Adventures of Seamus' Hat: A word on the virtual academy.

Safety fair at our church included railroad safety (the hat on Seamus) and a real life fire truck tour.

Seamus got to sit in the driver's seat of a fire truck at the safety fair.

Matt got to sit on a wave runner - at least that's what we told him.

Scroll down after my vent for lots of videos.

I will start by saying why should I worry about this. If the education system fails my children they can always run for the Legislature…..

This week a member of the Colorado Legislature called for an audit of online K-12 schools. He declared that this was because students in these schools were posting failing grades on state testing.

This week controversy surrounding the graduation rates of Colorado Virtual Academy (COVA) circulated in the media.

This week the comment threads for these stories included naysayers declaring that attending a virtual academy shows how lazy these kids are and encourages their already anti-social behaviors.

Needless to say having Izabel called a lazy, anti-social, failure who is unlikely to graduate got my dander up. I am writing a letter to that particular legislator but I thought I would also write something on this for the blog. Where to start?…..

It is striking how at meetings of virtual academy families (that’s right in-person meetings not anti-social texting/online/skype meetings) when it comes time for introductions how virtually (no pun intended) every family says the reason they chose to use a virtual academy is some horror story on how the brick and mortar system failed their student. How they were told to hold back a gifted learner, or how their child was “unteachable”, or how a student with special needs was left ignored under the guise that the only intervention needed was “observation” by a district psychologist. To put it in perspective it was suggested to us by both Izabel and Seamus’ teachers that we should give them a Mt. Dew in the morning to calm them down. We tried it with Izabel – it did not work.

Izabel was being held back because of an arbitrary birthday cutoff for the area that literally is the difference between Matt and myself. (We were both born in the same year; I was born the week of the cutoff and Matt the same week Izabel was). So off she went to another year of preschool with the promise that this year they would teach her more advanced stuff because their program was individually based. At the same time we started her on a kindergarten program with K12 virtual school.

I remember having a conversation with her when I saw the same exact worksheets from the year before coming home with her. I told her something about how she already knows all this and asked if she was doing other things in her class. Her response, “Mom I don’t know this stuff or they would not be teaching it to me again.” We were spending all this extra time doing the work the school should have been doing AND sending her to the school which was discouraging her. I could not allow her to hate school especially at such a young age; at least wait until high school or jr. high to hate school, right?

To the commentary on the laziness of these kids: This cat thinks that it just says to the world that your kid is too lazy to get up and be dressed and at the bus stop by a specific time. He is neglecting the fact it actually means that the kids have to be self-motivated and self-disciplined. Not to mention they can take their time to learn things that are difficult, speed through things that are easy, and take some time to delve deeper into things that are interesting TO THEM, not to some school board or teacher or textbook writer.

To the commentary on the anti-social behavior: It is so opposite of that. These kids are learning to care about each other. At the multitude of events we attend Izabel and Seamus are included in the activities and make friends with the other kids easily. The other kids understand Izabel with her exceptional vocabulary matching theirs, they look out for the younger kids like Seamus and they do not bully or tease each other. They are not learning things like how to deal with the mean girl clique or dodging punches and ridicule on the playground and sometimes from the teachers. Plus they do not have some arbitrary age that their friends must be. They play with toddlers and older kids.

To the commentary on the failure rate: Ridiculous. These standardized tests show nothing and are poorly written. It should be noted that COVA had an arbitrary mis-administration of the Colorado state testing 2 years ago where the state told them after the test that they could not test kids from different grades in the same room. Like that M*A*S*H episode where they are dismantling a bomb, “but first cut the red wire.” Also, it is a myth that standardized testing boosts education in anyway. The tests do not measure what they purport to measure and teaching to the tests ignores practical and needed knowledge. I have a multitude of references but I just found one that I am currently reading, Top 10 Myths in Education: Fantasies Americans Love to Believe by Larry E. Frase and William Streshly from the library. I could go on for ages about DIEBLES (it is a national standardized test for fluency in reading but actually does not test fluency in reading) or about Colorado’s (or Ohio’s) system of standardized testing so I will stop with that.

To the commentary about the graduation rate: Of the children who enter the COVA high school as freshmen 100% graduate on time. They should shout that from the top of Pikes Peak. They also pick up many students who along the way in high school have lost credits and are not in line to graduate on time when they enter the academy. Of those kids they have been able to have a 50% graduation rate. They should shout that from the top of Mt. Evans. They are taking on the kids that the other schools are failing. Denver Public schools have a 50.4% graduation rate and spend $15,769 per student. COVA has a 75.9% graduation rate and spends $8,129 per student. In comparison the state average is a graduation rate of 75.4% and spending of $9,326 and Brush High School (the school system Izabel started in) has a 69.6% graduation rate with $8,398 spend per student.

Seamus was asking to get his shoes off.

I know it is not for everyone but it needs to remain a choice for those for whom it works. I would challenge the legislator and the naysayer to follow my family for a week and see if they can keep up. Speaking of that soon I plan to post some nuts and bolts on how it is done since we get so many questions on that.

The kids try on some hats....