Anyone part of an academic co-op??

[michaeljenn]

A friend and I are interested in starting an academic co-op in our area.  We have a huge successful co-op in our area that offers "fun" classes, but we lack an academic option.   Our thoughts are to offer classes that would have homework and accountability it the subjects that are either harder to teach, or would be more fun to come together, discuss and do projects with.  If anyone is part of an academic co-op, could you tell me the pro's and con's of it.  I would also like any advice to this endeavor as well.  Are there any websites to academic co-ops you could direct me to??  Thank you!

 

 

[bethben]

Twelvestones.education. We will be joining this next year. They do a classical conversations type program in the morning with K-6.

 

 

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Edited November 19, 2017 by bethben

[ScoutTN]

Ours is a tutorial. 7th-12th. 120 kids. It is over 25 yrs old and still doing well. College prep, but middle of the road on academic rigor. Kids are not generally headed to highly selective colleges. The tutorial does not offer AP's because we have free CC for dual enrollment and most people will do that. Most of the tutors are parents or past parents. My kids will take fine arts, lab sciences, modern language and a few other things. Excellent community. 1 day a week, with a second day for some things and some a lal carte classes for students not in the actual tutorial program. Meets in a church and is expressly, but broadly, Christian.

 

PM me if you want more info and I will send you a link.

 

In case it wasn't clear. The teachers are paid (directly by families). There is a volunteer board of tutors and parents. The director and one or two smaller jobs are paid too. Lots of parent involvement. This is a community, not just a class or two.

Edited November 20, 2017 by ScoutTN

[SamanthaCarter]

Ours: http://www.trltacademy.c

 

 

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[AimeeM]

There are several in our area. I will say that all have very specific SOFs -- and this is something you'll need to consider. It matters. I'm not saying I'm in favor of them (because the co-ops that exist locally typically have a SOF that exclude us, as Catholics), but I see why they're necessary. If you're planning on teaching science from a YE perspective, for example, or even just using YE texts in the class, you need to have that upfront and in writing; if your history is very centric to a specific worldview, that needs to be stated upfront. Otherwise, you're playing with fire. 

 

Also, consider hiring teachers. Either parents with a teaching background in that subject, field professionals, or (say) those with certifications in that field (like and IEW certified writing instructor, just as an example). The co-ops that have parents, without a certain expertise, teaching here definitely lean more extracurricular and "fun," but less academic. It could just be that there are enough co-ops they can afford to be picky, but there are "the academic co-ops" (which have teachers that are professionals in some capacity, like I said -- either field professionals or former teachers) and then there are the "other co-ops" (which may offer some academics, but most parents only use them for extras).

 

The academic co-ops tend to charge around $300/class for the year or the semester, depending on the class -- plus fees for labs, textbooks, and other supplies. I know it seems like a lot to some, but again -- these are typically taught by professionals. 

 

Also, the academic co-ops typically meet twice weekly for academic core subjects (english, maths, history, etc) and once weekly for extra classes (art, music, etc) -- and it's worth mentioning that most academic co-ops here also offer extras, because most parents do not want to attend two different co-ops to meet all their needs. These co-ops also tend to have parties for the kids, dances, etc. All of them rent space in local churches, that they aren't necessarily affiliated with.

 

The pros I've seen are obvious -- they offer outsourced teaching for more difficult subjects, socialization opportunities, and accountability. 

 

The cons that most mention is the cost. The flip side of that is the same parents complaining about the cost are often also the ones complaining about the lack of credentials of teachers in other co-ops or tutorials, so consider the source. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch ;) You have to decide how academic you want your academic co-op to be. 

 

And if you go for field professionals, make sure they can teach it. For example, my husband is more than "qualified" to teach biology, physics, engineering, and any high school maths, through calculus. As in, he is quite proficient in those areas himself and has degrees in related fields. However, I would never offer him up as a teacher for any of them, unless the class was specifically for very focused, very advanced, very motivated students for whom those subjects have the potential to come easily. For DH, these came so naturally that I'm not sure he would do well teaching a class with students that needed patience, differentiated instruction, or a slower pace. He also tends to become excited about these areas, and assumes everyone else is ;) 

 

 

[Carrie12345]

We participate in two co-ops (and I co-direct one of them) that combine academics and "fun" (with hidden academics, lol.)  Both meet weekly.

