By Phil Williams 
 
 Chief Investigative Reporter 
 
 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Are leaders of a for-profit public school trying to hide the fact their students are failing? 
 
 That's the question that some are asking tonight as a result of an email uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates. 
 
 At the center of the controversy is the Tennessee Virtual Academy -- a for-profit, online public school that Republican lawmakers touted as a way to improve education in Tennessee. Two years ago, state lawmakers voted to let K12 Inc. open the school, using millions of taxpayer dollars. 
 
 But, now, those lawmakers are concerned about standardized test results that put it among the worst schools in the state. 
 
 In fact, the email suggests that even school leaders are becoming increasingly concerned by how their students' grades may look to parents and the public. 
 
 "That is not something I would ever be told in my school -- I mean, it's just not acceptable," said state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Knoxville Democrat who is also a career teacher. "Quite honestly, I was horrified." 
 
 The email -- labeled "important -- was written in December by the Tennessee Virtual Academy's vice principal to middle school teachers. 
 
 "After ... looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays," the email begins. 
 
 Among the changes: Each teacher "needs to take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress." 
 
 "Does it talk about we need to make changes in curriculum? Does it talk about we need to make changes in our teaching strategy? No," Rep. Johnson observed. "Those changes we need to make are deleting grades from the computer system." 
 
 "And that's cheating in your mind?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked. 
 
 "In my mind, sure. I mean, yes." 
 
 The email adds, "This cannot be late!" 
 
 "To come in and say 'everybody who made failing grades the first two months, we need to delete those grades,' to me that's a huge issue," Johnson added. 
 
 And the suggestions from K12 leaders don't end there. 
 
 In traditional classrooms, if students score a 60 on one test and a 90 on a second test, they're stuck with a 75 average. But the email suggests that teachers erase the bad grades, leaving students with just the good grades. 
 
 The email continues, "If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out." 
 
 Read the TNVA email, response 
 
 "This doesn't say give them a second chance," we noted. 
 
 "No, it does not," the lawmaker agreed. "It just says take that out. To me, this appears like it's grade fixing." 
 
 K12 officials refused to sit down to answer our questions, but the Tennessee Virtual Academy's principal said in an email that the goal was to "more accurately recognize students' current progress." 
 
 "By going back into our school's electronic grading system and recording students' most recent progress score (instead of taking the average throughout the semester) we could more accurately recognize students' current progress in their individualized learning program," principal Josh Williams said in the statement. 
 
 "This also helped differentiate those and identify those who needed instructional intervention and remediation." 
 
 Williams compared K12's grade deletions to the "common practice in traditional schools" of allowing "make-up tests, alternative assessments and extra credit opportunities." 
 
 Yet, the internal email also suggests that Virtual Academy teachers had already attempted those sorts of efforts to boost student grades. 
 
 "In early December, all teachers gave their students an opportunity to improve their grades by giving additional assignments," it says. 
 
 "Yet, we are still seeing failing grades." 
 
 As to K12's explanation, Mitchell Johnson, interim director of the Tennessee Education Association, questioned how deleting data helps K12 to better understand students' needs. 
 
 "They're probably changing the grades to make themselves look better," he speculated. 
 
 It's a practice that the TEA official suggested would not sit well with privatization advocates if they saw a "delete it" email from a traditional public school. 
 
 "I think that they would be incensed, and I'm hoping that the reformers will be as incensed about what has happened here -- as they would be if it had happened within a public school setting," he added. 
 
 In the email, teachers were also told that their main focus is on reading and math -- and that they are not as concerned about students making F's in history and science. 
 
 But the principal of the Tennessee Virtual Academy noted that, ultimately, the school's success or failure will be judged based on the standardized tests that students take at the end of the year -- not on individual grades. 
 
 Because of concerns about the Tennessee Virtual Academy's performance, Gov. Bill Haslam has proposed legislation that would cap the number of students who could enroll at 5,000. It's at about 3,200 right now. 
 
 There is also a bill up in a House subcommittee Tuesday that would essentially shut it down. 
 
 E-mail: pwilliams@newschannel5.com ||||| Humphrey on the Hill Tom Humphrey's blog on politics and legislative news in Tennessee 
 
 NASHVILLE — A House committee killed legislation that would have closed Union County-based Tennessee Virtual Academy on Tuesday after one Knoxville legislator effectively blocked another from talking to the committee about allegations that the for-profit school altered the bad grades of some students. 
 
 Instead, the House Education Subcommittee approved a bill pushed by Gov. Bill Haslam's administration that puts some new restrictions on virtual schools, but only after eliminating — with the governor's approval — a proposed 5,000-student enrollment cap that was originally part of House Bill 151. 
 
