Connections Academy and the Confusing Stories Told by Virtual Charter Schools

This week, Connections Academy, the second largest virtual charter school company in the U.S., issued a press release announcing the graduation of their class of 2018. The piece mentioned some pretty stellar young students, including a future NASCAR driver, a learner with epilepsy who has raised money in support of others living with the condition, and a boy genius. In all, 5,300 Connections Academy learners graduated.

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District Turns to Virtual Charter School in a Last Ditch Effort

The school, known as Union School Corporation, formed the Indiana Digital Learning School (INDLS) with K12. Going from 256 students in 2016-17, they boosted that figure to 937 this year. Indiana currently allocates $5,273 per student, so the gains proved lifesaving to the district.

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Missouri Districts Will Face a Unique Issue with Virtual Charter School Law

In Missouri, educators at public schools are facing a unique situation: virtual charter schools might make them look bad. This month, a bill in the state that put student attendance in a virtual charter school in the hands of districts passed the House and the Senate.

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In the Ohio Primaries, School Choice, Virtual Charter Schools, and ECOT Take Center Stage

The fraudulent and former virtual charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), which was shuttered in January, has received attention from nearly every candidate. Virtual charter schools certainly form a divisive political issue on their own. But besides the stealing of millions of state taxpayer dollars, the ECOT scandal also involved a fair amount of dubious political dealing.

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Pearson Will Open Three New Virtual Charter Schools This Year

Last week, Pearson, one of the world’s largest education-focused companies, announced that it will be partnering with three new virtual charter schools that will open this year. Much hangs on the term ‘partner.’ ‘Opening’ might be more accurate. Each school is an iteration of Connections Academy, the virtual charter school operator it acquired in 2011. According to Vox, Connections Academy virtual charter schools make up nearly one quarter of the total in the U.S. They are second only to K12.

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With the ESSA Set to Roll Out, Few States Have Dealt With Virtual Charter Schools in their New Legislation

ESSA was passed largely as a response to the culture of ‘teaching to the test’ created by NCLB and seeks to allow states to handle measures of quality on their own. But, according to Micah Wixom, a specialist in school choice for the Education Commission of the States (ECS), there’s one area that state lawmakers are largely ignoring: virtual charter schools.

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Skewed Data, Non-Disclosure Agreements, and Hush Money from ECOT: Allegations Fly Against the Now Defunct Virtual Charter School

On Tuesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) manipulated student activity tracking software in order to boost their reported student activity and, in doing so, the total taxpayer dollars they receive from Ohio.

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Another Step Forward for Teachers’ Unions: California Virtual Educators United Settles in Lieu of a Strike

CAVA teachers unionized in 2013 as the California Virtual Educators United (CVEU). They are affiliated with the California Teachers Association (CTA).

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