plagued the troubled schools.

Burroughs had told Chalkbeat that Indiana Virtual School wanted to avoid “mudslinging” in a public hearing, preferring to hash out a settlement between lawyers behind closed doors.

In fact, the charter schools appear to have held Monday’s meeting without proper notice — a potential violation of the state’s open meeting laws. Indiana Virtual School posted a notice on its office door for an executive session to discuss the matter privately, but the schools did not list the board meetings that followed for the votes on the closure agreement.

An attorney for Daleville contends that the agreement does not let the virtual schools off the hook for their poor performance and potential violations of their charters. Instead, she said the arrangement would force the charter schools to be more transparent and better serve the schools’ thousands of students during the wind-down.

“This is a better situation, because we’ve been able to specify how we’re going to go about making sure everything is done the right way,” said Sara Blevins, a partner at Lewis Kappes, an Indianapolis law firm representing Daleville.

In February, Daleville started the process to revoke the online schools’ charters. In addition to the thousands of students who weren’t signed up for classes or didn’t earn any credits, Daleville noted the schools’ failure to comply with certain requirements on annual audits, standardized testing, and special education.

Virtual school officials called the accusations inaccurate, but they have not explained their defense and missed deadlines to make their case to stay open.

If the schools violate the terms of the agreement and fail to address them, Daleville could eventually move to revoke the charters again.

Indiana Virtual School wants to deal with charter revocation privately to avoid ‘mudslinging’

2019-06-10T20:43:29+00:00

Indiana Virtual School officials are keeping their defense under wraps as they face losing two charters over allegations that their online schools enrolled thousands of students who never signed up for classes.

Leaders of Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, missed a second chance last week to submit a response to the accusations, according to Daleville Community Schools, the rural district that oversees the virtual schools.

The online schools had been given more time to file a written response after they missed an initial deadline in March. The schools face a public hearing next week on the recommendation that their charters be revoked.

School officials did not respond to emails from Chalkbeat seeking comment. But last month, Indiana Virtual School’s attorney Thomas Burroughs said he would prefer to settle the matter with Daleville through private negotiations, likening it to seeking an “amicable” divorce.

“I’d like to see a consensual resolution,” Burroughs told Chalkbeat. “I think that’s better than a public hearing for everybody involved.”

Attorneys for Daleville and for the virtual schools have been talking privately since the allegations came to light in February. Burroughs raised concerns that a public hearing could “get hijacked by somebody else who’s got an agenda.”

“In a public forum, a lot of things can come out that may not be in the best interests of the parties or anybody,” Burroughs said. “You may end up just with a mudslinging event.”

Donna Petraits, a spokeswoman for Daleville, said the district could not comment on the private discussions about the proposed charter revocations. The public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. June 19 at Daleville High School, with the Daleville school board slated to make a final decision on the charter revocations within the week afterward.

The schools initially refuted accusations in February that most of their students who were enrolled for all of last year never earned any credits. Many students weren’t even signed up for any classes, Daleville officials said.

Daleville also contended that Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy broke the terms of their charter contracts by failing to file required audits, producing some of the lowest academic results in the state, violating standardized testing protocols, and not providing required services to some students with disabilities.

Despite recommending that the schools lose their charters, Daleville still faced criticism from education leaders who said the district failed to properly monitor the schools and allowed the problems to persist for too long.

Indiana Virtual School officials have not yet publicly explained why they believe those allegations are “inaccurate and incomplete.” Still, they have contended that the virtual schools are a vital choice for students who have dropped out of traditional public schools or want an alternative learning environment, and they serve many students facing obstacles such as teen pregnancy or chronic illnesses.

“Most of the students we get, they haven’t been well-served by the brick-and-mortar [schools]. Whether there’s a failure of parenting, it’s a failure of instruction, it can be any number of things,” Burroughs told Chalkbeat last month. “The sad truth for many of them is they’re never going to graduate, and that’s just the way it is.”

After years of debate, some stronger oversight of virtual schools signed into Indiana law

2019-05-02T21:41:56+00:00

If online students fail to log into classes for too long, virtual schools must kick them out, under a new Indiana law signed Wednesday by Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Students who want to go to an online school now also have to complete an orientation session with a guardian to better understand the expectations of a virtual learning environment.

These new rules, which leave room for the state and charter authorizers to bring stronger oversight of virtual schools, come in response to years of poor student outcomes at Indiana’s online schools and a bubbling scandal at two large virtual charter schools on the brink of closure.

Recently released data shows that thousands of students churn through virtual charter schools throughout the year, many leaving with no credits. That high turnover amounted to about $10 million in state funding last year going to online schools for students who did not complete work or failed classes.

Lawmakers’ actions this year, paired with a funding cut, represent the biggest steps the state has taken to regulate virtual charter schools since they launched a decade ago. Some lawmakers say the new rules put into place much-needed guardrails on fast-growing virtual schools, which have largely been in favor of the changes. But others lambasted the legislation as not going far enough, with state Sen. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, calling virtual schools “a scam.”

Added Tim Lanane, the Democrat leader in the state Senate, “I think we need to suspend the operations of virtual schools until we know if the taxpayers are being ripped off.”

The struggle to address Indiana’s troubled virtual schools illustrates the state’s dance between protecting school choice and cracking down on failing schools. On one hand, lawmakers defend online education as a critical option for some of the state’s most challenged students, particularly those who haven’t been successful in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

But Indiana’s virtual charter schools post below-average graduation rates and test scores. They have largely received D and F grades from the state. And the credit data raises questions over how well online schools are educating students, if at all.

Holcomb, who has called for action to improve virtual schools, said Monday that he recognized the need for parents to have choices on where to send their children to school, but the state needs to ensure students will receive quality education at virtual schools.

“We need to hold everyone equally accountable,” he said, adding that the new law took “good steps forward.”

Roughly 13,000 students across the state attend full-time virtual charter schools, which draw about $80 million in state funding. Several thousand more students are enrolled at all-online schools run by traditional public school districts, and a few hundred students also go to hybrid schools where they split time between online and in-person lessons.

State lawmakers crafted the new rules based on recommendations from the state education board. But lawmakers didn’t take up some of the board’s strongest suggestions, including capping virtual school growth or setting student-to-teacher ratios.

The new law singles out the two most controversial virtual charter schools and the small school district that oversees them — Daleville Community Schools, a district of less than 1,000 students southwest of Muncie.

Officials have said they don’t believe districts have the capacity to properly monitor big, statewide virtual charter schools. The change in law seeks to ramp up oversight by preventing school districts from chartering virtual schools, and it could potentially lead to the shutdown of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

But those two schools are already facing possibly losing their charters. Earlier this year, Daleville moved to revoke the schools’ charters, raising concerns over thousands of students between the two schools who weren’t placed in classes, let alone earning credits.

The two schools have disputed the allegations. A hearing to decide their fates is scheduled for June.

Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison said in an emailed statement that the district “supports efforts to make the venue more effective for the students who choose it,” and officials “welcome and recommend state regulation.”

What’s likely to have a harsher effect on virtual schools will be the reduction in funding, which decreases funding for online students to 85 percent of what students in traditional brick-and-mortar settings receive. Virtual schools have been largely supportive of the state’s efforts to improve student engagement: Many say they already have similar systems in place to introduce new students to online learning and check their progress. Schools also already withdraw hundreds of inactive students.

The new rules also apply to online schools that aren’t charter schools, such as Indiana Digital Learning School. Head of School Liz Sliger called the new regulations “healthy.”

“I’m not afraid of high expectations,” she said. “The best thing for me is clarity. So if you want virtual schools to be responsible in attendance, then please define what that is — and that’s what we’ll do.”

The new law also brings enhanced monitoring of schools where a significant proportion of students leave before graduation. It asks for an interim study committee to scrutinize virtual schools’ finances, including how much they spend on classroom instruction, outside contractors, and administrative salaries.

Republican Sen. Jeff Raatz of Centerville, who authored the legislation, said he believes the new law “puts some arms around virtual charters in a very responsible way, I believe, as a good beginning to regulate them and see better outcomes.”

What happens next rests in large part with the state board of education, which is charged with developing rules for virtual schools, including on how they track attendance.

“It’s clear that the student monitoring has been fairly dismal — not necessarily across the board, but it’s pretty dire,” said state board of education member Gordon Hendry, who led the board’s committee studying virtual schools. “It’s clear the state board needs to move quickly on these issues, so that we can set some real guardrails on student enrollment at virtuals.”

‘A shot across the bow’: Indiana cuts back on public funding for virtual charter schools

2019-04-25T03:08:13+00:00

Indiana lawmakers are sending a warning signal to low-performing virtual charter schools.

Under sharp scrutiny for enrolling thousands of students who don’t earn credits and graduating few students, virtual charter schools will lose a chunk of state funding in the next two years.

In the final budget approved late Wednesday night, lawmakers dropped funding levels for online students to 85 percent of what students at brick-and-mortar public schools receive — a reduction from the 90 percent of funding that online schools had been receiving.

“We’re not entirely satisfied with some of the results we’re seeing with the virtuals,” said Sen. Eric Bassler, R-Washington, chair of the school funding subcommittee. “Maybe in some ways, it’s a shot across the bow.”

The cuts come as two of Indiana’s virtual charter schools, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, are under the threat of closure. The school district that oversees them, Daleville Community Schools, contends that the schools enrolled thousands of students who never earned any credits — including many who never even signed up for any classes.

Across the board, Indiana’s virtual schools post lower graduation rates than the state average. Virtual schools say that’s because they largely serve students with significant challenges, including those who have struggled at other schools, have disabilities, or are raising children.

But a Chalkbeat investigation showed nearly 2,000 students never earned a single credit last year across Indiana’s six virtual charter schools — an approximately $10 million drain on state funding.

Officials from Indiana Virtual School, Indiana Connections Academy, and Insight School of Indiana did not return requests for comment.

The largest of the virtual charter schools, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, drew about $35 million in state funding this year, according to the budget. Still, even with the funding decrease, most of these schools could see an overall increase in state dollars as their enrollments are projected to rise.

In the past, some virtual schools have protested potential funding cuts, saying they have made some academic improvements, and it would be difficult to produce better academic results with less support. Bassler said lawmakers will continue to examine how to fund virtual schools, particularly since online education is such a fast-growing sector serving highly mobile and high-needs student populations.

The state could consider funding virtual schools based on academic results, rather than providing the money up-front.

Higher graduation rates “should be a requirement,” said Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Merrillville, “and it should be tied to funding. We should expect a greater outcome.”

The reduction would also apply to students enrolled in online programs through public schools, such as those at Union School Corporation, which has recently added thousands of students through an online program. Also taking a funding hit in the budget projections: Indiana Agriculture and Technology School, a new charter school that switched to offering half its instruction online and half in person after originally planning to open as a full-time virtual school.

This year, lawmakers also passed legislation aimed at making sure more students across the state’s virtual schools stick with classes. They also moved to take a closer look at schools that lose a significant number of students throughout the year as well as at virtual schools’ finances. The legislation, like the budget, will be sent to the governor for final approval.

At least 465 truant students were kicked out of Indiana virtual schools under a law meant to keep them there

2019-04-12T19:52:03+00:00

A controversial state policy designed to ensure virtual school students learning remotely are engaged with their coursework has resulted in hundreds of students being removed from school rosters, a Chalkbeat analysis shows.

Under the state’s “engagement policy,” virtual charter schools are allowed to essentially expel students who don’t complete work or attend classes after a series of warnings, notices — and in some cases, a visit from the county sheriff — ending with a hearing with the students’ parents. Virtual school leaders and Republican lawmakers say the two-year-old policy helps ensure students are positioned to succeed in a remote learning environment without in-person instruction.

But critics say that instead of helping the schools engage remote students, the policy is a way for virtual schools to cherry pick their students and bypass accountability by offloading ones who might be detrimental to their state ratings, test scores, or graduation rates. In recent years, all of the state’s eligible virtual charter schools received D and F grades from the state, and in some cases, are graduating just 2 percent of students.

“Is this a form of skimming, whereby you’re creating a policy that lets you get rid of your lowest-attending students?” said Ethan Hutt, a researcher who studies school attendance and truancy at the University of Maryland. “What troubles me about this policy is it doesn’t seem like it’s geared around engaging the parent to try to figure out, what can we do to try to make sure the child is attending?”

Data requested by Chalkbeat shows, for the first time since the policy was put in place, how it plays out in schools: Last year, Indiana Connections Academy removed 284 students last year for not participating in classes or completing coursework, out of a student population of 4,651. Connection’s much smaller sister school removed 21 students. At Insight School of Indiana, which enrolled 766 students, 160 students were removed. Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, did not respond to public records requests for how many students they withdrew for inactivity. Together they enroll more than 6,000 students.

The 2017 law, which saw wide support from Republicans and the for-profit companies behind Connections and Insight, gives virtual charter schools the freedom to write their own specific engagement policies.

Generally, students are contacted after a few days of being absent, usually at first by email. If they don’t respond and start doing coursework, they are contacted again, with each attempt involving increasingly more aggressive efforts — text messages, phone calls, certified letters — until students are scheduled for a withdrawal hearing. The law says parents must be notified before a student would be taken off a school’s rolls. When students are removed, as in other transfer or dropout situations, schools are not expected to pay back the state.

Although Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy would not disclose the number of students they’ve withdrawn and recorded perfect attendance last year, data released by the state and analyzed by their authorizer, Daleville public schools, shows that they have many students who are not engaged and completing courses. The schools are facing the prospect of having their charters revoked over the issue.

Recently, the schools have started going to fairly extreme lengths to re-engage students by partnering with county sheriff’s departments. The unorthodox approach has deputies check in on students who have been marked as truant.

Noah Robinson, the public information officer for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department in Southern Indiana, told Chalkbeat he sees the fledgling program less as law enforcement, and more as community outreach. His office is paid a monthly flat $10 fee per student enrolled in the county to do the checks, working out to about $4,000.

“If we can encourage some kid to get his degree and not have to deal with him later on in life as an inmate, then yeah, we’re on-board with that,” Robinson said.

So far, they have 19 county sheriff’s offices signed up, according to an emailed statement from superintendent Percy Clark. He added that they’re starting to see results as well.

“The improvement of Porter County’s number of truant IVPA students from 60 to 30 in a matter of weeks is encouraging as we watch this program take off,” Clark’s statement said.

At Insight, Lamey said there are several teams of staff who work to get students re-engaged and on-track. They reach out regularly to families and hold conferences before a student would be removed — but it’s not the overall goal, Lamey said.

“Virtual school is not for every student,” said Elizabeth Lamey, head of schools for Insight School of Indiana. ”Through that withdrawal, that allows that student to go back to their neighborhood school or choose another route.”

Melissa Brown, in charge of Indiana Connections Academy, said virtual school’s unique learning environment — which usually cannot be successful, school leaders say, without parental involvement — means virtual schools need tools other schools might not.

Just this year, Brown’s staff had a case where they called a student 36 times and sent 80 emails — with no response.

“We have kids enrolled that we never ever, ever can get ahold of,” Brown said. “There are kids who just enroll and that’s all she wrote, and we never hear from them again.”

Unlike an expulsion, a label that allows other schools to deny students enrollment, being withdrawn under the engagement policy marks them as a transfer, similar to when a student moves. That was done on purpose, Brown said, to ensure students could go on and find a school that’s a better fit.

But even without the stigma of expulsion, the engagement policy is unusual because students are not typically kicked out for extended absences at traditional schools, Hutt said — that’s usually reserved for violence. “I am skeptical of the idea that truancy on its own, as opposed to truancy linked with violence or threats” should be a reason for taking students out of school, he said.

Figuring out how to engage students is a problem every school faces, said Greg Richmond, executive director for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. And in traditional schools, there’s generally not a way to enroll them, receive funding for them, then drop them. It’s also unclear what happens to students after they are withdrawn — some transfer to different schools, but others dropout.

Brown said that Connections tracks students as much as they can, and she said many of their dropouts end up earning high school equivalencies. But the state does not track students withdrawn for lack of engagement, a spokesman for the education department said. In fact, there’s no specific “code” schools must use when a student is removed for engagement rather than, say, being expelled or choosing to homeschool. Those students are marked like any other transfer or dropout.

Lawmakers and virtual school leaders, in defense of the engagement policy, say they get stuck with students who are far behind their peers, pushed out by their previous traditional schools. They have cited anecdotal cases of school districts pushing students to leave for virtual schools, but it’s unclear in state data the extent to which this might be happening.

Richmond said he doesn’t buy that defense.

“The fact that someone else somewhere else is treating kids badly should not be considered license to treat all kids badly everywhere,” he said. “We shouldn’t be trying to replicate the sins of the traditional schools … much less paying for those sins.”

It’s possible that the mandatory orientations currently being considered in the legislature could help curb the need for removing students before it even happens, Richmond said.

Giving schools more control over who can enroll would be a major step for schools that are considered public schools, which typically must enroll any student who comes to them. Recently released state data showing that there are students across all the state’s virtual schools who are funded but never earn any credits — in addition to other problems revealed by Chalkbeat reporting that led to a state review of virtual schools — add some urgency for lawmakers to act this year,

Under the bill lawmakers have in the works students and parents would be required to complete orientations about virtual learning and what supervision should look like before they can enroll.

“Because virtual school is very unique and unlike most people’s prior experience with school, I do think it is important for parents and students to understand what they’re signing up for,” Richmond said. “To me that’s a better solution than allowing kids to enroll … paying the schools for kids that aren’t getting educated, having the kids not learn anything, and then months later dropping out. I’d rather tackle this up front.”

Virtual schools see major budget cuts under Indiana Senate plan

2019-04-11T14:26:10+00:00

Indiana’s virtual schools would see budget cuts in a proposal from state Senate lawmakers that would also cap how much the controversial schools can grow.

Amid mounting scandals surrounding two of the state’s virtual charter schools, state House lawmakers this year did not suggest upping virtual charter school funding from 90 percent of what brick-and-mortar schools receive to 100 percent as they have in the past.

But the Senate plan, voted out of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday, would reduce the funding for virtual charter schools further, to just 80 percent of what traditional schools receive. It would also cap state spending on virtual charter schools at the current $80 million level. Virtual schools within school districts, which have so far received the same funding as traditional schools, would also see their funding reduced to 80 percent.

Some lawmakers said they were trying to send a message to the troubled schools.

“The 80 percent kind of gets their attention,” said Sen. Ryan Mishler, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “I realize that sometimes they deal with kids who are more at-risk than some of the other schools, but I think there still has to be accountability.”

Senate lawmakers have traditionally been more skeptical about virtual schools than their House counterparts, but the severity of the proposal still comes as a surprise given Indiana Republicans’ typical strong support for charter schools. Senators are also eager to cut costs wherever they can, and recent scrutiny of virtual schools make them an easy target.

Mishler said he had originally considered cutting funding even further, but he thinks it is more significant that the Senate’s plan makes virtual charter school funding a separate $80 million budget line item. He said he’s heard that there are students who enroll in virtual schools and “they just get lost and (Indiana) just pays for a kid that goes and doesn’t do anything.”

“I’m OK if the student doesn’t get an A or 100 percent, but at least show some kind of involvement and effort,” Mishler said.

Sen. Eddie Melton, a Democrat from Merrillville who proposed a bill earlier this year that would have set strict enrollment limits for the schools and change how they are monitored, said the bill was a step in the right direction but that more regulations are needed to ensure students are learning

“We’ve seen the majority of our virtual charter schools have not produced the outcomes the General Assembly has seemed to expect,” Melton said.

The funding changes could put the brakes on virtual schools’ explosive growth by removing financial incentives to drive up enrollment. Virtual charters have swelled to more than 13,000 students, with two schools that Chalkbeat investigated in 2017 alone enrolling 6,000 students — many of whom never earned a single credit, according to a recent analysis by their authorizer.

If the budget plan becomes law, the state education department would determine a maximum enrollment for virtual charter schools within the $80 million-per-year cap and a corresponding per-student dollar amount.

Lawmakers also said they want to look into factoring schools’ performance into their funding but offered no details about how that might happen.

The education department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Melissa Brown, head of schools for Indiana Connections Academy, said she was disappointed by the Senate budget plan, which she said doesn’t recognize the improvement happening at her school. Recent state data shows that students at Connections are more likely to receive a full course load of credits than at other Indiana virtual charter schools, and the school also rose from an F to D in last year’s state grade.

“Painting all virtuals with such a broad brush does a disservice to the virtual schools who are working hard to serve and save kids every single day,” Brown said.

Chalkbeat’s investigation of Indiana Virtual School led the state to launch a review committee of virtual schools in the state, which have historically posted dismal academic results with test scores and graduation rates far below state averages.

More recent allegations against Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, have also sparked debates in the statehouse. The school’s authorizer, the Daleville district, says the schools have thousands of students in the past couple years who have not completed classes or earned credits, as well as issues with giving state tests and serving students with disabilities.

The budget plan next heads to the full Senate for amendments. Lawmakers will ultimately have to come to a compromise between the House and Senate version before session ends in three weeks.

Indiana paid for thousands of students who never earned credits at virtual charter schools

2019-04-10T22:29:30+00:00

Last year nearly 2,000 students never earned a single credit across Indiana’s six virtual charter schools, according to new data — even though most of them were enrolled nearly all year and the schools received funding to educate them.

That works out to almost $10 million in state funding paid to the online schools for students who didn’t complete any work or got failing grades in their classes.

The majority of those students attended Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, two schools at risk of losing their charters amid allegations raised in February by their authorizer that they enrolled thousands of students who did not complete or sign up for courses, among other issues with test administration and serving students with disabilities.

But the course completion data, self-reported by schools and provided to Chalkbeat by the state education department, shows that other Indiana virtual charter schools also enroll hundreds of students who never earn credits. With online schools, it’s easy for students to sign up and fall through the cracks, possibly losing semesters of their education or not graduating.

“It is alarming that this many students are literally earning zero credits,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for charter schools but has been critical of virtual schools. “It raises very serious questions, in particular around how these schools are being held accountable.”

Read: How lax oversight and rapid growth fueled dismal results for Indiana’s virtual charter schools

In Indiana, there is no penalty for schools if students don’t earn any credits, whether or not the state has paid their school, state officials said.

But high student turnover is likely a dramatic factor in virtual schools’ largely dismal academic results, including below-average graduation rates and test score passing rates, which have drawn intense scrutiny in recent years. Indiana lawmakers are debating new regulations for virtual schools, keying in better engagement efforts with students. Still, some critics have said lawmakers’ proposals this year are too watered down to rein in online schools’ poor performance.

Indiana Virtual School and its sister school stand out from other virtual charter schools with the bulk of students not earning any credits. Despite being enrolled at the schools for nearly the entire school year, 180 students at Indiana Virtual School and 1,135 students at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy earned no credits in 2018, according to the data.

And while the number of online school students earning zero credits has decreased from 2017 to 2018, that figure still remains particularly high at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Officials from Indiana Virtual School and its sister school did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The course completion report is similar to a dataset that their oversight agency, Daleville public schools, used as part of its evaluation of the schools. The schools have disputed the allegations of no-show students, but they have not explained how they believe the information to be inaccurate and incomplete. They will have a hearing in June to give their defense to the allegations.

The schools have said they serve a student population where many students face instability at home and other challenges to learning, such as raising children, working to support their families, facing bullying, or other issues.

At the other virtual schools, nearly 300 students drew funding but didn’t record any credits, the data showed. Most of them spent less time at the schools, however, leaving after a semester or less.

Overall, of the 5,119 students who did earn credits at any virtual charter school in the state, more than 90 percent earned far fewer than an average full course load.

Charter schools and districts set their own rules, but a high schooler typically is expected to earn about 10 credits each year to stay on track to earn Indiana’s default 40-credit diploma.

At Indiana Virtual School, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, and Insight School of Indiana, most students earned fewer than five credits. At Hoosier Academy Virtual, which closed last year, and Indiana Connections Academy, most students received between five and 10 credits.

Chandre Sanchez, in charge of Connections’ high school grades, said she’s never happy to see that students have failed, but the school isn’t just letting them slide by. She pointed to the school’s engagement policy — a requirement for all Indiana virtual schools after a law passed in 2017 — which sets out specific steps the schools must take when students are inactive.

“There are the kiddos that failed all the courses they attempted,” Sanchez said. “That’s not a pretty number — it makes me feel bad to look at it, but I can almost guarantee you that if we went into each (student’s files) you can see steps we took to try to re-engage them along the way.”

The school of about 4,700 K-12 students employs 12 counselors, as well as other social workers and staff members who track student progress and try to ensure they are participating.

If students are inactive for too long, though, they can be removed from the schools’ rolls — a controversial step that some critics think lets the schools off the hook when students aren’t achieving. But Elizabeth Lamey, head of schools for K12 Inc.’s Insight School, said there can be legitimate reasons for why students — particularly at virtual schools — don’t finish classes or receive low grades.

“Often they are financially responsible for their families, some have dependent children, some have disabled parents. Energy can sometimes be sapped, and focus is not always on education,” Lamey said.

Lamey said students at Insight, which is billed as a school for students who come in behind their peers or those who face other barriers to learning, have access to summer school, credit recovery, and counseling programs to try to help them keep up with their schooling.

“We don’t just push our students through,” Lamey said. “We do have expected rigor and accountability for our students, and they are not always able to step up to the plate and find success and pass our classes.”

Some researchers and charter school advocates recommend performance-based funding to mitigate the effects of student churn and ensure public money is used effectively. Virtual schools would have to show results in order to receive full funding, usually getting an initial portion of the funding to help support any overhead, with the rest coming after students have completed courses.

But Indiana schools are funded based on how many students are enrolled on one “count day” in the fall. Any transfers in or out do not affect a school’s bottom line during the remainder of that year. So even though more than 7,000 Indiana Virtual School students were reported as earning zero credits in 2018, only 1,766 of them were funded, and 260 were enrolled for most of the year, according to the data.

Student churn affects many schools, especially urban ones, but because virtual schools are easier to enroll in, they often see high rates of student turnover and can feel the effects more dramatically.

When so many students aren’t even logging credits, let alone passing state tests or graduating, Brandon Brown, with The Mind Trust, wondered if the state is doing enough to ensure schools take responsibility for their poor performance.

“If students aren’t reaching proficiency on state tests and if they aren’t graduating on time, and if they aren’t attaining credits at the rate that you would expect, it’s hard to see the return the state is actually receiving on their investment,” Brown said. “I’m running out of metrics at this point, and it’s really getting to be hard to make a case that virtual schools are actually serving kids well.”

This bill was meant to check virtual schools. Now, lawmakers are watering it down again

2019-04-08T22:06:55+00:00

Just weeks before the end of the legislative session, some of the stricter regulations on virtual charter schools were removed from a bill that lawmakers promised would rein in the controversial schools.

House education committee members voted 9-0 Monday to amend a Senate bill, further watering it down while folding in measures from a similar bill that would give the schools more power to choose their students.

The lawmakers removed language prohibiting virtual charter schools from transferring students between schools in the same network in the same school year — a provision that would have restricted student churn and possibly increased transparency around two of the state’s most troubled virtual charter schools, which now are currently engulfed in scandal.

The bill already didn’t include many of the stronger measures proposed by the state board of education and national school choice advocates that would slow down growth and reduce financial incentives for schools and authorizers, such as limiting fees for authorizers, capping enrollment, or setting maximum student-to-teacher ratios.

Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat from Terre Haute, said the bill didn’t go far enough.

“I think it’s a very small first step to solving a really large problem,” said Pfaff, whose Democratic colleague, Sen. Eddie Melton, had a harsher bill that was never heard in committee. “There needs to be a lot more limitations in place moving forward.”

The provision preventing students from transferring between schools run by the same network might have revealed problems earlier at Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Daleville, a small rural district northeast of Indianapolis, began the process of revoking their charters earlier this year after the data showed many of its students weren’t signed up for or didn’t complete classes.

Because so many students transferred at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy last year, it meant the school did not get a state grade because it did not test enough students who had been enrolled long enough. Despite being responsible for more than 6,000 students last year, the state is missing a key metric designed to hold the school accountable. Indiana Virtual School received its third F from the state last year.

Read: Hardly any kids passed ISTEP at one of Indiana’s largest schools. Here’s why it’s not getting an F

Rep. Bob Behning, the Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee said he removed the language because Daleville took action against the schools. If the district’s board revokes the charters, it’s likely the schools could close.

The amended bill, which will head next to the full House, still includes some regulations. In particular, it would put in place some changes that Republican legislative leaders have lauded for encouraging virtual schools to better engage students learning in a remote environment, including making orientation mandatory before enrollment and removing students who have racked up at least 10 unexcused absences.

“It’s taking a major step forward,” Behning said.

Virtual school leaders, though, have said that taking students off their rolls after 10 days is too harsh. Melissa Brown, head of schools for Indiana Connections Academy, said she supports efforts lawmakers have taken to give virtual schools flexibility to remove students who remain inactive for long periods of time, but her school has a process for checking on inactive students that could last weeks.

“There are times we have a kid at more than 10 days absent, and we didn’t want to dump them,” Brown told Chalkbeat last week. “We think in many cases, we can help that kid.”

When a student is removed, it’s unclear who takes responsibility for their education.

Also, the bill keeps language that would change state law to prohibit school districts, such as Daleville, from being virtual charter school authorizers. Other changes were made to the bill Monday, including:

Mandatory orientations wouldn’t begin until the 2020-21 school year.
If virtual schools are found to enroll students who are not Indiana residents, the schools must pay back their state funding to the education department.
Virtual schools must include how they measure attendance in annual reports to the state.
Students who leave any public school — virtual or traditional — to be homeschooled would count as dropouts under the school’s graduation rate. Behning said he thinks schools abuse this option and those students, who might be more difficult to educate, end up in virtual schools.

Some parents say getting help was like ‘pulling teeth’ as troubled Indiana virtual schools grew

2019-04-02T22:32:16+00:00

Zachary Morrice said his main responsibility as a student services representative for Indiana Virtual School several years ago was to recruit as many students as possible — usually about a dozen a day.

Morrice said he’d call students and parents after they filled out online forms expressing interest in enrolling in the virtual charter school. But over time, he felt pressured to enroll students even if he couldn’t reach them. And other times, he noticed students who weren’t assigned classes remained on the school’s books, sometimes for months, with no one contacting them.

“It was frustrating because I spent most of my time enrolling new people and reaching out to new people and assigning classes to new people,” said Morrice, 26, who worked at the school from December 2016 through March 2017. “But there was no strategy or system in place for reaching out to students who were inactive.”

Morrice’s portrayal, which he documented in a complaint to the state education department two years ago, lines up with some accusations leveled against the 8-year-old online school and its sister school by its authorizer last month: that thousands of students for whom the schools received millions of dollars in state funding didn’t complete or sign up for classes. The schools say the allegations, which could lead to the revocation of their charters and eventually their closure, are false and based on incomplete information.

Some virtual school students and parents who spoke with Chalkbeat also echoed Morrice’s description of how the school often didn’t give students enough attention, including not returning phone calls and emails. The parents and students said they struggled to get teachers and school staff to communicate, transfer records, provide educational advice, or ensure credits were processed.

“It seemed like pulling teeth,” said Michaela Taylor, the mother of a former student.

Online schools first appeared in Indiana about a decade ago as a way for homeschooled students and those with medical issues or the need for a more flexible learning environment to attend public school. And indeed, some students who talked to Chalkbeat praised Indiana Virtual School, crediting it with helping them graduate and supporting them through difficult circumstances when other schools could not.

Read: How lax oversight and rapid growth fueled dismal results for Indiana’s virtual charter schools

Enrollment quickly swelled at the schools, thanks to the state’s favorable laws and lack of regulation about how fast they could grow. School leaders also had an incentive: Indiana’s funding system that gives schools more money for each student they bring in. Today, Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, enroll more than 6,000 students and could get more than $40 million from the state this year.

But staffing didn’t appear to keep pace with that expansion. The schools have already received scrutiny for their tiny teaching staffs — with Indiana Virtual School at one time having more than 200 students for every teacher. And the schools have posted dismal academic results, with graduation rates in the single digits in recent years and a fraction of students passing state exams. Indiana Virtual School received its third F grade in a row from the state last year.

In an emailed statement, Thomas Burroughs, a lawyer for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, did not directly address whether Morrice’s description of the school’s student enrollment practices and outreach to inactive students was accurate. He also did not respond to requests about specific student and parent experiences. Burroughs said the schools could not remove inactive students from their rolls until a new state law took effect in fall of 2017.

Burroughs did stress in the statement that the schools serve a troubled student population, with about 50 percent of students having previously been suspended or expelled from other schools. “Most are severely credit deficient and read well below grade level,” Burroughs said in the statement. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is “a last chance school for a very good reason.”

Morrice said he wasn’t surprised when he heard about the allegations made against the schools by their authorizer, Daleville Public Schools, in February. The most damning charges center on claims that thousands of students they were funded for didn’t complete classes or never took them to begin with. The schools will defend themselves at a June hearing.

When Morrice made his complaint to state officials in the spring of 2017, he was told the state didn’t have the authority to investigate, but that the information would be sent to officials at Daleville. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Daleville said the district was made aware of the complaint and discussed it with Percy Clark, Indiana Virtual School’s superintendent, at the time. Because Daleville did not have access to the school’s data then, officials said, they had to accept what Clark told them.

“Dr. Clark provided information that either countered or contradicted the employee’s allegations,” the statement said. “Daleville was reliant upon Dr. Clark’s explanation.”

Morrice said the school fired him a couple of days after he made the complaint to the state education department because of information he included that the school believes to be confidential.

“It became very clear that all they cared about was enrolling new students,” Morrice said, based on his experience. “They want to cut corners.”

In the years since Morrice filed his complaint, thousands more students have attended Indiana Virtual School. In fall of 2017, officials opened their second school.

‘We thought it would get better’

Taylor sought out online school because of her daughter’s disability — a situation several families told Chalkbeat drove them to leave their traditional school in search of something more flexible.

Attending school over the computer would mean Taylor’s daughter wouldn’t have to put up with bullying or trying to physically navigate a big school building — a challenge as she deals with a chronic illness that can make walking difficult. Online school would also afford her daughter the opportunity to do schoolwork in between doctors appointments. Chalkbeat decided not to name Taylor’s daughter to protect her privacy.

But while Taylor said her daughter benefited from getting to learn outside a traditional classroom through Indiana Virtual School after enrolling for her sophomore year in 2015, it became increasingly difficult to contact teachers and school staff.

Phone calls and emails weren’t returned, Taylor said. Her daughter would ask questions about assignments only to have them answered after the work was due. They put up with it for about a year and a half, when Taylor’s daughter finally decided she wanted to spend her senior year with her friends back at traditional high school in Wayne Township.

“We thought it would get better,” Taylor said. “And for like month it did — it got better — and then it got back to the way it was.”

The lack of communication is troubling to critics of virtual schools, especially as the population at the schools change from families able to support a child working independently to students who need to work or have other instability at home. In an online school, where students are mostly working independently, researchers and some virtual schools themselves say being able to contact educators can be critical to student success.

The high student-to-teacher ratios, lack of student engagement, and high student mobility are often blamed for the schools’ academic shortcomings. Students at most virtual schools, in Indiana and other states, perform far below average on metrics like state tests and graduation rate. Last year, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy graduated just 2 percent of its 1,009 seniors, and 5.7 percent of 10th-graders passed both state English and math exams.

At Indiana Virtual School, about 24 percent of seniors graduated in 2018, the same year the school received its third F grade from the state. About 19 percent of elementary and middle school students passed both tests, and 4 percent of high-schoolers did.

For Taylor, leaving the school would prove to be just as frustrating as trying to contact her daughter’s teachers, if not more.

Taylor said the school repeatedly failed to send her daughter’s transcripts to her new school. It took months of unreturned calls, emails, and even physical visits — 90 minutes each way — to get them. Taylor worried that without the records, she’d face scrutiny or legal issues for the weeks of school her daughter ended up missing as they worked to make the transfer official.

