k12 Virtural Academy

About $1000/year for 4 courses. I can buy books/software for less than that.

From where does the accreditation come for H.S. students? Who reviews coursework if homeschoolers (of high school students) are not certified teachers?

I think most elementary students need more hands-on activities than “virtual school” or “software-based learning” presents.

Just my opinions. I am a certified teacher that homeschools my child w/LD for two years. I’m not biased against homeschool—just want kids to get what they need.

Thanks for your opinion Susan. Actually our State offering it as part of our public schools program. The only things the parents have to provide is the ink for the printer, paper and time. They even send a loaner computer. They even pay for ISP service…$18.95 allowence per month.

I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the curriculum if it would be appropriate for a child who struggles, but not identified LD…yet.

Thank you

There isn’t much difference in curriculum between most of the states. The difference is in implementation and pace. Could you control that yourself if student is working at home?

I believe I can. There is also teacher support and they can even make home visits for problems. The child just doesn’t interact with the computer…only 20-25% of the time. Parents download and print the schoolwork. We can also dual-enroll the kids for PE, Art and music if we choose to.

Thanks again!!!

One major issue with virtual schooling is that it tends to rely even more on independent reading than regular ed. (since that’s how the information gets delivered to the student).

That said, I worked on developing the beginning reading program for K12’s “virtual school” and it was excellent — lots of emphasis on phonemic awareness, lots of multisensory activities (not O-G by a long shot, but lots of good solid hand-on ears-on emphasis on the sounds and *then* the sound-symbol connection). It can be done.

Of course, I have no idea whatsoever whether the content area stuff was done with the high variability in language skills in mind — but what I know about K-4 curriculum aside from reading could fit into a very small teaspoon.

See who’s behind it… some of those folks do a good job, others are in legal trouble for not bothering to do their bookkeeping.

This is brand new in Idaho, but I believe it is the same program they use in PA, Calif and a couple of other states , k12 by William Bennet.

If this is the series of “What your Child Needs to Know in Grade ___” — I think I remember the name William Bennet, but please correct me if I’m wrong — it’s a decent but very retro program, heavily language-based, lots of moral tales, lots of dead white males (not all bad, I’m just pointing out a bias here); rather weak on science and math, a lot of learning by rote and repetition and short on real applications and higher-order thinking. It could be used as a framework, but I’d be leery of buying into a complete curriculum and lockstep — your school system is providing it as public school without their having to pay for the school or the teacher, and be careful that the benefits you get outweigh the problems.

Well, this will be a first that I would have a correction for Victoria! It is Core Knowledge with E.D. Hirsch that publishes the “What Your – Grader Needs to Know”. Our charter school uses it primarily as a guide for unit studies in science and social studies. I think it is great used in that manner!

However, K12 is associated with William Bennett. From what I have read, it is a very good curriculum. I’d not pay for it privately, but if you go with a state plan where there is little cost, I’d say great! The only thing would be, if your child is acheiving below grade level and is labelled LD, what accomodations will the state allow you to make? Will the child be able to meet state testing and diploma requirements? My reason for homeschooling will be if we can’t pass the stupid state tests. In that case, I want to be an independent homeschooler so I can make my own curriculum and diploma!

Janis

My daughter has not been labled LD yet…….She has been attending a private school and 2 years ago they placed her at the grade appropriate level not age appropriate…2 years behind. If attending the private school she would be going into 4th. The public school would dump her in 6th. I don’t think she would make the criteria for LD in reading, but probably written language and maybe math…IF they didn’t say it was “due to lack of eduactation”..small town and the sped head knows us. She has not been exposed to the materials yet because her grade placement.

The State K12 home program is only for K-5 presently. They said they would allow my child to do the program “under the circumstances”…something about “putting her on an IEP”……I don’t think the gal who runs the program is quite up to snuff about sped rules. They DO make accomodations and modifications for the kids and are willing to work closly with LD kids……they have a sped person on staff in our general area. I will call her and find out what steps I need to take. I’m assuming a full scale eval.

I do not think that my daughter is LD. Her reading level jumped 2 grades in 2 years. She received an appropriate education. The school had 26 pupils 1st - 8th, 1 teacher and his wife who was an aide. The aide worked mostly with the younger kids. All the kids do real well and test very high on the IOWA’s. They did a geat job with the kids.

OOPS!!! Forgot to say the K12 pogram in our State does not accept 12 yr olds……BUT they will in certain circumstances such as ours or kids that were held back. They appear to be quite accomodating. But she kept talking about “putting her on an IEP”. Her grade placement from the private school on her report card just might work too.

It’s only K-5 because they are still furiously creating it. The reading program’s excellent and is designed for different kinds of students — lots of “if Anna has difficulty with this, do that… or repeat this until… or go back and review thus…” and it’s good advice, not just simple “if student got stuck do it over.”
Of course, I do *not* know if this applies to anything but reading. I do know that meeting production deadlines has been a consistent challenge (and there are some management issues that made me not want to continue employment with them, though they didn’t have anything to do with the curriculum).

Thanks — I wasn’t sure but had seen the name.