(The Center Square) – A member of the North Carolina State Board of Education has is alarmed by a new academic performance report on the state’s remote learning academies.
According to the report, two schools received an F, while 12 received were rated with a D and 19 with Cs. Only one earned an A and one a B.
By comparison, traditional schools had much higher percentages of schools rate A, B or C.
For example, while only 2.8% of remote academies were rated A, 7.8% of traditional schools received that grade. The disparity was even greater for schools with a B. Only 2.8% of the remote academies were rated B, 20.3% of tradition schools had a B performance rating.
With only 35 academies, percentages can skew greatly.
“This slide just gives me great concern about the performance of our students in these academies,” board member Alan Duncan said following the presentation this week. “That’s not to take anything away from the teachers who are teaching them and the parents and family members that are caring for them. It’s about the way the instruction is being received and the limitations of virtual instruction.”
Educators learned during the widespread school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic that remote instruction is not as effective as in-person instruction, Duncan said.
“For all of the benefits of virtual instruction, we’re really aware of the limitations and the challenges,” he said. “We dealt with that through the pandemic and wanted to get our students back in schools as fast as we could because of those limitations.”
Duncan said the report gives him “great concerns about doing anything that would promote these academies until their performance is at least on par or close to traditional schools,”
North Carolina approved 43 remote academies for the 2023-24 school year, although two opened, according to the state.
“The impact of remote academies in North Carolina is significant, providing families with numerous advantages,” the new report states. “These include increased school choice, allowing for tailored educational options, and flexible scheduling that accommodates various student needs.”
High-level athletes, those who want to graduate early and students with chronic attendance issues, are among those who benefit from the program, the report says. In some districts, the virtual academics have attracted many students who were previously homeschooled, Melissa Davis, director of the state’s Office of Virtual Instruction Services, told the state board.
