(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So I missed this little gem in August, but the Florida Virtual School released figures on end of course exams, and guess what, their students scored higher than the Florida average on every exam, varying from a passing rate 4% to 18% higher.
Now admittedly this is not a Campbell and Stanley random assignment study. It could be the case that FLVS got more academically motivated students, etc. It’s also possible that these would prove out to be significant differences, some significant some not, etc. in a proper experimental comparison. Perhaps someone will do us all a favor and do a sophisticated analysis.
Given that the state saves money on FLVS courses, it’s looking great for now.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Given the strong link of parental income to SAT scores…. perhaps a parental income link to these score differences could be developed… at least that would give researchers something to do.
Perhaps for the FLVS, those who knew they weren’t going to do well didn’t take the test. Whereas if they were in a steel and concrete school, they were made to take the test.
Perhaps for the FLVS, those who knew they weren’t going to do well didn’t take the test. Whereas if they were in a steel and concrete school, they were made to take the test.
Perhaps but the state conditions payments to FLVS on successful course completions, so that would be a very expensive way to jimmy the results.
The FLVS part-time students that completed these EOC tests attend traditional brick and mortar schools and were required by theirs schools to complete the EOC exams. The FLVS full-time students are ALL required to complete the EOC, as they are just like a traditional school and students are able to earn their diploma through that program. As for the income of our parents, we serve students all across the state, many of which complete our courses in labs within their schools. Therefore, I am not sure that we would see much of a correlation there. These courses are also free to all students in the state of Florida.