Dozens of Florida schools — many of them online schools — initially rated “incomplete” by the state Department of Education now have official A-F grades.
As noted by the Orlando Sentinel, school grades recently became final after the deadline for appeals passed.
Of the 114 schools that received incomplete ratings when the state released preliminary grades in July, 76 now have letter grades. The grades are based on student performance on the Florida Standards Assessment, along with other factors such as learning gains.
A significant number of the newly graded schools are virtual education operations that were rated incomplete because fewer than 95 percent of their students took all their state assessments.
Among statewide providers, Florida Virtual School received a B for its full-time high school program and a C for its full-time K-8. K12 Inc. received a B.
Both K12 and FLVS came fairly close to meeting the 95 percent threshold, with roughly 90 percent of their students tested.
A third provider, Edgenuity, still has an incomplete. Updated state records show just 62 percent of its students took all their required tests.
The 38 schools that still have incomplete ratings also include eight K12-operated virtual charter schools. Several of them have either closed or been threatened with termination by their local school boards, with low test participation cited as an issue. District-run virtual programs in Bay, Clay, Manatee and Osceola Counties also still have incomplete grades.
Difficulty administering state assessments to virtual students is hardly confined to Florida. In a blog post earlier this year, Jeff Kwitowski, a K12 vice president in charge of policy, said it’s especially pronounced among statewide virtual schools. For them, he wrote, state assessments require a “massive amount of time, resources, planning, logistics, and manpower.”
To recap: statewide online schools don’t have school buildings, yet state tests must be administered in buildings. So online schools must secure numerous testing sites across the state and move thousands of students in and out for days and weeks of continuous testing. This is a monumental task, requiring months of planning and preparation. During testing, teachers stop all instructional duties to physically be at the sites to proctor tests. Parents drive their children to and from the sites every day until all testing is completed. Some stay at hotels. Others arrange alternative transportation, child care, and even take vacation or leave time from work. They literally have to plan their lives around state testing. Unlike most families, online school parents can’t simply put their children on a bus and send them to the school building they attend every day.
It may be worth looking at which Florida school districts were successful at helping their virtual students overcome those hurdles.
