Kelly Edginton, head of school for the Idaho Virtual Academy, has issued a statement on graduation rates, saying, “It is statistically impossible for the state’s overall graduation rate to have been significantly impacted by Idaho’s virtual schools, which serve only about one percent of the student population.” The state Board of Education told lawmakers this week that a breakdown of Idaho’s high school graduation rates showed that state-approved virtual charter schools and alternative schools had much lower graduation rates than other Idaho schools, at 20 percent and 36 percent, respectively, and that that’s dragging down Idaho’s overall graduation rates, which came in at 77.3 percent, tying for 41st in the nation.

“The reason Idaho’s graduation rate fell is that it recently adopted the federal government’s four-year cohort graduation calculation,” Edginton wrote. “It is wrong to blame Idaho’s online schools for the state’s declining graduation rate.”

She disputed the methodology used in the national calculations, which allow comparisons between states, and said they don’t take into account the virtual schools’ high rate of transfer students who start out already behind on credits when they enter the schools. “Under the federal calculation, students who took more than four years to graduate, earned a GED, or earned a diploma from adapted guidelines as special education students are considered ‘non-graduates.’” Edginton wrote. “The federal graduation rate assumes that students remain in the same school upon entering high school since most students are zoned into their local school.  That is not true for online schools and other alternative schools.” She said the data shows that from 2011 to 2015, among those students who stayed at the Idaho Virtual Academy for their entire four-year high school career, 90 percent graduated on time.

The state board’s breakdown of the graduation-rate figures showed Idaho’s high school graduation rate for students in regular schools in regular school districts is 88 percent. For students in brick-and-mortar charter schools, whether the charters are authorized by local school districts or the state, it’s 91 percent. Other types of schools within school districts had an 80 percent graduation rate.

You can read Edginton’s full statement here.