"The following virtual academies have four-year cohort graduation rates at or above 90 percent," DeVos wrote, listing some apparent success stories:
"Idaho Virtual Academy (IDV A): 90 percent
Nevada Virtual Academy (NVV A): 100 percent
Ohio Virtual Academy (OHV A): 92 percent
Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy (OVCA): 91 percent
Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA): 96 percent
Utah Virtual Academy (UTV A): 96 percent
Wisconsin Virtual Academy (WIV A): 96 percent"
There's just one problem with these numbers, Pallas points out.
They're wrong.
The Nevada Virtual Academy, for example. Its graduation rate for the class of 2015 wasn't 100 percent. It was
63 percent, according to Nevada's own school report card.
Ohio Virtual Academy's 92 percent graduation rate? Try
53 percent.
Utah Virtual Academy's 96 percent rate?
Cut it in half.
You get the point.
Where did DeVos get these inflated numbers? Questions to the Trump administration went unanswered, but they appear to have been lifted verbatim from
this report by K12 Inc., the for-profit company behind the online schools listed. DeVos herself was once an investor. It would not be the first of her answers to senators that appear to have been
borrowed without citation.
K12 Inc. has already
responded to the controversy, explaining that its numbers are "the graduation rate of continuously enrolled high school students – those who enrolled in ninth grade and remained enrolled until twelfth grade. This is
not the federal graduation rate and our report makes that clear."