“I told them I was going to get a lawyer because I was tired of fighting with the system to get her stuff that she needed to go to school,” Taylor said. “I didn’t want someone to say that I’m depriving my child of an education.”

‘A lifesaver’

Jennifer Garcia, 49, of Milford, Indiana, could not have had a more different experience with the school, showing just how inconsistent the online school environment can be.

She said Indiana Virtual School has “been a lifesaver” for her eighth grade son, Adam, who deals with anxiety and depression that kept him from being able to attend a traditional school.

Indiana Virtual School’s principal and teachers have been responsive, she said, and with the flexibility of learning online whenever works best for him, her son has been able to catch up on work that he had missed due to a hospital stay and other complications. His stepmother works with him on his schoolwork during the day.

“This is the first semester where he actually is enjoying school, and he wants to move faster now,” Garcia said. “He’s feeling more driven and seeing that he has a lot of opportunities.”

She said she feels like the public school system doesn’t want to deal with students like her son, and she doesn’t want to fight with brick-and-mortar schools to educate her son. That leaves those students to turn to alternatives such as Indiana Virtual School, she said.

The students who seem best suited to succeed at Indiana Virtual School, and online schools in general, are students looking to get ahead who don’t need as much one-on-one guidance, like Naomi Barrett, who graduated in 2017.

For Barrett, Indiana Virtual School gave her a chance to bypass the busy work and slower pace she was frustrated by in traditional school. She started at the school as a sophomore in 2015. Barrett, now 20, is studying graphic design at IUPUI.

“Whenever I was in traditional school, I was always feeling bored because I understood the curriculum faster than it was being taught,” Barrett said. “I would sit around and draw in my notebook all day.”

When her mom suggested she try online school, she thought it sounded like a good idea. Her teachers were good about getting back to her when she had questions, but most of the time, she was OK on her own, she said.

“I talked with my instructors maybe once a month, but that was only because I didn’t really need too much help,” Barrett said.

‘It was basically a waste of time’

Indianapolis mom Bianca Weatherspoon, 40, chose Indiana Virtual School for her daughter, Jeanette, typically a good student, after her grades plummeted following a tough transition in middle school.

A doctor recommended online school, and the family picked Indiana Virtual School because it was accredited and Jeanette could enroll right away. She transferred in the middle of her freshman year in 2016.

Like Taylor, Weatherspoon initially appreciated the flexibility. But from the start, she said, Indiana Virtual School treated her daughter’s education “like a business transaction.”

“If you have a question, you need to reach out and ask,” she said. “They’re not going to volunteer information.”

The stakes can be high for parents or guardians when they assume the responsibility of monitoring their children’s education. All of the state’s online charter schools say it’s critical for students to have an adult at home to supervise, but even engaged parents like Taylor and Weatherspoon struggled.

Weatherspoon said she had to tell Jeanette’s teachers when her daughter finished classes so she could receive credits and advance to the next class. She also took the lead on signing Jeanette up for classes and figuring out what she needed to get her diploma. Communication broke down so much with Indiana Virtual School that Weatherspoon said Jeanette didn’t end up receiving credit for Advanced Placement classes that would put her ahead in college. Now, Jeanette has to make those classes up.

“To me we’re behind the eight ball,” Weatherspoon said. “What are we doing here? … It was basically a waste of time.”

After almost two years, her daughter — now 16 and a junior — decided to switch back to her local public school, Pike High School. It took three months to get her daughter’s student records from Indiana Virtual School, which kept agreeing to send them but never did, Weatherspoon said.

“I had to have my husband physically appear at Indiana Virtual School to get a copy of all the records that her high school required in order to enroll her, because they had not sent them,” she said.

The confusion didn’t end after Jeanette left the school. Even then, Weatherspoon said her daughter continued to receive emails about classes she wasn’t attending.

Indiana virtual schools granted extra time to defend themselves against troubling allegations

2019-03-25T23:56:43+00:00

The authorizer of two virtual schools accused of mismanaging state tests, student enrollment, and special education services voted Monday night to give the schools more time to defend themselves — even after they missed a key deadline for submitting a written explanation.

The Daleville public school board, the authorizer for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, voted unanimously to push back the public hearing about whether the schools’ charters should be revoked, which could lead to their closure.

Read: How lax oversight and rapid growth fueled dismal results for Indiana’s virtual charter schools

The schools were supposed to have a hearing next Monday to present their cases, but the hearing is now scheduled for June 19 — a delay that extends uncertainty for students’ families by three months. The vote — added to the meeting agenda at the last minute — comes after the schools also missed a deadline last week to respond in writing to Daleville about the allegations. The schools’ lawyer said they did not submit anything to Daleville. The board voted to set the new deadline for a written response to June 5.

Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison said he requested the delay because the schools had “a lot of questions and we’re seeking to answer them. This gives us time to communicate a little more fully.”

“We’re following our attorney’s advice,” Garrison added, referring other questions to a spokeswoman. “We honestly don’t know what we’re going to see from them at this point. We just want to make sure they’re able to prepare.”

Gordon Hendry, the state board of education member who launched a committee to review virtual schools last year, said he was withholding judgment about the delay until he heard more information, but he is concerned about its impact on families who are trying to make decisions about where to educate their children.

“We’re not talking about a few students here, we’re talking about literally thousands of students,” Hendry said. “I think it puts the students on a tighter timeline as they evaluate their options for the fall school year.”

Last month, Garrison recommended starting the process of revoking the schools’ charters after unveiling a slew of troubling findings, including that 1,563 students enrolled at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy last spring were not signed up for any classes.

The schools have disputed Daleville’s allegations, saying data used in the report was inaccurate, but they haven’t provided specifics. The schools enroll more than 6,000 students and have collected tens of millions of dollars in state funding. There were no representatives from the virtual schools at the meeting, nor any students or parents.

A spokeswoman for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school said Monday night that the schools stand by a statement they made after Daleville presented its allegations last month.

“Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy believe there is an opportunity to improve and move forward to ensure the future of virtual education,” the emailed statement said. “The data presented to the public by the authorizer was inaccurate and incomplete. We look forward to setting the record straight and, more importantly, continuing to provide educational opportunities for thousands of Hoosier students.”

If Daleville ultimately votes to revoke the schools’ charters, the schools would have a year from that date to shut down or find another authorizer, though Indiana law makes it tough for low-rated schools to change oversight agencies. The state board would also have to sign off if a new authorizer wanted to oversee the virtual schools.

News of the allegations against the schools prompted outrage from state officials and lawmakers. Virtual schools have become a hot topic during this year’s legislative session as lawmakers seek to add regulations to the schools, which have academic results far below state averages.

Some of the most troubling allegations against Indiana Virtual School and its sister school:

More than 2,000 Indiana Virtual School students enrolled all year did not earn credits each semester in the 2016-17 school year, data showed. Nearly 500 students had not been assigned to any courses throughout the entire year.
The schools also failed to properly accommodate students with disabilities or file required audits in recent years.

Daleville’s vote to extend the revocation timeline comes as lawmakers are seeking to strip the district of its power to oversee charter schools, amid doubts the small rural district can do so effectively. Daleville, which has 961 students in its traditional schools, is the only public district in Indiana that authorizes full-time virtual charter schools. It received $1 million in state funds in 2017 for overseeing the schools.

In the past five years, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy have been rated poorly by the state and marked as consistently low-performing. Both have posted single-digit graduation rates and have few students passing state exams. Indiana Virtual School has received three consecutive F grades from the state, one shy of the number needed for state intervention.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation also revealed that Indiana Virtual School was charged millions of dollars by its founder’s company in management fees and rent at the same time the founder acted as school board president, which experts said raised concerns over conflicts of interest.

How lax oversight and rapid growth fueled dismal results for Indiana’s virtual charter schools

2019-03-20T20:54:23+00:00

Indiana Virtual School began humbly as a small start-up with just nine students, an institution designed to serve students who didn’t fit in a traditional environment.

Almost a decade later, the school and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, have grown to more than 6,000 students — and they’re facing explosive allegations that many of those students weren’t taking or completing any classes.

The scandals at the schools, which could face closure by their authorizer, Daleville Public Schools, didn’t happen overnight. The online charter schools and their competitors in the fast-growing field have morphed over the past decade, from small programs designed to serve a niche group of students into giant catch-alls for some of Indiana’s hardest-to-serve students.

To date, Indiana has funneled more than $324 million to seven full-time virtual charter schools. But their results — dismal test scores, high turnover, and few graduates — have prompted critics to question whether the schools should receive so much in public funds. The schools have also raised eyebrows because of how few teachers they employ and their relationships with for-profit companies.

But lawmakers have been loathe to regulate them and create harsher consequences if the entities created to oversee them fall short. That could change this year, as lawmakers consider bills that would require student and parent orientations and prohibit school districts from overseeing statewide virtual charters — though those plans, too, were scaled back from stricter earlier proposals.

If virtual charter schools are just now hitting your radar — or even if you’ve been following the debate all along — read on for a look at how we got here.

First, the basics

Schools have long tried to offer students ways to learn outside of traditional buildings, but virtual charter schools, which are public schools that offer students the ability to take classes online, are relatively new. They’ve only been around for a few decades in the U.S.

Some students and parents who sign up for virtual schools say they need the school choice option so they can have more flexibility in their schedules or learning environment, whether it’s because they’re serious athletes, dealing with medical issues, or are looking for support homeschooling.

Typically, students will log in to a website where they can see the classes they are taking and access lessons, which can be live, recorded, or self-paced “modules” students complete on their own. Teachers are expected to check in with students regularly to answer questions, give tests, and ensure students are on track.

Indiana has been a strong supporter of school choice

The education landscape in Indiana was fertile ground for virtual charter schools when the first ones, Hoosier Academy Virtual and Indiana Connections Academy, started as pilot programs in 2009 and 2010. The state has long been friendly to non-traditional schools, and the introduction of virtual schools was buoyed by a series of laws over the past decade that expanded and empowered charter schools and school choice.

In 2011, Indiana’s new Republican majority legislature altered charter school law to allow new authorizers and widespread full-time virtual learning. Lawmakers have since enacted more bills that have been friendly to the schools, giving them additional funding and greater ability to remove students from their rolls.

Growth was rampant…

Virtual charter schools quickly became some of the fastest growing schools in the state, more than tripling in size between 2011 and 2019 to more than 13,000 students.

Enrollment drives funding in Indiana, creating clear incentives for operators to encourage their schools to grow. Charter school authorizers, who get a cut of a school’s funding to support their oversight work, also receive more money as schools enroll more students.

Online charter schools are especially primed to benefit from a “money-follows-the-child” system. Because families don’t have to physically change locations to enroll, the schools can grow more easily and quickly than traditional schools.

Connections and Hoosier Academy grew fast early on, but Indiana Virtual School and its sister school started slowly and shot up in size more recently. Superintendent Percy Clark previously told Chalkbeat the school ramped up recruiting for 2015 with events, social media campaigns, and radio ads. At its height, Indiana Virtual School enrolled and was funded for 3,376 students in 2018, although nearly 10,000 were enrolled in some manner that year.

The ease with which virtual schools can grow and receive more public money has raised concerns for ethics and government transparency experts. A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation revealed that Indiana Virtual School’s founder’s private company charged the school millions in state dollars in management fees and rent, similar to situations that have cropped up at virtual charter schools in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

…And academics suffered

Virtual charter schools learned that more students also brought more challenges.

Over time, the schools attracted a larger-than-expected number of students who were behind academically or dealing with issues that made them harder to educate, such as raising children or managing chronic illnesses. Historically, they’ve received D and F grades from the state.

That’s in direct contrast to students who want to learn at a faster pace and would-be homeschoolers they planned for, said Melissa Brown, head of schools at Connections Academy.

“We grew too fast in years two, and three, and four, and we’re still paying for that quick growth,” Brown said. “There is an ease to enrollment. It is a phone call, rather than getting in the car and driving down the street … to too many people, it feels like it would be an easy solution.”

As Indiana Virtual School grew, some internal structures didn’t keep pace: the school bounced between online learning platforms and employed far fewer teachers than researchers recommend — at one point hitting more than 200 students for every teacher, many of whom were not full-time. The school, like its peers, has struggled to get students to take state tests.

Indiana Virtual School received its third F grade from the state in 2018, one F shy of kick-starting the state’s academic intervention process, a consequence of which could be closure. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy has yet to receive a grade — too few students were tested last year to calculate one — but it had one of the lowest graduation rates of any public school in the state.

Daleville officials said in a report last month that Indiana Virtual School and its sister school have failed to provide services for students with special needs and have enrolled thousands of students who didn’t complete or weren’t signed up for classes. They have set in motion the process for revoking their charters, which could lead to closure. Officials at Indiana Virtual School did not respond to interview requests for this story.

With few regulations to guide them, the state cut virtual charter schools slack

Virtual charter schools are monitored by “authorizers” — which in Indiana can be a university, the mayor’s office, a school district, or the state charter school board. Authorizers are supposed to make sure charter schools fulfill the academic, financial, and operational promises in their charters, or else the contracts can be revoked. But there are few clear-cut laws or rules that compel the oversight agencies to act.

Consequently, Indiana officials have had the chance to step in and pass stricter rules and laws, but the few attempts have failed. Lawmakers have echoed some school choice advocates, saying they are worried stricter rules on charter schools in general or on authorizers could penalize high-performing schools and possibly limit choices families have.

The best example is how the state board handled Hoosier Academy Virtual. Four straight years of F grades put the school under state board of education scrutiny, kicking off a years-long back-and-forth among state board members, school leaders, and officials from charter authorizer Ball State University over how to handle the situation.

Ultimately, the state board gave Hoosier Academy the benefit of the doubt when it chose to punish Ball State by reducing administrative fees the university received to oversee the school and capping enrollment. Hoosier Virtual only closed a year later — after eight consecutive F grades — because Ball State decided it would not renew its charter.

But low state ratings didn’t keep Hoosier Academies from expanding. Before it closed, its authorizer signed off on a new school aimed at helping students far behind their peers. The move was precedent-setting: All three currently operating charter school networks have now opened additional schools in the past few years even as they received failing grades from the state.

Recent steps might be too little, too late

The state board took slightly firmer action with Indiana Virtual School after Chalkbeat’s investigation, which also found that the school had too few teachers, low test scores, and dismal graduation rates.

Last summer, in response to calls from Gov. Eric Holcomb to act swiftly to improve the struggling schools, state board members formed a review committee. In December, the full board approved recommendations that have, in part, informed two bills now up for debate in the legislature. As the bills stand, the biggest changes would stop school districts from overseeing virtual schools, and require virtual schools adopt new policies to ensure remote students stay engaged with their work.

But although the recent proposals cover far more ground than current regulations, they don’t address some of the other big problems plaguing the schools by directly targeting how they grow and their bottom lines. In fact, lawmakers watered down the bills by removing provisions that would have eliminated authorizer fees and limited the growth of new and chronically underperforming virtual schools — problems that could get worse, state officials say.

“One of my greatest concerns is the exponential growth of virtual charter enrollment in Indiana over the past few years,” said Gordon Hendry, the state board member who chaired the review committee. “It’s like surfing a 70-foot wave — It’s going to come crashing down on us if we don’t do something about it.”

And even though Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy — arguably two of the state’s most troubled virtual schools — could close if Daleville’s board votes to revoke their charters, Hendry says that’s not a sign the system is working, especially if lawmakers fail to put stricter rules in place for future schools.

“Were laws enforced at the O.K. Corral? Sure,” Hendry said. “But I think it’s more a case study of how the entire system failed.”

Why critics say Indiana isn’t going far enough to address online schools’ biggest problems

2019-03-05T16:57:32+00:00

Some Indiana leaders and school choice advocates are skeptical that Republican-backed bills proposed this year to rein in virtual charter schools can actually address the schools’ most serious problems.

The two bills largely ignore some of the stronger measures proposed by the state board of education and national school choice advocates that would slow down growth and reduce financial incentives for schools and authorizers. The critics say those changes could have helped Indiana avoid major issues like those alleged last week at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy by their authorizer, Daleville public schools.

“It looks like the legislature is going to go with the path of least resistance on this,” said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president for state advocacy and support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “They are [considering] some small, incremental steps that will be helpful, but they are likely not going to solve all of the major problems that we have here.”

Indiana Republicans similarly pulled punches when it came to virtual schools in 2018, when a few bills that would have put in place stricter rules for schools and their authorizers went nowhere. But the issue of regulating virtual schools took on more urgency last week, as Daleville announced it was beginning the process of revoking the charters of the two schools because of allegations that many of their students weren’t registered or completing classes and they failed to serve students with disabilities.

“I don’t feel we’ve reached a point of accountability that virtual charters desperately need at this point,” said Democrat Sen. Eddie Melton, from Merrillville, who introduced a bill that included the recommendations of the state board — but was never heard in committee

Both the House and Senate bills would require students at virtual charters and district-run online schools to complete an orientation before enrolling, and they also would change state law to prohibit school districts, like Daleville, from being virtual charter school authorizers. Under the Senate bill, virtual charter networks would not be allowed to transfer students between schools during the same school year. The House bill would allow virtual schools to expel students who are too frequently absent and order that virtual school teachers complete the same required training as traditional school teachers.

Lawmakers defend the bills by saying they’ve been hesitant to impose more stringent rules on virtual charter schools because they don’t want to hamper Indiana families’ ability to choose a school. Advocates, though, are concerned that while those measures make progress, they don’t make sweeping changes that would have caught the problems revealed last week.

The bills wouldn’t require the schools, for instance, to hire more teachers, or put in explicit consequences for when schools earn multiple F grades or students don’t attend school and earn credits. And the bills don’t force virtual schools or their authorizers to squarely face their largest problems: unchecked growth in a system where schools collect more money for every student they enroll. Measures that would slow down virtual schools’ growth or hit their bottom line are more effective ways to enable and encourage them to improve, Ziebarth said

He suggested the state more seriously consider a funding model adopted by states such as Florida and Utah that would give virtual schools half their funding up front, and half after students have completed classes.

States have to recognize “that there are incentives at play here for operations to enroll as many kids as easily and quickly as possible,” Ziebarth said, and that schools are “getting paid for those kids even if they leave, which most of them do.”

Ziebarth and others agreed that the proposal to eliminate school districts’ ability to oversee virtual charter schools would be a crucial step to ensure inexperienced authorizers wouldn’t be able to monitor large, statewide schools — a step they said Indiana should have taken years ago. Those provisions would have removed Daleville as the authorizer for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school and essentially closed them if they didn’t find a new authorizer — but they don’t ensure that the problems at the school couldn’t be repeated under a different kind of authorizer or for future schools.

The bills had been tougher when they were first introduced. Legislators scaled them back to remove provisions that would have lowered fees paid to authorizers, an attempt to reduce what some think is a perverse incentive to keep failing schools open. Lawmakers also removed language that would have kept virtual schools with four years of F grades from enrolling new students — thereby bringing in more public dollars. Those changes were recommended by the Indiana State Board of Education, which conducted a review of virtual education last year.

It’s likely that only one bill will end up passing into law. After that point, state board members would have more specific authority to write additional rules for virtual schools, but it’s unclear how long that process might take, what it would include, or whether there’d be a need for additional legislative approval.

Lawmakers have been quick to back proposals that virtual schools themselves have been enthusiastic about, such as requiring students to complete orientations before they enroll. They’ve also lent stronger support to policies that deal primarily with virtual schools housed within districts, which have recently experienced rapid growth but lack the history and documented problems on the books for virtual charter schools.

“Most of the language in the bills being proposed involve things we’re already doing,” said Melissa Brown, who heads up Indiana Connections Academy, a virtual charter school that has generally posted stronger results than its peers in the state.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Sen. Jeff Raatz, the author of the Senate bill, and Rep. Bob Behning, the author of the House bill, have frequently focused in public conversations about the bills on the assertion that virtual schools receive students who are challenging to educate and come in academically behind their peers.

“So many of these students are credit deficient and having a difficult time in life, and so that’s something that we need to wrap our arms around,” Raatz said. “To say that it’s the authorizer’s fault or the school’s fault may not be the case.”

Gov. Eric Holcomb said he doesn’t want to have to revisit virtual school policy year after year. He said he’s confident lawmakers will end up with legislation that more fully address the schools’ problems in the next few months.

“I want to make sure we do more than necessary, not come up short this session, so we don’t have to revisit this again next session,” Holcomb told reporters earlier this month. “I’m not willing to say it’s enough yet, but I am comforted by the fact that, again, we have at least two more quarters to go.”

Almost 10,000 students went to this online school last year. 851 stayed the whole time

2019-03-01T00:27:32+00:00

Nearly 10,000 students attended Indiana Virtual School at some point last school year, but about 91 percent didn’t stay for an entire year, new data released by Daleville public schools show.

Of the 851 students who made it a full year, almost 60 percent didn’t earn a single credit — and the district claims some students weren’t signed up for classes at all.

This churn of students and lack of credits were among the red flags that prompted Daleville’s school board to vote earlier this week to begin the process of revoking the charters for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

The virtual schools’ superintendent has called Daleville’s data inaccurate and says students were taking courses, but he has not said what the errors are specifically. School leaders have said in the past that, due to the students that they attract for their online-only programs, their enrollment fluctuates wildly throughout the school year.

“Every student at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is enrolled in classes,” Clark said in a emailed statement Wednesday night in response to earlier questions about enrollment and course assignments.

But district leaders are standing by the analysis, arguing that the data they used came directly from reports submitted to the state by the virtual schools. A spokesman for the state education department confirmed that schools have the same access to the state’s data reporting system as charter school authorizers such as Daleville do, and that the virtual charter schools indicated their data was accurate when they reported it to the state. A spokeswoman for the virtual school did not immediately return requests for comment on the district’s explanation.

The district says it used data from several state reports on attendance, student counts that drive funding, and course completion to arrive at the conclusion that the virtual schools were enrolling thousands of students that the state paid them for, but who weren’t actually taking classes or earned next to no credits.

In 2018, the state paid Indiana Virtual School $20 million based on an enrollment of 3,376 students. But a deeper look at the numbers, Daleville said, suggests the school was paid for students who didn’t end up learning there. For example, the district said the data shows that 71 students that Indiana Virtual School reported as having attended all year weren’t included in datasets showing what classes students attempted or completed. The district determined this meant they didn’t take any classes.

“It is curious for students to attend all year and yet be absent from all course completion reports,” the statement from Daleville said.

The pattern was also seen the year before at Indiana Virtual School, when 499 full-year students were not accounted for in course completion reports. That year, the school reported an enrollment of 2,947 for funding purposes. A similar situation was discovered at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, where 1,563 students who were counted as attending the whole year weren’t assigned courses during second semester.

The numbers revealed this week are in line with arguments that virtual charter schools and their authorizers have made about their enrollment being volatile. They say that as public schools, they must accept any student who enrolls, even if that’s midway through the year. If that student drops out or performs poorly on state tests, online schools shoulder that as well, they say. Because of these circumstances, they have asked for lower standards from the state in terms of accountability, testing, and graduation rate metrics.

Critics, though, maintain that virtual schools’ face many of the same problems as traditional schools and shouldn’t be cut extra slack. It’s not uncommon to have high student mobility in urban public schools, which also can’t turn away students.

Generally, students at virtual charter schools perform poorly on state exams, and many don’t graduate on time. As a result, the schools have mostly received D and F grades from the state in recent years. When a school gets four F grades in a row, the state can intervene, and one consequence could be closure.

Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy have until March 19 to respond to Daleville’s allegations in writing. A hearing for the virtual schools to contest revocation is set for April 1.

Can Indiana recoup funds from troubled virtual schools? That might be part of a state investigation

2019-02-28T03:19:00+00:00

Indiana education officials expect to investigate allegations that many students at two troubled virtual schools never signed up for or completed classes — possibly including whether the state can recoup some of the funding it sent to the schools.

“We’re discussing internally and we anticipate a full review of the situation,” said Adam Baker, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education, who also said the state had received complaints about the two schools in the past.

Wide-ranging accusations about no-show students, ignored testing protocols, and failure to deliver special education services were brought against Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, this week by their charter authorizer, the Daleville public school district. The allegations prompted Daleville’s board to begin the process to revoke the schools’ charters — a path that could end with the schools closing. The virtual schools have denied the claims, calling them inaccurate and incomplete.

One area that the state could explore is whether it will attempt to recoup the money it paid the virtual schools to educate students, as several other states have when online schools have been caught inflating enrollment. In Indiana, schools are funded on a per-student basis, and last year the schools brought in nearly $40 million from the state.

Baker said that while there is no evidence to suggest the schools fabricated students, whether Indiana can recoup funds would be part of the state’s review. Indiana law, though, doesn’t appear to specifically address this issue, he said.

“From what’s reported to us, we haven’t seen evidence that would indicate they are fraudulently creating students,” Baker said. “The large majority of students they enroll were previously enrolled at other Indiana schools.”

Charter school advocates said it would make sense for the state to pursue this action in light of Daleville’s claims that thousands of students went entire semesters or years without being signed up for or earning credits for classes.

“Given the eye popping numbers here at play, I think it’s definitely worth looking into,” said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president for the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.

In a high-profile online school scandal last year, one of the nation’s largest schools, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow — known as ECOT — was accused of inflating enrollment numbers and bringing in more dollars from the state of Ohio than it should have. The school was closed, and the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the school to repay about $80 million to the state.

And in California, a chain of online schools run by online giant K12 Inc. were accused of inflating enrollment numbers and using misleading advertisements. The attorney general pursued an investigation and reached a $8.5 million settlement with K12 in 2016. State lawmakers went on to ban for-profit management companies from running charter schools.

The virtual charter schools called into question the accuracy of the data Daleville released on credits students earned and whether they were assigned to courses during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years.

“It will suffice to state the data used by [Daleville] and the allegations based thereon are inaccurate,” Thomas Burroughs, the lawyer for the schools, said in an email.

Neither Burroughs nor a spokeswoman who spoke on behalf of the schools elaborated on exactly how the data and claims made by Daleville were incorrect. In a statement, the district said it requested student data on course completion, attendance, and enrollment from the state, which was submitted by the virtual schools per state reporting rules.

Baker said the state does collect data from schools on attendance and course completion, but it doesn’t track whether students are signed up for classes — that’s up to the schools, he said. The district did not immediately respond to questions about the origin of data showing students weren’t assigned to courses.

In an emailed statement Wednesday night, the virtual schools’ superintendent, Percy Clark, said all students are enrolled in courses, and students who don’t participate are withdrawn within 90 days, in line with state policy saying virtual charter schools can remove students who are not engaged.

He said that the virtual schools, like other public schools in the state, do not receive additional funding for new students who enroll throughout the year.

“The state does not lose any money because our schools have a significant number of students enrolling each week,” Clark wrote.

It’s unclear whether other state agencies will decide to review the virtual charter schools, which were the subject of a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation. The attorney general’s office said they did not have “any publicly disclosable information on either” school and could not “confirm nor deny any investigation.”

The state has previously received complaints about the schools, Baker said, though it is not uncommon for parents to make such complaints. Baker said the complaints came through phone calls and concerned state ISTEP tests and “overall student services.” He could not give a time frame for when they occurred.

Update: Feb. 27, 2019: This story has been updated to include a statement from the virtual charter schools.

‘It takes your breath away.’ Advocates shocked by special education problems at embattled virtual schools

2019-02-26T22:49:14+00:00

Last month, two of the state’s top education officials visited the offices of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to discuss why the schools weren’t doing enough to prepare students with disabilities for life after high school.

But in the nearly three-hour long meeting, larger concerns surfaced over how the troubled online schools might be failing to properly serve more than 600 students with special education needs, according to a letter from the state.

The failure to meet the needs of students with disabilities was one of several reasons why the schools’ oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, voted Monday night to start the process of revoking the two virtual schools’ charters — a decision that the schools pledged Tuesday to fight.

Between the two schools, three teachers and two counselors were assigned to 616 students with disabilities, the state said — a ratio that one expert said spreads educators far too thin. The state also detailed requests from the schools to use public special education funds to reimburse employees’ travel expenses and foot the bill for a trip to Hawaii.

“That’s just extremely suspicious,” said Kim Dodson, executive director of The Arc of Indiana, an organization that supports people with disabilities.

In a written statement Tuesday, the virtual schools’ superintendent Percy Clark said data presented by Daleville “was inaccurate and incomplete.” A spokeswoman declined to elaborate or specifically address the claims about special education.

“We look forward to setting the record straight and, more importantly, continuing to provide educational opportunities for thousands of Hoosier students,” Clark said.

But experts called the issues raised over special education “highly problematic.”

Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which serve more than 6,000 students, are two of the lowest-performing virtual schools. Indiana Virtual School has logged three consecutive F grades from the state, and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy has one of the lowest graduation rates of any public school in the state.

But the outcomes are even worse for students with disabilities, according to the Feb. 12 letter from the state. Students with disabilities at Indiana Virtual School have posted some of the lowest test score gains in the state, the state said, and very few students with disabilities have graduated from the school.

Online students across the country are serving a growing number of special education students, who often seek out the alternative learning environment. Students with disabilities can rely on a wide range of extra services, such as one-on-one attention and specific therapies — some of which are likely a challenge for virtual schools to offer. But there’s little national research on how well virtual schools serve students with special needs, a 2018 report from the National Education Policy Center notes.

The state’s recent concerns over the two virtual schools’ special education services stemmed from what are known as transition IEPs, which stands for Individualized Education Program. Public schools are required under federal law to craft individualized plans for each student who receives special education services. Transition IEPs prepare students for what happens after high school, such as college or careers, and connects them with transitional services.

But the state said last year, both Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy had “zero percent compliance” with transition IEPs. The state education department agreed to work with the schools to show teachers how to write compliant transition IEPs and review the plans.

The state also said Indiana Virtual School did not follow rules in 2016-17 on initial evaluations for students with disabilities but made corrections to address the problem.

“Indiana has too many strong resources for there not to be strong IEPs,” Dodson said. “If [students] are not on a good transition IEP going into high school, then they’re behind the eight ball on everything else that’s getting ready to come their way.”

Pat Rogan, a special education professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said the complete lack of compliance “would indicate that’s not just a one-off mistake.”

The virtual schools told the state that they struggled to “find” students to complete the transition assessments. Students “disengage” from classes, and educators aren’t able to contact them, according to the letter. Educators said they try to reach out to students “through all means provided, including using the sheriff in counties to make visits to the last known address.”

A startlingly large number of students at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy haven’t been taking any classes at the schools, Daleville revealed Monday through data from the state. The finding, which the schools contested, touches on a fear of state policymakers that students can easily get lost in virtual schools, particularly those who have left traditional public schools and might otherwise drop out.

The meeting on transition IEPs also raised broader concerns for state education officials over how the virtual schools were serving students with disabilities. In the letter, officials highlighted a wide range of possible violations in identifying, evaluating, and instructing students with special education needs.

“It takes your breath away,” Rogan said, “in terms of, if in fact those are valid, you get the sense — or at least I did — that they’re not even providing special ed services.”

The state did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about the special education issues at the virtual schools. It’s still unclear when problems started and how they came to light.

“Where is the monitoring? Where are those people who should be on top of this?” Rogan said. “There should be oversight, so it wouldn’t catch anyone by surprise.”

The state’s letter also covered attempts by the virtual schools to use special education funds in questionable ways. The state spent more than three hours helping school employees — unnamed in the letter — apply for public funds that amounted to more than $1 million between the two virtual schools, the letter said.

Then, the state said the schools requested to use the funds for mileage, parking, and a per-diem allowance for the training they received.

“They also attempted to use funds for a trip to Hawaii,” the letter said.

The education department denied both requests.

No-show students and other allegations against troubled virtual schools spark outrage from state leaders

2019-02-26T22:33:52+00:00

Top state education leaders called it a “scandal” and “serious” that two Indiana virtual charter schools are accused of counting toward their enrollment thousands of students who either never signed up for or completed classes.

“This should be a massive alarm bell that outright fraud has been committed against Hoosier taxpayers to the tune of millions of dollars,” said Gordon Hendry, a state board of education member who led a committee last year to review virtual schools. “If this isn’t a scandal, I don’t know what is.”

The harsh words came a day after Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, were put on notice that their charter agreements could be revoked by their oversight agency, the small rural Daleville public school district. The virtual schools, which purported to educate about 6,000 students, could close if they do not find another authorizer to oversee them.

In the meantime, the district made the right choice, said Rachel Hoffmeyer, a spokeswoman for Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has made repeated calls for the state to take action regarding its poor-performing virtual charter schools.

“Based on the evidence, it looks like Daleville School Corporation’s decision to take steps to revoke the charters is the right thing to do,” Hoffmeyer said in a statement. “Indiana’s students deserve the best education possible and schools that have unacceptable performance for a substantial amount of time should not be allowed to continue.”

Rep. Bob Behning, the House Education Committee chairman who is pushing legislation this year to address problems in Indiana’s fast-growing virtual schools, said he thinks the district needed to act sooner.

“I think it’s serious if the kids didn’t receive services,” Behning, R-Indianapolis, said. “I’m a little disappointed if (Daleville was) aware of it, it took them so long to respond to it.”

The schools also failed to properly accommodate students with disabilities or file required audits in recent years, said Daleville Public Schools Superintendent Paul Garrison. One school also allegedly failed to follow protocols for administering state standardized tests, and the schools are accused of trying to use public special education funds to reimburse employees’ travel expenses and pay for a trip to Hawaii.

The superintendent of the two virtual schools denied the allegations Tuesday, saying the data presented by Daleville was “inaccurate and incomplete.”

“We look forward to setting the record straight and, more importantly, continuing to provide educational opportunities for thousands of Hoosier students,” Percy Clark Jr. said in a statement released by Bose Public Affairs Group, a major Indianapolis firm that also lobbies on behalf of the schools.

A spokeswoman from Bose said school leaders are reviewing the data to “account for the inaccuracies” and will complete the review by March 19 deadline set out in the letter from Garrison to the Daleville board.

But the district says all the data came from the schools themselves in information that they are required to report to the Indiana Department of Education on what courses students complete, how often they are marked as attending, and how many students the schools enroll. A spokeswoman for Daleville said before August, the district did not have access to this data — a recent change in state law made it possible.

The state data paint the scope of the issues at the schools as vast. Last spring, none of the 1,563 students reported as attending Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy for the full year were enrolled in any classes, according to the data analyzed by the district. That year, the school received $17 million from the state.

In fall 2016, none of the 2,372 students reported as attending Indiana Virtual School for the full year earned any credits, according to the district’s analysis. That year, one out of five students enrolled all year were never signed up for any classes. In each semester of the 2017-18 school year, the majority of students reported as attending the school for the full year did not earn any credits. Nearly 60 percent earned zero credits at the end of the year — a year in which the school received $20 million in state funding.

Still, some Indiana policymakers and school choice advocates were mixed on whether Daleville’s allegations against the virtual charter schools revealed holes in the state’s methods for holding charter schools accountable.

Betsy Wiley, executive director of the Institute for Quality Education, a group that advocates for school choice, said the problems Daleville raised show how important it is that competent agencies are put in charge of monitoring charter schools. She shared concerns with Behning about the district’s ability to appropriately oversee statewide virtual charter schools.

“What this highlights is a real difference between charter authorizers,” Wiley said. “This is an example of the system working. I think, unfortunately, Daleville’s board was sort of ill-prepared to act as a strong authorizer.”

She said lawmakers have already suggested solutions to the problem — namely, a bill from Behning that would prohibit school districts from being statewide virtual charter school authorizers. A similar bill is also moving through the state senate.

But Hendry said the state needs to play a stronger role, too, and that what’s happening at Indiana Virtual School and its sister school reflects “a complete breakdown of the system.”

