The NCAA has banned K12 Inc. In the future, athletes that are relying on K12 online coursework will no longer be eligible to play college sports.
The NCAA will stop accepting coursework from these schools starting with the 2014–15 school year. Coursework completed from Spring 2013 through Spring 2014 will undergo additional evaluation on a case-by-case basis when a prospect tries to use it for initial eligibility purposes. Coursework completed in Fall 2012 or earlier may be used without additional evaluation.
In addition to the 24 schools above, other schools affiliated with K12 Inc. remain under Extended Evaluation. This means the NCAA will continue to review coursework coming from those schools to see whether it meets the NCAA’s core course and nontraditional course requirements. Prospects with coursework from those schools must submit additional documentation no matter when the coursework was completed.
No Rose Bowl. No Final Four.
K12, Inc., a Virginia-based for-profit company that runs online schools in 32 states and attributes nearly 85 percent of its income to public dollars (See more at: NCAA will no longer accept coursework from 24 virtual schools affiliated with online course provider K12, Inc.) K12 Inc online (charter/coursework) is the brainchild of “Junk Bond King” Mike Milken. Business Week reported that Mike Milken:
With K12, the largest U.S. operator of taxpayer-funded online schools, the former junk-bond king has figured out how to make money in education.
Junk Bond King, as in selling something that is worthless. Yes, that same Mike Milken that:
Was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 in an insider tradinginvestigation. As the result of a plea bargain, he pled guilty to securities and reporting violations but not to racketeering or insider trading. Milken was sentenced to ten years in prison, fined $600 million, and permanently barred from the securities industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
K12 Inc is the same online charter that spend tens of millions of dollars on “marketing” (See How Cyber Charters Waste Taxpayer Dollars and Online Schools Spend Millions of Tax Dollars to Adverise
The same K12 Inc that was deemed a risky investment by the credit ratings agency– kind of like junk bonds? (See Credit-Rating Agency: Charter Schools Are Risky Investment)
The same K12 Inc that financial accountability is an issue (See Private Firms=No Accountability)
The same K12 Inc that was sued by investors “who said they were misled by the company’s business practices and academic performance.” (See K12 Inc. Reaches Tentative Settlement in Investor Lawsuit)
The same K12 Inc. that a former teacher called a “virtual hell.” (See 15 Months in Virtual Charter Hell: A Teacher’s Tale)
The same K12 that thinks that Kate Upton is hot (okay I made this one up)
The same K12 Inc that has spent millions backing Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, its Buddy ALEC, and Their “Reforms”
The data and research on the quality of online charter schools is pretty clear. K12 Inc is part of an “industry” in which cyber schools flunk, but tax money keeps flowing due to extensive lobbying/palm greasing. See also NEPC’s research and data show that K12 Inc students, on average, do worse after enrollment (See Report Shows Students Attending K12 Inc. Cyber Schools Fall Behind). Even the conservative leaning Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found virtual-school students ended up with learning gains that were “significantly worse” than students in traditional charters and public schools. So what we are left with is ideology and profit. Beware of the privateers’ Speculative Bubble(s) for Education.
For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on charters click here.
For all of Diane Ravitch’s posts on K12 Inc click here.
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Cloaking Inequity 
K12 is owned by Pearson, the same company that laid the common foundation for PARCC and Smarter Balanced. By using those tests to prove that public schools are supposedly incompetent, Pearson then swoops in to save the day with its K12 and Connections Online Charters, Common Core textbooks, test tutorials, etc. etc. etc. Pearson even has the PISA and NAEP contracts this year, which they will rewrite to match Common Core so that outside tests like NAEP and PISA better align with their new bogus tests, like PARCC. What a racket.
Pearson identifies a phony problem, creates a test designed to prove it, rewrites more well-known tests so that their own compare more favorably, and then replaces what they define as failing schools – with their own charter brands. That’s a monopoly if there ever was one.
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Reblogged this on Bryan Mann and commented:
Met Prof. Julian Vasquez Heilig today and we had an interesting conversation about a number of educational topics. I will start reblogging his posts that relate to the themes found in my work!
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NCAA admits they do not have any guidelines and measurable standards for teachers in online and blended schools to use when providing instruction. They don’t publish a rubric showing exactly how they measure student-teacher interaction during their reviews. It’s a closed review process from a private entity with no transparency.
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