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ERIC Number: ED533967
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Author Reply to K12 Inc. Response
National Education Policy Center
K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation and expansion of full-time virtual schools. Using federal and state data, Gary Miron and Jessica Urschel provided a description of the students served by K12 and the public revenues received and spent by the company at the school level. Further, they presented evidence from a range of school performance measures and strives to understand and explain the overall weak performance of these virtual schools. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) sent a copy to K12 Inc. and invited them to send the authors a response to their evaluation report. Although the authors did not receive a response, "K12 Inc. Public Affairs" did prepare a document that was posted on their website that had fourteen bullet points, currently available on the K12 Inc website at http://k12choice.com/images/stories/K12_Response_to_NEPC_1.pdf. In this paper, the authors provide a brief response to these points. The following concerns of K12 Inc. are answered in this report: (1) Objection to the report's use of the term "falling behind"; (2) Pointing to K12 Inc.'s data concerning results of a "Scantron Performance Series exam"; (3) Pointing out new initiatives undertaken by K12 Inc. to support struggling students; (4) Contesting spending evidence from the report; (5) Attempting to minimize the importance and strength of the CREDO study; (6) Concerning the weakness of AYP measures; (7) Defending the company's teachers; (8) Concerning student attrition; (9) Concerning the company's internal "customer satisfaction surveys"; (10) Concerning students with disabilities; and (11) Concerning inclusion and exclusion of the company's schools and concerning data on free- and reduced-price lunch. [For the main report, "Understanding and Improving Full-Time Virtual Schools: A Study of Student Characteristics, School Finance, and School Performance in Schools Operated by K12 Inc. [with Appendices]," see ED533960.]
National Education Policy Center. School of Education 249 UCB University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-735-5290; e-mail: nepc@colorado.edu; Web site: http://nepc.colorado.edu
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center
Identifiers - Location: Georgia; Nevada; Pennsylvania; Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A