“Ultimately the state is responsible for making sure this doesn’t happen,” he said, though he didn’t let the district off the hook, referencing a recent state hearing where Garrison defended the schools’ performance to the state board.

“We were appalled by (Daleville’s) enormously rosy outlook on their performance. We didn’t believe them then, and I think this evidence proves that they recognize now that they have some grave problems with their schools,” Hendry said.

In his statement, Clark defended virtual schools as “an important choice” for students who want to learn outside of traditional settings.

“We believe it is vital to protect and respect that choice,” he said, adding that “there is an opportunity to improve and move forward to ensure the future of virtual education.”

Troubled Indiana virtual schools poised to lose charters amid claims thousands of students weren’t put in classes

2019-02-26T01:38:47+00:00

Two of the state’s largest, most troubled virtual schools were put on notice Monday night that their charters could be revoked after their authorizer alleged that thousands of enrolled students went semesters or sometimes years without earning any credits or even signing up for classes.

Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, also failed to properly accommodate students with disabilities or file required audits in recent years, said Daleville Public Schools Superintendent Paul Garrison, who recommended that his district’s board vote to begin the process to pull the schools’ charters. One school also allegedly failed to follow protocols for administering state standardized tests.

“It was apparent that there were a great number of students that weren’t being served,” said Donna Petraits, a spokeswoman for the district, adding that the district waited until now to make the decision because only recently “enough evidence came to light.”

Garrison and board members said little outside of prepared remarks. They directed questions to Petraits.

Monday’s unanimous vote could ultimately force the closure of the schools, which enroll more than 6,000 students and have collected tens of millions of dollars in state funding. It’s also a blow to the virtual schools across Indiana, which have grown rapidly in recent years but shown dismal academic results that have attracted the attention of state lawmakers.

There were no representatives from the virtual schools at the meeting, nor any students or parents. Chalkbeat could not immediately reach officials from either school Monday night for comment. Leaders from the schools have in the past told state policymakers that their students frequently move around and come in without enough credits to graduate on time, making educating them more difficult.

Among the most damning allegations: Last spring, 1,563 students enrolled at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy for a full year were not signed up for any classes, according to data provided by Daleville.

More than 2,000 Indiana Virtual School students enrolled all year did not earn credits each semester in the 2016-17 school year, data showed. Nearly 500 students had not been assigned to any courses throughout the entire year.

The schools have 15 business days to appeal Monday’s board vote and can testify in person at a public hearing April 1 at the district office. On April 8, the Daleville board will make a final decision. The schools could seek to stay open under a new oversight agency, but Indiana law makes it tough for low-rated schools to get a reprieve, and the state would have to sign off on the switch.

The rare step to revoke the charters comes as lawmakers threaten to strip Daleville of its authorizing ability over doubts that a school district can effectively oversee a large, statewide virtual charter school. Daleville, which has 961 students in its traditional schools, is the only public district in Indiana that authorizes full-time virtual charter schools and received $1 million in state funds in 2017 for overseeing the schools.

Few schools in the state have been as consistently low-performing as Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. In the past five years, both schools have posted single-digit graduation rates and test passing rates far below state averages. Indiana Virtual School has received three consecutive F grades from the state.

If Daleville upholds its decision to revoke the schools’ charters, the schools would have a year to find another authorizer or shut down operations.

New bill would keep virtual charters from moving around students, but stops short of harsher oversight

2019-02-14T02:36:14+00:00

A bill that would prohibit virtual charters from shuffling students between schools cleared a legislative hurdle Wednesday. If signed into law, it could prevent online schools from bypassing state efforts to hold them accountable.

Sen. Jeff Raatz, the author of the bill, which passed out of a state Senate committee, said the idea came from the Indiana Department of Education, which noticed two virtual charter schools in the same network were moving around large groups of students.

The state’s three virtual charter school operators all have multiple schools in their network. Raatz did not name the schools in question and the education department did not confirm them either. But Chalkbeat reported in November that state data showed that since 2017, thousands of students have transferred from Indiana Virtual School to its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

Raatz said the transfers he was made aware of came “at an opportune time to save [the school’s] letter grade.” Under his amended bill, virtual charter networks would not be allowed to transfer students between schools during the same school year.

Enrollment swings at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy meant the school did not get a state grade for 2018 because it did not test enough students who had been enrolled long enough. So despite being responsible for more than 6,000 students last year, the state is missing a key metric designed to hold the school accountable.

Read: Hardly any kids passed ISTEP at one of Indiana’s largest schools. Here’s why it’s not getting an F

The A-F grades that Indiana hands out factor in student test scores and too few students passing can result in lower grades. If a school receives four consecutive F grades, it can lead to state sanctions. At Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy last year, fewer than 6 percent of students passed both English and math exams.

Raatz’s bill originally included provisions that would have reduced financial incentives for groups that oversee virtual charter schools and imposed some harsher consequences for poor academics. But the amended version that passed out of committee no longer cuts the fees authorizers can collect from the schools they monitor. The bill also struck language that would have prohibited virtual schools from enrolling new students — thereby stopping their funding stream — after four consecutive years of failing grades from the state.

Both clauses were part of recommendations from the Indiana State Board of Education, which late last year wrapped up a months-long review of low-performing virtual schools. These provisions would have addressed board members’ concerns about how much money some authorizers were bringing in and how they were spending it, as well as virtual schools’ rapid growth.

Read: Hoosiers paid $1 million for a rural district to oversee online charter schools. Is it too much?

Sen. Eddie Melton, a Merrillville Democrat who has proposed accountability legislation aimed at virtual charters that is unlikely to advance, said he wishes Raatz’s bill accomplished more.

“I don’t feel like we’re adequately addressing, holistically, the issue that virtual charter schools are not excelling,” Melton said. “I hope we can look deeper into more accountability.”

Like its counterpart in the House, which passed a final vote to advance to the second half of the legislative session last week, the Senate bill requires students at virtual charters and district-run online schools to complete an orientation before enrolling. The bills also change state law to prohibit school districts from being virtual charter school authorizers.

Raatz said the bill was scaled back because lawmakers were worried the original draft would hamper the schools.

“We need to wrap our arms around the the virtual space without stopping it from happening,” he said. “Maybe we aren’t coming down as hard as some would like, but the day’s not over yet.”

House lawmakers make minor changes to online schools bill, but stricter plans remain up in the air

2019-01-31T22:54:02+00:00

House lawmakers have added three new amendments to a bill designed to rein in online schools: measures targeting student residency, absences, and teacher training.

The new amendments unanimously passed Thursday and represented some of the few areas of bipartisan agreement over how Indiana should handle the troubled schools. Tougher proposals and amendments introduced this year and earlier have not gained traction with Republicans, who have been loathe to add regulations for charter schools in general.

One of the amendments would require that virtual schools — charter schools as well as those within traditional school districts — only enroll students who are Indiana residents. If the schools are found to have enrolled students who aren’t residents, they’d have to return a portion of their funding to the state. While state officials confirmed this is already a rule for virtual schools, lawmakers said the amendment was a response to questions raised in committee and would solidify the requirement in state law.

Under the second amendment to the bill, if virtual students are too frequently absent, schools would be allowed to expel them. And the third measure would order that virtual school teachers complete the same required training as traditional school teachers.

The amendments join other provisions in the bill that would require mandatory orientations for virtual school students and parents before students enroll; allow the state board to create regulations for virtual schools within school districts; and prohibit school districts from being statewide charter school authorizers. Some of the proposals grew out of recommendations from the Indiana State Board of Education, which spent months reviewing the schools as the result of a call-to-action from Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Rep. Vernon Smith, a Democrat from Gary who authored the amendments, said he hopes the bill will boost oversight of the troubled schools, which have low test scores and graduation rates and frequently see students leave after less than a year.

Rep. Bob Behning, the bill’s author and chairman of the House Education Committee, said the amendments are another effort to ensure online school students, who are spread across the state, are active in their education. “We’re really trying to focus on trying to make sure the kids are engaged,” Behning, R-Indianapolis, said. “The only way virtual education is going to work is if we have engaged students and engaged parents.”

Debate over these provisions was minimal. Both Behning and Smith said they were happy with the bill so far, though Smith said he’d like to see the state go further in the future to ensure virtual schools don’t get to keep state dollars for students who leave mid-year. Currently, all Indiana schools are paid based on one enrollment count date. If students come and go after that, schools do not receive more funding or have to return any to the state.

“There needs to be more than one count,” Smith said. “The money ought to follow the child. And with the technology we have today we can allocate that money on a monthly basis.”

Some of the changes the House is considering — such as the district authorizing provision — would be dramatic. But for the most part, the bill does not address some of the more serious problems facing virtual charter schools, such as limiting how fast they can grow or replicate. Nor does the bill address what would happen to the students who virtual schools would be allowed to expel.

Two other bills are still on the table and have yet to be heard in committee — one from Merrillville Democrat Sen. Eddie Melton and one from Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeff Raatz, a Republican from Centerville. Melton’s sweeping bill would create one statewide authorizer — the Indiana Charter School Board — to take responsibility for the schools, as opposed to numerous smaller authorizers. It would also set a strict enrollment cap for virtual charter schools of no more than 1,200 students per year.

Raatz’s bill would put limits on how quickly a virtual school could grow, prevent a chronically failing virtual charter school from taking new students, and reduce a financial incentive for authorizers to oversee big virtual charter schools. Raatz’s bill could also potentially take steps toward having the state board of education intervene at the troubled Indiana Virtual School by taking away the authority of its oversight agency, Daleville schools. Education leaders have raised concerns about the small district’s ability to oversee a statewide virtual charter school.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School revealed widespread low performance and questionable business and spending practices, setting off a statewide conversation about how the schools are serving students and what regulations need to be added. But Indiana Republicans have been hesitant to acknowledge or act on the issue. Last year, three bills that would have added more oversight for virtual charter schools were introduced, but none were heard in committees.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, a Democrat from Indianapolis who proposed two amendments to the bill that were rejected by the majority of lawmakers Thursday, had harsh words for his colleagues who would continue to support the schools. Historically, virtual charter schools have received Ds and Fs from the state. DeLaney’s amendments would have required that virtual schools only enroll students with disabilities who have special education plans or that the state study the aforementioned enrollment rules.

“If you really believe in choice, you ought to believe in good charter schools and enforce the requirement that they be good,” DeLaney said. “You are killing the choice movement, ultimately, by keeping this cancer on your slogan.”

A new proposal aims to ratchet up oversight of Indiana’s most troubled virtual charter schools

2019-01-16T23:02:28+00:00

Indiana lawmakers quietly took an initial step Wednesday that could eventually lead to the closures of the state’s most troubled virtual charter schools, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

A provision to stop school districts from overseeing statewide virtual charter schools was tucked into a widely supported proposal to require students and their families to take an annual orientation before they can enroll in an online school. The bill passed the House Education Committee by an 8-0 vote and will be sent to the full House for consideration.

The move would prevent Daleville Community Schools, the oversight agency for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, from renewing those charters. Indiana Virtual School’s charter agreement runs through the 2020 school year. Daleville has not publicly posted the charter for Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which opened in 2017, so it is unclear when it expires.

If the two virtual charter schools were to remain open after their charters expire, the bill would require them to seek what education leaders hope would be a stronger oversight agency — a statewide charter authority such as the Indiana Charter School Board or Ball State University.

Bill author Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said he was “trying to do more than engagement, and improve the performance of our virtual charter schools.” He has previously told Chalkbeat that he does not think school districts should oversee large, statewide virtual charter schools.

Daleville schools superintendent Paul Garrison attended the committee hearing and testified in favor of the orientation requirement — his suggestion to make the onboarding process an annual requirement was added to the proposal — but he did not address the authorizing provision. Chalkbeat was unable to reach Garrison or Indiana Virtual School Superintendent Percy Clark for further comment.

Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy have in recent years had some of the lowest graduation rates in the state. In 2018, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy graduated just 2 percent of its 1,009 seniors, and it also failed to test enough of its students to receive an A-F letter grade from the state, Chalkbeat found.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation showed that as Indiana Virtual School ballooned in size and posted dismal academic results, it had business ties that stood to financially benefit its founder.

Despite receiving $1 million in fees last year to oversee Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, education officials have raised concerns that Daleville is not holding the schools accountable.

“They’ve done a terrible job, and it would be my strong preference that they not be protected any further for their atrocious performance,” Indiana State Board of Education member Gordon Hendry has said.

Chalkbeat’s investigations and the continual low performance of virtual charter schools prompted the state board to recommend stricter regulations, including strengthening the oversight of online schools and improving engagement efforts with students.

The authorizing provision also seeks to stop other school districts from following in Daleville’s footsteps, closing what some see as a loophole in Indiana law. School districts are only allowed to authorize charter schools within their boundaries, but they are not expressly prohibited from overseeing virtual charter schools.

Last summer, a Chalkbeat investigation examined an agricultural school that sought to open as a full-time virtual charter school overseen by the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson school district. But state officials warned the district that they believed it did not have the authority to oversee a statewide virtual charter school, and Indiana Agriculture and Technology School backed off its plans, opening instead as a blended school offering half of its instruction online and half in-person.

Here’s how Indiana lawmakers propose — again — to rein in virtual charter schools

2019-01-15T17:53:33+00:00

Indiana lawmakers are proposing new bills to address what they view as shortcomings of virtual charter schools, a year after three attempts to create restrictions went nowhere.

The bills, filed in recent days, tackle several aspects of virtual schools that have drawn criticism: how new students are onboarded, who oversees the schools, and how quickly they are growing.

The proposals stem from recommendations made by the Indiana State Board of Education’s virtual school review committee, which has met over the past year to come up with solutions to some of the schools’ most pressing problems, including low test scores and graduation rates, a lack of student and parent participation, and the need to improve their oversight.

The bills vary widely in their ramifications for virtual schools and will face different amounts of resistance from virtual school leaders. A bill authored by Rep. Bob Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee, would add a requirement that schools and policymakers alike widely agree on: mandatory orientations for virtual school students and parents before students enroll so they understand how virtual education works and what is expected of them.

Behning said student and parent engagement is essential at the schools, which enroll students from across the state who work remotely. About 13,000 students attend virtual charter schools in Indiana.

“If you don’t have an engaged adult, there’s no way you’re going to have any success,” he said. “If a kid doesn’t turn on a computer, there’s no way we can have online instruction.”

Virtual school leaders said in state board of education committee hearings last year that they supported a move to require orientations for students and parents.

“We’re convenient for a lot of families that need a flexible learning environment, but we can’t just be a place where a kid lands because he or she doesn’t want to go to a physical classroom or because they think they just hide and do nothing,” Melissa Brown, head of schools for Indiana Connections Academy, told Chalkbeat in July.

Schools can — and many do — already hold orientations for new students and parents. Behning’s bill would make them a condition of enrollment. If students don’t complete them, the virtual charter schools can keep them from enrolling. A similar requirement in the bill for virtual schools within school districts does not have the same consequence.

The bill would also allow the state board to create regulations for virtual schools within school districts, including ones on orientations, staff training, student engagement and counseling, and tracking attendance. Behning said he also intends to amend the bill to include provisions that would no longer allow school districts to be statewide charter school authorizers — a loophole in the state’s current law. It was an oversight that the measure was not included in the initial bill, he said.

A proposal by Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville, the new Senate education committee chairman, would put limits on how quickly a virtual school could grow, prevent a chronically failing virtual charter school from taking new students, and reduce a financial incentive for authorizers to oversee big virtual charter schools.

Raatz’s bill could also potentially take steps toward having the state board of education intervene at the troubled Indiana Virtual School by taking away the authority of its oversight agency, Daleville schools. Education leaders have raised concerns about the small district’s ability to oversee a statewide virtual charter school.

Sen. Eddie Melton, a Democrat from Merrillville, authored a bill that would make dramatic changes to how the schools are run and overseen — and could face a tough road to passage. The bill would create one statewide authorizer — the Indiana Charter School Board — to take responsibility for the schools, as opposed to numerous smaller authorizers. As a statewide authorizer, the state charter board would be expected to monitor each school and ensure it is meeting the goals in its charter agreement.

It’s unlikely this provision will gain favor with Republicans, and Melton told Chalkbeat that he might consider getting rid of it. The suggestion of a single virtual charter school authorizer was introduced by the state board committee in an early draft of its legislative recommendations, but the full board voted to nix the idea after some board members said they were concerned it would limit school choice.

Behning, too, has said he doesn’t support a single authorizer, though he said he wouldn’t rule out hearing the bill if it made it to his committee.

In a December state board meeting, Percy Clark, superintendent of Indiana Virtual School said a single authorizer would discourage innovation.

“The recommendation to make the authorizer uniform contradicts the mission of the charter movement, defeating any possibility of innovation and uniqueness,” Clark said. “This recommendation takes our state down the path of blandness, a boring future, a one-size fits all mentality.”

Melton’s bill would also set a strict enrollment cap for virtual charter schools of no more than 1,200 students per year. Most of the state’s five full-time virtual charter schools enroll between 2,000 and 5,000 students each. Melton’s is the only bill that places more financial reporting requirements on the schools, asking them to report to the state their projected costs-per-student each year. If the state board determines their costs are lower than what they receive from the state, they can reduce the schools’ funding accordingly.

Now, the schools receive 90 percent of the state funding that traditional schools receive, and virtual school critics have said that might still be too high given that the school’s have fewer overhead costs. Although Senate Republicans have in the past moved to keep virtual school funding at 90 percent, House Republicans have requested upping it to 100 percent, arguing that all students should be funded at the same level regardless of school type.

Raatz’s bill suggests reducing funding to 90 percent for schools where students receive 15 percent or more of their instruction online.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School revealed widespread low performance and questionable business and spending practices, setting off a statewide conversation about how the schools are serving students and what regulations need to be added. But Indiana Republicans were hesitant to acknowledge or act on the issue. Last year, three bills that would have added more oversight for virtual charter schools were introduced, but none were heard in committees.

In December, Gov. Eric Holcomb called for state education leaders to review the schools, echoing earlier statements encouraging Indiana to prioritize improving them.

Melton said in a press conference last week that virtual charter schools in the state “are suffering” and are “not participating or giving back” as the state originally might have planned. He went as far as suggesting that the money spent on virtual charter schools might be better spent on teacher pay raises, a hot topic during this year’s legislative session.

Indiana online schools have success lobbying lawmakers despite dismal academics

2019-01-04T21:12:42+00:00

In Indiana’s education lobbying landscape, online schools seem to have carved out a small — but powerful — niche.

Over the past decade, the major operators of virtual charter schools in Indiana have all either donated to political campaigns, lobbied, or both, spending thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, in the process.

And so far, it appears it might be having an impact. In the nearly 10 years since virtual schools began, Indiana’s Republican-dominated legislature has passed policies favoring school choice in general and charter schools, including virtual charters. Laws that expanded virtual schools and offered them more flexibility have found favor, while ones that would restrict them have mostly fallen flat.

This political support comes despite the schools’ track records of low test scores, high turnover, and, in the case of some, single-digit graduation rates.

“There are many, many bills, but the bills that are restrictive in nature, they don’t get out of committee,” Gary Miron, a researcher from Western Michigan University who has studied virtual schools for the left-leaning National Education Policy Center, said of legislation nationwide. “If they do, they never pass, and that’s because of the lobbying and special interests.”

The story is similar nationally, as laws that would add oversight for virtual schools have been unsuccessful, said Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University in California. A 2017 report from the National Education Policy Center said that of the more than 200 virtual school bills proposed in more than half of state legislatures in 2015 and 2016, fewer than 40 percent became law.

“I can’t think of a single one where the regulation has gotten more restrictive,” Barbour said. “Historically, it goes the way in favor of the cyber charter companies.”

It is not uncommon or illegal for charter schools, school districts, and other education groups — many of which far outspend virtual charter schools — to lobby lawmakers. But the practice raises questions about whether the donations are having undue influence or are impacting politicians’ decisions.

Indiana lawmakers have passed on several chances to rein in fast-growing virtual charter schools, including three bills that were never heard last year. This legislative session could be different — as lawmakers and policymakers are expected to consider a series of recommendations for stricter rules made by the state board of education. Through charter schools and online programs, nearly 19,000 Indiana students learn online for most of the time.

K12 Inc., which operates one full-time virtual charter school and several online schools or programs within districts, has given at least $90,000 to Indiana candidates races since 2006, according to the state campaign contribution database. Connections, which operates two full-time virtual charter schools and is now owned by Pearson Education, has given about $20,000. The for-profit companies, which are the largest online learning providers in the country, have also spent tens of thousands of dollars each year for the last decade lobbying lawmakers, according to data from the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission.

Now that Connections is housed under Pearson, it no longer makes campaign contributions per Pearson’s corporate policy, a company official said, though the company continues to spend money on lobbying.

Jeff Kwitowksi, senior vice president of public affairs for K12 Inc., said lobbying and engaging with lawmakers ensures the company and the schools it operates understand state law and are following it. And because online learning is “relatively new,” he said, lobbying gives K12 a chance to help lawmakers learn how virtual schools work. He pointed to bills that have created flexibility in how states measure attendance or funding as examples of how other states have needed to re-examine laws with online education in mind.

“Those are policies that need to be addressed in order for digital learning to be allowed to be offered,” Kwitowski said. “Our goal is to advocate for good policy and practice for online and blended schools … That’s just like every other organization that engages in lobbying.”

Leaders from Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, have also recently started lobbying lawmakers in Indiana through their own lobbyists and those from firms it pays to lobby on the schools’ behalf. Since 2016, about $90,000 has been spent on lobbying by the schools and on their behalf, records show.

A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School revealed widespread low performance and questionable business and spending practices. The schools have also posted some of the lowest graduation rates in the state over the past couple years. In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy said they have only lobbied lawmakers to get more flexibility for people in the military to take online courses and earn a diploma.

Indeed, political spending on education in Indiana is a big business for many organizations besides virtual charters. State records show Indianapolis Public Schools, as well as other Marion County districts, have registered lobbyists and spent money on lobbying in recent years, as have unions, advocacy groups, and individuals. The Indiana State Teachers Association, through its political action committee, has spent millions contributing to campaigns and lobbying. Other groups that advocate for school choice, such as the PAC for the Institute for Quality Education, spend hundreds of thousands.

And virtual charters have lobbied for some restrictions. A 2017 provision pushed by online school supporters allows schools to expel students who fail to regularly participate in class.

Rob Kremer, director of government relations for Pearson, said that law passing “was not a small thing” and keeps the schools from continuing to collect state dollars for students who aren’t learning. Critics, however, have said it’s evidence for how charter schools can choose their students, which they say traditional public schools don’t have the same freedom to do.

“That was the result of several years of talking to legislators and explaining why it was needed and convincing enough to support it,” Kremer said.

Rep. Bob Behning, the House Education chairman, was the bill’s author, and has authored or been a key player in most of the state’s virtual school legislation. Behning has received $5,500 in campaign contributions from K12 Inc. during campaigns from 2006 to 2018, and $1,000 from Connections Academy in 2008, according to state data.

Behning said campaign contributions and lobbying efforts don’t play much of a part in how he legislates, even though he has spoken with lobbyists from virtual schools, as well as parents and school officials over the years.

“I can’t say campaign dollars have any impact as to how I’ve looked at (virtual schools),” Behning said. “I’ve always tried to focus on school reform, trying to do what’s best for kids and (have been) kind of agnostic to the system.”

One area were there hasn’t been much legislative movement is virtual charter schools’ share of state funding. Although it has increased over the past decade, it has held constant at 90 percent of what traditional schools receive despite proposals from some lawmakers and support from school leaders.

Kwitowski and Kremer said the money their companies spend on lobbying or other political activity is all from their companies’ separate budgets, not from any of the public dollars schools receive from the state. Kremer said he thinks it’s a shame that lobbying is commonly viewed as something that is “dirty” or “influence peddling.”

“Any proposed legislation that affects the operation in any way of a K-12 school is something we need to know about,” Kremer said. “We’re not in that mix of whatever access or influence a political contribution might win you. To the extent we’re effective with our advocacy efforts, it’s because of the strength of the policy ideas that we bring.”

Another wrinkle in the conversation is that Indiana Virtual School was listed as having donated $2,500 to six political candidates between 2016 and 2018. This could pose a problem because Indiana Virtual School is technically another name for the tax-exempt nonprofit Indiana Virtual Education Foundation that operates the school, and it would violate IRS rules if the school donated to political campaigns. (For-profit companies such as K12 Inc. and Connections are permitted to donate to campaigns.)

In looking at the actual donation checks, some lawmakers and political party spokespeople told Chalkbeat the contributions actually came from Indiana Virtual School’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, or A Simple Reminder, a company owned by Stoughton’s son. It appears they were all accidentally recorded as being from IVS.

On one of the contribution checks, for example, from A Simple Reminder, “Indiana Virtual School” was written as a note off to the side. All of the contributions with Indiana Virtual School listed as the contributor also were reported using the school’s current address or addresses associated with Stoughton.

The school said the state records reflected an “innocent error,” and the school is working with the campaigns to correct the reports, the spokesman said an email.

“Neither Indiana Virtual School Foundation, Indiana Virtual School or Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy made any political contributions to political campaigns between 2016-2018, per a signed affidavit by the schools’ accountant,” the statement said.

Looking ahead to the coming legislative session, virtual charter school leaders say they are monitoring how state lawmakers will make proposals regarding several State Board of Education measures targeting virtual schools, including limits to growth and stricter rules for who can oversee virtual schools.

Kremer said some of the recommendations, such as mandatory student and parent orientation prior to enrollment, are priorities for his company’s legislative work this year.

Kwitowski said issues like how student mobility — which virtual school leaders say is a common challenge for them — affects how states measure school performance is at the top of the list for K12 Inc. Accountability models like Indiana’s A-F grades, he said, were “written and designed for traditional schools.”

“It’s moving beyond just sort of the choice debate into how to properly assess these schools and the students in this unique learning environment,” Kwitowski said. “These are highly mobile schools … a lot of policymakers are receiving that well and understanding that for these types of schools, we may need to look differently at that.”

This Indiana virtual charter school graduated just 2 percent of its students in 2018

2019-01-02T23:02:33+00:00

One of the state’s largest and most controversial virtual charter schools graduated a smaller percentage of students than nearly every other public school in the state in 2018, new state data shows.

About 2 percent of Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s 1,009 seniors graduated, putting the school’s graduation rate below just two others — a school that caters to students with significant intellectual and behavioral disabilities and an adult high school that enrolls only a couple dozen students each and graduated no students last year. Across the state, the vast majority of schools graduate at least three-quarters of their senior students.

The graduation data, released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Education, comes as Indiana education officials are considering ways to curb growth and add oversight for online charter schools, which tend to receive low grades from the state and have few students pass state tests.

Leaders from Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy have said previously that the school was designed to serve students who are far behind their peers academically. The school did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the graduation data.

Graduation rate data is one of the few state metrics available for measuring the performance of students at Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which opened in 2017. The school, which more than doubled in size to 6,232 students since last fall, did not receive a grade from the state or the federal government in 2018 because too few students took state exams. The students who were tested at IVPA posted poor results: 5.7 percent passed both state English and math exams.

Every online school in Indiana graduated fewer students than the state as a whole, though some, such as Indiana Connections Academy and Hoosier Academy Virtual, which is now closed, graduated nearly twice as many as their online peers. Generally, virtual schools have seen graduation rates increase over the past couple years.

At Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s sister school, Indiana Virtual School, about 24 percent of seniors graduated in 2018, compared to 6.5 percent in 2017 and 5.7 percent in 2016. But it appears that some of that change could be attributed to IVPA opening. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy started with about 3,000 students in 2017, nearly all of whom came from Indiana Virtual School. Although Indiana Virtual School graduated more students in 2018 than in 2017, its graduating class shrunk by nearly two-thirds — from 985 to 354.

Indiana Virtual School received its third F grade in a row from the state last fall. With their combined enrollment numbers, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy could together bring in upward of $35 million from the state for this school year. A 2017 Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School revealed widespread low performance and questionable business and spending practices.

The state does not release data for schools with fewer than 10 students in the graduating class to comply with federal privacy laws.

Lawmakers are expected to consider recommendations for improving virtual schools during this year’s legislative session, which begins on Thursday.

School	2018 graduation rate	2017 graduation rate
Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy	2.18%	—
Insight School of Indiana	22.44%	17.21%
Indiana Virtual School	24.01%	6.50%
Hoosier Academy Virtual (now closed)	44.61%	23.32%
Indiana Connections Academy	49.79%	49.48%

Why Indiana education officials want to stop this school district from overseeing online schools

2018-12-21T21:13:27+00:00

One of the most dramatic proposals to come out of a months-long state review of Indiana’s online charter schools would strip one school district of its ability to oversee two schools.

The Daleville public school district, which oversees Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, would be out of the charter school authorizing business if a sweeping set of policy proposals recently approved by the Indiana State Board of Education moves forward.

While most of the proposals would apply to any virtual charter school in the state, some were clearly written with Daleville and its schools — which are among the lowest performing — in mind. Gordon Hendry, the state board of education member whose committee drafted the recommendations, said that was no accident — the small rural district, he said, has no business overseeing schools.

“They’ve done a terrible job, and it would be my strong preference that they not be protected any further for their atrocious performance,” Hendry said.

One of the recommendations would clarify state law so public school districts would no longer be able to oversee virtual charter schools. Instead, only statewide authorizers, such as universities and the Indiana Charter School Board, would be permitted to monitor online schools.

Previously, the law didn’t explicitly allow or prohibit local districts from overseeing statewide virtual schools, even though doing so would mean they could potentially take responsibility for thousands of students far outside their physical boundaries. That raised concerns for some researchers and charter school advocates who say districts, especially small ones, might not have the capacity to oversee schools that could serve thousands of students across the state.

Daleville, which has 961 students in its traditional schools, is the only public district in Indiana that authorizes full-time virtual charter schools. As an authorizer of two schools with more than 6,000 students, Daleville also received $1 million in state funds last year for doing so. The compensation is provided to charter school authorizers under Indiana law in exchange for ensuring the schools adhere to rules and perform well academically — but some state education leaders and charter school advocates balked at the size of the fee Daleville collected.

Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative-leaning Fordham Foundation, said he worried district authorizers could be incentivized to keep low-performing schools open.

“It’s sort of obvious on its face that you’ve got some perverse incentives for an authorizer like that to allow the school to expand and continue operating because of the massive amount of revenue that it can generate,” Petrilli said. He added that there are “real questions about whether that kind of authorizer is going to have the capacity as well as the will to hold a school like that accountable.”

Daleville officials did not return requests for comment, but at the state board’s most recent meeting, where the proposals were approved, IVS and IVPA Superintendent Percy Clark opposed the move.

“I reject the urgency of tampering with the authorizer model,” Clark said, calling most of the recommendations a “band-aid approach that ignore the root cause of virtual schools’ challenges.”

All of the state board of education members supported the provision, but another proposal that would have required a single authorizer for all of Indiana’s online charter schools did not win the board’s approval.

Virtual school leaders say their poor performance occurs because their students are more likely to switch schools frequently and be behind their peers academically, as well as to face other challenges to learning like social-emotional issues or bullying. But traditional public school advocates say their students, too, deal with issues such as trauma, bullying, and frequent school transfers that can disrupt learning.

Without lawmakers changing the law, Hendry said the state board would be very limited to act on its own to change authorizer policy. But he said he thought there was plenty of momentum heading into the legislative session in January, sentiments Gov. Eric Holcomb echoed last week. That would be a deviation from years past, when lawmakers failed to consider several bills that proposed to regulate online charter school.

“Given the seriousness of these issues, it would be hard for me to think that the legislature would take a pass on enacting virtual charter school legislation in 2019,” Hendry said.

Rep. Bob Behning, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee, said he couldn’t say whether Daleville has fulfilled its responsibilities as a virtual charter school authorizer, but he did say that he thought state law needed to change so that districts cannot oversee schools in the future.

“I’ve been very clear to them, when your contract is up, you will not be able to reauthorize,” Behning said. “If an authorizer wants to keep that school open, it will have to go to a statewide authorizer.”

Daleville renewed its five-year charter contract with Indiana Virtual School in 2015. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy opened in 2017 with Daleville as its authorizer, but it’s unclear when its contract officially began or how long it extends. Multiple requests to Daleville for the school’s charter and other documents were not returned.

For Indiana Virtual School, the subject of a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation, and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, the suggested policy changes wouldn’t just alter how the schools report information or give orientation to students — they would fundamentally change how the schools run and are monitored.

Aside from the authorizing changes, the recommendations would also mandate specific teacher-student ratios for virtual schools, which are lower than recent ratios the schools have reported, and allow the state board to halt enrollment at a virtual school if it goes four years with failing grades.

When it comes to the schools being allowed to stay open, officials were less resolute. Indiana Virtual School received its third F grade from the state this year. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy did not receive a grade for 2018 because too few students took state tests, but of the students who did test, a handful passed both English and math exams.

Hendry said that while the schools’ academic performance “seriously concerned” him, it wasn’t for him to say whether the school should stay open or close — that’s for the full board to decide, if and when it should need to. Typically, the state board doesn’t intervene in low-performing schools until they have received four consecutive F grades.

“It would come to us like the others have,” Hendry said. “But that’s why we’re asking for more authority.”

Holcomb, too, has said that schools with such low performance should not be allowed to remain open, comments he reiterated last week.

“We don’t want bad apples to spoil the bunch,” Holcomb told Chalkbeat. “This is a viable option for many … but they have to be able to perform and not linger if they’re not performing.”

Additionally, much of the research on how well virtual schools educate students — some from from well-respected institutions such Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes — show students learn far less at virtual schools than their peers elsewhere.

Other reviews led by virtual learning companies show more favorable results, partially, the companies say, because their data specifically takes into account how frequently virtual school students move between schools. But the results of these studies have been more controversial.

Going into next year, Hendry said he didn’t yet know which lawmakers might be filing bills on the recommendations. Behning said he planned to file a bill on a proposal to require orientations for virtual school students before they enroll.

Indiana finally knows how many thousands of students learn virtually in public school districts

2018-12-19T20:46:54+00:00

After enrollment at an online-only program in a small rural district shot up by hundreds of students last year — throwing off school funding estimates in the process — lawmakers were left with a big question: How many of these district-based programs are out there?

For the first time, a report from the state Department of Education has the answer: 28 programs serving more than 5,000 students.

“It’s certainly growing,” said Gordon Hendry, the state board of education member who chaired the state’s committee on virtual schools. “It just underscores the need for us to be on top of this issue.”

The growth in online education in Indiana has been steep, according to the first-of-its-kind report. In 2016-17, about 8,700 students spent more than half their time learning online, either in virtual charter schools or online-only programs in other public schools. This year, 18,690 do. The vast majority of those students are split between the state’s five full-time virtual charter schools, but the number being educated virtually in traditional public school districts has grown most quickly — more than tripling to 5,040 students this year.

The programs present a unique challenge to state leaders because they are nearly impossible to track through existing state data. And because the programs are not always separate schools, they don’t report their own test scores, enrollment, or receive state grades — meaning the public can’t judge their performance. In an effort to learn more, lawmakers passed a law last year that requires the state Department of Education to survey districts each year about the number of online-only programs.

Read: After flying under the radar, school districts’ online programs attract attention — and scrutiny

There’s still a caveat — the department says in the report that all information is self-reported, and in most cases is “not able to be verified or corroborated.” But the report gets the state closer to understanding how virtual education is spreading inside traditional public school districts. Virtual charter schools and charter schools with virtual programs serving some students are also included in the report.

“The use of virtual courses is widespread across schools in Indiana,” the report said. “It is possible there were programs which went unreported as well.”

The structures and goals of these programs vary widely. Some exist to serve just a handful of students who might need homebound services because of medical issues or evening classes as they balance jobs. In others, students learn exclusively online and might never physically attend their school. The curriculum, too, varies. Some districts use their own curriculum materials delivered through an online platform, while others partner with big national online learning providers, such as K12 Inc., Edgenuity, Apex, and Pearson.

