State Auditor Critical Of ECOT

State Auditor David Yost has ordered an examination of all cyber schools' data collection practices after his office found the state's largest online charter school operator lacked adequate systems to track the time students spent learning. Yost says the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow's inability to reliably capture learning durations puts the school at risk of making financial misstatements under Ohio's new tracking protocols. The state is basing e-school funding on time students spend learning, rather than on enrollment totals or certification by teachers. Yost says ECOT and other e-schools will struggle to comply and probably will owe Ohio money. He says results of his review, expected later this year, may prompt lawmakers to reconsider the new standard. ECOT says its audit was clean except for the duration-tracking issue.