State auditor to investigate if e-schools can track learning time

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s auditor ordered a statewide examination Thursday of cyber schools’ data collection practices after his office found the state’s largest online charter school lacked adequate systems to track the time students spent learning.

Republican Auditor Dave Yost said the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow’s inability to reliably capture learning durations for its estimated 23,000 students puts the school at risk of making financial misstatements under Ohio’s new tracking protocols. He called that a “material weakness.”

The state is now basing e-school funding on time students spend learning, rather than on enrollment totals or certification by teachers, as it had done in the past.

Yost said that could affect the schools’ financial conditions, which is his concern.

“Under these new standards, ECOT and many other e-schools will struggle to comply, and all are likely to owe something to the state,” he said.