The Frankton-Lapel school district, a 3,100-student district near Anderson, said its program was designed to hold onto students who might otherwise attend a virtual charter school and leave the district — which would mean the district loses funding for that student. Currently, 19 students use the online-only program.

“We have lost about 10 students to virtual schools each of the past several years,” the district told the state in the survey. “We decided to utilize our resources to meet their needs in a non-traditional setting.”

The report lacks specific information on how well most of these schools and programs educate students. Separate schools, such as virtual charter schools or ones that operate independently of brick-and-mortar schools within a district, can receive state and federal accountability grades.

But for programs that are not separate, schools typically do not — and are not required to — report test score data or graduation data for those students. That information is rolled into that of a brick-and-mortar school.

Hendry said going forward, there should be more information included in the annual report on the programs’ enrollment policies, performance, and operations.

“It’s a little bit of a mystery it seems,” he said of the programs.

Recently, the state board of education, in its recommendations to lawmakers, suggests requiring schools to break out their virtual students into separate schools for data purposes once a certain number of enrolled students is met. It’s not clear yet how many virtual students a district would have to serve before the state board’s proposed rule would kick in.

The recommendations, which nearly all board members supported, also would propose the state send less money to districts for their virtual students — making it match the 90 percent rate at which virtual charter schools are funded. Virtual charter school leaders and educators who oversee district-based programs have said they oppose the measure.

Lawmakers are expected to consider these recommendations and more during next year’s legislative session, which begins in January.

Online learning has been controversial in Indiana and across the country. Researchers have reported that most students learning in full-time virtual settings are not as academically successful as their peers in traditional schools.

Although online-only learning can be beneficial for some students who need extra flexibility, researchers say, it requires a level of support at home that oftentimes isn’t present. In Indiana, a Chalkbeat investigation revealed widespread issues at one of the state’s largest virtual charter schools in 2017, including having too few teachers and the lowest graduation rate of any public school in the state.

Holcomb: Indiana needs to make virtual charter schools a better option for students

2018-12-18T22:26:46+00:00

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said “the stars are aligning” to create stricter rules and meaningful oversight of the state’s low-performing virtual charter schools.

Holcomb said in an interview Tuesday with Chalkbeat that he expects lawmakers to act during next year’s legislative session on an array of proposals to improve virtual charter schools, which were recently approved by the state board of education.

Although he believes there’s a need for virtual schools, Holcomb said they shouldn’t be able to stay open if they fail to meet the state’s performance standards. “It’s not good enough to say ‘we’ve got an option for you’ … There’s a recognition [of that] on my part, and on the state board’s part, and on the legislative leaders’ and members’ parts.”

Following a Chalkbeat investigation last year, Holcomb called for “immediate attention and action” to address the problems with online schools, which struggle to get students to sit for state exams, receive low ratings from the state, and in some cases have raised red flags for having too few teachers.

But lawmakers were initially loathe to answer his call, declining last session to hear a handful of bills that, among other things, would have strengthened regulations for the groups that oversee charter schools, including those that monitor virtual charter schools. At the time, Holcomb said the state board could act within its own powers to make necessary changes.

A state board committee has met several times over the past year to craft regulations that aim to rein in the schools’ growth, ensure they have enough teachers, and make sure parents and students understand the ins and outs of virtual learning before enrolling. The latter policy has received praise from virtual school leaders, lawmakers, and Holcomb.

“It’s incumbent upon us to make sure that a parent understands what they are getting into,” Holcomb said. “You’ve got to have confidence that (virtual education) can work.”

It’s unclear if some of the more dramatic proposals, particularly ones that virtual schools and the companies that back some of them have opposed, will be successful. By far the most sweeping proposal the state board committee came up with was a plan to create a single statewide authorizer to oversee all online charter schools. That part of the plan saw heavy opposition from about half of board members and was ultimately taken out of the recommendations sent to lawmakers.

Some virtual schools have also been unhappy with recommendations that ask lawmakers to amend state law to prohibit school districts from overseeing statewide virtual charter schools, which is the setup for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. The schools are overseen by the small rural Daleville public school district.

Other educators say that a proposal to lower funding for students within districts who learn entirely online further limits resources that schools have to support students and hire an appropriate number of teachers.

Overall, Holcomb said he is pleased with the recommendations. As the state board continues its work and plans come into sharper focus, the governor’s staff will stay involved.

“The state board did their job, what they were asked to do, and that is to lay out these guardrails,” Holcomb said. “Here’s the action steps that have to be taken to improve the system. We didn’t have that before.”

Indiana education officials call for a crackdown on ‘too big to fail’ virtual schools

2018-12-12T19:45:53+00:00

Nearly 10 years after virtual charter schools launched in Indiana, the fast-growing sector could face its first set of meaningful regulations aimed at cracking down on some of the state’s most problematic online schools.

In a 7-1 vote Wednesday, the Indiana State Board of Education recommended that state lawmakers impose stricter rules on virtual charter school and the agencies that oversee them. The proposed rules would stop school districts from overseeing virtual schools, eliminate a fee structure that officials say disincentivizes oversight agencies from intervening in struggling schools, and limit the growth of new and chronically underperforming virtual schools.

The recommendations would most affect two virtual charter schools that have been among Indiana’s largest and lowest-performing online schools: Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which are overseen by the small Daleville school district.

The state board also suggests new requirements to improve student engagement — an issue for the schools since students work remotely — including setting minimum student-to-teacher ratios and making an orientation mandatory before students are allowed to enroll in virtual schools. And the board calls for virtual education programs in traditional public school districts to follow similar rules as virtual charter schools.

“We’ve seen a very poor return on investment of taxpayer money for virtual education,” said board member Gordon Hendry, who led the examination of virtual charter schools. “There’s little regard for student outcomes, and virtual charters perform worse than the worst of brick-and-mortar schools.”

It remains to be seen how lawmakers might act on the recommendations in the legislative session that starts in January. Even after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for action on Indiana’s failing virtual charter schools following a Chalkbeat investigation, lawmakers declined to act last year on bills aimed at improving them.

But, since then, Indiana’s virtual charter schools have attracted more attention, with their poor performance falling under the spotlight in a Congressional committee and a new virtual school making last-minute changes to its model after another Chalkbeat investigation into its oversight.

The leader of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, Percy Clark, criticized the state board’s recommendations as being contradictory. He said that because the state funds virtual charter schools at lower levels than brick-and-mortar schools, capping enrollment would prevent schools from being able to afford prescribed teacher-student ratios.

Clark also raised concerns that more rules would interfere with virtual charter schools’ ability to innovate by “forcing virtual schools to comply with traditional standards.”

Still, Hendry touted the recommendations as a critical step to setting “guardrails” for Indiana’s troubled virtual charter schools, which serve about 13,000 students and have consistently posted dismally low test scores and graduation rates.

He came down particularly hard on authorizers, the oversight agencies tasked with monitoring virtual charter schools and stepping in when schools struggle.

“I think there should be a vote of ‘no confidence,’” Hendry said, blaming authorizers for not holding virtual charter schools accountable. He said the money flowing to authorizers of virtual schools causes “a significant conflict of interest” since it’s not in the authorizers’ financial interest to close or limit the growth of schools, making them essentially “too big to fail.”

But the board balked at suggesting that a single authorizer oversee all virtual charter schools — a proposal that Hendry said came out of looking at laws in Colorado, Maine, and Oklahoma, and recommendations from national organizations such as the National Association for Charter School Authorizers and the conservative Fordham Institute.

Board member Katie Mote said that would “push too far,” raising concerns about limiting Indiana’s school choice environment.

Among the board members supporting the proposed regulations was Byron Ernest, the former head of three online schools under the Hoosier Academies network. That included Hoosier Academy Virtual School, Indiana’s first virtual charter school, which closed this year after years of failing grades.

After flying under the radar, school districts’ online programs attract attention — and scrutiny

2018-11-28T19:37:50+00:00

For years, local school districts in Indiana have run full-time, online-only programs for some of their students. There was no way to know how many students attended school virtually, and the districts collected the same amount of state funding as they would for students who sit in their physical classrooms.

All that changed last year, when the small rural school district of Union saw its enrollment triple, largely due to students joining its virtual programs — and with those new students came an expectation of millions more in state funding that officials hadn’t planned for.

Read: A tiny Indiana district is banking on virtual education to survive. But at what cost?

That grabbed state leaders’ attention, and some are recommending that districts with students in these online-only programs shouldn’t receive the same amount of money as they do for students in brick-and-mortar schools.

The new recommendations from an Indiana State Board of Education committee would reduce funding at these online programs — aligning it with funding for virtual charter schools, which receive 90 percent of the dollars that physical schools get from the state.

As debates over virtual education have ramped up in Indiana, most of the focus has been on those virtual charter schools, controversial institutions that operate outside of traditional school districts. But online programs run by public school districts have flown under the radar with relatively little regulation — until this recent growth in enrollment attracted attention.

The new proposals, slated to be ready for lawmakers by the time they reconvene early next year, come in addition to several others also under consideration for virtual charter schools, which have become a growing issue in Indiana after a Chalkbeat investigation revealed unusual spending and instruction practices at one of the state’s then-largest virtual charter schools.

Beyond funding, the committee also proposed requiring online programs to become separate virtual schools once a certain percentage of district students attend them. The idea behind this is to make clear how many students are attending full-time, and not just taking a few courses to catch up on credits. But the proposal would also ensure online school test scores aren’t being rolled into district schools, so their students’ performance can be judged separately.

The funding proposal would potentially have the most impact on districts that have, so far, received full state funding for their online students. Administrators whose districts have virtual programs or schools seemed unsurprised by the state board’s proposal but disappointed nonetheless.

“A decrease in funding would directly impact student services,” Union Superintendent Michael Huber said in an email. “That would be true for any public school facing a reduction in funding, especially one as high as 10 percent.”

“It’s sort of a death by a thousand cuts,” said Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts, whose district runs a virtual school called Achieve Virtual Education Academy. “I’m going to add it to the $4.5 million I need to cut (from the entire district) anyway … we’re just going to figure it out.”

The reason for the scaled back funding, according to more conservative spenders such as retired senator and budget architect Luke Kenley, is that online schools don’t need as much funding as schools that operate in physical buildings. But others — even virtual school critics — argue that students should receive the same level of funding no matter where they attend school.

“If I’m a taxpayer and I decide to send my kid or enroll my kid into online programming, my taxes don’t get reduced by 10 percent — why should the funding going to my kid be reduced by 10 percent?” said Michael Barbour, a researcher and professor from Touro University in California who has been critical of online schools.

The online programs give small rural districts a wider reach for recruiting new students who bring with them state funding. But some state policymakers worry that the current funding structure might offer these districts a financial incentive to expand their online programs quickly without proper staffing or support for students.

Rep. Bob Behning, House Education committee chairman, said he was puzzled that the state board had recommended capping fees for groups that oversee virtual charter schools, but hadn’t also included restrictions for what districts can charge vendors they contract with to provide online learning platforms. Typically, a district would pay an outside company 95 percent of what a student brings in from the state and keep 5 percent. That’s compared to the current 3 percent fee that charter school authorizers can collect to manage a school.

For some district-based virtual schools, a 10 percent loss would be felt, but not monumental. Decatur’s MyLearning Virtual School enrolls about 40 students from in and around the district. A funding cut could mean rethinking the district’s contract with Connections Academy, the national online provider that the school uses for its platform and curriculum, but the school itself isn’t bringing in very much money from the state to begin with.

“This is not a primary piece of our instruction as a school district,” said Decatur Township Superintendent Matt Prusiecki. “This is another tool in our toolbox in supporting students when they come to us.”

Achieve enrolls about 300 students, and a 10 percent funding cut would mean the district could lose about $180,000. But it’s a slightly different story for Union’s Indiana Digital Learning Schools, which could stand to lose nearly $2 million. Last spring, lawmakers said online school growth in the Union school district, located about 70 miles northeast of Indianapolis, could be contributing to a higher than expected enrollment in public schools, leading to a state funding shortfall. The district enrolled about 250 students a couple of years ago, but with its three online schools it is now more than 13 times that size, and qualifies for tens of millions of extra dollars from the state.

Indiana Digital Learning School director Liz Sliger wasn’t specific about what the school would have to consider cutting should the funding decrease go into effect, but she did caution policymakers about the consequences of such a move — particularly for schools that have been criticized for not hiring enough teachers, generally the largest part of a school’s budget.

“When we talk about student-teacher ratio in a broad generality, some of the things are forgotten about,” Sliger said. “You do have to work very hard to make sure you aren’t just ensuring you have a healthy student-teacher ratio, but you’re also offering a full-tiered support system for academics and social-emotional health.”

It’s not clear how lawmakers might handle the recommendation to cut district-based virtual funding. The Senate has been opposed in years past to funding virtual schools at the same level as traditional ones, so this proposal could gain ground there. Sen. Ryan Mishler, Senate Appropriations chairman, declined requests for an interview.

But House Republicans have lobbied for years to fund virtual schools as much as physical schools. However, regardless of the funding level, online programs should be treated the same as virtual charter schools, Behning said.

“If we go to 90 percent of virtual charters, it does not make sense that we would not have (district-based) virtuals in sync with virtual charters,” he said.

The recommendation that online schools split from district schools once they enroll a certain number of students is designed to show the public how online students are performing. Wayne’s Achieve Academy, which is a separate school, received a D from the state and an F under federal rules this year. Union’s online schools were not separated from the brick-and-mortar schools in time to receive grades for 2018, but its elementary school and combined junior-senior high school received Fs as their state and federal grades this year. Before the growth of online programs, they earned a C and D respectively in 2017, and a D and B respectively in 2016.

Barbour said this kind of transparency is important to understanding how online schools actually serve students — keeping the schools’ data together can mask problems.

“Having some ability to … at least report on how these programs are doing, instead of hiding their performance, I think is a very useful thing,” Barbour said. “I think districts have been getting away with that for quite some time.”

This proposal is in-line with laws that have already seen support. A law passed last year requires district-based virtual education programs to report to the state their enrollment, total district enrollment, what grades the virtual students are in, where they live, and how much of their day is spent in a virtual learning program. Indiana Department of Education officials say the report should be finalized in January.

School leaders, too, said they were not opposed to more reporting or transparency requirements.

“We feel like we are already trying to meet those bars — those are our goals too, so it’s whatever the legislature decides,” Sliger said. “We’re just going to trust them and, either way, we are going to serve the students to the best of our ability.”

Hardly any kids passed ISTEP at one of Indiana’s largest schools. Here’s why it’s not getting an F

2018-11-16T22:22:50+00:00

Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is one of the state’s largest and fastest-growing schools. But because too few of its students took the state exams — and those who did weren’t enrolled long enough — there is no clear picture of how well the school is educating them.

The virtual charter school, which opened in 2017, more than doubled in size to 6,232 students since last fall, in part because state data shows thousands of students have transferred from its troubled sister school, Indiana Virtual School. In 2017, almost 3,000 students from Indiana Virtual School transferred to IVPA, and in 2018, more than 1,700 students did.

But despite Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s rapid growth, the school is bypassing a key accountability measure that Indiana thinks is important for transparency: A-F grades, which were approved by the Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Education department officials said the school did not get a grade, despite its high enrollment last year, because it did not test enough students who had been enrolled long enough to have one calculated. State grades are based primarily on student test scores, and virtual schools are known to struggle to get their remote students to sit for exams.

State test participation rate data shows IVPA tested about 19 percent of its 346 10th-graders in 2018 — about 65 students. To use test scores to calculate a school grade, the state requires that at least 40 test-takers must have attended the school for at least 162 days, a majority of the school year. But state officials said that while the school enrolled 48 10th-graders who met the attendance threshold during the testing period, only three of those students took the exams.

Federal requirements say schools must test at least 95 percent of students, and school grades can be affected if a school falls below that percentage. But there is currently no consequence for a school that doesn’t test enough students to get a letter grade.

The students who were tested at IVPA posted poor results: 5.7 percent passed both state English and math exams.

Leaders from Indiana Virtual School and IVPA did not respond to requests for comment on A-F grades or testing participation, but the schools’ superintendent Percy Clark said in an emailed statement that students from varying education backgrounds select IVPA, and that the school was designed to serve students who are far behind their peers academically.

“Our students CHOOSE to come to Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy from many different backgrounds, and we accept everyone regardless of where they are on their academic journey,” Clark said.

Virtual charter school critics say IVPA’s lack of a letter grade is an example of how the schools are able to avoid scrutiny.

“It’s absolutely indefensible,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, an organization that advocates for charter schools but has been a vocal critic of virtual charter schools. “When it comes to charter schools, the grand bargain is that the charter school gets increased autonomy, and in exchange, there is greater accountability. It’s hard to see where the accountability is for virtual schools right now.”

In contrast to IVPA, other large virtual schools in the state tested at least 90 percent of their students, and nearly every traditional school in Indiana met the federal threshold for testing students.

Indiana Virtual School, the subject of a Chalkbeat investigation that revealed questionable educational and spending practices, tested about two-thirds of its students in 2018. Students at the school, which received its third F grade from the state this week, did marginally better than at IVPA, but performed far below state averages: 18.6 percent of elementary and middle school students passed both tests, and 4.4 percent of high-schoolers did. State law says schools are up for state board of education intervention when they reach four consecutive F grades.

Brown, who used to work in the Indianapolis mayor’s office overseeing charter schools, said this is where charter school authorizers — the entities charged with monitoring the schools’ operations, finances, and academics — need to be involved. Daleville Public Schools, a small rural district near Muncie, oversees IVS and IVPA. State education leaders have previously questioned whether school districts have the capacity and expertise to oversee statewide charter schools. District leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“If I was still an authorizer and one of our schools had less than a 20 percent rate of their students taking the ISTEP, we would be mortified, and we would be holding that school accountable with very clear measures,” Brown said. “In light of the tens of millions of dollars used to fund this school, there has to be at least a basic level of accountability, and right now, it’s hard to account for how that money is being spent because we just don’t know.”

With such high enrollment numbers, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy could together bring in upward of $35 million from the state for this school year, according to funding estimates from the Legislative Services Agency.

At the state’s other full-time virtual charter schools — including those billed as alternative schools like IVPA — state grades are rising as enrollment grows. Indiana Connections Academy is up to a D this year from an F, and Insight School of Indiana is up to a C from an F. For grades under Indiana’s federal plan, the schools received an F and D, respectively.

Indiana Connections Career Academy enrolled about 70 students last year and received no grade, but education department officials say that is because it had too few students to calculate one, despite testing more than 95 percent of them. It’s not uncommon for small schools — especially high schools that have just one tested grade — to not get a grade. This year, the school’s enrollment is up to about 300 students.

Virtual charter school accountability has become a hot issue in Indiana. Earlier this year, the state board of education convened a committee to study virtual charter schools, which have grown rapidly here in recent years. And last month, the committee released a series of recommendations, including slowing growth of new virtual charter schools to 15 percent per year — after a school hits 250 students — for their first four years.

Getting students who are located remotely to sit for state exams is a challenge for virtual schools. Melissa Brown, head of Indiana Connections Academy, said dogged work contacting and keeping up with students has made some of the difference for her school, both in students taking tests and improving on them.

“Our teachers are relentless in trying to engage with kids,” she said. “We are by no means where we want to be. We still have a lot of work to do. But 8-point growth is something that we’re celebrating today.”

Melissa Brown said the school is also offering students who come in behind grade level more ways to make up their classes and incentives for them to stay at the school. For example, she said the school has a lot of over-age eighth-graders who should be in high school. Instead of just drilling their eighth-grade classes, they also have a chance to try out high school-level work — a taste of what’s to come, Brown said. So far, it’s working.

“We’re just trying to be really creative about helping kids progress,” she said.

At Insight, school director Elizabeth Lamey said she’s excited by how the high school has been able to help students show more growth on state tests. Currently, the school, which opened in 2016, is getting grades calculated only on how much students improve on state tests from one year to the next, not their proficiency or other measures such as graduation rate.

Lamey said improving the school’s curriculum and focusing on remediation and teacher training contributed to their progress and sets them up to continue that work.

“We hope to see even more growth this year,” Lamey said. “We know that it’s a rougher road, the older students get, to remediate. It takes more time, and we are slow and steady — we keep moving forward.”

Accountability issues will continue to be important for virtual charter schools as their enrollments grow.

Indiana’s five full-time virtual charter schools enroll about 13,000 students. Although it appears that total virtual charter school enrollment in Indiana has declined since 2017-18, those figures include the closing of low-performing Hoosier Virtual Academy. The school enrolled 1,170 students when it closed in June, which was far lower than the 3,342 it was recorded as having at the beginning of that school year.

Comparing enrollment totals between fall of 2017 and fall of 2018, every virtual charter school currently open in the state saw enrollment rise, with the exception of Indiana Virtual School. Indiana Connections Academy and its sister school, Indiana Connections Career Academy, gained nearly 400 students between them. Insight is also up 45 students.

Virtual charter schools tend to have volatile enrollment patterns in part because of how easily students can enroll and withdraw — their families don’t have to move, and they can live anywhere in the state. Students moving between schools is not unique to virtual schools, but those schools do tend to see higher instances of mobility than traditional schools.

That means it can be hard to determine just how much virtual school enrollment has changed from one year to the next — enrollment numbers reported in the fall might fluctuate wildly through the rest of year.

Here’s what Betsy DeVos has to say about Indiana’s failing virtual schools

2018-10-26T20:12:45+00:00

Days after Indiana officials unveiled recommendations for addressing the state’s chronically failing but fast-growing virtual charter schools, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos — a longtime supporter of online schools — reiterated her support for families having educational options.

“I applaud Indiana for the progress that they’ve made in ensuring that families are empowered to make the right decision,” she told Chalkbeat Friday after touring exhibits at the annual convention in Indianapolis for the National FFA Organization, previously known as Future Farmers of America.

DeVos said the state is responsible for ensuring online schools are “meeting the needs of the students, the families, and the taxpayers of that state.”

When asked what she thinks about 12,000 Indiana students attending failing virtual schools, DeVos said, “We want all students to receive a quality education.”

Earlier this week, a committee of Indiana State Board of Education members recommended a package of policy changes that would overhaul how online charter schools operate in the state. The changes included adding more oversight, reducing a financial incentive for the groups that monitor virtual charter schools, limiting how quickly schools can grow their enrollment, and keeping more kids from going to the schools if they continue to post poor academic results.

Gov. Eric Holcomb urged the state board to look into such changes late last year, but Holcomb “is still reviewing the recommendations,” his spokeswoman said in an email Friday. The proposal is expected to be presented to the full board next month.

Virtual charter schools garnered national attention this month after two Democratic senators called for federal officials to launch an investigation into the recruiting practices of online schools and student participation, as well as their low student-to-teacher ratios and lack of financial transparency.

DeVos has a history of supporting online charter schools, and her former organization has close ties to major virtual school operators, including K12 Inc., which operates two virtual charter schools in Indiana. In her first week as education secretary, DeVos said, “I expect there will be more virtual schools.”

More oversight, less growth: How Indiana could turn around its failing online schools

2018-10-23T01:42:44+00:00

A state committee tasked with probing dismal results at Indiana’s virtual charter schools is recommending a sweeping package of changes, including capping enrollment at the controversial schools and creating a single statewide authorizer to oversee all of them.

A maximum student-teacher ratio for online schools and required orientations for new students were also included in the Indiana State Board of Education committee’s recommendations, which were unveiled Monday and will be sent to the full board next month and, eventually, to lawmakers in time for the legislative session that begins in January.

The committee — created following a Chalkbeat investigation that revealed widespread academic, financial, and operational issues at one of the state’s largest virtual charter schools. — heard months of testimony about the schools’ poor academic performance and what some criticize as poor oversight.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Its recommendations are significant because Indiana lawmakers have been slow to take any decisive action about virtual charter schools, which receive millions of dollars in state funding and have been expanding quickly in recent years. Some school leaders have also asked for more leniency, not less, in terms of how schools are measured. Indiana has six virtual charter schools, with three opening in the past year alone, which serve almost 12,000 students. But their academic performance raises questions — every online school graded last year received F ratings.

Gordon Hendry, the state board member who chairs the virtual school committee, said it’s about time the state stepped in and ensured tax dollars are being spent wisely.

“Indiana has been one of the best, if not the best, in the nation for its strong charter school laws, but we have done precious little on virtual charter laws,” Hendry said at the committee’s meeting. “By bringing some recommendations to the table, we can start a statewide discussion as to how do we turn this failed system around.”

Read: The broken promise of Indiana’s online schools

Republican Rep. Bob Behning, Indiana House Education Committee chairman, said he would support required orientation and more regulation of authorizers in general, but he wanted more details to fine-tune any possible changes.

Leaders from K12 Inc., the nation’s largest online education provider that operates two schools in Indiana, also supported the proposed changes to oversight and onboarding students, but they said they still have questions about policy changes that would curb enrollment or cap student-teacher ratios.

“We hope this would be part of a discussion and it would not be one-size-fits-all,” said Mary Gifford, K12 Inc.’s senior vice president of academic policy and external relations.

Most of the changes would require new laws and regulations or changes to existing laws, and it’s unclear how much support they will receive from lawmakers. The General Assembly’s Republican leadership has not supported making large-scale changes to virtual charter school oversight or implement consequences for poor performance, but Gov. Eric Holcomb, also a Republican, has called for “immediate attention and action.”

Here is a look at some of the recommendations:

Capping enrollment and setting student-teacher ratios

The most dramatic set of recommendations revolves around ensuring virtual charter schools don’t grow rapidly — bringing in more state funding — without showing results.

“This is something that we’ve seen as being a significant problem,” Hendry said. “Many of these schools have ramped up enrollment so fast their staffing has not kept pace.”

Since the schools first opened in Indiana in 2010, there has been no limit on their enrollment. But under the recommendations, new schools couldn’t enroll more than 500 students in their first year.

Once a school hits 250 students, the committee suggested limiting growth to 15 percent each year. If a school could show positive academic results, it could request a waiver of these rules.

It’s a significant change, but it doesn’t account for the student turnover at most virtual schools. It also isn’t clear how it would affect existing schools that are already large and fast-growing — some of which enroll more than 4,000 students, effectively making them among the largest schools in the entire state.

Perhaps most severely, the committee wants to cut off new student enrollment entirely if a school receives an F for four consecutive years. It could not accept new students until it receives at least a C grade from the state. So far, of all the full-time virtual charter schools that have been graded by the state, Connections Academy and Indiana Virtual School have received two F grades; Insight School has received one. Grades for 2018 are expected mid-November.

The committee also recommends the state set a maximum student-to-teacher ratio of 50-to-1 for virtual charter schools serving grades kindergarten through six, and 100-to-1 for schools serving grades seven through 12.

“The ideal would be fewer,” said Cari Whicker, a state board member and educator. “But at least it sets a bar.”

Currently, on average, virtual charter schools have one teacher for every 45 students, compared to one teacher for every 16 students in traditional public schools, according to the National Education Policy Center, which studies virtual education. But some schools far exceed the proposed maximum, such as Indiana Virtual School, which had a ratio of 123-to-1 according to an annual state data report from 2017, though the number has fluctuated and was as high as 222-to-1 in May of that year.

Behning said he needed more details before he could get behind a maximum student-teacher ratio, especially in high schools, where teachers might only have class sizes of about 25, but teach six classes in a day, making them responsible for 150 students — the model at many traditional high schools. Whether the ratio cap deals with class size or total students makes a difference, he said.

Ramping up oversight

The policy changes also aim to add more oversight for online charter schools and the overseers themselves, a frequent complaint of virtual charter critics. Currently, charter schools can be overseen by a university, school district, mayor’s office, or the state charter school board, but there has been confusion around virtual schools and who has the power to ensure they are following the promises set in their charters.

The committee recommends changing state law to create just one entity to authorize virtual schools and phase out current authorizers. And that single authorizer would only be allowed to initially collect up to 1.25 percent of the schools’ state tuition dollars as a oversight fee, a reduction from the current law that allows up to 3 percent. There would, however, be a waiver available so that if the authorizer could prove it needed more money to pay for services to oversee a school, it could be reimbursed for up to 2 percent of a school’s funding amount.

Hendry didn’t clarify whether the single authorizer would be an existing one or a new agency, but the change, he said, would ensure the schools are held accountable and could limit “perverse incentives” for authorizers looking to profit off of the schools they oversee.

There have been concerns, Hendry said, about public school districts that authorize virtual charter schools and don’t appear to use the money solely for authorizing, as required by state law. Whicker and Maryanne McMahon, both committee members and educators in public school districts, supported amping up the oversight rules.

“At this point, money is not being spent on the student,” Whicker said. “Having a centralized authorizer would at least provide an opportunity for better oversight.”

Indiana law doesn’t specifically prohibit or allow districts to oversee statewide virtual schools, but interpretations by state board staff members and lawmakers now say districts were not intended to have that power — which has caused some recently opened schools to scramble to change their models in order to comply.

The committee is also suggesting that lawmakers change state law to make that more clear by stating that only statewide authorizers can oversee online charter schools. Charter school advocates have argued that districts, especially small cash-strapped rural ones, might not have the resources to effectively oversee large charter schools that serve students across the state.

Gifford, however, raised concerns.

“There are states where the role of authorizing virtuals has been thrust onto a single authorizer, and they didn’t want it and so it creates hostile relationships,” Gifford said, adding that different authorizers can bring different skills to the table. A university, for example, can bring experience in instruction and staffing, she said. K12 Inc.’s Indiana schools are overseen by Ball State University.

Ensuring students are prepared

The committee also suggests that lawmakers change state enrollment law to require students and the adults who are in charge of their learning at home complete a virtual education orientation before they can attend a virtual charter school.

Because learning full time in a virtual charter school can be vastly different from learning in a typical school environment, both virtual charter school leaders and national charter school advocates have said giving students and parents more information before they enroll is critical to making sure they are successful.

Read: A new idea for fixing Indiana’s virtual charter schools: Let them choose their students

Too often students and parents can enroll without understanding how virtual schools work or the commitment required to learning independently, they said.

“The switch from traditional to online, there’s a big learning curve,” said Jeff Kwitowski, K12 Inc.’s senior vice president of public affairs and policy communications.

Changing state enrollment law — especially for public schools — isn’t a light lift. Typically, there are very few situations in which a public school would be allowed to turn students away. If lawmakers make the recommended change, a virtual charter school, which is a public school, would be allowed to turn away a student who did not complete the orientation process.

Michael Barbour, a researcher and professor from Touro University in California who has written extensively on virtual education, said this change in particular makes him worry that schools will get too much control to choose students who are most likely to succeed, a process known as “creaming” or “skimming.”

“This is going to be used for the online programs to essentially just take the students that they want, and not the students that necessarily want them,” Barbour said.

What’s next?

There could be more changes ahead. The committee didn’t tackle a few areas that have been discussed in other states, such as funding virtual charter schools based on the courses students complete rather than enrollment, and creating a separate grading system for virtual schools because of their student populations.

Virtual schools say their students frequently come in behind grade level and that many face other challenges, such as homelessness and high mobility, which can make it difficult for the schools to earn high graduation rates and test scores.

Hendry said those are still issues that state officials need time to research, and he said they could be good topics for a legislative study committee to dig into further. Behning said he, too, is interested in further study of shared accountability between virtual schools that receive students and the schools they previously attended.

Hendry doesn’t anticipate that the state board or lawmakers will back all of the committee’s recommendations, but he said aggressive changes are needed for schools to improve.

“We’re not going to tackle this problem by taking little, small incremental changes year over year,” Hendry said. “We really have to pull in the ranks and address this head-on.”

Here’s how some of Indiana’s online schools are trying to fix low testing turnout

2018-09-17T20:11:14+00:00

Some Indiana parents, students, and educators praise online schools for allowing students to learn anywhere they want, but it’s exactly that flexibility that leads to one of the schools’ biggest struggles: ensuring students sit for state exams.

Virtual schools have historically struggled to get all of their students tested, compared to their brick-and-mortar peers. While 99 percent of traditional school students are tested throughout the state, in online schools, rates generally fall below the federally mandated 95 percent. In 2017, the most recent data available, most of Indiana’s online schools had test participation rates in the mid-80s and low 90s, with Indiana Virtual School testing just 35 percent of its students.

The schools say they struggle to get a higher number of students tested because they are scattered across the state and often have to drive long distances to testing sites. Also the parents of students at virtual charter schools are often more likely to want their children to “opt out” of tests for philosophical reasons, school leaders say.

Low turnout for state tests can have ramifications for schools: If more than 5 percent of a school’s students skip the ISTEP exams, schools lose points on their state A-F grades.

What’s more, if enough students don’t take tests, the state can’t get a full picture of how they are performing. This could pose a significant problem for virtual schools that already have trouble educating their students, some of whom struggle with bullying, medical issues, or come in far behind grade level. Every virtual school in Indiana received an F grade from the state in 2017.

And low test turnout might also be a piece of a larger problem with a school’s ability to create community and engage far-flung students.

In recent years, several virtual schools have made it a priority to get students to sit for state exams. One school says it spent $500,000 last year on testing, including hotel rooms for proctors near testing sites. Another has a “war room” where school leaders tackle testing issues, an approach that has led to a 15 percentage point jump in testing rates, the school says. We’ll learn if some of these efforts are paying off in the coming months, when the state is expected to release updated test participation rates along with A-F grades.

“You can probably imagine it’s a massive undertaking,” said Melissa Brown, head of schools for Indiana Connections Academy, which enrolls more than 4,600 students. “We try to remind people that they agreed to do this, that the test is just a look at their performance and it allows Indiana to evaluate our school … we try to be positive.”

Ensuring online students take standardized tests is a challenge nationally, as well. According to a 2018 report from the National Education Policy Center, low testing participation rates for virtual schools “allows their performance to go largely unchecked” because in many states a low enough rate lets schools duck state ratings. States should adjust their policies to close this loophole, the researchers said.

Test participation is one of the areas that state officials are examining as they consider further regulating virtual charter schools after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for reforming the schools in response to a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation. In Indiana, almost 12,000 students attend full-time virtual charter schools, or about 1 percent of public school students.

At a meeting last month of the Indiana State Board of Education committee charged with re-examining the virtual school rules, state officials presented test participation data from 2017.

Virtual charter schools say ensuring their students take state exams during two-week-long windows twice a year is expensive and time-consuming. At Connections, Brown said, the school spends about $500,000 on testing each year. Coordinating test days are expensive in part because staff must travel and stay overnight in hotels in order to procter.

Connections has 18 testing locations across the state, and no family should have to travel more than 50 miles to their assigned location. Students might test at a library, convention center, hotel, or community college — but the schools have to rent the space, furnish it with computers, and contract with vendors to ensure servers meet state security guidelines. They also spend time training teachers and staff on test security.

Because families often are traveling some distance, Brown said school leaders try to schedule siblings on the same day and condense testing as much as state rules allow so parents aren’t driving back and forth multiple times a week. That means students might have more testing in a single day, but test for fewer days overall than in a brick-and-mortar school. In 2017, 91 percent of Connections students were tested.

Like at traditional schools, students with special needs receive their required testing accommodations, such as longer test times or a specific environment. At its largest site, 30 students might be in one room at a time, but usually the group is much smaller, Brown said, especially in rural communities.

For students attending the Insight School, a full-time virtual charter school under the Hoosier Academies umbrella that caters to students far behind grade level, the testing process is similar. Elizabeth Lamey, head of school at Insight, said she oversees 12 sites across the state, and families shouldn’t have to travel more than 30 minutes to their assigned spot. If families cannot get there on their own, the school helps provide transportation. In 2017, 84 percent of Insight students were tested.

“It’s quite a process — we have a war room here at our administration building where it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Lamey said.

