A three-person review team of the Maine Charter School Commission is recommending that a virtual charter school be approved to move forward in its quest to open in Maine.

The full commission will vote on the recommendation for Maine Virtual Academy at its meeting Wednesday in Augusta.

If approved, the full commission will review Maine Virtual Academy’s application in more depth, and vote on Nov. 13 on whether it can open in the fall of 2015.

Other review teams said they recommended that applications from two other charter school applicants be denied: All of ME Academy, a kindergarten through fifth-grade school based in either Lewiston or Auburn; and Inspire ME Academy, a York County-based school for fourth- through eighth-graders.

There are currently four spots available for new charter schools in Maine under the state’s 10-school cap through 2021. The six existing charter schools are Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Fairfield; Cornville Regional Charter School; Baxter Academy of Technology and Science in Portland; Fiddlehead School for Arts & Sciences in Gray; Harpswell Coastal Academy; and the state’s first virtual charter school, Maine Connections Academy, which opened this fall.

This is the third time Maine Virtual Academy has applied. It withdrew its application the first year and was rejected by the commission last spring.

Among the commission’s concerns at the time were that the board did not have enough independence and oversight of key school functions, such as hiring teachers; that the company contracted to provide education services couldn’t provide the commission with SAT and Advanced Placement test results for its students; and that some Maine Virtual Academy board members were not as engaged as others.

School board officials said they would change to address the commission’s concerns.

“The applicant has made a good faith effort to address the concerns of the commission from its previous application,” the review team wrote in its report, noting that the board will employ all staff, the school will have a physical location in Maine and that all teachers administrators and staff will live and work in Maine. “The changes in this application … provide greater assurance that the board will be successfully be able to manage the (education service provider) and is sufficiently independent.”

The review team report, posted on the commission’s webpage, lists both strengths and weaknesses in the application in several areas.

Virtual charter school students learn largely from home and get lessons online, with limited face-to-face interaction with teachers and administrators. Supporters say the schools are good for students who don’t “fit” at traditional schools, from athletes in intense training to students who have been bullied. Virtual charter schools also have drawn criticism, in part because local school boards outsource their management to for-profit companies that are beholden to shareholders.

Maine Virtual Academy plans to contract its academic services from K12 Inc. of Herndon, Virginia, the nation’s largest online education company.

The state’s existing virtual school, Maine Connections Academy, contracts its services from Connections Academy, a division of Maryland-based Connections Education, a for-profit company that manages virtual charter schools in more than 20 states. The company is owned by Pearson PLC in London, a multinational corporation that formulates standardized tests and publishes textbooks for many schools in the United States.

A 2012 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation of K12 and Connections Education showed that Maine’s digital education policies were being shaped in ways that benefited the two companies, that the companies recruited board members in the state, and that their schools in other states had fared poorly in analyses of student achievement.

In 2013, K12 settled a federal class-action lawsuit in which some claims, including those alleging K12 made false statements about student results, were dismissed for lack of merit, while other allegations – that K12 boosted enrollment and revenues through “deceptive recruiting” practices – were dismissed as part of a $6.75 million settlement to the shareholders.

In April, the NCAA announced that it would no longer accept course work from 24 schools operated by K12, saying the courses were out of compliance with the NCAA’s nontraditional course requirements.

This summer, Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman ordered K12-managed Tennessee Virtual Academy to close at the end of this school year unless test scores show dramatic gains, according to The Associated Press.

Nationwide, there were 2.1 million students enrolled in charter schools in 2011-12, and 5.6 percent of all public schools were charters, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Maine charter schools are publicly funded but operate independently of public school districts.

Staff Writer Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 791-6387 or at:

ngallagher@pressherald.com

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