Oak Meadow vs. Keystone...can we discuss?

[hmschoolmom22]

dd will be beginning 9th grade in the Fall and I am very torn over what we are doing next year.

 

So far, I'm looking at Keystone and Oak Meadow, they are both very expensive....OM especially. I know that I can do some of it on my own but I want a correspondence type thing for her too.

 

Anything you have to share - I would greatly appreciate.

[gingersmom]

There is a yahoo group for Keystone.

 

After reading through over a hundred posts I decided not to use Keystone. There was complaint after complaint about waiting weeks to get assignments back and incorrect grading on tests.

 

I am using Oak Meadow History with no teacher support. I am happy with it although I do quite a bit of supplementing as I think they cover some events in less depth than I would like.

 

I plan on using Oak Meadow for many more years.

[melmichigan]

My DD was signed up for a high school class with Keystone this year. After talking at length with the instructor we cancelled her class and I am teaching it on my own, with the same materials. For the class mentioned everything worked in to their "class" was the same online resources available to anyone who purchases the books. Read these pages, do the online self check, watch the animation, read these pages, do the online quiz. The students could then download their chapter tests to work on and email in when they were finished. Provided they didn't copy word for word from the text they would be fine. :tongue_smilie:

[Robin in DFW]

She has taken several classes and they have all been more than satisfactory. We don't like their math courses as they tend to have the student skip around in the books. Everything else has been fine.

 

If you take online classes, your assignments are graded very quickly. If you choose correspondence, you have to keep in mind the time it takes for your student's tests to get to them, get graded and get back to you. It usually takes about 2 weeks from beginning to end to get back graded tests. The student can move on to the next assignments, though.

 

I'm not sure sometimes what people are expecting from distance learning courses. It is not a personal tutor. The courses are typical ps hs courses using typical ps books. I don't think they claim to be something else.

 

My dd has taken/is taking Spanish 1 & 2, English 2, Chemistry, Environmental Science, World History, US History, and will take more classes next year. It fills a need we have in order for her to get a transcript and diploma from an accredited school. They have accepted our home courses and have given her credit. She/we are very busy with her soccer schedules, so this gives us some structure and help getting courses done.

 

We tried an Oak Meadow course and it was not a typical structured course. It was more "opinion" oriented..."how does this make you feel?" and "write a story..." and "pretend you are..."...we like structure, just the facts.

 

hth,

Robin

[AngieW in Texas]

I joined the Keystone email loop (don't remember the name of it) and OM_HS on yahoogroups. Most of what I read on the Keystone loop was complaints. I know that for some of the classes, you don't get any feedback whatsoever until the end of the year (quite a few complaints about that).

 

I decided to go with Oak Meadow. I'm not using their teacher service though. If you aren't going to use their teacher service, it's not that expensive. Buy only the syllabus and teacher manual through Oak Meadow and then buy the textbook used. The teacher manuals are typically $25 each and Oak Meadow didn't give me any hassles about buying them without purchasing the texts as well.

 

The OM_HS email loop often has for sale postings. I bought OM Health through the email loop.

[hmschoolmom22]

Question - if you do not use their teacher service or completely enroll...do you still get credit from the course as you would if you fully enrolled/used the teacher service?

[AngieW in Texas]

You don't get credit from Oak Meadow when you do it yourself. That only comes when you sign up for their teacher service.

 

You can, of course, give credit yourself. But if you're looking for outside credit, you'll have to pay for teacher service.

[Robin in DFW]

Just keep in mind...

 

there are often more voices of discontent than voices of praise on forums and review sites...

 

people are more likely to take the time to complain than they will to praise a product or program...that's just how it is...

 

What we decided was Keystone provides the textbooks, syllabus, grading, transcript and diploma, if we want it. They will do a homeschool portfolio review and give your student credit for home taught courses. All these things were what WE needed. They are all included in the pricing. We also did not want to have to pay a proctor to have her monitored during tests. Many programs require this. And, dd is very self-motivated and likes taking charge of her education for a few subjects. We still do home taught courses, too. Dad handles math, I handle literature, vocab, writing, and grammar.

 

No outsourced program will be perfect. We found that Keystone provided what WE NEEDED. And we did check into several others...Clonlara (too casual), Texas Tech and OU (similar to Keystone, but required a proctor and more expensive), Oak Meadow (a little too open-ended and more expensive).

 

YMMV.

Robin