School leaders find it challenging to sell the importance of state tests to virtual families, many of whom signed on explicitly to avoid what they see as restrictive school rules or intimidating social situations. Families at virtual schools are also more inclined, in Brown’s experience, to advocate for “opting out” of state tests intentionally on principle, not just for logistical reasons.

Last year, between 80 and 100 students opted out at Connections. Lamey said Insight has families who choose to opt out as well. In Indiana, there is no state-approved way for opting out of tests — state officials do not give schools any leeway in accountability for families who deliberately refuse to test.

“We do have a good chunk of families that want to own their child’s education, and that’s probably one of the reasons why they’re in our school, and so they’re more likely to (opt out),” Brown said. “Many of those children that are opting out are really high-performing students who just don’t believe in state testing.”

Brown and her staff, as well as those at Insight, communicate frequently with families leading up to tests to ensure they know where to go and when, and to remind them that testing was something they agreed to when they enrolled.

Not all students face testing challenges. Jeremiah Hitch, a 14-year-old freshman at Indiana Connections Academy, said he and his family haven’t had any big problems with getting to and from testing sites. Hitch lives in Evansville, and the testing site was at a convention center just a few miles from his home. He actually enjoys testing days, since he gets to see his teachers face-to-face.

Usually, Hitch said, he’s in a small room with few other students testing, in part because of his special education plan that requires that accomodation for his ADHD. Last year, he spent two days testing in each testing period. Compared to his previous traditional public school, this set-up is not nearly as distracting.

“Even during ISTEP (in the traditional school) you would still have something happening,” Hitch said. “It was a lot more quiet than usual, but it could still be very distracting. With ISTEP now, it’s a lot better.”

Both Connections and Insight expect their participation rates to be about the same or higher than last year, citing rates of about 90 percent and 98.5 percent respectively. Brown and Lamey said communication has been key — between teachers and parents, teachers and administrators, and teachers and students.

“That approach is something that has changed from the previous year,” Lamey said. “We’re undergoing a huge cultural shift at our school … we’re really trying to create an atmosphere, a culture of measurement. No one person holds the responsibility, it’s all of us.”

Indiana Virtual School did not return multiple requests for comment, but at a public meeting last month, school officials said they expected a 92 percent participation rate, up from 35 percent in 2017. Clark said they incentivized students to show up.

“We bought a lot of pizza,” he told the state board’s virtual school committee members.

A jump of that magnitude, in one year, would be a major achievement for the school, which has a history of testing issues. Until 2017, just a small fraction of students took tests each year. And last year, when the school’s rate was 35 percent, superintendent Percy Clark told Chalkbeat that many students still took tests on paper because the school couldn’t control outside computer security.

Even when Clark arrived at Indiana Virtual, he said they “were in hot water” in regards to taking ISTEP, though the school had far fewer students then compared to more than 3,300 today. Details about testing during Indiana Virtual’s early years came to light in a 2014 lawsuit brought against the school by then-superintendent Dave Stashevsky, who was suing for non-payment. At the time Stashevsky was also an educator in Daleville Public Schools, the small rural district that oversees Indiana Virtual School. Depositions in the case revealed that the school had tested very few students, if any — a result of disorganization at the school level and students being scattered across the state.

“Many of them didn’t make it that far to take the test,” a former teacher who taught at the school early on told Chalkbeat last year, requesting her name be withheld out of concerns about backlash from the school. “They left, or they didn’t complete the curriculum, or they kind of fell off the face of the Earth … (I) had no clue about when they took it, if they took it.”

Virtual schools’ struggles to engage families in state testing might also speak to the schools’ larger problem keeping students active and engaged in an online learning environment.

“Engagement” has become a buzzword in conversations Indiana policymakers have about improving online charter schools. If schools are more engaged with students and parents, and students are more engaged with their coursework, there’s more success, the theory goes.

Testing is one part of that relationship. Although, like brick-and-mortar schools, virtual schools can’t force students to take tests, the absence of a physical schooling environment can make it more even more difficult to make testing a priority.

But neither online schools nor policymakers have found a surefire way to ensure that those strong relationships are built. Stronger introductions to online learning when parents enroll their children could be a factor, as could policies some online school advocates praise that let schools expel students who fail to participate after a certain length of time.

Lamey said that a new state policy that lets online schools remove students who aren’t a good fit for that type of learning has been beneficial for the school and for families.

“We don’t want a child to stay in this situation if they’re not finding success,” Lamey said. “We feel like we have a strong culture of support here for our students, but if it’s not working we want them to have success in school.”

Here’s the breakdown of ISTEP participation rates for each virtual charter school in the state that tested students last year, per state data.

2017 ISTEP Math	Expected to test	Tested	Participation rate
Indiana Connections Academy	2,173	1,973	91%
Insight School of Indiana	317	267	84%
Indiana Virtual School	890	314	35%
Hoosier Academy Virtual*	1,594	1,489	93%

2017 ISTEP English	Expected to test	Tested	Participation rate
Indiana Connections Academy	2,170	1,947	90%
Insight School of Indiana	320	268	84%
Indiana Virtual School	890	308	35%
Hoosier Academy Virtual*	1,597	1,470	92%

*Hoosier Academy Virtual closed this past June.

A new idea for fixing Indiana’s virtual charter schools: Let them choose their students

2018-08-28T21:48:08+00:00

Some charter school advocates have a provocative idea for how states can address the widespread failures in virtual charter schools: Let them pick and choose their students.

The idea would require the state to create a new kind of school. In that model, virtual schools could be allowed to enroll students based on the likelihood they’d do well in a virtual setting or on the support they have at home — similar to magnet schools that choose students based on test scores or interest in a certain subject. This would mean they could no longer be considered charter schools, which are public schools required by law to enroll any student who wants to attend.

The national charter school organizations say that not all students are suited to online learning and that one potential solution is letting virtual schools screen out those who aren’t. They acknowledge that this proposal should be a last resort for fixing virtual schools’ troubles. Given Indiana’s history with nontraditional school models, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.

“One recommendation is actually potentially considering virtual charter schools as something else besides charter schools,” said Veronica Brooks, policy director for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. “Indiana has been quite the leader in the country in terms of thinking about different types of schools.”

Brooks pointed to Indiana’s adult high schools, which grant diplomas but are funded and measured differently from traditional high schools; and innovation schools, which can be charter schools or traditional public schools that are under a district umbrella but get extra autonomy in curriculum, budgeting, and other operations.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who sits on the House Education Committee, was stunned that it could even be seriously suggested that public schools could get to choose their own students.

“They can pick the students they want to get the results they want to get funded?” DeLaney said. “Other than for a very tiny subset of kids with severe, clinically recognized physical or mental disabilities — other than that, and I do mean tiny subset — I have no interest in supporting virtual charter schools in any way, shape, or form.”

The recommendation came among ideas presented Monday to the Indiana State Board of Education’s virtual charter school committee, which is considering how to better regulate the schools. Representatives from four national charter advocacy groups suggested new regulations and possible changes Indiana could make to existing laws. They mostly agreed on solutions, which included cracking down on lax oversight, controlling growth, reducing financial incentives for opening and overseeing virtual schools, and rethinking metrics of success.

Gordon Hendry, the chairman of the state board committee, said he found the concept of a new school type interesting but said the committee needed more time to discuss it. The committee could make recommendations for policymakers before the legislative session begins in January.

“The fact that there may be special rules, regulations that apply specifically to virtual charter schools is something that we have been thinking about and will continue thinking about as this process moves forward,” Hendry said.

The committee was created after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for reforming virtual charter schools, in response to a Chalkbeat investigation that last year revealed one of the state’s largest virtual schools had years of low performance, was hiring few teachers, and was engaging in questionable spending and business practices.

In Indiana, almost 12,000 students attend full-time virtual charter schools, or about 1 percent of public school students. But despite rapid growth, the schools have not shown that they can educate most students and get them to graduate. Every virtual school received an F grade from the state in 2017.

For their part, the schools say they enroll many students who struggle with bullying, medical issues, or come in far behind grade level.

Changing the nature of what virtual charter schools are or allowing them to limit student enrollment would require major changes to policy and state law. Currently, public schools are not allowed to turn students away. Creating a kind of public school that could, Brooks said, might contradict the original goal of the school choice philosophy.

“The charter school movement in very large part was built on a foundation of open enrollment, that charter schools should be open and accessible to all,” Brooks said.

Other major online school providers, such as K12 Inc., which operates Hoosier Academies schools in Indiana, have spoken out against the idea in the past, saying it can “create perverse incentives for schools to turn away at-risk children.”

Because public school funding is tied to student enrollment, selective enrollment policies could present an interesting dilemma for virtual schools that, like other schools, need students to stay afloat financially.

Enabling virtual schools to turn away some students wouldn’t necessarily require them to fix the problems inherent in virtual learning, where students are often unsupervised and the number of teachers and student support might not keep pace with enrollment.

But virtual charter operators might find the proposal an attractive option in the face of low academic progress. And, some charter school advocates say, it could keep students from languishing in schools that aren’t serving them.

Currently, students who aren’t a good fit for the independent, self-motivated learning environment of online schools, or who lack adult support at home, are more likely to drop out, do poorly on state tests, and not graduate on time, if they do at all.

A 2016 report Brooks’ group did with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools said virtual schools aren’t necessarily creating programs that are accessible for all students, and often, their students aren’t equipped to be successful there.

“Indeed many of the biggest operators of full-time virtual charter schools appear to have developed programs that are only designed to be effective with self-motivated students and/or students with highly involved parents,” the report said.

Tellingly, the report stated that if after other policy changes are attempted and the only way to avoid large-scale failure is to limit enrollment, “we believe that many states will decide that full- time virtual school offerings are simply incompatible with the goals of their charter school laws.”

Chad Aldis, with the Fordham Institute, highlighted a different version of selective enrollment that Indiana already uses — what he called “disenrollment.”

In this process, a virtual charter school would still be considered a public charter school, but it would have the freedom to expel a student who was not engaged and meeting the school’s attendance and participation requirements. In a July blog post on Fordham’s website, Aldis justifies the idea:

“Just imagine the impact on a student of doing virtually no work for several years, and the limited ability of the teacher to intervene because of the online nature of the relationship,” Aldis wrote. “It could very well create an unrecoverable gap, especially for disadvantaged students.”

Advocates on Monday praised Indiana’s recently adopted virtual charter school “engagement” policy, which requires schools to contact parents and investigate why a student isn’t participating. It could lead to a student being expelled.

If Indiana were to allow virtual schools to choose its students, the state would have to figure out how to address the large number of students who might be displaced.

Virtual charter school leaders in the state have said their failures stem from their schools being a last resort for many students who are expelled or have other problems learning elsewhere.

But if Indiana were to allow virtual schools to pass those students by, it’s not clear how they would get the education they need and who would take responsibility for them.

Hoosiers paid $1 million for a rural district to oversee online charter schools. Is it too much?

2018-08-07T21:40:34+00:00

Daleville Public Schools, a small rural district northeast of Indianapolis, oversees more than 6,000 students statewide who learn exclusively in online charter schools — and the district received a payment of $1 million in state funds last year for doing so.

The compensation is provided to charter school authorizers under Indiana law in exchange for ensuring the schools adhere to rules and perform well academically. But critics are raising questions about the payments to Daleville, and their arguments illustrate ongoing tensions about the state’s foray into virtual education and how authorizers are regulated.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

The two online schools overseen by Daleville, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, have shown poor academic performance and questionable financial and operational practices, leading some policymakers to question how successful Daleville has been at holding the schools accountable. Others criticize Daleville for spending some of the payments on students within the district, instead of those in the charter schools they oversee.

Whether the district should receive the funds at all is also an open question among policymakers. Indiana law doesn’t specifically say school districts that authorize charter schools can receive the funding the way university, city or state-level authorizers do — leading some to wonder whether the funding actually provides a financial incentive for authorizers to enroll more students and keep failing schools open.

“It’s hard to believe you need $1 million to effectively oversee (two schools),” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust and former Indianapolis charter school director. “Every single authority on authorizing would question if that’s an ethical practice.”

These issues came to a head last week at a meeting of the Indiana State Board of Education’s committee to review virtual charter schools. As online charter schools are drawing the scrutiny of state and national policymakers for their poor performance, Indiana education leaders are also increasingly concerned that school districts might not be able to provide the proper oversight for virtual charter schools that serve the entire state, particularly if they rely on revenue from monitoring them.

Indiana law says authorizers can decide whether to charge charter schools up to 3 percent of their state tuition dollars, which are based on student enrollment. Daleville charges the full 3 percent for each school.

The Indianapolis Mayor’s Office, by contrast, oversees more than 40 charter schools serving about 15,000 kids. It charges its schools 1 percent and collected a little more than $864,000 in 2017.

State law says the fees must be spent “exclusively for the purpose of fulfilling authorizing obligations.”

At last week’s hearing, Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison said that its oversight fees pay for online course fees for Daleville’s traditional public school students. The fees have also been used to buy computers, pay salaries for district staffers involved with authorizing, and pay for an in-house charter school evaluation tool, among other expenses, he said. It was not clear from Daleville’s state financial reports exactly how the fees were broken down among those costs.

But board member and committee chairman Gordon Hendry said he was concerned that the amount of revenue Daleville was bringing in from authorizing might compromise its ability to make decisions. Indiana Virtual School has received an F grade from the state for two years in a row and in 2017 had the lowest graduation rate of any public school in the state. Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy is still too new to have received a grade, but it already enrolls almost 3,000 students, many of whom came from Indiana Virtual School.

“We’re talking about accountability and success, but you’re making $1 million a year that’s going to fund your school district,” Hendry said.

Garrison defended how the money was being spent, saying it gave Daleville students more opportunities and met the state’s criteria.

But Brown said Garrison’s explanation for how Daleville spent its fees troubled him.

“When I hear about a school district charging 3 percent, it raises red flags around how that money is being used and whether students attending the virtual charter school are subsidizing children who attend the school district,” Brown said. “That seems like a fundamental problem.”

Since last fall, state leaders and Gov. Eric Holcomb have called for action to remedy some of the known problems in virtual schools — high mobility, low academic achievement, and little regulation. The state board’s committee, formed earlier this year, aims to address some of these issues with recommendations to the full board and state lawmakers.

One way the state could change its policy is in how it structures authorizer fees.

Read: Indiana online charter schools need more oversight. These 3 changes could help.

Karega Rausch, vice president of research and evaluation for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, said oversight fees should be limited to work that is needed to actually monitor a charter school. If an authorizer has other responsibilities that aren’t related to charter schools, those should be completely separate.

Rausch also previously told Chalkbeat that charter authorizing payments should be based on costs, and states should require authorizers justify the amount they need to oversee schools. One option is for the state to pay authorizers directly, distancing oversight fees from student enrollment.

That could lower the likelihood that authorizing could be seen as a profitable funding strategy.

At last week’s hearing, Hendry raised the possibility that the revenue was creating a perverse incentive to keep low-performing schools open.

“Is it really that realistic that you would consider closing the school for poor performance, for lack of growth or lack of success, if you’re receiving a pretty healthy income stream every year?” Hendry said.

Garrison said the district was prepared to make the decision to close a school, if need be, and that officials weren’t looking at charter authorizing as a “cash cow.”

“It would be a difficult decision, but what I’m going to tell you is we care about kids,” Garrison said. “We want progress, and if it looks like we can’t get progress, we can make that decision.”

The state’s two other district authorizers, Evansville and Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson, are split in how they approach fees. Evansville doesn’t collect them at all, while Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson said it plans to ask for 3 percent. The school it oversees, Indiana Agriculture and Technology School, opened at the end of July.

Read: Facing state scrutiny, Indiana charter school steps back from virtual plan

Districts who want to be involved with virtual schools do have another option that avoids the legal murkiness charter authorizing can bring: Union Township, another small rural district near Muncie, created a virtual learning program within its district in a contract with K12 Inc. that nets them 5 percent of the student funding — more than what they’d get as an authorizer.

Many Indiana school districts, feeling the effects of declining state contributions, property tax caps that limit local dollars that flow to schools, and falling enrollment, have turned to alternative funding sources in recent years.

Having an in-house virtual program means the district is responsible for running the program, not just monitoring it. But using an outside vendor for curriculum and hiring cuts down on the costs of starting from scratch.

Read: A tiny Indiana district is banking on virtual education to survive. But at what cost?

In some cases, Indiana policymakers are questioning whether school district authorizers should be paid oversight fees at all. Indiana law is silent on whether districts can collect such fees like their counterparts at the university, city, and state level.

Indiana State Board of Education member Tony Walker has spoken out against districts collecting fees, especially ones that might be facing low enrollment and declining state funds. State Sen. Mark Stoops, a Democrat from Bloomington, filed unsuccessful legislation last year that would’ve eliminated authorizer fees entirely.

Lawmakers have indicated they want to make changes to virtual school policy, though it’s still far too early to know what those might look like. During last year’s legislative session, Republican legislators called for more information on how district-based virtual programs are funded. Indiana Democrats have also been vocal about bolstering regulations for online charter schools.

Brown said education advocates can’t afford to look the other way on these issues.

“We have irrefutable proof that virtual charter schools are generally not good for kids,” he said. “And as a strong charter school advocate, I think it’s critically important that the reform community step up and make accountability for virtual charter schools a critical issue.”

As Indiana’s virtual charters struggle, some school leaders balk at more oversight

2018-08-02T00:03:24+00:00

Indiana online charter schools told state officials Wednesday that they deserve special consideration because of the student populations they serve.

Leaders from Indiana Virtual School, Indiana Connections Academy, and Hoosier Academies, which all operate online, said that they are more likely than traditional schools to serve students who are below grade level, who frequently move, and who face other hurdles. Those challenges are reflected in the schools’ poor test scores, F grades from the state, and low graduation rates, they say.

School leaders said that state officials should reconsider how they measure virtual charter schools and add in such supports as better student data-tracking and enabling online schools to work more formally with families before they enroll their children. Indiana’s online charter schools serve students from every county in the state and allow students from grades K-12 to learn at their own pace from just about anywhere.

“We should be held accountable in more than just the academic arena,” said Percy Clark, superintendent for Indiana Virtual School and its sister school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which Chalkbeat investigated last year. “Every ill that you want to name plagues our students.”

Clark mentioned teaching students who were homeless and ones who were balancing high school coursework with the demands of raising young children.

But members of the Indiana State Board of Education’s committee on virtual charter schools kept going back to the seeming inability of these schools to serve their students. In 2017, every full-time virtual charter school received an F-grade from the state; these grades are based primarily on test scores and the high school graduation rate.

The committee met for the second time Wednesday. Its chairman, Gordon Hendry, said he walked away with a lot of unanswered questions. He wants to hear more about how the schools operate and what their data shows.

“We’re just scratching the surface,” Hendry said.

The committee grilled the groups that run and oversee Indiana’s troubled virtual charter schools for more than three hours. Few of the schools could offer specific ways to solve their academic shortcomings. And despite concerns about oversight, the schools’ authorizers — the entities that monitor charter schools in Indiana — said the state need not add any laws to further accountability.

Clark said virtual education is still in its infancy in the state. If Indiana steps in too aggressively and forces the schools to close, students will lose much-needed options.

“This is like killing a baby,” Clark said.

Hendry pointed out that Indiana has had full-time virtual learning in place for almost 10 years. Connections and Hoosier Academy schools began as pilot programs in 2009. Indiana Virtual School opened in 2011.

Clark wants the state to focus less on things like the graduation rate and test scores, and more on how many credits students come in with and the extent to which that number increases after they attend virtual schools. He pointed to his school’s data that shows many students come to them as seniors who aren’t on-track to graduate.

Mary Gifford, a senior vice president with K12 Inc., the national for-profit that manages Hoosier Academies, and Melissa Brown, executive director for Connections, focused more on support they wanted from the state. Gifford said taking the temperature on metrics like graduation rates more frequently, even every semester, would be a welcome change. Brown said she wanted to see policy changes that would ensure online schools had more time to work with families before they enroll their children.

The more families know what they are getting into, Brown said, the more they can be sure the school is a good fit for their child.

“Students are taking this lightly, and that’s a problem,” Brown said. “I don’t think they understand all that is involved with being in a virtual school.”

But neither Ball State University, which oversees Connections and Hoosier Academies, nor Daleville Public Schools, which oversees Indiana Virtual School, saw a need for the state’s charter-authorizing law to change.

“What’s currently on the books is fine,” said Bob Marra, executive director for Ball State’s office of charter schools. “The oversight is there.”

Paul Garrison, Daleville’s superintendent, said there should be consistent standards for authorizing charter schools, regardless of whether they are traditional or virtual.

The committee was formed by the state board following calls from Gov. Eric Holcomb and lawmakers to address the schools’ poor performance and insufficient oversight.

Hendry said at an earlier meeting that its goal is to make recommendations for new policies and laws that might help the schools. The committee will continue to meet through the end of the calendar year.

Should Indiana cut schools slack when kids move a lot? Some online school leaders say yes.

2018-07-31T21:36:43+00:00

Melissa Brown knows her online charter school served — for some length of time — about 6,000 students last year.

Brown, executive director of Indiana Connections Academy, also knows that the state only gave the school enough money for 4,651, the number of students who started the school year there. And she knows about a quarter of the students who finished out last year at Connections won’t be coming back in the fall.

The mobility of students at Brown’s school is typical of many online schools, where students can learn from anywhere without direct supervision. That makes it easier to enroll, drop out, and disengage. And the consequences are real: It’s challenging to educate students who don’t stay long enough to learn, and it’s difficult for the school to garner a positive rating from the state when those same students score poorly on state tests, or don’t take them at all.

“I am absolutely for being held accountable, and I will be as transparent about our data as I need to be because I want help in making our model better,” Brown said. “But I don’t think you can ignore the mobility piece when it comes to accountability.”

Brown plans to explain the challenge mobility presents to state policymakers Wednesday as part of the second meeting of a state committee that aims to review virtual charter school laws and regulations. The committee — formed by the Indiana State Board of Education following calls from Gov. Eric Holcomb and lawmakers to address the schools’ poor performance and oversight — is expected to hear presentations from the Indiana’s online charter school operators and the groups that oversee them. This meeting will look at virtual charter schools’ accountability, enrollment, and withdrawal processes.

Read: 4 takeaways from Indiana’s first review of its troubled virtual charter schools

Virtual charter schools are not alone in their struggle to educate students they might not be funded for. And they’re also not the only schools that are penalized in state letter grades because of students transferring, critics point out. But online charter school leaders do say their student mobility rates outpace those of other public schools and add an additional burden.

In 2017, Indiana reported that 40.7 percent of Connections Academy students changed schools sometime during the year. At Indiana Virtual School, which Chalkbeat investigated last year, 46 percent did. And at the now-closed Hoosier Academy Virtual, the mobility rate was 36 percent. According to a report from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, students stay in virtual schools for two years on average.

In Indianapolis Public Schools, by comparison, state data shows mobility between schools was 7.6 percent that year, and 17.5 percent between IPS and other school districts. In suburban Carmel and rural Batesville schools, the rates for both kinds of mobility were below 4 percent.

Out of all the state’s virtual charter schools, Connections has posted the highest test passing rates, test improvement rates, and has the largest share of its students graduating. But for most of those metrics, the school still falls below state averages. The school received an F from the state in 2016 and 2017.

That’s frustrating to Brown, who has seen her students improve and her staff recognized by state and national counseling organizations. Compared to other online charter schools in the state, Connections Academy has more teachers per student, a metric cited by researchers as a way to improve student learning at virtual schools.

The school also received a favorable review from AdvancED, a national nonprofit that ensures schools meet certain standards and best practices. If the school is meeting these criteria, she wonders, why are they performing so poorly on the state’s rating?

“We had these site-reviewers who really dug deeply into our daily practice and operational framework and basically said this is not a failing school,” Brown said. “There’s something wrong in terms of how we’re measuring our kids when we’re doing everything we can and we’re still coming up short.”

Lawmakers have tried to adjust Indiana’s accountability law in the past to account for schools and districts with high student mobility, but the efforts haven’t yet gained traction. There’s debate about whether schools should get a break if they have more transfers and if those policy changes could end up making highly mobile students invisible to the state’s grading system altogether.

Currently, Indiana schools, with the exception of adult high schools, get letter grades based on the same formula that relies mainly on how many students pass state tests, how much they improve each year, and whether they graduate.

Virtual schools gained a little flexibility in 2017 when the Indiana legislature approved a bill allowing them to dismiss students who showed low attendance and poor participation.

Brown testified in favor of the law, and she said it’s been a good tool to let families know what’s at stake before they commit to a virtual school that might not work for them. Like traditional public schools and brick-and-mortar charter schools, online charter schools are required to accept any student who wants to enroll.

“We’re convenient for a lot of families that need a flexible learning environment, but we can’t just be a place where a kid lands because he or she doesn’t want to go to a physical classroom or because they think they just hide and do nothing,” Brown said. “That’s not how we operate here.”

The online charter school committee is set to meet at 1 p.m., Wednesday, at Indiana Government Center South.

Facing state scrutiny, Indiana charter school steps back from virtual plan

2018-07-03T00:10:05+00:00

An Indiana charter school is backing off its unconventional plan to open a statewide virtual school with a farm campus following scrutiny from state officials over its oversight model.

In May, a Chalkbeat investigation examined concerns about whether Indiana Agriculture and Technology School’s plan to be overseen by a school district exploited a loophole in state law.

Following the investigation, the Indiana State Board of Education told Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools in an email exchange obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request that only the state charter board or a university could authorize a statewide virtual charter school.

Now, a month before it is set to open, the school says it will instead incorporate more in-person learning so it can launch as a brick-and-mortar charter school, not a virtual school.

“After examining our program it was clear to all parties that we do not meet the technical definition of a virtual school,” said Allan Sutherlin, the school’s founder and board president, in a statement to Chalkbeat.

Sutherlin did not immediately respond to questions about how students recruited from across the state will participate in in-person lessons and access the farm campus.

When asked about the oversight issue in March, state board officials told Chalkbeat that they didn’t have the authority to review charter contracts. Indiana law doesn’t specifically prohibit or allow districts to oversee statewide virtual schools, but lawmakers say districts were not intended to have that power.

But in a May 31 letter, Tim Schultz, general counsel for the state board, told the school district to “address this issue as quickly as possible as failure to do so violates Indiana law.”

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Superintendent Timothy Edsell contended the district was in compliance with the law, disputing the state board’s interpretation.

He said the district is allowed to authorize the school because the school leases land within the district’s boundaries. He also argued that the portion of state law that addresses who can authorize virtual charter schools isn’t restrictive — it says virtual charters “may” apply with a statewide authorizer, Edsell said, not that they “shall” or “must.”

“There is legal authority to support our collective actions and all legal requirements have been followed,” Edsell wrote in a follow-up letter to state board staff.

But then, on June 22, the agriculture school changed course. Despite originally applying for its charter as a “statewide virtual school,” it informed the state that the school would instead be opening as a brick-and-mortar charter school with a so-called “blended-learning” model.

The school plans to mix online instruction and in-person visits to regional sites and the school’s farm campus in southern Indiana, according to documents Marsh provided to the state. That will include weekly in-person learning sessions at the farm campus or elsewhere, monthly farm campus visits, dual credit opportunities with the Central 9 Career Center and Ivy Tech Community College, and internships and work-based learning with local partners.

The move was a significant change from the school’s original plans. Although school officials emphasized hands-on experiences students would receive, they told Chalkbeat earlier this year that the farm visits weren’t mandatory and would be occasional. Through social media marketing, the school has advertised itself for months as a “real virtual school.”

A Facebook ad for Indiana Agriculture and Technology School from July 2.

And in March, Keith Marsh, the school’s academic director, confirmed with the Indiana Department of Education that the school was virtual.

Even with the change in plans, the school says 49 percent of a student’s schooling will occur online. The state defines a virtual charter school as providing more than 50 percent of its instruction online.

As a traditional charter school, the Indiana Agriculture and Technology School is also now entitled to an increase in state funding — full state tuition support instead of the 90 percent virtual charter schools receive. The school has so far enrolled about 100 students.

It’s unclear why the school decided to make the change to blended-learning when it did. But on June 29, after the school confirmed its new model with the state, Schultz, the state board’s general counsel, told district superintendent Edsell that the school’s charter would have been invalid if it had remained a virtual school.

Sutherlin and Marsh declined interview requests through a spokeswoman.

In addressing the school’s new model, Schultz wrote that the district “is responsible for ensuring that every charter school it authorizes is complying with all applicable federal and state laws.”

Schultz wrote that the state board “has no mechanism to independently verify” that the school is operating according to its new plan. The Indiana Department of Education also does not monitor whether charter schools follow rules set by their authorizers or the state, a spokeswoman said.

State Rep. Bob Behning, the House Education Committee chairman, said the state board’s review showed “due diligence.” He also said the law would likely have to be clarified.

“I was concerned and made it very clear that I thought a local school corporation could not authorize a statewide virtual (school), so I’m glad that they’re now in compliance,” Behning said. “My guess is there will be changes to our virtual charter law anyway in terms of some different parameters we might put in, so we’ll hopefully clean that up at the same time.”

Virtual charter schools have drawn scrutiny in both Indiana and Washington, D.C. A state board committee met for the first time last month to explore changes that could be made to state law to improve the schools, which have records of poor academic performance in Indiana. Additionally, lawmakers at a Congressional committee hearing later that same week raised questions about the schools.

Find more coverage of Indiana’s online schools.

Indiana online charter schools face scrutiny at Congressional committee hearing

2018-06-13T19:41:20+00:00

The chronic low performance of Indiana’s virtual charter schools captured national attention Wednesday in a Congressional committee hearing on the value of charter schools.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, criticized the failed promises of online charter schools across the country, citing their low graduation rates and lack of instructional supports — and she called out Indiana’s lowest-performing online school by name.

Indiana “had Indiana Virtual School that graduated a lower percentage of students than almost every other high school in the state,” Bonamici said.

She also referenced a Chalkbeat story about prominent Republican lawmakers calling for the state to intervene in the dismal performance of online schools.

Her criticism was in stark contrast to testimony minutes earlier from Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican who praised charter schools for creating more opportunities and lifting academic achievement. He touted Indiana’s charter school laws as a model for other states, though the national reports he referenced have also noted Indiana’s blind spots when it comes to online charter schools.

But Bonamici said advocates lauded charter schools while ignoring the problems of online charter schools. As Chalkbeat has reported, four of the state’s virtual charter schools received F ratings from the state in 2017.

“Shouldn’t there be stronger oversight to make sure these schools are actually serving students, rather than focusing on churning profits?” she asked.

A Chalkbeat investigation highlighted how Indiana Virtual School graduated few students, hired few teachers, and entered into contracts with the school founder’s for-profit company — while collecting tens of millions of dollars in state funding.

Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said states should better regulate virtual charter schools because of their chronic academic problems, but she still defended online schools, which attract students who might not thrive in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

“You don’t want to completely get rid of them, because for some students, these are the only choices available to them,” Rees said.

4 takeaways from Indiana’s first review of its troubled virtual charter schools

2018-06-12T22:38:51+00:00

At its inaugural meeting Tuesday, a group of Indiana State Board of Education members puzzled over how far they could go to try to fix the many problems facing the state’s virtual charter schools — and it turns out, they have more power than they might have thought.

Tim Schultz, the state board’s general counsel, said the committee — and by extension, the full state board — can explore whatever policy areas it wishes.

“The only restriction on this is the board’s imagination,” Schultz said.

That may come as a surprise to some onlookers, since state officials have created few regulations governing virtual charter schools that receive millions in taxpayer dollars but post disappointing academic results.

Read: In the Wild West of virtual learning, an Indiana charter school is opening in an unlikely place — a farm

The only board-drafted rules in place, written in 2010 in the early days of online charter schools, mostly contained definitions and guidance on counting students for funding purposes. It amounted to two printed pages, in contrast to the dozens of pages the board has devoted to other issues such as A-F accountability grades and dropout recovery, said Gordon Hendry, a state board member and the chairman of the committee looking into online charter schools.

So it is clear, Hendry said, that policymakers have more work to do.

One area where the board might need some help from lawmakers is state funding. The board can’t unilaterally decide to change how much money virtual charter schools get per student, for example, since that is specified in the state’s school funding formula.

A critical area to watch will be in what — if anything — the state board can do to address how virtual charter schools are overseen, which lawmakers attempted to take on unsuccessfully earlier this year.

Here are four takeaways from the group’s discussion:

Indiana is not the only state struggling to shore up online charter schools — but other states have made more progress

Schultz presented numerous examples of possible policy changes from other states that Indiana could adopt or use as a jumping-off point. For example, Colorado and Florida more closely track how much students are participating in their online work and how often they are attending online classes.

Minnesota even requires written parental approval for a student to enroll in a virtual program, Schultz said. That move could make it easier for schools to engage with parents right off the bat, and help them understand more about what virtual learning requires and how it differs from a traditional school.

“Many states are pursuing a much more active involvement on the front end,” Schultz said. “It’s not uniform across the board, but a number of states have now taken the position that enrollment does not occur until a student has gone through orientation, or some form of that.”

Schultz also pointed to how Florida requires virtual charter schools provide computer equipment for students poor enough to qualify for subsidized meals. In New Mexico, he said, students get help accessing assistive technology, which are devices or tools that can make using computers easier for students with special needs.

In South Carolina, students are required to have 25 percent of their instruction be taught live, while other states put limits on how high student-to-teacher ratios can reach.

All of these steps could improve student performance at Indiana’s virtual charter schools, where more than 13,000 student attend school, state board staff said. In 2017, every full-time virtual charter school in the state received an F grade from the state, and despite small improvements from the prior year, most schools had fewer students passing English and math exams than the state average.

“We’re not alone in this,” Schultz said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

Indiana doesn’t have rules for virtual charter schools on even some of the basic issues

Board members were surprised to learn online schools lack regulations around teachers. Indiana has no limits — for virtual charter schools or any other schools, for that matter — on how large class sizes can be or on how many teachers schools must hire. That means student-to-teacher ratios can vary widely.

The state also hasn’t clarified, specifically in regards to virtual schools, whether teachers have to be Indiana residents on top of having an Indiana teaching license.

“I just am shocked that we have questions about these things,” said board member Cari Whicker.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

On average across the U.S., public schools tend to have one teacher for every 16 students, while virtual schools have one teacher for every 45, as reported by the National Education Policy Center.

In Indiana, virtual charter schools’ ratios run the gamut, according to 2017 data from the state presented Tuesday, but averaged at about one teacher for every 60 students. Here’s how it broke down in specific schools:

Indiana Connections Academy: One teacher for every 29 students
Insight School of Indiana: One teacher for every 41 students
Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School: One teacher for every 49 students
Indiana Virtual School: One teacher for every 123 students

Students who tend to enroll in virtual charter schools need a lot more support across the board

Ron Sandlin, the state board’s director of school performance and transformation, pointed out that Indiana’s virtual charter school students typically spend less than two years in an online school, and when they get there, they’ve usually already spent several years in high school.

So it’s not just incumbent on virtual schools to improve of student performance — the state needs to ensure students have the support they need before they get there, too.

Falling behind grade level before transferring to an online school could be one reason why the schools’ state test scores and graduation rates are particularly low. If students come in behind grade level and are very transient, it doesn’t set them up to do well on tests or finish school on time.

Next steps: Data, data, and more data

Hendry, Whicker, and the third committee member, Maryanne McMahon all had areas they wanted to explore as the committee continues to meet monthly.

Hendry said he’d like more information on virtual education programs that aren’t charter schools. That could include a rural district that, as Chalkbeat reported, is pulling in hundreds of students from across the state with its new online program.

Whicker said she wanted more information from authorizers, the entities that oversee virtual charter schools.

“What it sounds like is in Indiana, they have the freedom to set their own policies,” Whicker said. She was curious about what current authorizers were doing and how they make decisions on how to monitor schools.

