Primavera Online School is a publicly funded

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

serving grades K–12 in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. The school was founded in 2001 by Damian Creamer and was made possible by a program established by the

Arizona Legislature The Arizona State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Senate. Composed of 90 legislators, the s ...

in 1998. Primavera targets students at risk of not graduating from conventional high schools, estimating that 70% of their students are high risk. In 2018 Primavera was ranked the #2 charter school in Arizona. Primavera added grades K-5 in partnership with Sequoia Choice for the 2020/2021 school year.

Structure

Primavera Online School is accredited by Cognia (formerly AdvancED.) There are no fees for students aged 14–22, and only students 22 or younger are accepted. Two types of students attend Primavera: full-time and concurrent-enrolled. Primavera offers two types of

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

s. The standard diploma requires 22 credits while the advanced scholastic diploma requires 23 credits and has a stronger emphasis on

math Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, and

foreign languages A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at sch ...

. Primavera has open enrollment throughout the year, and offers

block scheduling Block scheduling or blocking is a type of academic scheduling used in schools in the American K-12 system, in which each pupil has fewer classes per day. It is more common in middle and high schools than in primary schools. Each class is schedu ...

. Students take two courses for each six-week block. Each course equals one credit. All teachers are certified and are required to stay in constant contact with each student throughout the course. Primavera claims a student-to-teacher ratio of 33:1, although records at the Arizona Department of Education indicate 68:1.

Results

In 2017–18, there were 21,782 students enrolled in grades six through 12. In 2017's state standardized tests, under a quarter of its students passed mathematics and around a third passed English, both below the state average. The school had the third-highest drop out rate in Arizona in 2017, with 49% dropping out; around 10 times the state average.

Finances

Primavera, like other charter schools in Arizona, is publicly funded per pupil, although at a reduced rate due to being online-only. Primavera opened in 2001 under the management of Primavera Technical Learning Center, a nonprofit

charter management organization A charter management organization (CMO) is an educational organization that operates charter schools in the United States. Charter schools are public schools that operate independently of the local government school district. A CMO contracts with ...

. In 2015, the school's charter was transferred to for-profit

education management organization An education management organization (EMO) is a term of art describing a for-profit entity that manages schools. It provides a distinction from charter management organization which is a ''non-profit'' manager of charter schools. The terms are oft ...

Flipswitch and its subsidiary, American Virtual Academy, Inc. Flipswitch was renamed Strongmind. It has one shareholder, Damian Creamer. Creamer has been criticized for using this funding structure to pay himself an $8.8 million yearly salary and making large payments to other companies he owns. The school has also been criticized for teacher salaries and diverting educating funding to a for-profit investment portfolio, worth $36 million in 2015.

References

External links

* {{authority control Charter schools in Arizona Schools in Maricopa County, Arizona Public high schools in Arizona Online schools in the United States 2001 establishments in Arizona Educational institutions established in 2001