 

After years of my kids participating and me teaching, I'm kind of philosophically opposed to full-credit high school co-op classes.  I rarely have students (or kids) who are capable of doing enough independent work to turn our weekly meeting into the time and content expectations of a high school credit.  Plenty of parents and fellow teachers disagree with me, and that's their prerogative, but I won't sign up to teach like that anymore.

 

I find it most valuable in the 4th-8th grade range.  The experience itself is even more important to me than the content.  I think it provides great opportunity for accountability to someone other than Mom and Dad and helps kids step up to some challenges.

 

One of the hardest parts, imo, is handling the differences in skills.  Groupings are generally early elementary, late elementary, middle school, high school.  At the early elementary level, a class can have non-readers and non-writers alongside kids who have written their own short stories and compare classic novels to film adaptations for fun.  Do you have the class cut and paste story sequence worksheets, or write multi-page book reports?  That's a position I've actually been in.  And, while I'm pretty good at differentiation across 3 or 4 kids at home, doing so for a dozen kids in 55 minutes is a whole different animal.

 

It's not necessarily easier at the upper levels.  Everyone homeschools differently, and that impacts a classroom.  I have high schoolers who are excelling in dual enrollment college courses next to high schoolers who can't write a paragraph.  In some cases, students have risen to the challenge in very impressive ways, just like unschooling theories predict.  In others cases, I've been unable to assign a grade because there's nothing TO grade.

 

I don't even bother with a syllabus anymore.  I make a topic outline for the beginning of the year and then cross my fingers that I can follow it with the group of students I wind up with.  

 

As someone mentioned above, make your worldview clear.  We've heard some concerns about our "evolution agenda" in our high school science class, which really upsets me when we've worked so hard to label ourselves as a secular organization.  I'm happy to have an inclusive membership, but I'm not going to change science to fit someone's religious beliefs IN a secular co-op!  I don't go to the explicitly Christian co-ops and ask them to quit mentioning God.  It isn't that I'm polite, it's that I'm not obtuse.

 

Prepare for everything to be 5 time harder and take 10 times more effort than you think it will be.  Put everything in writing.  Get everything signed in blood.  Be explicit, explicit, explicit.  Understand that you will need to answer 100 of the craziest questions you haven't even imagined yet, and everyone will want you to grant them an exception from one thing or another twelve.

The only exaggeration in there is the blood, but it won't feel like an exaggeration.

 

Despite all that, I love it.  We have an amazing community.  It's been an incredibly rewarding experience and it's given me ample reasons to explore and appreciate wider varieties of wine!

[SebastianCat]

We participate in two different academic co-ops. One employs teachers, many who are certified teachers, and the other utilizes parent volunteers. The motto, “You get what you pay for†emphatically applies to our experience with both. In our experience, when parents are paying $300 for a class, they are much more likely to take the class seriously and much less likely to just skip class. I am teaching Apologia Physical Science at the volunteer co-op, and no matter how much I structure the class, I have students who just don’t do the work and families who just don’t show up when things get busy.

 

One thing you must consider no matter how you structure a co-op is that you’ll end up with kids outside the normal range of learning ability, and parents may or may not volunteer that information up front. The co-op with paid teachers had to start specifically asking in their registration whether the student had ever been expelled from a school, whether the student had ever needed an IEP, or whether the student had any need for extra accommodations. They are wondeful about working with kids who need accommodations, but their experience was that many parents would enroll their kids and never say anything.