And McMahon said she’s interested in seeing success stories: Where is virtual education working?

All agreed there was still a lot of work to do. Board member David Freitas, who is not on the committee but attended the meeting, said policymakers have a big responsibility ahead of them.

“It’s sort of like drinking out of a fire hydrant — at this point there are so many issues,” he said. “Where do we start?”

‘How long do we let them fail’? Indiana committee begins review of virtual charter school rules

2018-06-11T21:21:18+00:00

As a group of state officials convene for the first time Tuesday to examine virtual charter schools, two prominent Indiana Republican lawmakers are calling for the state to intervene in the dismal performance of the schools.

“Whatever we’re doing is not working, because I don’t see where they’re improving,” said Ryan Mishler, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, adding, “With a virtual, if you’re failing so many years in a row, maybe we need to look at how long do we let them fail before we say you can’t operate.”

Mishler and House education chair Bob Behning told Chalkbeat that the oversight of virtual charter schools needs to be addressed, whether through changes to state law or action by the Indiana State Board of Education.

Indiana will have seven virtual charter schools at the start of the next school year, with three opening in the past year alone and one shutting down amid chronic bad grades. But their academic performance raises questions — four of the five schools graded by the state last year received F ratings.

Even for students who need a more flexible alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar schools, Mishler said, “If they’re not doing well, if they’re not graduating, how good is it for them?”

The committee, made up of members of the state board of education, are expected to provide recommendations for regulating the fast-growing sector of virtual charter schools. The formation of the committee comes after a Chalkbeat investigation exposed how Indiana Virtual School has collected tens of millions in state funding — while profiting a company that at the time was led by the school’s founder and board president — but hired very few teachers and graduated about 6 percent of students.

Another Chalkbeat investigation recently highlighted the unusual circumstances surrounding the opening of Indiana’s newest virtual charter school. An investment firm owned by the co-founder and school board treasurer of the Indiana Agriculture and Technology School purchased property that the school will eventually pay rent to use as a farm for hands-on learning. After questions from Chalkbeat about the possible conflict of interest, the co-founder said he would be stepping down from the board when the school opens next month.

“When you hear things like that, it does throw up a red flag,” Mishler said. “I’m not saying they’re doing anything wrong, but I do think it’s something we need to look at.”

Chalkbeat has also examined how some statewide online charter schools have used what some consider a loophole in state law in order to open. Instead of looking to well-known authorizing agencies, some virtual charter schools are partnering with school districts that are inexperienced in charter oversight but set to gain financially from the arrangement.

This year, lawmakers hampered efforts to make changes to laws governing virtual charter schools. Three bills that would have put more restrictions on charter school authorizers were killed during last year’s legislative session. And none of the bills directly dealt with virtual schools.

State board committee chair Gordon Hendry said he and board members Cari Whicker and Maryanne McMahon will start on Tuesday with a broad overview of virtual school policies, as well as a review of data on school performance and operations.

“This isn’t an issue where we’re talking about 50 students at a particular school,” Hendry said. “We’re talking about thousands of students.”

Neither Hendry nor the other committee members said they had a strong sense of how much authority the state board has to make changes in this policy area, but they hoped to be able to suggest changes in time for next year’s legislative session.

“I know that we have some authority that’s been delegated under state law, but really I’m viewing this from a more global perspective,” Hendry said. “We want to help better inform state lawmakers as to what the current landscape is and really help them arrive at some potential new legislation that helps improve the education provided by Indiana virtual charter schools.”

Behning said the quality of online education in general — not just virtual charter schools — is a national problem.

“I think we have to look at virtual education as a whole — we can’t just say, well, it’s virtual charters,” he said. “If we do anything, we need to be comprehensive in the way we look at it.”

Behning had suggestions for some areas where improvements could be made to online education. He said to address online charter school performance, the state should explore how schools can ensure students are participating. In 2017, he authored a law that requires online charter schools to develop an “engagement policy” that outlines how students should be working. Under the policies, schools can expel students if they do not meet participation requirements.

But aside from that provision, there is little guidance for how virtual schools should track attendance, which schools report themselves to the state — a student could be counted present if they are enrolled in a course but never do any work.

“Technology is probably moving faster sometimes than we are moving in terms of policy and how we’re addressing that,” Behning said. “But I think there is urgency, because anytime a student doesn’t have an opportunity to be successful, that’s a problem.”

Read more of Chalkbeat’s coverage of online schools.

These Indiana students overcame long odds to graduate from an online school

2018-06-06T17:33:59+00:00

For Angela Freel, “the struggle is over” now that her daughters have graduated after a long search for the right high school.

“A lot of hard work, and here is the reward,” Angela Freel said.

What she wanted was a more convenient, stable alternative to a traditional school for her two daughters — a place where they could excel at their own pace without the worries of bullying and meticulous schedules.

Serving in the military since 1999, both as a member of the United States Army and the Louisiana National Guard, Angela Freel moved with her family often. After settling in Indiana, the single mother of two enrolled her daughters in Indiana Connections Academy, a free online K-12 education provider.

Online charter schools are an increasingly popular alternative for students across the nation who aren’t thriving in a traditional classroom setting or are searching for more flexibility. But as Chalkbeat has previously reported, most students don’t graduate from these schools.

But supporters note that for some students, including the 497 who graduated from Connections on Monday, online schools do work.

Angela Freel’s daughters, Dasani Freel and Cazariah Haskins, are two of 497 students who graduated Monday from Indiana Connections Academy. That’s an estimated graduation rate of 52 percent, according to school officials.

Last year, the school’s graduation rate was 49.5 percent, compared to 87.2 percent of students at schools across the state that year.

Angela Freel’s family agrees that the path to the finish line involved a lot of perseverance and initiative — a common theme among this year’s graduates.

“You just have to adapt,” said Dasani Freel, who is graduating a year early. “You do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it. Be disciplined. Have the ‘I need to get this done right then and there’ attitude.”

Angela Freel said the school was extremely convenient for her family. Freel said she held her daughters accountable for completing assignments on time and studying for exams.

“For any parent that wants their kid to go to school without all the extras you have to put up with in a brick-and-mortar, this is perfect,” she said, referring to her experience with the online school.”

Both Dasani Freel and Haskins plan to start their higher education careers at Ivy Tech Community College, where Freel will study nursing and Haskins hopes to become a certified surgical technician. The two said they will continue their studies at other schools in the future.

“It feels really good to be at this point,” Haskins said. “I’m finished, and all the hard work has paid off.”

Richard Ostergaard, 18, started his journey with the virtual school at 13 years old after missing more than 60 days of school each year due to sinus infections and related illnesses.

Ostergaard has since graduated at the top of his class as valedictorian.

“I had to take a lot of initiative,” he said. “There are people who go, ‘Oh yeah, online school — it’s going to be easy.’ They’re wrong.”

Ostergaard compared his online experience to college courses — listening to live hour-long lectures, self-teaching, and retaining the knowledge through exams and quizzes.

“I am much more confident going into college because you have to have that initiative to get through college,” he said. “In a lot of high schools, you’re pushed to get through high school. In Indiana Connections Academy, you still have that gradual push, but they’re much less likely to pass you through grades even if you haven’t actually done all the work.”

Ostergaard will study mechanical engineering at Tennessee Technological Institute.

Yesra Almalahi, 18, left her traditional public school after seventh grade in search of a safer alternative to a brick-and-mortar school. That’s when she discovered Indiana Connections Academy.

“There are so many shootings and many other incidents that occur in public schools now so transferring to an online school makes it more safe,” she said.

Since then, Almalahi has completed her school work at home.

Almalahi said the transition was not easy, but she said she made it work through determination and parents’ support. Now she is preparing for classes at Indiana University Fort Wayne.

“I feel accomplished and so excited for this new chapter of my life,” she said. “It was difficult in the start because you make a big choice of choosing to teach yourself over someone teaching you.”

In the Wild West of virtual learning, an Indiana charter school is opening in an unlikely place — a farm

2018-05-31T22:23:50+00:00

Six hundred acres of mostly dormant farmland, ponds, and forest in southern Indiana hardly seem like they would be the centerpiece of the state’s newest virtual charter school. But when founder Allan Sutherlin looks out over the land, he sees that and more.

Sutherlin, a long-time political operative, says he wants to fundamentally change how Hoosier students learn about agriculture, starting with the perhaps counterintuitive idea of using a farm as the physical outpost of the online Indiana Agriculture and Technology School, set to open in July.

Sutherlin and his team are laying these ambitious plans at a time when virtual charter schools across the country are growing rapidly and facing criticism for failing to serve students. What’s unclear is whether the school can live up to its lofty promises, or end up serving as another illustration of how Indiana’s charter school law fails to adequately regulate virtual schools.

Already, Indiana Agriculture and Technology School has hurdles to overcome. Its founder and academic director have ties to other virtual charter schools with questionable track records. The school will be monitored by an inexperienced rural public school district, a model that charter school advocates worry won’t provide sufficient oversight and is allowed under what some see as a loophole in Indiana state law.

And the farm itself was purchased for the school by the school board’s treasurer, also a co-founder, who will eventually charge the school rent — a deal whose full details haven’t been made public. Meanwhile, school leaders say that it’s unclear when students will have access to the farm and that students won’t be required to visit the property, despite a promotional video promising “students will gain real hands-on knowledge and skills” at the “farm campus.”

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Sutherlin and his colleagues say they intend to learn from mistakes made by other virtual schools, including ones they were connected to. They say they have faith in their first-time authorizer. And after inquiries from Chalkbeat, school officials said the school board member whose firm purchased the land will step down from the post.

Backers of the agriculture school portray it as an innovative way for students anywhere in the state to be trained for agriculture careers when Indiana’s economy desperately needs them.

Still, the unconventional circumstances surrounding the school’s opening underscore the lack of regulations in Indiana’s charter school sector, a Wild West where almost anyone can propose a new school and potentially gain access to state funding. The agriculture school will be the third virtual charter school to open in Indiana in the past year, bringing Indiana’s total to seven for next school year and mirroring fast growth in the sector nationwide.

Despite poor academic performance and financial problems at some of these schools — including four virtual charter schools the state gave F grades to in 2017 — Indiana lawmakers killed three separate attempts to strengthen laws surrounding the oversight of charter schools this year.

Even for supporters of charter school expansion, the planned opening of an online agriculture school serving kids in grades 7 through 12 raises questions, particularly at a time when the drawbacks of virtual education are becoming more widely known.

“It just strikes me as a little bit bizarre, having a full-time virtual agriculture school,” said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president for state advocacy and support for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “The marrying of these two just doesn’t, at least on the surface, just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. … I’m concerned that new full-time virtual charter schools are opening up in Indiana, given the problems they have with the current batch of them.”

The Indiana Agriculture and Technology School is home to several different types of terrain, including wetlands and forest.

*****

Sutherlin, the school’s founder, is known across Indiana for his influential state and national political career, but he describes a more humble beginning — he grew up in Fillmore, Indiana, on a farm, the son of two teachers. After spending his childhood learning about farming and agriculture from his father and grandfather and showing cattle and hogs at the state fair, he went to school to become a veterinarian, then veered into studying life sciences and microbiology instead. Ultimately deciding against a graduate degree, he landed a job with Gov. Robert Orr’s office as an environmental advisor in the 1980s.

In that position, he kickstarted what would become a decades-long career in politics, including roles advising Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. In the early 1980s, he also helped orchestrate controversial changes to Indiana’s political districts, which contributed to a wave of changes that set up the Republican Party to win a majority in Congress. Now, he’s a political consultant in Indiana. He ran a successful campaign for Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard and maintains other local clients.

Sutherlin told Chalkbeat that he’s been working on the idea for the school for years — specifically, how to get Indiana students to understand the role agriculture plays in the state and in their lives. He said at least five years ago he was beginning those conversations with a founding board member at Indiana Virtual School, which a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation revealed was bringing in more than $20 million of state funding despite its two consecutive F grades from the state and single-digit graduation rate. A spokesperson from Indiana Virtual didn’t respond to a request for comment but in the past has said the school enrolls many students who struggle in traditional schools and often come in below grade level.

Following Chalkbeat’s investigation and a call to action from Gov. Eric Holcomb, the Indiana State Board of Education formed a committee in May to look into virtual school rules and regulations. Holcomb and board members have said they are concerned about the schools’ performance. That committee is set to meet for the first time in early June.

Sutherlin also became involved with Indiana Virtual School about two years ago as a consultant, when he worked on an application to replicate it in Texas. He was included in communications from the school to Chalkbeat as recently as December. But he said in March that he is no longer working with Indiana Virtual and that a confidentiality agreement blocked him from sharing specifics about his consulting work. Indiana Virtual School did not respond to a request for comment about Sutherlin’s work there.

“I’m not working directly with Indiana Virtual School at this moment,” Sutherlin said. “They might give me a call and ask me a question, but I don’t have a direct relationship … I’m a businessman, and I don’t want to turn away clients if they need my help.”

While opening a virtual school wasn’t his initial plan, it was a way to advance Sutherlin’s dreams of expanding agriculture education in the state. The agriculture school, Sutherlin said, is a “completely different model” that is learning from the mistakes of other virtual charters.

Typically, full-time virtual schools put few restrictions on how and when students learn, opting for a wide-open schedule that some parents and students have told Chalkbeat is the reason they sought virtual learning in the first place. The agriculture school will require four to six hours a day of online class work, done as self-paced modules and not taught live. It will also split its 188-day school year into nine-week chunks, which the school hopes will make it easier for students to stay on-track. These limits can also ensure students don’t fall too far behind, school leaders said.

The school also plans to structure its staff more like a traditional high school’s than many virtual schools do, with lead teachers, subject-specific teachers, tutors, and other educators who act as social workers and counselors — all certified in Indiana. The school is shooting for a teacher-to-student ratio of about 1 to 75, which is much lower than Indiana Virtual School, which had one teacher for every 222 students at the end of the 2016-17 school year. But it’s still far higher than traditional schools and reports from Indiana online charter schools run by K12 Inc. and Connections, two large national online education providers.

Students will have face-to-face time with teachers during some video study sessions, and teachers will grade their work, track progress, and periodically travel to students’ homes, school staff says. The school also plans to take live attendance every day. Indiana has no set requirements for measuring attendance — some schools, such as Indiana Virtual School, have counted students present if they enroll, resulting in 100 percent attendance rates over the past few years. Others, such as Indiana Connections Academy, pull their rates from how often students actually log on to do work — more in line with how the agriculture school says it will operate.

These elements were designed in part by Keith Marsh, the school’s academic director. Marsh said he didn’t expect to return to virtual charters after another school where he held the same role was shuttered amid academic and financial trouble. Indiana Cyber Charter School was shut down in 2015 by its authorizer, Education One, following a significant drop in test scores and financial management issues, including vendors not getting paid, according to a spokeswoman for Education One.

“That’s when I said I’m pretty much done with virtual until this opportunity came along,” said Marsh, who spent much of his early career as an administrator in private and township schools across the state.

But when Marsh heard about the school through a different consulting project, he said he saw an opportunity to try again to get online learning right for Indiana students. “I really want our school to kind of be a model for … how virtual education should work,” Marsh said.

Keith Marsh, academic director at Indiana Agriculture and Technology School, explains plans for the farm’s hands-on learning.

The vision for the school also excited Timothy Edsell, the superintendent of Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson school district, when Sutherlin approached him about a year ago. Sutherlin needed an “authorizer,” or a state-endorsed entity that would sign off on the plans and monitor the school’s performance and operations over time.

Sutherlin said the 1,868-student district was a good fit because it is part of a rural, agriculture-focused community the school hopes to appeal to. Although the district has never supervised a charter school, Edsell said, it sought — and quickly received — approval from the Indiana State Board of Education to become an authorizer last year.

That a small district would supervise a statewide virtual school is not unprecedented. The troubled Indiana Virtual School, where Sutherlin was a consultant, is also overseen by a small rural district, Daleville Public Schools.

“It’s uncharted territory for us because obviously we’ve never done something like this before,” Edsell said of the decision to authorize the agriculture school. “From the monitoring aspect, one of our biggest concerns is to make sure there is success.”

*****

But the rural district has waded into a murky part of Indiana charter school law that has — perhaps inadvertently — given it the power to oversee statewide schools.

In a 2015 law, lawmakers clarified numerous specifics surrounding charter school authorizing. The law spelled out that local districts like Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson can only authorize charter schools within their boundaries, while colleges and the Indiana Charter School Board could be statewide authorizers. It also kept a provision from 2011 that says virtual schools are to be overseen by statewide authorizers.

But there are still parts that lack clarity — the law didn’t explicitly allow or prohibit local districts from overseeing statewide virtual schools, even though doing so would mean they could potentially take responsibility for thousands of students far outside their physical boundaries.

“That’s a big loophole in Indiana law, unfortunately,” said Ziebarth, with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson is “probably meeting the letter of the law,” said Rep. Bob Behning, the 2015 law’s author, but the wider issue is “something we’re going to have to look at.”

Some critics question whether a local district has the resources to act as a statewide authorizer and oversee a school with students across Indiana. It’s not uncommon for districts to have only one person, or sometimes a part-time person, doing the main authorizing work in addition to their district jobs.

“Most places you have district capacity issues to oversee any charter school, let alone a statewide charter school,” said Karega Rausch, vice president of research and evaluation for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Authorizers in Indiana do stand to benefit financially from the schools they oversee. Edsell said the district planned to collect 3 percent of the school’s state funding in oversight fees. If the school opens with its planned 550 students, that could be more than $70,000. So far, only about 80 students have committed to the school, Marsh said.

Sutherlin said he decided to approach Edsell about authorizing, rather than a more experienced statewide authorizer like Ball State University or the Indiana Charter School Board, because he liked the “grassroots” approach.

“We worked very hard to get firm financial footing in place to alleviate any concerns that they might have,” Sutherlin said. “We did everything we could to show that we were serious about this.”

*****

One area where authorizers play an important role is vetting contracts, leases and other land deals, such as the purchase of the agriculture school’s farm campus. The sale of the property has taken place outside of public view and illustrates how Indiana law could be clearer when it comes to charter school board members and conflicts of interest.

The farmland, made up of 16 parcels, was in danger of foreclosure and was up for auction in September of 2016, according to the Morgan County Assessor’s Office. But before the auction took place, the land was deeded from Kevin Presnell, the previous owner, to Network Venture Funding, a private investment firm where current agriculture school board treasurer John Curtis is a managing partner, county officials and a school spokeswoman said.

Curtis purchased the property as an investment before Sutherlin approached him about using it as a physical campus for students, according to the school spokeswoman who spoke on Curtis’ behalf. School officials told Chalkbeat that Curtis said his company paid about $2.6 million for the land. The school would not send Chalkbeat documents reflecting the purchase price or explaining how it was determined. Presnell could not be reached for comment.

There is no lease yet between Network Venture Funding and the school, but in an email, Curtis said he would ask the firm’s board to approve a $1 rental agreement for the upcoming school year. School officials said that when the school opens later this summer and the board finds a replacement, Curtis will step down as a board member and treasurer.

“This then will eliminate any potential for conflicts,” Curtis said in an email.

Curtis said neither he nor Sutherlin have been paid for any of their work on the school so far and that the school has been able to use the farm rent-free over the past year as it prepares to open. After next year, he said, the school’s board will have to decide what it can afford as far as rent.

Indiana law says that neither board members or prospective board members for traditional schools may have a financial interest in schools they serve, but it’s not clear if those rules apply to charter schools.

Sutherlin said he plans to keep funds provided by the state for students separate from private dollars raised to build and develop the farm. Going forward, though, having private entities involved could make it harder to get a full financial picture of the school.

An experienced authorizer, Ziebarth said, would be able to review property arrangements and raise red flags if necessary.

“It’s not in the best interest of the public to basically authorize a school for something that involves a real estate boon for somebody,” Ziebarth said. “There’s the potential for conflicts of interest for sure.”

*****

As of now, there is no firm plan for when academic facilities might be built on the farmland nor is there a set schedule for when students can visit the farm. Officials said the trips won’t be mandatory. But Marsh said he thinks visits will begin in September, and the school plans to transport the students from their homes, which could be scattered across the state.

The farm is in southern Indiana only a few miles from the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson district office.

Now, Marsh and school officials are traveling across Indiana to recruit. After seeing a Facebook ad for the school, Charlo Montandon thought it would be the perfect fit for her grandson, an animated 15-year-old who has a passion for agriculture.

Solomon Montandon said he was excited to find a school where he felt like he belonged. Like other students drawn to virtual charter schools, he didn’t thrive in traditional schools. His grandmother said Solomon has dealt with emotional and anxiety issues stemming from his time in foster care, and he has also been picked on at school for being small.

“He loves farms and he loves farming,” she said. “He’s shown llamas … for four or five years for 4-H and he’s shown goats a couple times. It sounded just like him.”

Indiana Agriculture and Technology School says it can address some of the pitfalls that have plagued online charter schools across the country, though it will be more than a year before scores can show how much students are learning.

Last year, 34 states had 429 full-time online charter schools that enrolled 295,518 students, an increase of 17,000 students from 2015-16, according to a recent report from the National Education Policy Center. In Indiana, the schools enroll about 12,000 students, about 1 percent of all students. But of the five virtual charter schools that were graded by Indiana in 2017, four received Fs, according to the state, and experts wonder if expansion is happening too quickly.

“We saw 6 percent growth in the number of students in virtual schools (across the country),” said Gary Miron, a virtual school researcher at the National Education Policy Center. “It defies common sense.”

Virtual school critics have said it’s not just on schools to improve themselves — the state has work to do. Indiana lawmakers, who have the most power to act and can do so relatively quickly, have so far been loathe to make any changes when it comes to virtual charter schools, despite years of well-documented shortcomings in Indiana and the nation as a whole.

Holcomb has called on the Indiana State Board of Education to study the schools further and consider policy changes, but even he said he doesn’t think the legislature needs to get involved. And lawmakers themselves point to a need for more data on the population of students who attend virtual schools before they feel comfortable stepping in.

At the very least, lawmakers should close the district authorizing loophole, Ziebarth said.

“The governor came out and said he wanted these changes, and everyone else seemed to flinch from it,” he said. “This seems like a piece of low-hanging fruit for them to take on.”

Check out more of Chalkbeat’s online school stories.

Indiana state board OKs committee to consider virtual charter school rules

2018-05-02T19:15:10+00:00

The Indiana State Board of Education is moving forward with forming a committee that is expected to look closely into how virtual charter schools are regulated.

The step comes nearly five months after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for “immediate attention and action” on Indiana’s subpar online charter schools. Board member Gordon Hendry will lead the committee, which represents the state’s first move to give the schools more oversight since a Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School last year revealed how state law doesn’t go far enough to hold operators and authorizers of online charter schools accountable.

“I’ve been disappointed with performance (of virtual charters schools),” Hendry said. “Our taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars each year to educate the students in virtual charters. I think we owe it to ourselves to ensure we’re doing everything possible to make that happen.”

The resolution proposed by board member Gordon Hendry was approved by an 8-0 vote on Wednesday.

So far, lawmakers have been hesitant to to take decisive action regarding virtual charter schools. This year, the legislature killed three bills that would have regulated charter schools, though they didn’t specifically address virtual charter schools. Seven virtual charter schools are operating in Indiana this year, serving about 12,000 students across the state.

Special report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Hendry said board members Cari Whicker and Maryanne McMahon, both public school administrators, already offered to be on the committee. It’s not clear how often they would meet.

Three board members, including state Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, were not present to vote.

Hendry and board member B.J. Watts said they wanted board member Byron Ernest, the former head of three virtual charter schools, in the state to weigh-in on the committee’s future conversations because of his experience leading Hoosier Academies, a post he left last fall.

But the schools’ history with the state board has been fraught at times. In 2015, Hoosier Academy Virtual, then one of the largest full-time online charter schools in the state, reached its limit for consecutive F grades. After several hearings over more than two years, the state board finally decided to impose a fairly lenient punishment.

Just a couple months later, the school’s own board voted to close at the end of this year.

Hendry said both local and national problems with online charter schools prompted him to propose the resolution.

“It’s my intent to spend the next four to six months really delving into the issues,” Hendry said. “And making some recommendations for both this board as well as the General Assembly to consider.”

Read more of Chalkbeat’s coverage of online schools.

This story has been corrected to reflect that board member Byron Ernest was present for the vote.

Indiana education officials are taking another look at regulating virtual charter schools

2018-04-27T20:29:35+00:00

Nearly five months after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for “immediate attention and action” on Indiana’s subpar online charter schools, state education officials might soon take steps to address them — although they could fall short of the sweeping changes virtual school critics are pushing for.

The Indiana State Board of Education is expected to vote Wednesday on forming a committee that could become Indiana’s first effort in recent years to strengthen virtual charter school oversight. State board member Gordon Hendry would lead the committee. Hendry said it’s the state board’s responsibility to ensure online charter schools are performing and are managed properly, especially when Hoosier tax dollars support them.

He also added that if lawmakers won’t step in and take more immediate, decisive action — which they’ve been hesitant to do — the state board needs to add regulation. The Republican-dominated legislature killed three bills this year that would have regulated charter schools and declined to address virtual charter schools, which are public schools that allow students to attend school online from home.

“I have had my reservations about the poor performance of many of these schools,” said Hendry, a Democrat who has been on the board since 2013. “So I hope that we can draw some attention to the issue, bring in some of our thought leaders both in Indiana and nationally and try to solve some of the problems in a constructive way.”

Hendry said he is unsure if the measure will gain board support, but he’s hopeful. Holcomb’s education policy director, PJ McGrew, has been researching best practices in virtual schools across the country to help Indiana revise its own rules. Adopting new regulations could take at least a year after the committee makes its recommendations to the board.

Critics have called for more sweeping actions to address online charter schools, which — across the nation — suffer from low graduation rates, dismal student test scores, and financial and legal scandals.

A Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School last year revealed how state law doesn’t go far enough to hold operators and authorizers of online charter schools accountable. The probe found that Indiana Virtual hired few teachers, posted poor academic performance and had questionable spending and business practices.

Special report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Since then, the state has also seen new virtual education programs crop up within public school districts. Those online programs are hard to evaluate because districts don’t release separate data for them.

The National Association for Charter School Authorizers recommends that states consider policies specific to virtual schools, such as making enrollment more selective and funding them based on whether students complete classes.

Indiana falls short when it comes to virtual school regulation, according to the association’s most recent report, even as the state is praised for having charter school-friendly laws that the association says still hold schools accountable for performance. For the third year in a row, the group ranked Indiana No. 1 in the nation.

But online charter schools have effectively lobbied Indiana and other states to fend off major regulations.

It’s not yet clear how often the state board’s committee would meet or who would be on it. A majority of the state board would have to vote in favor to form the committee.

The state board has gone back and forth on how to handle virtual charter schools, most notably in its yearslong discussions on Hoosier Academy Virtual, which had reached its limit for consecutive F grades from the state. Ultimately, the board decided to impose a fairly lenient punishment.

The academy was headed by state board member Byron Ernest until he announced his resignation last fall, shortly after the school’s board voted to have the school close this June. Ernest recused himself from discussions and votes pertaining to Hoosier Academies.

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick has joined Hendry in pushing for tighter accountability for virtual schools.

“Virtual charters are public schools, and the state spends millions of dollars to ensure that the students are receiving the best education they can,” Hendry said. “This is an appropriate topic for us to roll up our sleeves and do some real hard work and make some recommendations.”

Read more of Chalkbeat’s coverage of online schools here.

A tiny Indiana district is banking on virtual education to survive. But at what cost?

2018-03-06T22:54:51+00:00

In one year, a tiny rural Indiana school district more than tripled its enrollment, growing to nearly 1,000 students. But more than 800 of those students learn exclusively through a virtual education program — and despite fully funding it, the state has no way to know how well it’s doing.

State officials, researchers and the public can’t easily determine if students are learning because Union Schools’ virtual program and others like it are not distinct schools. Their student performance, enrollment, teaching staffs, and other data are rolled into existing brick-and-mortar schools.

Indiana lawmakers are starting to pay attention to the rapid growth in Union and realizing that programs like these could come at considerable cost. Unexpected growth in public schools is throwing off school funding estimates. Although virtual education programs are only one contributing factor, they are part of a larger shortfall creating a stir during this year’s legislative session.

There’s no way of tracking exactly where these virtual programs exist, how much they cost, or how students are performing.

As a result, lawmakers are taking steps to learn more about districts that pursue in-house virtual education programs and how pervasive they are across the state. District-run programs like the one at Union have operated largely unnoticed, even as online charter schools have shown dismal academic results and attracted scandal in Indiana and across the country.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Despite that, districts are using online learning to strategically expand their offerings — and as a profit stream.

“That’s where we’ve seen the greatest growth in K-12 online learning, is with the district-based programs,” said Michael Barbour, a researcher and professor from Touro University in California. “Districts have been losing (students) to these cyber charter schools for so long that they essentially want to develop an in-house version.”

Superintendent Allen Hayne said Union Rockets Virtual Academy has given his students more opportunities for learning. Even though Union is a tiny rural district about 70 miles northeast of Indianapolis, the program attracts students from more than 70 counties across the state. The boost in students has kept the district afloat financially as residential enrollment has waned, a trend for rural districts across the state.

Union operates its program with K12 Inc., one of the largest virtual education providers in the country. K12 also operates three Hoosier Academies charter schools, one of which is set to close in June.

Union’s growth came as a surprise to state lawmakers — and it was concerning enough that they’re crafting legislation that would require schools to submit yearly reports about their in-district virtual programs.

Rep. Tim Brown, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, last week amended Senate Bill 189, focused on school funding, to add in requirements for district-based virtual programs. By October, districts with these programs would have to report virtual program enrollment, total district enrollment, what grades the virtual students are in, where they live, and how much of their day is spent in a virtual learning program.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Brown said. “We need some data before you can necessarily take an analysis of what you think should happen in the future.”

The lack of distinct data on in-house virtual programs, Barbour said, means there’s almost no evidence that shows whether they are working.

“We have no easy way of discerning how the kids are doing compared to other online programs or compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts because they are masked by everybody else,” Barbour said.

What we know about virtual education comes from research on virtual charter schools. On the whole, statewide virtual charter schools have shown poor student achievement: Every full-time Indiana online charter school received an F from the state in 2017.

Read: Gov. Eric Holcomb says Indiana’s low-rated online charter schools need ‘immediate attention and action’

But there are ways for districts to be more transparent. They can establish a separate school, which would allow their results to stand on their own.

Wayne Township has long had a separate, full-time online school, which primarily serves students who live within an hour of the district. Achieve Virtual Education Academy has existed in some form since 1999, starting as a distance-learning program. This year, the school enrolled 220 students, and in 2017, it was rated a D.

All of Achieve’s state data — test scores, graduation rate, enrollment, teacher evaluations — are available through Indiana’s state data website.

It’s still too early for Union to know how its virtual students are doing — because they just started, they haven’t tested yet. But the program has been popular, Hayne said. He gets phone calls just about every day from parents asking to enroll their students, and more than 200 students are on a waiting list.

Part of the reason Union pursued a virtual program was financial. The district needed to attract more students, and this was an easy way that also allowed them to expand course offerings for students living and attending school within the district.

The financial incentive for creating a district-run virtual program instead of becoming a charter school authorizer is appealing — and it offers the district more control.

First, authorizers can only collect up to 3 percent in fees from schools they oversee. Union’s contract with K12 Inc. nets them 5 percent. And unlike in online charter schools, virtual students in district programs get 100 percent of the state funding that traditional schools receive. Virtual charter schools get only 90 percent.

Overall, Hayne said Union ends up with about a few hundred thousand dollars.

“It kind of did a stop-gap measure for us. We’re not rolling in the money, to say the least,” Hayne said. “It kind of made us break even within our budget.”

Union’s strategy isn’t the only way to run a virtual program. Decatur Township, on the southwest side of Indianapolis, intentionally keeps its program small and mostly local, enrolling students from within 25 miles of district boundaries.

Decatur Township’s “MyLearning Virtual” program has been around for almost two years and currently enrolls 57 students, said assistant superintendent Nate Davis.

“We really don’t have any plans for major growth,” Davis said. “What we really want to do is use it … for a specific niche population within our school community that needs an alternative to a brick-and-mortar option.”

But as with Union, information about Decatur’s virtual enrollment size or student achievement isn’t distinct and isn’t available to the public.

That’s where Brown’s amendment would come in.

Still, the bill is currently in limbo. It’s one of two school funding bills lawmakers are negotiating during these last couple of weeks of session. It’s unclear at this point which version will move ahead. The virtual education issue didn’t receive much debate.

Chalkbeat’s investigation into Indiana Virtual School, a fast-growing online charter school that spent little of its state dollars on teachers and instruction, has spurred some interest from lawmakers in virtual education, but their attempts to make change so far have failed. Three other bills proposed this year that would have tightened rules for charter school authorizers and limited growth based on test scores were never given a hearing.

The financial incentives from the state, both for IVS and district-based virtual programs, means it’s likely that virtual education will continue to grow in Indiana.

Brown’s amendment could bring the state information about growth, but it wouldn’t do much to inform the debate about whether full-time virtual education is good for students. Rep. Greg Porter, an Indianapolis Democrat who also wants the state to look more closely at virtual schools and ratchet up consequences for low graduation rate, said the status quo isn’t enough.

“It is imperative that we have some transparency when it comes to virtual education,” Porter said. “Hopefully this summer, or next year when we do the budget … we’ll look at it in a hard way.”

Indiana lawmakers aren’t cracking down on virtual charter schools despite calls for change

2018-02-14T22:11:22+00:00

Indiana lawmakers have killed three attempts to tighten the state’s charter school authorizing laws, even after Gov. Eric Holcomb called for improved accountability of troubled online charter schools.

A Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School last year revealed how state law doesn’t go far enough to hold operators and authorizers of online charter schools accountable. The probe found that Indiana Virtual posted dismal academic results, hired few teachers, and had spending and business practices that raised ethical questions.

Special report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

But with proposals to tighten regulations facing pushback from influential education advocates, Republican lawmakers — many of whom benefit from online schools’ lobbying and campaign contributions — say there’s little interest in making changes.

“I’m surprised myself,” said Sen. Dennis Kruse, the Republican Senate Education Committee chairman who authored one of the charter school bills. “People from all different walks of life had concerns about different parts of the bill. Nobody came to me and said, ‘This is a great bill, go ahead and proceed with the bill.’”

Still, Holcomb is taking other steps to strengthen virtual charter school policy. With the Indiana State Board of Education, Holcomb’s team has been collecting information on best practices in virtual schools across the country.

PJ McGrew, the governor’s education policy director, said he hopes to have a plan to revise virtual school policies for the state board to consider in the spring. It could take about a year for the board to change that policy if they decide to move forward.

Lawmakers’ hesitation isn’t really surprising: Indiana has made sweeping changes to expand school choice, and Republican leaders have seldom supported laws that would restrict choice — even when issues are raised.

Rep. Bob Behning, the chairman of the influential House Education Committee who has long advocated for charter schools and new school models, said he doesn’t want to “jump into something, making a judgment, without knowing what the answers are.”

He also pointed out that it isn’t always clear how the state should hold schools accountable in practice because education law can be difficult to enforce: “There is no education police.”

“I definitely see there are some alarms that we need to be focused on and alerted to,” Behning said. “But there are similar alarms in traditional public schools going off all over the place as well. That’s the place I think we do struggle with. At what point in time is it appropriate for us to intervene?”

None of the bills proposed by lawmakers this year dealt directly with virtual schools, applying instead to charter schools as a whole. And none of them received any hearings.

Kruse’s proposal, Senate Bill 350, would have effectively prevented struggling online charter schools — or any charter school — from easily replicating. It would have stopped an authorizer from offering a new charter to an existing organizer unless its current students are achieving academically.