 Democratic Rep. Mike Stewart of Nashville sponsored the bill (HB728) that would have effectively repealed the law passed in 2011 that allowed for-profit virtual schools to operate in Tennessee. 
 
 The 2011 bill was sponsored by Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, who is now chairman of the House Education Committee and sponsor of the Haslam administration bill changing some rules for running virtual schools. 
 
 Stewart told the committee that Tennessee Virtual Academy, part of a system of virtual schools operated around the nation by K12 Inc., has proved itself in a year of operation a "bad idea" for both its students, who have had low scores in testing, and for taxpayers. 
 
 "The only people that are benefiting are in K12, a Virginia corporation that is rising statewide to siphon off millions of dollars every year ... for enormous profits," said Stewart, adding that K12 CEO Ronald Packard was paid $3.9 million last year and $5 million the year before. 
 
 Rep. Roger Kane, R-Knoxville, told Stewart his talk of Packard's salary was a "red herring" and otherwise criticized the Nashville lawmaker's statements — drawing applause from perhaps 25 Virtual Academy teachers, students and parents of students in the audience. 
 
 One Virtual Academy teacher, Summer Shelton of Knoxville, told the panel she had taught in Knox County and elsewhere — including Europe — and considered the academy as having "the most dynamic curriculum" and the best overall, especially beneficial to children with special problems, such as feeling stressed in regular schools. 
 
 Legislative staff found that Tennessee Virtual Academy is receiving $7.5 million in state funding this year. 
 
 Stewart told the committee that the company receives $5,300 per student "essential to turn on a website" and has refused to give any information on how much it spends — which he estimated at $1,000 to $2,000 per student. He challenged K12 to provide the information, though there was no response during the session. 
 
 After the meeting, Ken Meyer, director of government relations for K12, told reporters that Stewart's figures are wrong and K12 has lost money in its first year of operation. 
 
 Actually, he said the Tennessee operation gets $4,700 per student, gives Union County about $300 in accordance with its contract, and thus receives only about $4,400 per student. Meyer said the company's costs are about $6,600 per student, adding he was going by memory and would give more precise figures later. 
 
 Stewart also cited an email sent to Virtual Academy teachers in December that says they should "take out the October and September progress (reports); delete it so that all that is showing is November progress reports." 
 
 He distributed the email, which was provided by Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, to him and to WTVF-TV in Nashville, which aired a report on the matter Monday evening. Johnson, a Knox County schoolteacher, said she had been given the email by a Virtual Academy teacher. 
 
 Stewart asked that Johnson be allowed to speak to the committee. Brooks objected, saying the email had nothing to do with the Stewart bill under discussion. The committee chairman made a motion to end all discussion and proceed immediately to a vote on the bill. 
 
 Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, presiding at the subcommittee meeting, promptly declared Brooks' motion approved by voice vote, then immediately called for a vote on the bill. It was declared defeated on voice vote. 
 
 Afterward, Johnson and Shelton spent several minutes discussing the email, which Shelton said had been misunderstood. She said the school had a new "grade book" for teachers to report student progress. Some teachers were averaging grades while others were using the most recent grade, Shelton said. The email was to clarify that the most recent grade — as a measure of progress — should be used, she said. In many situations, she said the student had taken a test twice, in which case the second grade is used. 
 
 After hearing out Shelton, Johnson said she understood much of the lengthy explanation, but overall "it's not quite jiving 100 percent." She also questioned why K12 or Virtual Academy executives had not testified or answered questions. 
 
 The Haslam administration bill, sponsored by Brooks, was approved on a 6-3 vote. 
 
 As amended, it imposes a 1,500-student cap on new virtual schools launched in the state, but not on those already operating. The original bill would have covered Tennessee Virtual Academy — which now has about 3,200 students — with a 5,000 cap. That was dropped by an amendment. 
 
 The bill has other provisions that declare a virtual school that has below-standard student performance for two consecutive years can be closed by the state's education commission. 
 
 The commissioner would also have the option to instead impose an enrollment cap.
– Tennessee Virtual Academy, a for-profit, online public school heavily supported by state Republicans, has found a novel way of boosting student performance—just delete bad grades, reports News Channel 5 in Nashville. A leaked December email from the school's VP appears to tell its middle-school teachers to erase some scores that don't measure up. "If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out," it reads. "To me, this appears like it's grade fixing," said one Democratic state representative. Virginia-based parent company K12 is refusing to talk, but the TVA principal said the deletions were intended to "more accurately recognize students' current progress." But as the two-year-old school will receive $7.5 million in funding from the state this year, many Tennessee lawmakers are outraged. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that a House bill that proposed shutting the school altogether was killed yesterday; a second was passed by the House Education Subcommittee. It would allow the state to shutter a virtual school that records sub-standard student performance two years in a row. (Meanwhile, a Lehigh University student is suing over a bad grade.)