[mom2att]

I direct a co-op that is billed as elective but regularly offers academic options due to parent interest, including IEW classes and several science options. We are very explicit in class descriptions before registration that such classes require homework and that students will be dropped from the class who consistently come to class unprepared. It's a huge commitment to teach a more academic-focused class, so much more so than an elective, and it's a waste of time for teachers and other students to have kids who aren't doing the work. Because such classes fill up quickly and people know ahead of time what's expected, the kids who are in the class do the work.

 

Our co-op meets once a week, and this is generally enough for the younger classes, but we also have a few high school academic classes that meet twice a week. For these classes we have a separate parent/student agreement that is signed, agreeing that the student will come to class, do the work, communicate with the teacher if there is difficulty, check grades/assignments on our e-gradebook, etc. I love these classes and have taught one for three years--but it's difficult to teach a discussion-based US History class to high schoolers who are failing to read the material and are disengaged when they do come to class. Having a signed agreement means everybody knows what to expect and is prepared to make it work.

 

The pros of an academic focused co-op: the community, the opportunity to explore subjects that lend themselves to discussion/labs/etc., the opportunity to have parents as teachers which cuts down significantly on costs

The cons of an academic focused co-op: getting families to reallly commit to the work it takes (including teaching), the wide range of skills and abilities represented, the fact that being committed to a one-or two-day/week co-op takes away some of the natural flexibility of homeschooling (you are tied to the schedule, you are doing assignments prepared by someone else, you might not like the text, etc).

 

Our co-op has been great and I'm glad my sons have been able to take advantage of more academic options, especially at the middle and high school levels. But it's a lot of work from an admin perspective.

[lmrich]

I would look at your model and see if you can do a University-style school and hire quality, professional teachers and charge tuition. 

[daijobu]

Good homeschooling parents do not necessarily have good classroom management skills.  I'm one of them, and teach a small group that includes one very vocal student who does not want to be there.  And I'm like a deer in the headlights.  

 

Fortunately the site has a hall monitor to whom I can send this kiddo so he can burn off some steam on the playground while the rest of us learn.  

 

If you have newbie teachers, you'll want to have someone to back them up.  I'm really glad I have one!  

[mom31257]

Ours is a mixture. Here's a run down of what we are and do. Most of us found that we didn't want a co-op that took over our lives but was more of a support of what we would already be doing. 

 

Meet: 16 times per school year, every other week with Thanksgiving through New Years off; 3 hours for middle school and younger, longer for upper sciences to have time to meet 

 

5th Grade and Up: Two classes are academic (usually science and literature with writing); one or two classes that are electives and no homework or very little (30 minutes or 1 hour determines 1 or 2 classes)

 

4th Grade and Younger: Science classes with homework or at least topics to study on your own; 4 thirty minute classes which vary year to year, a little homework here and there depending on the subject

 

Teachers don't give "grades" but will evaluate and offer encouragement and praise of writing assignments or other projects. 

 

We don't pay each other because we require all moms to stay the whole day and teach or help in classes. We pay supply fees to the teachers, buy the required curricula, and pay a donation to the church. Most of our families would not participate if it meant paying hundreds a year per student. The families who can do that are the ones who do CC here, unless they just don't like it. 

 

 

[mschickie]

Ours is also a mix of both.  There are the occasional student who does not do the work but especially for the older grades the kids do the work.  Ours is mainly parent led but we do sometimes have a professional in teaching a class.

 

We do ours as an a la cart co-op so families can choose if they want to be part of a more academic class or if they do not.  We try to have at least two options for each age each period (quite often there are at least 3-4 classes they can take.  This allows parents to have greater flexibility in their child's schedule.  Some come in only for the science labs while others come in because they want a full history class.

 

Our co-op meets for 2 ten week sessions but we also have an extension time that goes into Dec/Jan. as well as May.  This is really for the upper level academic classes such as our sciences and histories.

 

I like having the mix because then I can determine what I want to do.  We have some groups in the area that are fully academic and everyone in the same grade does the same work.  I do not like those because there may be a time I do not want to do the curriculum they are choosing.  I like to have the freedom to choose what supports my homeschool and not be forced into what they group decides.