Three of Indiana’s largest online charter schools, including Indiana Virtual School, have recently opened second schools, which could help them stay in business if their first schools get shut down after years of poor performance

Two other proposals from Democrats, Senate Bills 315 and 406, went much further in dictating the results charter schools must show to enroll new students and open new schools.

Sen. Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat who proposed Senate Bill 315, said for his caucus, examining whether charter schools need more regulation and oversight has been a recurring priority.

“It isn’t a difficult question,” he said. “It just needs to be done.”

But lawmakers would be up against the charter school movement’s money and influence.

Indiana lawmakers, including Behning and Kruse, have seen campaign contributions from online education companies. K12 Inc., one of the largest online education providers in the country, has given more than $90,000 to Indiana Republican races since 2006, according to the state campaign contribution database. Connections, another large national provider, has given more than $20,000.

Those online providers, who operate five online charter schools in Indiana, also have spent tens of thousands of dollars each year for the last decade lobbying lawmakers.

Indiana Virtual School has also recently started lobbying lawmakers in Indiana. Tom Stoughton, the founder of Indiana Virtual School, was listed as a registered lobbyist for the school in January, even as school officials say he has distanced himself from the school. Stoughton’s involvement with the school’s for-profit management company has raised ethical questions.

In the first filing period for 2017, Indiana Virtual School spent almost $12,000 on lobbying, according to data from the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission. In 2016, IVS spent a little more than $13,300.

Prominent charter school advocates can wield influence outside of lobbying, too. They have said they fear more prescriptive laws could hem in successful schools and authorizers, even though they have agreed that virtual schools, specifically, need more attention and oversight.

“Specific rules written to restrict the decisions of authorizers will not transform bad authorizers into high-quality authorizers,” David Harris, CEO of The Mind Trust, told Chalkbeat in January.

The National Association for Charter School Authorizers recommends that states consider virtual-specific policies, such as completion-based funding, making enrollment more selective, or even making them a different kind of non-charter school so enrollment and governance can be more controlled.

Indiana falls short when it comes to virtual school regulation, according to the association’s most recent report, even as the state is praised for having the strongest charter school laws in the nation. For the third year in a row, the group ranked Indiana No. 1.

Mike Petrilli, executive director of the Fordham Foundation, a conservative think tank that supports access to charter schools, has spoken in favor of making virtual schools a separate school type.

“We’ve got to turn this on its head,” Petrilli said. “It would be hard to do it within the general charter school rules which say you’ve got to take everybody … What we have learned is the charter school model and online learning are not a good fit for each other.”

Charter advocacy group ranks Indiana’s law No. 1, but calls for greater virtual school accountability

2018-01-29T22:08:56+00:00

For the third year in a row, Indiana was recognized by a leading charter school advocacy group for having the nation’s strongest charter school law, but the state was cited for failing to take action to properly regulate online charter schools.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has ranked Indiana No. 1 since 2016 based on how well state law corresponds with the Alliance’s model law. Specifically, Indiana is praised for not capping charter schools’ growth and for directing more money to charter schools to make up funding gaps compared to traditional schools. The state was lauded for its “remarkable growth and development” in charter schools since they started in 2001.

The high rating by the group, whose purpose is to promote and support charter school growth, is the latest indication of Indiana’s commitment to allowing outside groups develop and run public schools independent of school districts. Such pro-charter policies have been supported for years by Republican legislators and governors.

But even in its praise for the state’s pro-charter policies, the group found fault with Indiana’s oversight of virtual schools. The group called on the state to raise the bar for online charter schools, which have had a track record of abysmal performance not just in Indiana, but across the nation.

Indiana has yet to include most of the Alliance’s recommendations regarding full-time virtual schools in state law. The Alliance’s report says Indiana law includes a “small number” of the Alliance’s virtual school provisions, but it still has work to do in “strengthening accountability for full-time virtual charter schools.”

Indiana is not alone — no states include all of the online charter school provisions recommended by the Alliance, and many were called out for failing to include any at all. Although the Alliance advocates for increasing charter schools across the country, it also emphasizes school quality.

In a recent report, the Alliance outlined policies to help regulate virtual schools. They include setting maximum enrollment levels for virtual schools and not allowing them to exceed that enrollment in subsequent years unless they could prove students were learning. States are also encouraged to create a performance-based funding system, where schools get money based on what students achieve, not on whether they are enrolled. Both ideas have received initial support from Indiana lawmakers and policymakers.

The 2018 alliance ranking follows a Chalkbeat investigation identifying low performance at Indiana Virtual School and questionable business and spending practices. Despite Indiana Virtual’s F grades and subpar graduation rate, the state continues to allocate millions of dollars to it. In September, Indiana Virtual opened a second school. Almost every online charter school in Indiana received an F grade in 2017, and like Indiana Virtual, several others have also recently opened additional schools.

Special Report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Earlier this month, two state senators introduced bills to tighten charter school oversight laws and prevent poor performing schools from multiplying, but no hearings have been scheduled yet. Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, has committed to working with the state board to look into virtual schools in Indiana, but details of his policy plans are not yet clear.

Learn more about Indiana Virtual School and online charters in the state here.

Indiana Virtual School has the lowest graduation rate of any public school in the state

2018-01-12T19:02:04+00:00

For the second year in a row, Indiana Virtual School graduated a lower percentage of students than almost every other high school in the state.

In 2017, 6.5 percent of students graduated — 64 students out of 985. Of the schools the state provided data for, only a private school that caters to students with significant intellectual and behavioral disabilities posted lower numbers. Indiana Virtual’s rate is up slightly from 5.7 percent the year before.

It’s possible there are other schools with lower graduation rates, but the state does not release data for schools with fewer than 10 students in the graduating class to comply with federal privacy laws.

The graduation data, released this week by the Indiana Department of Education, comes months after a Chalkbeat investigation found widespread low performance at Indiana Virtual School and questionable business and spending practices.

Special Report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

From 2016 to 2017, the school’s graduating class more than doubled. Last May, Indiana Virtual School enrolled nearly 4,700 students. Despite Indiana Virtual’s poor performance, it continues to bring in millions of dollars from the state. In September, it opened a second school. After shifting almost 3,000 of its students to the new Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy in the fall, Indiana Virtual had 3,376 students.

Indiana Virtual has received two failing grades from the state since it opened in 2011. Last year, 20 percent of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students and 8 percent of 10th-graders at Indiana Virtual passed the English and math state tests. Statewide, about half of students in grades K-8 and one-third of high school students passed both exams.

Thomas Burroughs, the school’s lawyer and former board member, defended the school’s performance to Chalkbeat in October, saying the school offers a last chance to students who would have no other way to graduate. The school’s superintendent, Percy Clark, also said many students at the school enroll after having been expelled elsewhere and start behind their peers.

Across the state, 87.2 percent of students graduated from high school in 2017. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of students in a high school cohort by the number of them who graduate as seniors after four years.

Every online charter school in Indiana graduated fewer students than the state as a whole, though some, such as Indiana Connections Academy and Hoosier Academy Indianapolis, a hybrid school with a traditional campus on the city’s east side, show marked improvement from last year. Insight School of Indiana has no data for 2016 because it had not yet opened.

School	2017 graduation rate	2016 graduation rate
Indiana Virtual School	6.50%	5.7%
Hoosier Academy Indianapolis	68.42%	53.3%
Insight School of Indiana	17.21%	—
Hoosier Academy Virtual	23.32%	22.7%
Indiana Connections Academy	49.48%	43.9%

Although Gov. Eric Holcomb has already committed to working with the state board to look into online charter schools, he has not specified what action they will take. Earlier this month, lawmakers also proposed laws to tighten up the state’s rules for charter school oversight, but this soon in the legislative session, it’s hard to say how far such proposals will get.

Learn more about Indiana Virtual School and online charters in the state here.

Two Indiana Senate bills would tighten up rules for charter school oversight

2018-01-05T00:24:01+00:00

Two Indiana senators — a Republican and a Democrat — are calling for the state to reform how charter schools are overseen.

Sen. Dennis Kruse, an Auburn Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Sen. Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat also on the committee, have each proposed a bill to ensure charter school authorizers cannot open new schools or renew charters without evidence that students are learning.

The bills come two months after a Chalkbeat investigation revealed that while the small Daleville Community School District charged with overseeing Indiana Virtual School has appeared to follow state law, it isn’t necessarily meeting the needs of the school’s thousands of students.

Special Report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

The district was on track to earn at least $750,000 in fees last year overseeing Indiana Virtual, which over its six-year lifespan has earned two F-grades and, in 2016, managed to muster only single-digit graduation rates. The school continues to bring in millions of state dollars for its students, and in September, opened up a second school, also chartered by Daleville.

Kruse’s Senate Bill 350 says an authorizer cannot offer a contract, or charter, to an existing organizer unless its current students are achieving academically. Organizers are nonprofits that run charter schools. They’d have to provide evidence that could include test scores, attendance rates, graduation rates, increased numbers of students taking advanced classes or earning honors diplomas.

The bill would require the Indiana Department of Education to create rules by Nov. 1 to prevent charter school organizers from committing financial or enrollment “fraud, waste and abuse.” Schools would also have to submit an annual report that includes audits, the most recent enrollment count, and a list of employee salaries.

Currently, Indiana authorizers — which include universities, mayors, or school districts — can only be punished for their school’s bad academic performance, not other kinds of missteps. This bill would empower the state board to more closely scrutinize and take action regarding charter schools and authorizers.

If the department finds the school was in violation, the department would be required to tell the organizer and recommend that the state board do one of the following:

Require the school’s authorizer to revoke its charter,
Withhold funding from the school, or
Require the school to take action to remedy its problems.

Stoops’ Senate Bill 315 goes even further by placing more restrictions on authorizers that are school districts or universities. He said he wasn’t aware that Kruse was offering a bill on the same topic, but that he looks forward to talking with him about it. He’s worked unsuccessfully before to regulate authorizing, but new information about online charter schools has spurred him to address it again this year.

“Charter schools are a little out of control,” Stoops said. “They continue to take students even when they fail, and the whole issue of how authorizers get a cut of their funding, so there’s a lot of incentive for authorizers to create these new schools.”

The bill removes the 2015 grandfathering provision that let existing authorizers avoid screening by the Indiana State Board of Education before they were allowed to open charter schools. Under the bill, these authorizers must now be screened before they can renew existing charters or authorize new schools.

The bill does not change the fact that the state board does not screen school districts, such as Daleville, but instead requires them to register as authorizers, and they are automatically approved.

Stoops also included language in the bill that would give charter school authorizers stricter rules around what state grades are needed to open or renew schools. The bill says that an authorizer may not sponsor a charter school if that school’s organizer already runs a school in Indiana that has received a D or F grade for two consecutive years.

Read: In danger of closure, virtual charter surprises state board by transferring students to sister school

Like in the state’s voucher law, grades would be factored into whether charter schools can enroll new students under Stoops’ plan.

Starting July 1, a charter school that earns a D or F for two consecutive years cannot accept new students for one year. If the school earns a third D or F, the school may not accept new students until it earns a C-grade or better for two consecutive years. If a school earns an F grade for three consecutive years, it cannot enroll new students until it has received a C-grade or better for three consecutive years.

The bill also would eliminate the fees all authorizers can collect for overseeing schools starting in July. Now, authorizers can get up to 3 percent of a charter school’s state funding.

Although these provisions don’t apply to all authorizers, David Harris, executive director for The Mind Trust, said he worries aspects of both bills infringe on the autonomy that can also make charter schools successful. The Mind Trust works closely with Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office on supporting mayor-sponsored charter schools in Indianapolis.

“Specific rules written to restrict the decisions of authorizers will not transform bad authorizers into high-quality authorizers,” Harris said.

This early in the session, it’s hard to say how far such proposals will get. Committee chairs like Kruse tend to advance bills they author, but Stoops’ bill faces another hurdle: Democrats are in the vast minority in the General Assembly, and it’s the majority party that has the discretion to say what merits discussion. That said, Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, has already committed to working with the state board to look into virtual schools.

Ultimately, Stoops said that the track records and poor performance of some charter schools and online schools speak for themselves, and he thinks it’s causing policymakers to take a second look at how to regulate them.

“How do they get away with it?” Stoops said. “I think that’s definitely worth dealing with.”

Gov. Eric Holcomb says Indiana’s low-rated online charter schools need ‘immediate attention and action’

2017-12-07T23:39:59+00:00

On Thursday, Gov. Eric Holcomb said the Indiana Virtual School’s “unsatisfactory” performance — which includes two years of F grades, low ISTEP scores and high student-teacher ratio — requires policymakers to get involved.

In October, Chalkbeat reported that Indiana Virtual School, one of the state’s largest online charter schools, had received more than $20 million from the state while graduating about 61 students. And between at least 2011 and 2015, a for-profit company headed by Indiana Virtual’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, charged the school millions of dollars in management services and rent.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

“The state shouldn’t allow schools that have that poor of performance to continue,” Holcomb told Chalkbeat in a one-on-one interview. “I look forward over this next year, with the state board of education, to help put in place measures that hold schools accountable for poor performance. Poor performance would be putting it lightly.”

Holcomb is not alone in calling for Indiana to address the poor academic track records of statewide online charter schools, even though Indiana has long embraced charter schools and school choice.

Former state schools chief Glenda Ritz said virtual schools aren’t a sufficient alternative to traditional schools. State board member Tony Walker said he was shocked by Indiana Virtual’s low number of teachers, while The Mind Trust’s David Harris thinks the state should place a renewed focus on the quality of authorizers, the groups that oversee charters in Indiana. Indiana Virtual is one of the few schools in the state to be overseen by a public school district, Daleville Schools, a small rural district near Muncie.

Also on Thursday, the Indiana State Teachers Association called for a moratorium on virtual charter school growth as well as a funding formula fix based on academic progress, not enrollment. ISTA also asked more broadly for more scrutiny of charter school finances and for the state education department to “approve and monitor a plan to prevent financial and enrollment fraud, waste and abuse.”

Indiana Virtual and its sister school that opened this year, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, together enroll 6,332 students. Across the state, more than 12,000 students are enrolled in online charters, most of which earned F grades this year. Two other major online charters, Hoosier Academies and Indiana Connections Academy, also opened new schools in the past year or so.

Holcomb said he understands it can take authorizers time to make changes to address poor academics in the schools they oversee, but children only have so many years to spare.

At this point, Holcomb said he doesn’t see a need just yet for legislation addressing online schools, although he wouldn’t rule it out. He said his team has communicated with the state board that this area needs “immediate attention and action.” It’s not yet clear what measures they want to introduce, or how much authority the state board has to change charter school rules, but he indicated authorizing could be on the list.

Read: Indiana online charter schools need more oversight. These 3 changes could help.

“This next year we’ll be looking at all these issues to say how can we best give students options that fit their needs while at the same time (give) parents and taxpayers confidence that these options are worthy,” Holcomb said. “I think the state board, in this instance, can right the ship.”

Indiana teachers union calls on lawmakers to restore $9.3 million in state dollars to public schools

2017-12-07T21:59:41+00:00

Up against a short session and a legislature dominated by Republicans who have historically battled with unions, Indiana’s largest teachers union nevertheless announced an ambitious set of goals for next year that include a call for more school funding and greater transparency for charter schools.

The Indiana State Teachers Association listed some proposals that have been on the legislative agenda for years, as well as a call to address a problem identified just last month: a $9.3 million shortfall in state funding to school districts.

The union also is asking the legislature, which convenes again in January, to pass laws making kindergarten mandatory; shave the graduation system down to a single diploma; adjust new graduation pathways; provide more support for kids dealing with trauma; fix the teacher licensure exams that could be exacerbating teacher shortages; and increase contract negotiating power for unions.

Teresa Meredith, the Indiana State Teachers Association president, conceded that the agenda won’t be easy to accomplish in a state where Republicans hold the most power. And this year’s session doesn’t include budget-writing, so will be a “short session,” making it even more difficult to make major changes. This year, too, education appears to be less of a focus than in years past.

Yet Meredith said she is still hopeful, and is already in talks with both Republican and Democrat lawmakers.

“It’s always hard to tell going into a legislative session, especially a short one,” Meredith said. “Probably none of these are going to surface as key leading bills, but they may surface as an amendment … at least in amendment form, we have a great chance of being able to be heard and maybe have some change.”

Meredith said ISTA wants to ensure Indiana’s recently announced funding shortfall is restored. Lawmakers said filling the $9.3 million gap was a priority, but in a non-budget-year, it’s not yet clear where that money will come from or what the process will be.

“Although, this amount is a small percentage of Indiana’s entire school funding, every dollar matters in our state’s cash-strapped schools,” ISTA’s agenda said. “Our kids deserve the commitment from our state to receive the funding they were promised – not funding cuts in the middle of the school year.”

The desire to make 5-year-old kindergartners part of Indiana’s compulsory education law — now set at age 7 — lines up with one of state Superintendent Jennifer McCormick’s goals. Both McCormick and ISTA say students need more support to be successful, and kindergarten is a common-sense way to even the playing field between kids from different backgrounds.

“In all the years I taught kindergarten, it always amazed me that students would show up in first or second grade who had never been in school,” Meredith said. “Around 7,000 kids don’t show up for kindergarten each year … They are behind from the get-go.”

ISTA wants to allow for a one-year grace period if parents request it, allowing children to wait until age 6. While few children show up as late as second grade, this is a move some advocates have been pushing for several years now, especially as Indiana increases services to preschoolers. Across the nation, 34 states and D.C. set their mandatory schooling age as 5 or 6.

As in years past, ISTA is also hoping Indiana will adopt more regulations of the state’s charter school market, including beefing up licensing requirements for teachers, studying the current system and existing demand, as well as specific changes to virtual schools, which they said have been “wholly unimpressive for kids and taxpayers.”

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

Those requested changes would include a moratorium on virtual school growth and a funding formula change supported by other state policymakers so that money is distributed based on student academic progress rather than enrollment or attendance.

“There are concerns we have about transparency, in particular with virtual and voucher schools,” Meredith said. “When you look at the data and the stories we’ve read in the past few months on virtual schools, the class sizes and turnover … there are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered about that.”

The concerns come after Chalkbeat’s seven-month investigation into Indiana Virtual School, a full-time online charter school that demonstrated widespread low-performance and unusual spending, as well as a single-digit graduation rate in 2016.

Learn more about ISTA’s 2018 legislative priorities here.

Indiana online charter schools need more oversight. These 3 changes could help.

2017-11-29T22:16:57+00:00

The best way to fix a troubled charter school isn’t to go after the school, lawmakers and policymakers say — start with the authorizer.

A Chalkbeat investigation revealed that the school district charged with overseeing Indiana Virtual School has taken a hands-off approach that seems to meet the low expectations for authorizers in Indiana’s charter law, but the approach isn’t paying off when it comes to meeting the needs of the school’s students.

Special Report: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

In the Hoosier state, authorizers — which can include universities, mayors, or school districts — can only be punished for their school’s bad academic performance, not other kinds of missteps. Even then, there’s no guarantee that a school would close or that an authorizer would be stripped of its privileges to oversee schools. Many states have grappled with how to approve the best authorizers who will operate good schools, and even though Indiana’s policy has been held up as a national model, it has gaps.

“You have authorizers that aren’t behaving appropriately, whether it be malicious or not,” said James Betley, executive director of the Indiana Charter School Board, one of the state’s charter authorizers. “Currently, consequences only come in when a school performs badly because our laws don’t contemplate legal violations.”

Control has been at the crux the debate — how much should an authorizer get involved in the daily affairs of charter schools, and how much should the state intervene if an authorizer veers off course? In an atmosphere where free market politics encourage experimentation, authorizers are given broad reign.

But in Indiana, authorizers are often paid by the schools they oversee, and there’s not much incentive to close them. David Harris, founder and CEO of The Mind Trust, said authorizers not only shouldn’t get authorizing fees from schools, but they also need to be heavily screened upfront to make sure they can do the work — especially if they are going to authorize virtual schools, which tend to have poor track records for student learning.

“The authorizer needs to assess whether it has the capacity to effectively oversee a school,” Harris said. “And if they can’t make the case that they do that well, then they shouldn’t authorize the school in the first place.”

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Oversight of Indiana Virtual School by the small Daleville Community School District has been fairly hands-off by the district’s own admission, and the district was on-track to earn at least $750,000 in fees last year. Over its six-year lifespan, the F-rated school has enrolled thousands of students but failed to graduate most of them or hire more than several dozen teachers. But it continues to bring in millions of state dollars. Daleville this summer began piloting a new evaluation tool that it thinks can help improve Indiana Virtual.

Since 2011, a for-profit company headed by Indiana Virtual’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, has charged the school millions of dollars in management services and rent, an agreement Daleville said it was unaware of. Stoughton has also led the school’s growth. In September, he opened a second statewide virtual school, also chartered by Daleville.

The variety of issues at Indiana Virtual School underscore a wider need to re-examine how the state holds charter school authorizers accountable for their schools.

“There’s a need to have virtual and online platforms available for certain students,” said state board member Tony Walker. “That being said, there are some problems I think with our model that I think are highlighted by this situation … there was a failure of the authorizer to keep proper monitoring and accountability.”

Ultimately, as Indiana lawmakers prepare to begin the 2018 legislative session in January, they can change the law, but it’s hard to say if they will. And though the State Board of Education has the authority to change education policy, it’s unclear how they could affect existing laws or policy around authorizing. At the very least, someone should be paying attention, said Mike Petrilli, executive director of the Fordham Foundation, a conservative think tank that supports access to charter schools.

“There’s no doubt that many of these online schools are disasters,” Petrilli said. “We have now seen in many states both terrible outcomes, but also financial scandals. And so there’s no doubt that policymakers have to figure out a better approach to regulating these entities.”

There are a number of steps Indiana could take to close gaps that allow chronically underperforming schools or subpar authorizers to continue. Here are some options:

Re-evaluate current authorizers to make sure they are up to the state’s standards.

In addition to other authorizing changes made in 2011 and 2013, Indiana created stricter requirements to weed out unfit authorizers in 2015. The move was widely praised — that year and in 2016, the state’s policies earned a top ranking from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

But when the law changed, existing authorizers, including Daleville, were grandfathered in and didn’t have to go through the new, more rigorous screening through the Indiana State Board of Education. School districts that applied were automatically approved and didn’t need to complete the rest of the screening.

There’s no definitive consensus about what good authorizing looks like, partially because charter advocates have long lobbied for fewer restrictions. So although Indiana requires that all nine of its authorizers adopt best practices, such as those developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, state charter law lays out no way to enforce it. (Compared to the association’s general guidelines, those on virtual charter schools are much more stringent.)

State Board spokesman Josh Gillespie said only the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United school district has applied to be an authorizer since the rule change, a 1,828-student district about 30 miles south of Indianapolis. The district doesn’t appear to charter any schools at this time.

If the state wanted to send a message that it valued high quality authorizers, it could walk back the grandfathering provision.

Stop allowing authorizers to get paid by the schools they oversee.

Under current law, charter authorizers can collect up 3 percent of a school’s state funding as payment for monitoring.

Authorizers should have the ability to get financial support for their work, sources told Chalkbeat, but that support shouldn’t come from schools themselves. Tony Walker, a member of the Indiana State Board of Education representing Northwest Indiana, said he worries about the fees in particular when it comes to school district authorizers that might already be struggling financially compared to larger state organizations and universities.

“There are inherent conflicts that arise when (a district) is getting chartering fees from the school and they desperately need the money,” Walker said. “I don’t think they have the same resources that Ball State and the (Indiana Charter School Board) have in terms of monitoring and providing support.”

One alternative is that the state could budget to support all authorizers directly. If the money isn’t tied to school enrollment, it could help reduce the incentive to accrue students beyond what a school can actually support.

“The fee is a bad idea,” Harris said. “It creates an incentive to charter schools that shouldn’t be chartered because the authorizer generates revenue from that.”

Keep authorizers and virtual charter operators from opening additional schools or enrolling students if current ones have been consistently low-performing.

Restricting how virtual schools gain students and replicate could make sense even in a state that has long supported online education.

Currently, public charter schools need four years of F grades before the state board can cap enrollment, reduce authorizer fees or close the school.

But there’s already precedent set in Indiana law for how this system could improve to address troubled schools more quickly and automatically. Lawmakers could take a cue from the state’s voucher program.

If a private school gets a D or F grade from the state for two consecutive years, it is no longer eligible to receive vouchers for new students. Last year the law was tweaked to allow schools to appeal that decision, but the state board can still deny such a request.

Indiana Virtual School, Hoosier Academies and Indiana Connections Academy — all statewide, full-time online charter schools with consecutive years of F grades — have quietly opened new schools within the past year or so.

Sen. Dennis Kruse, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said it doesn’t make sense to allow low-performing schools to open new schools.

“I think virtual schools should succeed or not be opened,” Kruse said. “So if they can’t get their act together, I think they ought to decide to just close down their schools … If they’re failing with what they’re doing now, why should we allow them to open up more failing schools?”

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Policymakers agree virtual schools should get more teachers and less money. Will they make it happen?

2017-11-21T17:06:43+00:00

After Chalkbeat revealed widespread low-performance and unusual spending at Indiana Virtual School, there were no immediate plans to change how the fast-growing but relatively little-known online charter school operates.

Rep. Bob Behning, the House Education Committee chairman who is one of Indiana’s most influential education lawmakers, has not commented after repeated requests for an interview.

Senate Democrats have no education priorities specified for the upcoming year.

And Senate Republicans and House Democrats haven’t yet released their 2018 plans. Sen. Dennis Kruse, the Republican chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he largely thought Indiana’s charter laws were fine, although he was open to tweaking aspects of the law — such as whether authorizers of failing charter schools should be allowed to open additional schools.

But national and even local charter school advocates — including those who could affect public policy — agree changes need to be made at Indiana Virtual School and online charters more broadly across the state. Some were blunt in their assessment of the school, which since 2011 has enrolled thousands of students and failed to graduate most of them. It also has a barebones teaching force, low test scores, and two F grades from the state.

“The whole thing is a mess,” said Tony Walker, a pro-charter school Democrat on the Indiana State Board of Education.

Read: As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

And the school’s problems aren’t limited to academics. Walker also called out the school’s lenient attendance policy, lack of real-time teaching and choice not to provide computers to students.

“Them not having an online platform that permits them to have live courses should be a deal-breaker … You should never have an online school that exists without that,” he said. “You should never have an online school that’s chartered that does not provide the means to access the school to its students. If you’re not giving your students laptops, then you shouldn’t exist.”

What’s more, Thomas Stoughton, Indiana Virtual’s founder, previously headed a for-profit company that charged millions of dollars in management fees and rent to the school while he was school board president. Stoughton is also leading the school’s growth — a second Indiana school opened this year, and plans for Michigan and Texas schools are in the works.

Although Indiana’s legislative session won’t begin until January — and it’s looking like a year where education won’t be center stage — Democrat and Republican lawmakers indicated interest in making changes to laws governing virtual schools, but nothing more.

Doing nothing just isn’t acceptable, said Rep. Terri Austin, a Democrat from Anderson and a former educator.

“Surely given the statistics the General Assembly has an obligation to take a look what’s happening,” she said.

Walker said Indiana Virtual School’s student-teacher ratio jumped out at him. At the end of last school year, Indiana Virtual had one teacher for every 222 students.

Now, Indiana Virtual and the new Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy enroll about 6,332 students, served by 40 teachers, which makes the student-to-teacher ratio 158-to-1. The national average for online charter schools is 30-to-1, according to the National Education Policy Center.

“There’s absolutely no justification or reason that I can think of to permit a school to have a 221-1 faculty-student ratio,” Walker said. “That’s just ridiculous … There needs to be substantially more of the funds appropriated in the direction of instruction than I think this school has.”

Rep. Scott Pelath, the long-time leader of the House Democrats who stepped down from that role last week, was also surprised by the student-teacher ratio, even more surprised than he was by the tens of millions of dollars the state has set aside to fund the schools.

“That struck me as just outrageous, and I would think the public would think it was outrageous,” Pelath said. “Particularly when virtual schools are used as a substitute in places where you maybe have a lot more at-risk kids that need more attention, not less.”

Indeed, more than 80 percent of the students at Indiana Virtual qualify for meal assistance, but otherwise their demographics closely mirror those of the state — majority white, with relatively small populations of English-learners and students with special needs. The school says many of its students have been expelled from previous schools, and they say their students’ struggles are part of the reason graduation rates and test scores remain low.

But Karega Rausch, a former member of the Indiana Charter School Board who now works for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, said online charter schools as a whole shouldn’t use student characteristics as an excuse. The group even has an entire set of online school-specific policies states should adopt in light of their poor performance.

“Just having lots of low-income kids is not a justifiable reason to not teach them well,” Rausch said. “Just having a lot of kids that may be mobile is not an excuse for not teaching them well. Traditional public schools and charter schools are finding ways of serving those kids at high levels.”

While traditional schools should serve as a model for instruction, Indiana’s school funding formula creates problems in a virtual environment. For schools like Indiana Virtual that have few barriers to entry and inconsistent attendance reporting practices, it can be hard to know if students who are enrolled are actually being educated. Yet schools get more money for every student they enroll.

Kruse and Walker, as well as national advocates, said they would support a funding model based on how much work students do, rather than whether they are on a school’s books on Count Day. New Hampshire and Florida already use this kind of system.

“There needs to be a different funding formula for these schools,” Walker said. “They should not be funded on a per-student basis like brick-and-mortar schools … it becomes a profit mill.”

An analysis from Florida Southwestern State College School of Education last year found that funding based on students finishing classes in virtual schools cost the state less money than the more traditional per-student model. Walker called on lawmakers to consider this change and put it into law “sooner rather than later.”

Pelath said based on what he’s learned about online schools, he doesn’t see them as a good substitute for traditional education. (Former state Superintendent Glenda Ritz agrees.)

“The oversight and accountability is not anywhere close to what we would have in traditional education,” Pelath said. “It’s entirely reasonable that some virtual experiences can be part of the larger overall experience, but as a substitute they are just woefully inadequate.”

The first step is to stop growth immediately, he said. Virtual schools enroll about 12,000 students across the state — about 1 percent of all students — and the number has been growing each year.

As far as upcoming legislation, Pelath was less sure, and new House Democrat leadership will certainly play a role in the caucuses’ goals for next year. Pelath was optimistic change could happen, but he was also realistic about the fact that a Republican supermajority in the House can make it difficult to get Democrats’ bills through.

“I think there’s a very good chance of that,” Pelath said in regards to possible legislation on virtual schools in the upcoming session. “Whether those things come in the form of originally introduced bills, of which there’s a risk of them staying bottled up in committee, or in the form of amendments to alter legislation that is moving in the process …This is going to have to be a debate.”

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Former Indiana schools chief Glenda Ritz: Virtual schools ‘prey’ on vulnerable students

2017-11-13T23:25:44+00:00

As far as former state Superintendent Glenda Ritz is concerned, full-time online schools are “a failed alternative” to traditional schools.

In response to a Chalkbeat investigation of Indiana Virtual School published late last month, Ritz argued in an Indianapolis Business Journal column that virtual learning has its place in the classroom, but most of the time, online charter schools can’t meet the needs of their students.

Chalkbeat found that at Indiana Virtual School, a fast-growing online school which has already opened a second Indiana school, student-to-teacher ratios are sky-high and few students graduate. The school was also charged millions of dollars by its founder’s former company to manage the school, a set-up which has raised ethical questions.

She continued:

“Virtual learning has its place in all of our schools to deepen learning, enhance practice skills, and provide access to information. However, virtual learning should not be offered to students, using taxpayer money, as a complete alternative to school. The key word is “school.” If you have not read the Oct. 31 special report from Chalkbeat titled, ‘As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions,’ then you should. Not-for-profit companies like the one mentioned in the article make a lot of money getting chartered as a school and spending your tax dollars while failing to provide quality education to some of our most vulnerable students. In Indiana, in the name of ‘choice,’ legislative leaders take money from these companies. These companies want to be able to effectively lobby for more state money to prey on our most vulnerable students through exclusive opportunities to capture more of the virtual education space.”

Since leaving office, Ritz has started her own consulting company, Advancing Public Schools. The organization works with public school district boards to promote their schools’ work and analyze and fill gaps in literacy and reading programs.

You can read the entire column here and find Chalkbeat’s investigation here.

Few teachers, low scores, and ethical questions. Behind our Indiana Virtual School investigation.

2017-11-13T18:39:06+00:00

In the week since we published our investigation into Indiana Virtual School, thousands of people have learned about the school’s poor performance, unorthodox spending, and ineffective oversight. (If you need a refresher, this Twitter thread might help.)

Now, we’re taking you behind the story with an interview between Shaina Cavazos, the reporter who dug into Indiana Virtual School over the course of more than seven months, and Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat’s national reporter, who is keeping a close eye on where virtual schools stand across the country.

Read on to hear about the challenges Shaina encountered, the reaction so far, what comes next, and how you can help.

Matt: How did you decide to look into this school? What challenges did you run into?

Shaina: I actually started reporting on virtual schools more than a year ago when another school, Hoosier Academy Virtual, was up for state sanctions. I wanted to figure out what virtual schools were like given that they enroll about 1 percent of students in Indiana.

Once I looked past the schools backed by the big-name national organizations, I realized Indiana Virtual was just as large and growing incredibly fast — but few people I talked to were familiar with it. So I started digging.

Reporting about the school became difficult once the school stopped responding to a lot of the questions I was asking. It meant that even for finding out things as basic as their current enrollment, I had to find other sources of data and information. I did a lot of formal requests for records, and I worked quite a bit with the state department of education’s data team to figure out what data was out there and how I could access it. I couldn’t always get documents, but usually I found out that the law said I had a right to them. It pushed me to learn about what documents were available to me because I knew few things stood in the way of what I should be able to get legally.

What has the reaction been?

I don’t think the school is happy with the story, but they haven’t agreed to a conversation about it.

In general, schools want to talk about their students who are successful, which I get. But a lot of students at this school are not successful, according to the state’s expectations. We can’t ignore that. We need to talk about those students and make sure they’re receiving an education and not just being enrolled somewhere.

I’m still talking to people who could take action to get their reaction. Intervention from the state board is still a few years away, if it happens at all, and the education department has not indicated they’re going to be doing anything in particular to this situation even though our state superintendent has spoken out about a need for more monitoring of online schools.

That leaves lawmakers. I’ve talked to some Democrats who are outraged about what’s going on, but they aren’t the party in power here — Republicans have a majority in both houses.

I’m still reaching out to lawmakers on both sides to talk about what might happen next. But ultimately, they created the system, so they’re the ones who can most easily change it.

Why was this story important for Chalkbeat to do?

At Chalkbeat, we’re focused on writing about students who have historically lacked access to a quality education. We’re always looking at our stories through a lens of equity — who isn’t being served? Many of students at this virtual school come from families living in poverty. While it’s not as racially or ethnically diverse as schools in a lot of the districts we write about, many students have disabilities or are learning English for the first time. And in a lot of cases, they aren’t getting the support they need to be successful.

Why should a reader outside of Indiana read your article?

You might not be aware of it, but something like this could be happening in your state too. Thirty-four states have virtual schools.

A lot of them have gone through something similar — Ohio is one example, and so is Colorado. It’s something we’re only going to see become more of an issue. Specifically talking about Indiana Virtual School, well, they are expanding, with schools in the works in Michigan and Texas.

Also, Betsy DeVos, our U.S. secretary of education, has promoted online schools. When the nation’s top education official is signing off on something, I’d say that makes scrutiny pretty important.

What comes next?

A top priority is to hold officials in Indiana accountable for reading and responding to the story. I’m working on that now, and when I learn more I’ll report back.

I’m also trying to learn even more about what it’s like for students in online schools — Indiana Virtual or others. I put a survey in the article so people could tell me their stories, and now I’m just trying to get the word out.

