The troubling news that Idaho’s high school graduation rates are lower than have long been thought has prompted the state Board of Education to do additional research, board President Don Soltman told JFAC this morning, to pinpoint where the problems are. “The bad news is that alternative schools and virtual schools have very low graduation rates, which drag down the overall state average,” he said. “The good news is that for students attending regular and charter schools, actually 88 percent and 91 percent” graduate.

He shared these figures with JFAC: Idaho’s high school graduation rate for students in regular schools in regular school districts is 88 percent; for those in alternative schools in a regular district, it’s 36 percent. For students in district-authorized charter schools, the graduation rate is 91 percent. For those in other schools in regular school districts, the rate is 80 percent. For students in state-authorized brick-and-mortar charter schools, it’s 91 percent, the same as locally authorized charter schools. But for students enrolled in “virtual” charter schools authorized by the state Public Charter School Commission, the graduation rate is only 20 percent.

Virtual charter schools are those in which students receive their education online, rather than in person; Idaho authorizes an array of them as options for families, at state expense.

Soltman said in his experience, virtual charter schools and alternative schools generally serve the same population. "I applaud the work they do," he said, in serving "the type of student that has not fared well in the public school system." Soltman added, "I have no statistics to back that up, but my experience leads me to believe they serve the same population."

Some of Idaho's state-authorized virtual charter schools specifically target at-risk, minority or under-served students. Some were set up locally. The largest, Idaho Virtual Academy, uses the K12 curriculum, which is developed by K12 Inc., a national, for-profit education company.