National online school options?

[BlueTaelon]

I know my limits and know we do best when we use an online school where everything is laid out for me and dd is accountable to someone else in the end. K12 just isn't the best fit for us anymore, we loved how visual/animated Connections Academy was just the content is way below grade level IMO and it had tons of busy work which we hated. What other national school programs should I check into? I would be thrilled if we had the content level of K12 and the visuals of Connections, any thoughts on this magical school? The only thing I can think of is just using T4L high school courses for 7-8th grade. I've looked at it and seen the sample and their 9th grade level classes look to be 7th to me.

[yvonne]

Calvert?

 

Are you looking for an all-in-one provider?  Or different sources for different subjects?

[BlueTaelon]

Calvert?

 

Are you looking for an all-in-one provider?  Or different sources for different subjects?

 

All in one, public school online kinda thing.

[EndOfOrdinary]

K12 has pretty much become the federal online option in most all states now. I would definitely be interesting to hear if anyone knew of others. I have checked around for the last two years and only come up with very low level, cutesy programs or K12

[EndOfOrdinary]

K12 has pretty much become the federal online option in most all states now. I would definitely be interesting to hear if anyone knew of others. I have checked around for the last two years and only come up with very low level, cutesy programs or K12

[Lanny]

If you live in Texas, I would suggest that you look into the Texarkana I.S.D. virtual program. They use Calvert and it is run by the school district, not by K12 or Connections Academy or some other company. It goes thru 8th grade and it is free. Here's the URL:

http://texarkanaisdvirtualacademy.com/

 

DD is a student in TTUISD, which is not free. We are extremely happy with TTUISD. TTUISD has students in the USA and worldwide.

 

GL

[EndOfOrdinary]

Good to know that you have had good experience with TTUISD. we have considered using their credit by examination program for a few classes.

[Guest KamiW]

I'm new to the forum so I'm not sure how much help I can provide, but I would advise against TTUISD if you don't want to pull your hair out. We are currently in India, I homeschool my 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 11th grader and this will be our first and last online school experience. Out of all 4, my 6th grader has had the worst experience with little to no teacher involvement. I like you thought this experience would be something I could just assist with and help her along the way. I've had to constantly email counselors to see where in the world the teachers are, they weren't grading in a timely manner, never responding to emails, then have an attitude when it has to come from up above to respond. I could seriously right a book on this nightmare. Even my teacher friends are kind of shocked how things are handled. That's basically why I came to the forum to see if I'm the only one that has had this kind of experience.

 

I hope you find a great online experience that your looking for, I would love to hear about one.

[Mike in SA]

We've used TTUISD, and found that it is good at what it does.  It isn't an online school with active teacher guidance.  If you want that, you'll pull your hair out like the PP.  What TTUISD does is provide a complete curriculum at low cost.  You'll get readings, worksheets,lessons plans, the works.  Then, you take over.  You can supplement or cut as you please, and as long as your child passes a proctored examination, you get a fully accredited education, complete with transcript.  They have extended offerings available via Texas Tech University, but options are a bit limited.

[Guest KamiW]

You can only cut out what you want at the elementary level though. My 6th and 11th graders weren't able to skip something if they didn't want too, trust me there would have been plenty of science and art lessons we would have skipped. Ha! My frustration with teacher involvement was that if she had a question, teachers weren't responding. This just left her frustrated, and me too. This went on the entire semester.

 

Now my 11th grader had the best teachers! Always willing to help and grading the work quickly. Complete opposite. Maybe we just got 3 of the worst teachers for 6th, not sure.

 

Low cost for sure, but terrible experience. Just do you your research.

[Lanny]

I'm new to the forum so I'm not sure how much help I can provide, but I would advise against TTUISD if you don't want to pull your hair out. We are currently in India, I homeschool my 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 11th grader and this will be our first and last online school experience. Out of all 4, my 6th grader has had the worst experience with little to no teacher involvement. I like you thought this experience would be something I could just assist with and help her along the way. I've had to constantly email counselors to see where in the world the teachers are, they weren't grading in a timely manner, never responding to emails, then have an attitude when it has to come from up above to respond. I could seriously right a book on this nightmare. Even my teacher friends are kind of shocked how things are handled. That's basically why I came to the forum to see if I'm the only one that has had this kind of experience.

 

I hope you find a great online experience that your looking for, I would love to hear about one.

 

@KamiW  I am very sad, and somewhat astonished, by what you wrote. Have you communicated with the Principal of the Elementary and Middle School? From my contacts with her, I believe she would try to help you and your DC, in any possible way.

 

My DD began with TTUISD with two  6th grade courses during October 2012. I communicate with 2 other TTUISD families. They have DC ranging from Kindergarten to High School. So, I can only speak from the experience of my family, we are extremely happy, and I know the other 2 families plan to continue with TTUISD.

 

With regard to grading assignments, I believe the teachers are supposed to do that within 5 days. I think it is 5 days, but I am not positive about that. 

 

One thing that I can tell you is that with the lower grades, they have the old style "PRINT" courses and that is more difficult to receive/submit when you are overseas. DD has probably taken her last "PRINT" course and she greatly prefers the "ONLINE" courses.

 

They emailed the "PRINT" courses to us as .pdf attachments so we did not need to wait for them to arrive in Snail Mail.  When DD submitted lessons for "PRINT" courses, she scanned them in and sent them as a .pdf attachment, via email. 

 

Before my DD began with TTUISD, in 6th grade, she had been in a Brick and Mortar school where the teaching language is Spanish, for 4 school years. so she was very weak in writing English. I did give her some (very limited) help at that time. She is finishing 7th grade courses now and it is incredibly rare that she needs some help from my wife or me. She knows how to use the "Moodle" CMS (Course Management System) and she is  pretty much on her own.