Find our investigation here.

As students signed up, online school hired barely any teachers — but founder’s company charged it millions

2017-10-31T16:56:47+00:00

One of Indiana’s largest high schools ended this past school year with almost 5,000 students, but no desks and no classrooms. The school also had very few graduates — 61 out of more than 900 seniors graduated last year.

What Indiana Virtual School did have: Tens of millions in state dollars due to come its way over the next two years, and a founder whose for-profit company charged millions of dollars in management fees and rent to the school.

Thomas Stoughton founded the school in 2011, taking advantage of a new law allowing Indiana charter schools to serve students exclusively over the internet, rather than in brick-and-mortar buildings.

In recent years, students have signed up in droves, responding to social media advertising campaigns. The school they end up attending differs widely from other online charter schools emerging across the country, with far fewer teachers per student — 1 for every 222 students last school year, according to state data — and fewer students taking and passing state exams.

As enrollment at Indiana Virtual School ballooned, so did the school’s state funding, which is distributed on a per-student basis. Some of that money has gone to AlphaCom Inc., a for-profit company also founded and led until June 2016 by Stoughton. From 2011 through mid-2015, AlphaCom held multiple contracts with Indiana Virtual School totaling about $6 million to provide management services and office space. A company run by Stoughton’s son also held a contract with the school.

AlphaCom’s involvement was necessary for Indiana Virtual School to launch and has now waned, according to the school’s lawyer, Thomas Burroughs. He said the school’s “innovative” approach offers a last chance to students who would have no other way to graduate. Burroughs also defended the school’s graduation rate and student-to-teacher ratio.

State education officials say they can’t intervene, and the tiny school district that oversees Indiana Virtual School has not pressed the school to improve until recently.

That leaves Indiana Virtual School operating with few checks in a state where lawmakers have pushed for an open education marketplace, with a wide menu of school options for families. In addition to schools run by traditional districts, the state also has charter schools, vouchers and tax-credit scholarships to help families pay for private school, and a new hybrid known as “innovation schools,” where charter school operators join forces with school districts.

Online charter schools, also known as virtual charter schools, are expanding quickly. Last year, more than 12,000 students across Indiana were enrolled in the schools, and that number is growing — a trend U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos supports, but some researchers find concerning.

“For the vast majority of kids,” said Michael Barbour, a Touro University California professor who studies virtual charter schools, “the way in which we currently practice full-time online learning in the U.S. is a recipe for disaster.”

***

Indiana Virtual School did not respond to requests about exactly how it spends its money. However, financial documents that the school reports to the state suggest that it is using public dollars differently from other schools like it.

Indiana Virtual School’s most recent financial report, from the 2015-16 school year, shows that it received more than $9.7 million from the state that year. That figure is based on a state formula that awards online charter schools 90 percent of the funds per student sent to brick-and-mortar schools.

That year, Indiana’s two other major online charter schools spent about two-thirds of their state dollars on instruction, a category that includes programming, remediation, and salaries. Indiana Virtual School, by contrast, spent about 10 percent of its funding on instruction.

Yet the school directed 89 percent of its state funding toward “support services,” a catch-all category that can include essential supplies such as textbooks, as well as legal and administrative services or staff training. The two other online charter schools spent about a quarter of their budgets on support services.

Another big difference: the portion of Indiana Virtual School’s budget that went to teacher salaries. Indiana Virtual School spent 7 percent of its funding on teachers and other staff. That’s compared to 19 percent for Hoosier Academy Virtual and 28 percent for Indiana Connections Academy.

With a total of 21 teachers for 4,682 students according to state data, Indiana Virtual School had one teacher for every 222 students at the end of the last school year. Many of the teachers were only part-time, according to former teachers who spoke to Chalkbeat anonymously, saying they feared retribution from their former employer. Advertisements the school posted on the state education department’s jobs website earlier this year confirm the school sought part-time teachers.

Asked about the school’s student-to-teacher ratio, Burroughs, Indiana Virtual School’s lawyer, provided updated figures for October 2017. He also disclosed a new development: As of August, Indiana Virtual School became two separate online charter schools, though they share the same principal and office address.

Between Indiana Virtual School and the new Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, Burroughs said student enrollment surged to 6,332 since last school year. The number of teachers grew to 40, making the student-to-teacher ratio 158-to-1.

Either ratio far exceeds the 30-to-1 average at virtual schools nationwide, according to the National Education Policy Center, where researchers have studied virtual schools for years. The average ratio for brick-and-mortar schools was 17-to-1.

The school’s attorney said the current ratio is appropriate and suggested that schools with lower ratios are prioritizing the interests of educators, not children.

“The schools’ focus should be and is on helping students learn and graduate, and not on employing the maximum number of teachers deemed appropriate by teachers unions,” Burroughs said.

***

If Indiana Virtual spent such a small proportion of its funding on teachers, then where was the money going?

At least some of the school’s budget went to companies connected to the school’s founder.

Before launching Indiana Virtual School in 2011, Thomas Stoughton was involved in dozens of business ventures. He had worked in nonprofits, property management, consulting, public relations, finance, and higher education — but not as a K-12 educator.

His goal in opening Indiana Virtual School, he told Chalkbeat, was “to help and identify those kids over the years that, for whatever reason, the large educational system isn’t working for them.”

But Stoughton has combined his prior business experiences and Indiana Virtual School in a way that raises ethical questions.

Until last year, Stoughton chaired the school’s board while he was president of a for-profit company that the board hired to help manage the school. The company, AlphaCom, charged the school more than $2.5 million in “management services” between 2011 and mid-2015. The school also agreed to spend another $3.5 million between 2014 and 2023 to rent space in AlphaCom’s northern Indianapolis office park home.

This is an excerpt from Indiana Virtual School’s 2013 audit. During this time period, Thomas Stoughton was school board chairman and president of Alphacom.

The school also was charged more than $500,000 in 2015 by a company headed by Stoughton’s son, also named Tom Stoughton, for technology and website design services. Other clients that the company, A Simple Reminder Inc., listed on a previous version of its website included Kickity Dragons, a local karate studio for toddlers, and a now-closed restaurant called Avec Moi.

An older version of A Simple Reminder’s website, including a list of clients.

Burroughs said the relationship between the school and AlphaCom was appropriate, and the school could not have launched without them. Before the school opened, it had none of its own money and relied on the company to procure office space and buy essential supplies, he said, adding that Indiana Virtual School rented from AlphaCom because it could not obtain its own lease.

“Without AlphaCom,” Burroughs said, “the schools would not exist.”

IRS rules prohibit nonprofit leaders from individually benefiting from the organizations they run. And Indiana charter law requires that contracts disclose potential conflicts like the ones that set Stoughton’s company up to profit from the school’s spending.

“Violation of any of these federal or state laws could almost certainly be grounds for charter revocation,” said Amy Osborne of the Indiana Charter School Board, one of the state’s charter school authorizers.

It’s not clear whether Stoughton or Indiana Virtual School breached any laws. But none of the recent contracts provided to Chalkbeat identifies any possible conflicts of interest. And the original contracts between the school and AlphaCom — ones that were signed while Stoughton headed both entities — have been lost, according to Burroughs.

“Unfortunately, when Indiana Virtual School was audited for the 2015 audit report, the auditor took possession of the original of that agreement and numerous other agreements and never returned them,” Burroughs told Chalkbeat.

Burroughs, who also until recently sat on Indiana Virtual School’s board, said the school no longer contracts with A Simple Reminder. He also said Stoughton eliminated conflicts when he divested from AlphaCom in June 2016. Burroughs added more detail in October 2017, saying that Stoughton had recused himself from board votes related to AlphaCom and more recently had resigned from the board entirely, “now that the schools have a solid operating foundation.” Stoughton was a board member in September 2017, according to board minutes.

The school’s board never took issue with Stoughton’s overlapping roles or the fact that the school contracted to pay his company and his son’s, according to Stoughton. “Nobody has ever questioned it,” he told Chalkbeat in May. After that brief interview, he stopped responding to questions.

The school’s board has included several people with close personal ties to Stoughton: Founding board members James Tilford (who died earlier this year) and Thomas Krudy went to the same high school as Stoughton in the 1960s. Jeff Sparks, another founding board member, said he’s known Stoughton and his brother, Steve Stoughton, a former Indiana state representative, for 30 years.

***

Many of Indiana Virtual School’s students are a lot like Lexie DeVine: They have had difficulty succeeding in a traditional school setting.

DeVine started looking into online schools a couple years ago after dealing with bullying at her school in Perry Township. When she became pregnant with her daughter, that sealed the deal.

“That’s when I really decided, yeah, I think online school would be best,” DeVine, now 18, said. “I can hold my daughter with one hand and type with another.”

DeVine is the kind of student that Percy Clark, a longtime educator and Indiana Virtual School’s superintendent, said the school was designed to serve. About 85 percent of the school’s students are poor enough to qualify for meal assistance, and Clark said many have been expelled or dropped out from their previous school.

“When you see our kids and what they’ve gone through in terms of homelessness and pregnancy or drugs or abuse, and they’ve been able to get the Core 40 diploma,” Clark said, “that’s a chance for our state to celebrate.” The Core 40 diploma is Indiana’s primary high school diploma.

Burroughs, the school’s attorney, also said the school offers a safety net for students who have left other schools or been expelled.

“A diploma, or an enhancement of their skills may open doors and allow these ‘throw away’ students to become self-supporting, tax-paying citizens rather than welfare recipients or correctional facility residents,” he said.

But DeVine’s classmates largely aren’t graduating. The school had the lowest graduation rate in the state in 2016 at 5.7 percent. In 2017, Clark said, 61 of the more than 900 seniors earned diplomas.

DeVine said she hopes to graduate by the end of this year, though she’s still working on her junior year coursework. She started at Indiana Virtual School in February 2016 when she was 16.

"You’re essentially paying someone to teach someone who’s a ghost student."

a former English teacher

Many schools with needy students struggle to get them to graduation, but it’s unclear whether Indiana Virtual School has adopted practices that other schools have found can make a difference.

School officials say they are pursuing strategies that they think can help students learn. Burroughs pointed to an effort to help students who are not strong readers with a “text-to-speech” tool. He also mentioned a plan to begin “gamifying coursework,” which he said would “help students better learn and retain knowledge.”

But unlike some other virtual schools in Indiana and beyond, Indiana Virtual School says it does not provide students with free computers, an essential tool for accessing their schoolwork.

It also offers few organized ways for students to interact with each other. Some efforts appear to be underway: The school has recently posted on its website about a basketball program.

Indiana Virtual School is located in the Parkwood office park at 96th St. and College Ave. near the northern edge of Marion County.

And its barebones teaching staff means students and teachers rarely connect in real time, leaving students on their own.

A science teacher who taught during the school’s early years said the lack of student interaction felt abnormal. She spoke about her experiences on the condition of anonymity.

“I found it very hard because I’m a very hands-on teacher, and I like to have that communication and contact with the students,” the former teacher said. “Not to have that, especially for the at-risk kids, was hard because those are the students who really need it.”

Unlike in other online schools, Indiana Virtual isn’t designed for teachers to give live lessons. They do not actively teach material to students whom they can see on video, hear over headphones, or chat via online messaging. Students work through class material on their own time, at their own pace, and contact their teachers only when they need or want to. Sometimes, teachers will follow up with check-ins for certain lessons.

Those conditions are challenging even for college students, said Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University who researches virtual schools.

“We recognize at a university that even these mature students who can self-regulate and who are highly motivated” need to interact with their teachers, Miron said.

One signal that the school might not be paying close attention to student participation is its 100-percent attendance rate. The information it reports to the state is based only on whether students have signed up for courses, not whether they log in to do work, according to Clark and the teachers Chalkbeat spoke with.

If students do not make progress, the immediate downside for the school is minimal. And because Indiana law allows students to remain enrolled in school until they graduate no matter their age, Indiana Virtual School can continue to collect state funds while keeping costs low.

***

There is one group that is explicitly charged with stepping in if Indiana Virtual School does not fulfill its mission. That’s the school’s authorizer — the tiny, rural Daleville school district located near Muncie.

The Indiana State Board of Education is required to get involved once a school has four F grades in a row. So far, Indiana Virtual has received two failing grades.

Some authorizers have chosen to shut down poor-performing schools or made swift, substantial changes to improve them before the state intervened. But nothing in state law or regulation compels them to — an omission that drew recent criticism from federal authorities.

"We need a different A-F system ... Not only for virtual schools, but for other schools, especially those schools that have unique characteristics of students."

Percy Clark, Indiana Virtual School superintendent

Daleville has chosen to take a more passive role in spite of the school’s small teaching staff and low graduation rate and test scores. Last year, 20 percent of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students and 8 percent of 10th-graders at Indiana Virtual passed the English and math state tests. Statewide, about half of elementary and middle school students and one-third of high school students passed both exams.

Daleville’s top official said he feels that his hands are tied.

“I can’t say, ‘Do this!’ And you have to do it,” Daleville Superintendent Paul Garrison said. “You’ve got a death sentence you can use and nothing else.”

The charter authorizer system also contains a perverse incentive to keep low-performing schools open: Authorizers are paid by the schools they oversee.

Daleville collects 3 percent of Indiana Virtual’s funding from the state, although there’s disagreement among Indiana legal experts about whether districts that authorize charter schools should. In 2015-16, the district received just shy of $300,000. After the school’s enrollment spiked, Daleville was on track to receive more than $750,000 during the last school year.

In principle, those funds are supposed to defray the district’s costs of supervising the charter school. But it’s unclear exactly how that money fits into the district’s budget, which was about $9 million in 2016. Garrison said past years’ fees have gone toward salaries for staff working with the virtual school, computers, and online course fees for Daleville district students.

Some of the fees have gone toward working with the virtual school to design a new evaluation system for it. Daleville hopes the new system will be fairer than the state’s current approach to grading schools, which looks primarily at test scores and graduation rates.

Daleville is home to a small public school district. Pictured is the district administration building, which is right next door to the junior high and high schools.

The district paid a Fort Wayne company, The Summit, $52,000 to design a model called “Evaluation of Online Learning and Virtual Efficacy,” or EVOLVE, which got an early test this summer.

“We need a different A-F system,” Clark said. “Not only for virtual schools, but for other schools, especially those schools that have unique characteristics of students.”

It’s too early to know if state officials will consider the alternative evaluation system. But there’s no question that even as poor results mount for online schools, Indiana officials are easing rules meant to hold virtual charters accountable for helping students learn.

The Indiana General Assembly this year passed bills that give even more leeway in how virtual schools are assigned A-F grades, calculate graduation rates, and expel students.

In 2017, every online charter school in Indiana received an F grade except for a hybrid school called Hoosier Academy-Indianapolis, where students attend some days in person and some days online. That school received a D this year, up from an F last year.

"If the policymakers don’t care and the citizens don’t apply pressure, then nothing can be fixed."

Diane Swanson, Kansas State University

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick has long said that she is distressed by Indiana online schools’ performance.

But in an email to Chalkbeat, McCormick said the Department of Education, which she oversees, is not responsible for policing Indiana Virtual School — that falls to Daleville and, ultimately, the State Board of Education. McCormick, who also chairs the state board, has said authorizers need to get involved in virtual schools sooner, but she emphasized that’s not the education department’s call.

“The state does not equal the department when it comes to responsibility for policy,” she said. “Our role can be one of influence but is largely one of implementation of existing policies.”

While some state board members have joined McCormick in criticizing online charter schools, as a group they have consistently voted to let low-performing virtual schools stay open. The board chose not to close Hoosier Academy Virtual even though the school got seven years of F grades. Hoosier Academy’s own board voted last month to close at the end of this year because it feared repercussions from its authorizer, Ball State University.

Indiana Virtual School performed worse than Hoosier Academy, based on state data.

***

There’s one more group responsible for online charter schools in Indiana — lawmakers.

Virtual schools got a slow start in Indiana but took off once voters put a majority of Republican legislators in the General Assembly. Once there, they passed laws to allow full-time online schools and slowly increased their funding.

A number of powerful Indiana Republicans who supported those laws have received campaign contributions from K12, one of the largest online school providers in the country. That includes education committee chairs Rep. Bob Behning and Sen. Dennis Kruse, former Senate Appropriations chair Luke Kenley, House Ways & Means chair Tim Brown, and House Speaker Brian Bosma.

Kenley, who won’t be running for reelection in 2018, voted in 2011 to allow full-time virtual schools. But he has stopped proposals to increase virtual schools’ funding from making it into the state budget, and he wants his colleagues to think carefully about what they’re spending on online charter schools.

“Indiana is trying to be a leader and develop a platform with a lot of choices for a lot of different kinds of people,” Kenley said. “That’s a worthwhile pursuit, but you can’t shut your eyes and just throw money at things without the sense that success is being created there.”

Student enrollments at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy compared to those at Indiana Connections Academy and Hoosier Academy Virtual, two other major online charter schools in the state, from 2011-12 through the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

With the people who have the power to intervene at online charter schools allowing them to continue to grow unchecked, Indiana faces a perfect storm for problems to arise according to Diane Swanson, a Kansas State University researcher who studies government transparency and ethics.

“We can’t really rely on the people who are causing the conflicts of interest to fix it,” Swanson said. “If the policymakers don’t care and the citizens don’t apply pressure, then nothing can be fixed.”

***

For now, Stoughton appears to be oriented toward growth, not possible consequences. He and his colleagues at Indiana Virtual School are working to launch schools in Texas and Michigan, as well their second Indiana school, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

The Texas Education Agency has not approved the charter for Texas Virtual School, but the Michigan Department of Education recently approved the charter for Michigan Online School, which would be authorized by the Gobles public school district. It is set to open in January.

Daleville officials authorized Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy to open in August. By Sept. 1, state records showed the school enrolled 2,958 students, 2,918 of whom came directly via Indiana Virtual School. The remainder came from 35 other schools across Indiana.

An excerpt from Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy’s charter proposal to Daleville Public Schools.

The school is billed as an alternative school, meant for students who struggle in a regular high school or have discipline issues. Alternative schools typically offer intensive services and support for students who would otherwise be at risk of dropping out.

Will Indiana Virtual Pathways offer those services even though Indiana Virtual has not? Clark, the school’s superintendent, did not respond to questions about the new school’s offerings for students. The school’s proposal for a new charter promises individualized “service plans” for each student, internship opportunities, and more support for needier students. But the proposal also names a “top end” of what the school’s student-to-teacher ratio can be: 250-to-1.

Even before Stoughton opened the second school, people with experience in education expressed concerns about what his ventures mean for students.

“It’s almost become a new business model for these groups, and they’re shortchanging kids in the end,” said Terri Austin, a Democratic state representative and former educator.

“How fair is it to kids when you know that some of these shady practices are going on and we turn a blind eye?” she added.

“Kids only get one chance.”

View document collection on DocumentCloud

This story has been updated to reflect the status of Michigan Online School.

Indiana state board member resigns from position as leader of Hoosier Academies online charter schools

2017-10-27T18:17:59+00:00

Byron Ernest, the head of schools for three Indiana online charter schools, announced his resignation this week.

Ernest, also a member of the Indiana State Board of Education, told Chalkbeat he chose to leave his position leading Hoosier Academies schools voluntarily. John Marske, the Hoosier Academies school board chairman, said Ernest told him before the board’s Tuesday meeting.

Marske said the announcement was a surprise.

“The board fully supported Dr. Ernest,” Marske said in an email. “And we were quite disappointed upon hearing of his resignation. … We haven’t yet had an opportunity to sit down with him and discuss reasons for his decision.”

It’s unclear if Ernest’s resignation had anything to do with other recent changes for Hoosier Academies.

The school board voted to close Hoosier Academy Virtual last month. At the time, Marske said the board was concerned it could not meet standards set by its authorizer, Ball State University. The school has received seven consecutive F grades from the state, but the state board did not vote to close the school when it had a hearing in May. The hearing was part of the school’s years-long process to convince state education officials to keep it open despite its poor performance.

Ernest worked for K12 Inc., one of the nation’s largest online school providers. Hoosier Academies contracts with K12 to manage its schools.

Hoosier Academies has three schools in Indiana — Hoosier Academy-Indianapolis, where students learn some of the week in-person and some of the week online; Hoosier Academy Virtual, a full-time online school; and Insight School of Indiana, a full-time online school intended for students who struggle and need more intensive support.

The schools were rated a D, F and F, respectively, by the state in 2017.

Ernest previously worked as principal of Emmerich Manual High School after it had been taken over by the state for repeated failing grades. While he was there, the school went from an F to a D. Ernest was also a 2010 Indiana Teacher of the Year. He was appointed to the state board in 2016 by House Speaker Brian Bosma.

Marske said teachers and staff have been notified. Until they can find a new head of schools, Rachel Goodwin was appointed by K12 Inc. to fill the role. Goodwin was previously Senior Director of Academics for K12 Inc. and has been an educator in a Chicago charter school network.

After years of failing grades, Hoosier Academy Virtual will close in June

2017-09-27T18:41:13+00:00

The Hoosier Academy school board voted Tuesday night to not renew the charter of its full-time online school after months of scrutiny from the state, dropping enrollment, and poor academic performance.

Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School will close after June 30. The board will continue to operate its two other schools, the hybrid Hoosier Academy-Indianapolis, where students learn online and in-person at a brick-and-mortar school, and Insight School of Indiana, which is geared toward students with more intensive needs.

John Marske, board chairman, told Chalkbeat in an email that the board did not think the school could meet the requirements to get its charter renewed. The school is authorized by Ball State University and operated by the for-profit K12 Inc.

“If we were to seek renewal, we would have had to submit a renewal application by October 1, 2017,” Marske said. He noted that “the Board has seen evidence of significant improvement at Hoosier Virtual,” but didn’t feel that academics were strong enough “to pass the rigors of a new charter application process.”

The school’s leader, Byron Ernest, also an Indiana State Board of Education member, did not immediately return requests for comment. Bob Marra, who directs charter school efforts at Ball State, said he was not immediately available to speak.

Marske said the board is now focused on alerting and addressing questions from the families of the 2,065 students enrolled in grades K-12 and its almost 100 teachers.

“Our intention is to give our families and teachers as many options as possible,” Marske said. “Meanwhile we are also focused on improving results of the Hoosier Hybrid school in Indianapolis, as well as the Hoosier Insight school.”

According to minutes from Hoosier Academy’s July board meeting (the most recent posted by the school), Hoosier Virtual saw a drop of about 800 students from its enrollment of 2,867 a year ago. The Insight School enrolled 593 as of July, and the hybrid school enrolled 199.

Hoosier Academy Virtual escaped closure in May when the Indiana State Board of Education voted to allow the school to remain open despite years of poor test scores and F grades. The board also decided not to allow them to enroll new students and reduced fees paid to Ball State to authorize the school.

This is the full text of the resolution the board passed last night at its monthly meeting:

HOOSIER ACADEMY, INC.

Resolution Regarding Charter Renewal – Virtual Charter School

Resolution No. 2017 – [ ]

WHEREAS, in 2016 Ball State University Office of Charter Schools (the “Sponsor”) reauthorized Hoosier Academy, Inc. (the “Corporation”) to operate the Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School (“Virtual School”) for an additional two year charter term, and the Corporation and Sponsor entered into a Charter agreement (“Charter Agreement”) for a Charter term ending June 30, 2018; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the Charter Agreement and the Sponsor policies, if the Charter has not been renewed and the Corporation wishes to renew the Charter, the Corporation must initiate the renewal process by filing a written request for renewal with the Executive Director of the Sponsor no later than October 1 in the last academic year before expiration of the then current term of the Charter; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Directors, with input from its educational management company, K12 Classroom, LLC, and the Head of Schools for the Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School, has continued to implement various initiatives, programs and offerings for the Virtual School to enhance the opportunity for student success and increase overall success rate of students as measured by State assessment protocols, but after careful consideration and assessment of school operations, educational results, and the interests of its students and the community served by the Virtual School, the Board deems it to not be in the interest of the Virtual School or its students or community served by the Virtual School to seek renewal of the Charter; and

WHEREAS, the Board believes it is very important at this time to focus continued improvement efforts on the Hoosier Academy Indianapolis School hybrid/blended program and the Insight School of Indiana both of which are operated by the Corporation, and the Board, in concert with its Sponsor, Ball State University Office of Charter School and its educational management company, K12, Classroom, LLC, will be working to further identify best practices and lessons learned from the success and challenges of the Virtual School over the past several years of its existence to develop new and improved opportunities for students in our network of schools.

IT IS THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Board of Directors hereby authorizes, confirms and approves the decision to not pursue renewal of the Charter for the Virtual School beyond the term ending June 30, 2018, and to not submit a request for renewal of the Charter to its Sponsor; and

IT IS RESOLVED FURTHER that the Board President and the Head of Schools, be and hereby are, authorized to coordinate and work with the Sponsor to ensure timely notification to parents and a smooth and orderly closure and transition for students and parents, in accordance with all applicable laws and as guided by and consistent with the School Closure Plan Implementation protocol adopted by the Sponsor, Ball State University Office of Charter Schools.

Indiana officials opt to punish Hoosier Academy Virtual and let it stay open. They told the long-failing school to do better. Again.

2017-05-10T21:09:05+00:00

After two years of debate, Hoosier Virtual Academy Charter School escaped closure by Indiana education officials on Wednesday but was penalized with a reduction in fees to authorizer Ball State University and a cap on enrollment.

Except for siblings of current students, the Indiana State Board of Education voted to freeze the school’s enrollment immediately. The board also approved a reduction in the fee that Ball State can accept, cutting it from 3 percent to 1 percent of Hoosier Academy’s state funding. The school is operated by for-profit K12 Inc.

The school — among the largest online providers in Indiana — has dealt with years of low test scores and F grades from the state, which triggered its first state board hearing in March of 2015. This decision has been a long time coming — a fact that didn’t escape state Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, who said action needed to happen much earlier. She also said the state should reconsider requirements for how involved authorizers need to be.

“I think it’s unfortunate we’re at this point where we’re having to make this type of decision,” McCormick said. “The authorizer should have gotten aggressive very early and made a decision one way or the other so the state board wouldn’t have been in this situation.”

Read: The broken promise of online schools

Wednesday marked the fourth board appearance in two years for the school. Over that time, the school has continued to receive F grades from the state, admit students and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Ball State to authorize it.

The tone of the discussion overall was far more tense and contentious than prior hearings. State board members challenged Hoosier Academy administrators, as well as representatives from K12 and Ball State, to justify why improvement was taking so long and why conversations about improvement seemed to be in such early stages.

Last year, the university collected about $450,000 for overseeing Hoosier Academy, an amount determined by school enrollment. According to the most recent information available, 2,850 students across Indiana currently attend Hoosier Academy Virtual, down from the 3,300 reported by the state earlier this year. The network as a whole, which includes two other virtual and hybrid schools, enrolls about 1,000 additional kids.

One of the biggest concerns among board members was that the school’s curriculum, furnished primarily by K12, is not fully aligned to Indiana’s academic standards. Stuart Udell, CEO of K12 Inc., said Indiana’s changing state academic standards has made it difficult to ensure everything matches up correctly.

“We’ve had a lot of change nationally,” Udell said. “We’ve been working judiciously since we’ve been here on filling in the gaps.”

Yet Cari Whicker and other board members, including McCormick, pointed out that Indiana teachers at every school have been expected to adjust to the many changes in standards and state tests.

“I don’t have the luxury of saying there’s been a lot of change and my grades are not my grades,” said Whicker, a sixth-grade public school teacher in Huntington. “Every teacher in the state of Indiana had to adapt.”

Virtual school leaders argue their poor performance is because they serve a challenging population of students, including those who frequently switch schools, and come to school far behind grade level. In fact, every online school in the state that tested students in 2016 received an F grade, and most have fewer students passing ISTEP than their traditional counterparts.

K12 officials said a new Indiana law passed this year that would allow virtual charter schools to expel students for low participation would make a difference. Currently, virtual schools can’t force students to attend. But it’s hard to see how that allows new flexibility. According to WFYI Public Media, Hoosier Virtual expelled more than 800 students in the past three years.

Although many parents and students traveled to the meeting in Evansville to speak passionately about their positive experiences with the school, Board member Gordon Hendry said it was important to note that that’s not the case for most Hoosier Academy students.

“There’s a whole heck of a lot of students where it’s not working, and the state is spending a ton of money on failure,” Hendry said. “It is on Ball State, but it’s also on K12. They are running the school.”

Ball State University is required to come back to the board next June to ask about renewing the school’s charter. Board members agreed they wanted to see major changes at that point.

“A year from now if there isn’t dramatic change, I’m going to have a pretty different position,” Hendry said.

Indiana officials will try for the fourth time to to address deep-seated issues at one long-struggling virtual school

2017-05-09T01:12:34+00:00

After more than two years, several state hearings and six F-grades, Indiana officials are expected to decide on the fate of one of the state’s largest online schools.

On Wednesday, the Indiana State Board of Education is set to take up the case of Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School. The school has dealt with years of low test scores and poor letter grades, which triggered its first state board hearing in March of 2015.

Virtual school leaders argue the poor performance is because they serve a challenging population of students, including those who frequently switch schools, and come to school far behind grade level. In fact, every online school in the state that tested students in 2016 received an F grade, and most have fewer students passing ISTEP than their traditional counterparts.

Read: The broken promise of online schools

This week marks the fourth board appearance for the school, managed by the for-profit online education provider K12 Inc. Here are some possible routes the board could take when it meets Wednesday in Evansville:

The board could close the school at the end of this year.

Charter school authorizers have ordered schools to close before based on poor test scores, but this is the first time the state board would take such a step. Other traditional charters that had hearings for repeated F-grades at the same time as Hoosier Academy have since boosted their grades and no longer require the state to get involved.

In 2016, 18.5 percent of Hoosier Academy students passed both ISTEP English and math exams, compared to a state average of 51.6 percent. The school’s graduation rate has been fairly flat for the past several years. In 2016, 22.7 percent of students graduated, compared to 89.1 percent statewide.

One concern from board members has been that closing the school could leave thousands of students without a similar school. While there are other virtual education providers in the state, those school leaders have said taking on hundreds more students in a short time would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain.

The board could reduce the fee Ball State University collects for overseeing the school and bar the it from accepting new students, but let it remain open.

Last year, the university collected about $450,000 for overseeing Hoosier Academy, one of several charter schools it is responsible for. That fee is 3 percent of what the school receives from the state, which is determined by school enrollment. About 3,300 students across Indiana attend Hoosier Academy Virtual, and the network as a whole, which includes two other virtual and hybrid schools, enrolls about 900 additional kids.

Ball State officials are scheduled to present a detailed plan for how they plan to work with the school to improve. The plan includes efforts to make sure K12 Inc.’s curriculum is aligned with state learning standards and to develop a team of staff members to ensure students are engaged with their classes and parents have the knowledge and support they need to help their children be successful.

The board could find a new authorizer for Hoosier Virtual.

If the state board decides Ball State has not adequately worked to oversee the school, it can vote to switch the school’s authorizer and begin the process to find a replacement.

Or it could further delay the decision, as it has in the past.

The most recent hearing for Hoosier Academy Virtual, headed by state board member Byron Ernest, was in January. At that meeting, the board tabled a vote on consequences for the school, citing a need for more information.

According to a memo from state board staff, Hoosier Academy says it meets criteria outlined by a recently modified state charter school law that should allow it to stay open.

State law says that if a school serves kids with particular challenges, such as drug addiction or a history with the juvenile justice system, they can be given special consideration from the board. Hoosier Academy officials have said their school serves a number of students who could fall under this umbrella, including ones who have had problems with bullying, health issues or need flexibility to accommodate athletic training or frequent family moves.

Similarly, the board can also consider mobility rates, or how frequently students transfer in and out of the school. The mobility rate at the school has been high for nearly all of its existence. Last year, almost two-thirds of students had been enrolled for less than one year.

You can read more of Chalkbeat’s reporting on Indiana online schools here.

Low participation and poor attendance could get a student expelled from an online school in new House proposal

2017-02-06T22:56:55+00:00

A new House proposal would allow virtual charter schools, which conduct classes almost exclusively online, to remove students showing low participation and poor attendance.

One virtual school authorizer believes this proposal would help solve two problems that virtual school operators believe are especially relevant to their students: high mobility and challenging learning issues.

“What we’re trying to get at is refining their attendance policy,” said Bob Marra, who directs charter school efforts at Ball State University, the group that oversees Hoosier Academies and Indiana Connections Academy. “How do you really measure this in the virtual environment?”

READ: Find more coverage of Indiana online schools here.

Marra’s schools are the two largest online school providers in the state.

House bill 1382, authored by Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, offers no guidance as to what that policy might look like, but does say charter authorizers are responsible for making sure the school adheres to it and doesn’t abuse it.

“If you’re in a classroom and the kids are not engaged and going to sleep, you have the ability to tell that kid to go down to the principal,” Behning said. “If you’re in a virtual classroom, how do you even know the kid’s engaged? Because you’re not in the room with them there’s no way to do it.”

But Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, strongly opposes the use of virtual schools, and doesn’t believe — however attendance rules might change — that they can work well for students.

“How do we know the student is ‘engaged’ or ‘attending’? We don’t, and so we’re having a debate about how we can enforce the requirement in a context where I think you can’t enforce the requirement,” DeLaney said.

Teachers in online schools take attendance in their daily or weekly lectures, but they can’t always physically see students.

Virtual schools typically perform poorly on state tests, which some school leaders argue is because they serve a challenging population of students, including those who frequently move and switch schools, come to school far behind grade level and have other learning difficulties that make them more difficult to educate.

They also say they struggle to keep students engaged and can’t easily enforce attendance policies. But online school critics say these problems also occur in many of the state’s struggling urban and rural schools.

The proposal in HB 1382 would allow virtual schools to remove a student as long as “adequate notice” is given to the students and parents, and parents have a chance to explain the absence before the student is removed, if necessary.

Indiana state law is ambiguous on when schools are allowed to expel students, saying kids can be expelled for “student misconduct” or “substantial disobedience.” Neither phrase is explicitly defined, and school districts have interpreted them differently.

A Bloomington high school says in its student code of conduct that expulsion or suspension could result for tardiness or absences. But Indianapolis Public Schools’ code of conduct doesn’t advise removing kids from school for those same offenses.

In general, DeLaney thinks the bill cuts too much slack to charter schools.

He referred to another provision in the bill that would change how the Indiana State Board of Education handles authorizers who want to renew charters for schools that have failed for four years in a row. The bill includes an existing part of state law that requires the board to consider a charter school’s student population before it makes a decision to close or renew the failing school.

There is no similar language in Indiana state law regarding what to consider before closing a traditional public school.

“I don’t know why we are creating a list of excuses for failure,” DeLaney said.

Charter “schools have promised us that this is exactly what they can deal with. We’re saying the very thing they’re supposed to cure is an obstacle to their success.”

Much of the rest of the language in the bill makes clarifications to existing law, essentially ensuring that before an authorizer can renew a charter on a failing school, it must first go to the state board to explain why the school should remain open.

Previously, that timeline was more ambiguous, and some charter authorizers renewed their schools before being asked to consult with the state board, technically violating the law. James Betley, executive director of the Indiana Charter School Board, said this bill rights the contradictory language.

“What the change does is it makes the timeline make sense,” Betley said.

Marra said he’ll be keeping close watch over how the “student engagement” policies play out so students aren’t removed without cause.

“That’s what we want to be able to look at,” Marra said last week at the bill’s first hearing. “How does (an engagement policy) get implemented? We’ll be monitoring.”

Behning said the engagement policy, in particular, still had details that would need to be worked out, but he thought it was a good first step toward trying to address problems virtual schools have reported. The bill passed out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday, and is up for its final hearing in the House this week.

“I’m not saying it’s a perfect fix,” Behning said. “It begins a discussion about how do you make sure that these students are really getting the most out of their educational experience.”