BlueSky 'Confident' Facing Dept. of Education Hearing

continues to consider whether to play a role in the future of troubled BlueSky Online School. Meanwhile the online charter school will present their case next week to stay open, which could fuel debate about how to measure student achievement in a nontraditional educational model. 

The statewide virtual high school based out of West St. Paul provides online education to students across the state in grades 7-12. It has been fighting for its life since March, when the Department of Education (DOE) announced its intention to shut down the school.

A hearing of BlueSky’s case is scheduled for Sept. 26-28 in St. Paul. After that, an administrative law judge will make a recommendation to the commissioner of education about whether to close BlueSky.

Bricks and Mortar

BlueSky initiated conversations with District 197 over the summer about the possibility of being absorbed into the district, regardless of whether they are closed by the state or not.

“We’re looking at the feasibility of an online school,” said Susan Brott, District 197 communications director. “We’ve had some conversations with BlueSky, but we don’t have any formal arrangements.”

In order to merge with District 197, BlueSky, a charter school incorporated as a 501(c)3 independent business, would have to dissolve and sell its assets—including the $700,000 curriculum, along with computers and the physical facility—to District 197.

“We think perceptually, it would be helpful to be tied to a traditional district,” said Dan Cook, BlueSky’s public relations coordinator. “There would be a little more perceived credibility.”

According to the school, assimilating BlueSky would be beneficial to District 197 for a variety of reasons:

• Those students who have left District 197 for BlueSky would return to the district, bringing the state funds associated with them.
• District 197 could enroll students from all over the state.
• It would be easier for District 197 to incorporate an already-established program than to create an online school from scratch.
• BlueSky can be cheaper to operate than a traditional school. There are no lunch or transportation costs, and physical facility costs are reduced, though there are some additional expenses related to server maintenance and software.

 The State’s Claims

 The outcome of the DOE hearing could determine whether the district wants to move forward with any plans to take on BlueSky.

The DOE has argued that the school has violated state law by graduating students who have not completed the state’s required coursework and by failing to offer curriculum consistent with state standards.

Only 13 percent of BlueSky students met federal standards for academic achievement in 2010, compared with 65 percent statewide and 62 percent in District 197.

But Donald Hainlen, the school’s director, counters that BlueSky has met state standards, and that the DOE has harped on insignificant details. BlueSky also argues that the reality of their largely non-traditional student body should be taken into consideration.

 “I think every school should be accountable, and at BlueSky we certainly feel that,” Cook said. However, he said that for a portion of BlueSky’s population, online learning is a last-ditch attempt at graduating; those who try online learning and still end up dropping out are not being counted as drop-outs of their home districts, but of BlueSky.

“It really is their last resort,” Cook said.

Hainlen and Cook said the DOE sees standardized test scores lower than the state average and assumes the school is under-performing.

“We run the entire spectrum of the less-traditional students,” Hainlen said. “We have some students who are reluctant learners; school has not been the favorite thing in their agenda. We have late sleepers. We have student mothers, and we have students who are extremely motivated, off-the-charts motivated.”

Hanlein and Cook claim that as a result of the DOE’s effort over the last few years to first reproach and then dissolve the school, statewide enrollment has fallen from a high of 900 two years ago to a little more than 400 this fall.

Standards Questioned

Charlene Briner, the DOE’s communications director, declined to comment at length due to the coming court date.

“Our findings indicated that the school is not meeting standard,” she said. “Because this is an unusual case that has spanned two administrations, the commissioner wanted to ensure the highest degree of confidence in the final outcome.”

Cook said that when BlueSky received the DOE’s report, the changes they were asked to make seemed minor.

“They said a particular social studies course did not meet the standards because there’s one particular requirement that says students have to ‘analyze’ how debates played a factor in the creation of the constitution of the U.S., but our curriculum says ‘describe’ the debates and the role they played in the constitution,” he said. “We didn’t use the word “analyze.” We all laughed and joked and said, ‘Why don’t we just change the word?’”

Some of the state’s complaints against BlueSky mirror an audit of K-12 online learning released Sept. 19 from the Office of the Legislative Auditor, which raised concerns about low test scores, climbing dropout rates and falling course-completion rates in online schools across the state. (BlueSky was not targeted by the audit.)

Cook said the school is prepared to appeal any decision against the school by the administrative law judge, but he doesn’t think they’ll need to.

“I’ve been confident all along that if given the chance before an impartial judge … it’s very difficult to see it any other way that the school is operating in compliance.”