 

She has on occasion requested and received help from her TTUISD instructors.

 

In closing, I strongly suggest that you call the Principal of the TTUISD Middle School (you can call their 800 number free if you call them on Skype) or if you have a magicJack you can call their regular phone numbers free. Or, send her an email. I believe she is normally in her office on Mondays, on Tuesdays, and on Thursdays (in the morning)

 

The High School Principal is the one you should contact, regarding any issues your 11th grader is having.  

 

If your DD is interested in Art, my DD enjoyed the Middle School Art Course, which is a "PRINT" course. The Instructor, IMHO, is a genius, if he can teach that by Distance Learning. He has just retired from the Lubbock ISD but I believe he will continue teaching for TTUISD.

[Lanny]

We've used TTUISD, and found that it is good at what it does.  It isn't an online school with active teacher guidance.  If you want that, you'll pull your hair out like the PP.  What TTUISD does is provide a complete curriculum at low cost.  You'll get readings, worksheets,lessons plans, the works.  Then, you take over.  You can supplement or cut as you please, and as long as your child passes a proctored examination, you get a fully accredited education, complete with transcript.  They have extended offerings available via Texas Tech University, but options are a bit limited.

 

"Mike in SA"  is correct.  From reading here on WTM, I believe that there are some "online" courses some home schooled DC take, that are taught somewhat like a class in a brick and mortar school. TTUISD isn't that. When she has asked questions of her instructors, my DD has always been helped.  But, generally, Distance Learning means that the student is more or less their own teacher. Distance Learning requires Time Management and Self Discipline and without those skills, one will not be a successful Distance Learning student, or a successful university student.

 

In the lower elementary school grades, IMHO, a parent with a child in TTUISD courses will be far more like a traditional "home schooling" parent. Certainly the mother I communicate with, who has a TTUISD Kindergarten student spends far more time with him, than she does with her 6th grader or her High Schooler. 

 

TTUISD "Online" courses require that a traditional textbook be purchased. We buy the textbooks from Amazon Marketplace Sellers (with the exception of a  Science textbook we bought  on eBay). The interaction is via the "Moodle" CMS (Course Management System) which many universities use.

 

The Final Examination must be supervised by a Proctor and is 25% of the grade for the semester and the Final Examination *must* be passed for the student to complete the course.

[Guest KamiW]

Thanks Lanny, for your response. Yes we are in constant communication with the principal and counselors, so much so that I think they'll be glad to see us go. Ha! I'm not even a difficult person, I've just had to stay on top of everything! We have been completely astonished by this experience, my kids hate it so much I'm taking them back to the states this month to put them back in school while my DH stays here till November. Like I mentioned I could literally write a book. I wished I had a community like this sooner to gain insight from. They should consider a private forum for families to share experiences on doing online school abroad.

 

We have 1 print course and the rest have been online. And you're right they have 5 days to grade and that's been some of the issue, teachers have gone past that. One instance it caused us to get so close to our course expire date that they had to extend them at their expense. With us leaving I'm in a bit of a time crunch to get things done, and I've been waiting two days for a response from a counselor (now it's the weekend and I'm 10.5 hours ahead of them) and they sent the wrong final to our proctor so that delays testing. It is LITERALLY always something. Blah! Sorry to hijack the post.

[Lanny]

Thanks Lanny, for your response. Yes we are in constant communication with the principal and counselors, so much so that I think they'll be glad to see us go. Ha! I'm not even a difficult person, I've just had to stay on top of everything! We have been completely astonished by this experience, my kids hate it so much I'm taking them back to the states this month to put them back in school while my DH stays here till November. Like I mentioned I could literally write a book. I wished I had a community like this sooner to gain insight from. They should consider a private forum for families to share experiences on doing online school abroad.

 

We have 1 print course and the rest have been online. And you're right they have 5 days to grade and that's been some of the issue, teachers have gone past that. One instance it caused us to get so close to our course expire date that they had to extend them at their expense. With us leaving I'm in a bit of a time crunch to get things done, and I've been waiting two days for a response from a counselor (now it's the weekend and I'm 10.5 hours ahead of them) and they sent the wrong final to our proctor so that delays testing. It is LITERALLY always something. Blah! Sorry to hijack the post.

 

Hi KamiW.  You are welcome. It sounds like you have made the correct decision, if your DC hate taking TTUISD courses. My DD and the other 2 families we know are very happy, but if your DC are unhappy, that's a thing you can, hopefully, fix, by moving back to the USA.

 

If you are moving to Texas, your 11th grader will be in great shape, transferring in from TTUISD.

 

We have had a few issues. DD was the first student to enroll in a brand new "Online" course and when she got into the "Moodle", it said Lesson #5 (?) was due. Probably they'd set up a test account and then DD got that account...  And, DD has had one or 2 lessons she submitted, and that the Instructors graded, that for one reason or another did not get into the "Moodle" and DD was unable to proceed until they fixed that. The worst issue we experienced was NOT the fault of TTUISD, it was the fault of Microsoft's Hotmail mail service. The Approved Proctor had a Hotmail email address. TTUISD sent the Final Examination to her, several times. I now know that Microsoft's Hotmail mail service frequently drops, silently, email sent to Hotmail.com users.  The Approved Proctor then set up a Gmail account and TTUISD sent the email with the Final Exam and it arrived in seconds.  DD probably has had 1 or 2 lessons where getting her grade was delayed. None of the issues we have experienced were major and all were resolved. There have also been several times, when the "Moodle" system had issues. One day, we lost our landline phone/ADSL and TV service. Everything was dead. Was I thankful that DD had traditional  textbooks and that she could continue studying!  She didn't do what she had planned to do that day, but she was able to study.

 

Much good luck with your move back to the states!