LANSING – Nationally, cyber charter schools substantially underperformed traditional public schools, but those in Michigan were about on par with their peers, a report issued Wednesday by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University said.
Overall, the report found students in cyber charter schools were 180 days behind their peers in traditional public schools in mathematics and 72 days behind in reading.
The cyber schools in Michigan performed about even with traditional schools in mathematics, leaving their students behind, but by a statistically insignificant amount. In reading, the report showed they actually out-performed traditional schools, but again by an insignificant amount.
The only other state to see similar results was Wisconsin, where the cyber charters outperformed Michigan’s in reading, but slightly underperformed them in math.
“The results of the study are promising considering the student makeup in Michigan cyber schools included a significant amount of high school dropouts and other at-risk students. Michigan authorizers hold their cyber schools to the high standards we expect from every school and it shows in the results of this study,” Jared Burkhart, executive director of the Michigan Council of Charter School Authorizers, said in a statement. “We will continue to support the high standards and accountability measures that lead to high performance.”
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