NC's virtual charter schools are growing, but their test scores lag

North Carolina Virtual Academy and North Carolina Cyber Academy enroll 3,013 students and 2,575 students, respectively, with waiting lists of 2,878 students and 678 students, respectively.

Virtual learning has expanded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, though only 35 traditional public school systems still offered virtual schools last year.

The two virtual charter schools have been operating since 2015 on pilot program status, which the General Assembly mostly recently extended through June 30, 2025, in a bill passed in June.

As pilot schools, they aren’t yet subject to charter school renewal processes, which include reviews of academic performance every five years. Continued “low performing” status — which these schools meet — can result in closure.

Ashley Baquero, who directs the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s charter school office, told the board she recommends the schools be subject to those renewal processes. That would allow for timely data review and timely notice to the school about whether they can stay open.

“Our office and the Charter Schools Advisory Board think that makes the most sense,” Baquero said.

Graduation rates lag below other charter schools and traditional public schools, hitting less than 40% this spring. Each year, hundreds of students withdraw from the schools.

Since opening, every year, the schools have received “D” performance grades and have not met growth status.

The state has limited ability to compare the two virtual charter schools to other virtual schools in the state. Traditional public school systems operated 35 standalone school last year for the first time ever. Of those, 31 received performance grades, which are based solely on standardized test scores, and 23 posted an “F” or a “D.” Eight posted “C” grades.

State Board of Education members expressed concern for some of the data and raised questions about just who is enrolling in those virtual charter schools.

Board Member Amy White asked if the state knew how well the schools’ students had done at their previous schools and how often or when the students transferred schools.

Baquero said schools keep some data on who is enrolling there and why.

“We are seeing that it really is a wide variety of reasons and probably majority of parents are reporting they are just looking for something different,” Baquero said.

The schools aren’t clearly tracking how well the students were doing before enrolling there, she said. But Baquero’s presentation also noted negative “growth scores” in student performance each year. Those scores are the difference between how well an algorithm predicted the student would do — typically based on prior test scores — against how well they did do.

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Parents are often citing a desire for something different as their reason for enrolling their children, which is very broad, Baquero said.

When they withdraw their children, she said, they often say the school wasn’t what they thought it would be or didn’t meet their expectations.

Board Vice Chairman Alan Duncan said he’d like to know what happened to students who withdrew but understood obtaining that information would be “a complicated process” given the “high percentage of withdrawals.”

Board Adviser Leah Carper, the 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Teacher of the Year, said many students thrived in virtual learning during the pandemic — though many did not — and urged leaders to find a way to make virtual school work better.

“It seems like we need more opportunities,” Carper said, noting the thousands of students on waitlists for the schools. “That number shocked me.”

After an influx in lower-income enrollment last year, each of the charter schools qualifies as a Title I school. That’s a school with a higher percentage of students living in poverty, which makes them eligible for the federal Title I program and a corresponding influx in federal funds.

North Carolina Virtual Academy receives $22.1 million in state funds and $4.9 million in federal funds. North Carolina Cyber Academy receives $20.3 million in state funds and $5.5 million in federal funds.