Connections Academy Virtual Public School Review

by Mel
(Oregon)

Visitor Connections Academy Virtual Public School Review: This is my first year homeschooling my kids. I have a 4th grade student and a 5th grade student. We decided to homeschool because my son has a 504 plan which was not being followed by the local school district.

I have always volunteered in class for both of my kids and noticed that they wasted so much time school. Time was wasted getting kids quiet and then to and from PE, music, recess, lunch, etc. Time was wasted correcting misbehaving students.

Homeschool was looking like a good option in comparison.

I will say that Connections Academy has some good points. They have everything laid out so that students know exactly what they should be doing for the day. Parents also know what level their child should be at according to the learning system for your state. It is easy to see if they are on target or not. Learning coaches(parents) do have access to progress 24/7.

Unfortunately, there are also some definite negative aspects to Connections Academy. There is a VERY heavy work load with a lot of "busy work". Students must spend a minimum of five hours each school day working on school work but many days require more. The math curriculum teaches a new concept every single day. This does not allow much time for the students to absorb one lesson before moving on to another.
They need to master a concept before moving on to the next or their retention will be compromised. There is no flexibility to the schedule. Kids MUST do the assignments in the sequence set out by Connections. They cannot skip a lesson so if there is a concept that they don't understand then they can end up several lessons behind by the time they "get it". It is very stressful for the kids trying to keep up with the work load.

Also, they could incorporate more fun into the lessons. It's a lot of textbook time which is not enjoyable for kids.

Next year we will probably find a home-school with a less rigid curriculum and offers a more fun approach to learning.

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Comments for Connections Academy Virtual Public School Review Average Rating

Rating Connections Academy in Oregon by: Anonymous Connections here in Oregon at least, is very badly run. There seems to be no oversight of instructors until you write nasty letters to the principal and threaten to inform the state. Instruction has been mediocre at best and some teachers seem to avoid the classes completely. It is much better to go with programs that are specific to a subject like Alex math, or The BYU biology and language programs. connections just seems to be a way for a corporation to suck up state education funding and offer as little as possible to their students. we wasted six months and we are out now. I would not recommend this program to anyone.

Rating Connections Academy by: Anonymous Avoid, avoid, avoid. What may once have been a good idea - small, flexible, etc has turned into a monster. The curriculum is mediocre at best, with many errors in assessments and material. Much of the material is outdated - one "film" on climate change, no less was from 1992! The GT program isn't really GT, just more work, lots of it busywork. Except for core subjects, the teachers are glorified administrative clerks, hired part time who have NO contact with students. The technology is inadequate. CA supplied microphones are cheap and break, no computers supplied. There is little to no student interaction in the majority of courses, no group work. And lessons are asynchronous, which means group work is impossible. My family is just waiting for May to be DONE with them. The only "pro?" Most of the teachers are nice folks, who also suffer at the hands of a corporation whose main motivation is profit, not the best interests of the students, IMO.

Rating Connections Academy by: Anonymous I have a 4th grader and a 9th grader, and I started them in Connections Academy late this year (November). It took several weeks before they were admitted. When my 9th grader started, her beginning schedule showed she was 87 lessons behind and was told to catch up. She was given a schedule of about 3-4 History lessons to complete in one day with some of the lessons normally requiring 2 days to complete. It takes a lot of time just learning to navigate through the system, and having to complete AND catch up work all at the same time is VERY STRESSFUL and CONFUSING. My 4th grader has been in tears because of all the work and so many new concepts for each subject that have to be retained in a short amount of time. We are only able to complete about 2-3 subjects a day because it takes so long in trying to get him to learn the concept, do the work, watch the videos that go with the lesson (which means waiting for videos to load, too) and then do the quick check at the end of the lesson. By the time we are done with one subject about 2 hours have passed, and he still has 3-4 more subjects to complete. When he started, he had overdue lessons and every day he gets more behind according to their curriculum schedule because he can't complete all the required work. I am worried about them when it comes to getting a high school diploma. That's the only reason I enrolled them.

Rating Elementary Children by: Mia I have 3 wonderful energetic boys who we chose to homeschool after a short beginning of public school. We have spent the last 3 years successfully homeschooling. This year because of scheduling we decided that we would give Connections a try and it was a disaster. The work load is very full of information they will never use again. It is not challenging and leaves the kids feeling stressed about stuff that I hardly encounter they will need again. (ex: where was the first battle of the Revolutionary War?) While I agree that understanding United States history is very important I am not sure that this should be the focus. Connections Academy was also very difficult to enroll in with many needed documents. We were accepted almost a month after the program started and our children were suppose to play catch up, even though we started enrollment nearly 2 months prior. I am glad to hear that we are not the only people who have experienced connections academy in a negative way. I would like to say however that this might be the best choice for some families just not for mine.

Rating So far, so true by: michelle I have been homeschooling for 14 years and I put my son in Connections this year. We had a terrible time with the enrollment. Many documents we had to send in three times, putting us at approval only the weekend before school was to start. There is a huge student orientation that has to be completed but our lessons also started on Monday. We were already two days behind at the get-go! We are only a week into it but unless your highest area is in reading for comprehension it is going to be a struggle. Read the chapter do the assessment is the routine. We spend probably 1 1/2-2hr. per subject. I would like to mention that my son was tested at the local public school and tested very high in everything except reading which was at grade level so maybe that's why? He is a freshman. We are going to give it a little more time but we may drop out as it is far to stressful!

Rating So true! by: Anonymous I have been homeschooling for over 10 years now. We put our children in CCA two years ago. Our 12 year old lasted one month and broke out in a full body rash from the stress, so I went back to schooling her with Switched on Schoolhouse. We've used SOS from the beginning. Our oldest is finishing up her senior year now and completely agrees with everything you've said. She's been in CCA for two years and can't wait for it to be over. She has taken advanced college courses that were less stressful and tons more fun. She has earned a full academic scholarship to a 4 year college, so maybe CCA helped her accomplished that or more likely it was a combination of both. I would love to know what curriculum you'll be going with when you are done with CCA. Thank you

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