Gary Miron, a professor of educational leadership, research and technology at Western Michigan University, is one of those educators. In 2019, Miron co-authored
a report on the influence of EMOs on the education system for the National Education Policy Center that found that students enrolled in school through EMOs l
ike Stride underperformed in traditional school efficacy measures like student-teacher ratios and graduation rates.
According to that report, students in virtual schools had a graduation rate of 50.1%, and those in blended schools graduated at a rate of 61.5%, both well short of the national average for in-person schools, 84%. The report also found that the student-teacher ratio of EMOs was nearly three times higher than the national average.
"The reason we're seen as critics is because the findings are absolutely terrible, and the reason for that is the model that's being used doesn't make sense," Miron said.
"It's for maximizing profit, not for serving children, not for representing taxpayer interest."
In particular, Miron points to the high student-teacher ratios as a major flaw for a company like Stride, arguing that technology's ability to bring more people into a classroom ultimately limits the amount of critical one-on-one time teachers are able to spend with students, which ultimately leads to dropouts.
"They don't have communication with students, they have algorithms that generate emails when a child hasn't been active for a week or two," Miron said. "They don't see the children, they don't hear the children, and the children exit in masses."
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
A) lets get our kids back to school the damn virus is dead!
B) let not any public funds be given to this for profit nonsense.
C) this reminds me of jails and we know how that all went.
D) look at the creepy board of directors at STRIDE. Think about book burning by Republicans-
get ready for that mindset to be included in the STRIDE educational format in many ways. Do you want your children being abused this way?~si