Connections Academy

I am so heart broken that I've went through so much to get my upcoming 9th grader enrolled into this school "Virginia Connections Academy", was told to give them about 7 days to know if she's accepted and then right after her acceptance she'd be placed into classes. Well it's been well over a month, honestly approaching 2 months and I still haven't even gotten acceptance or denial. This is so frustrating because I've sent personal documents and now I feel as if I just have my child's documents floating around out there in the world somewhere in just anyone's hands. I've heard NOTHING and I've reached out several times, each time it's the same old tired story... Wait. Well I cant wait forever and a day because if she's denied I would have to register to home school again and the deadline is approaching. Why would you all rush me to get everything on my end complete and then tell me 7 days before acceptance and placement just to leave me hanging? This is not right and the entire process has only added stress in my life when I'm already dealing with so much. Thanks for nothing and please properly discard my child's documents please. This has been nothing short of a NIGHTMARE!

The work load for my 4th grader was at levels I didn't deal with in college. Average 30+ lessons/week; average 1.5 - 3 hours per lesson - well, you do that math. I feel I would be remiss in not warning every, single parent out there considering this program. Unless your child is supremely organized, mostly OCD in nature, and has zero interest in doing anything but sitting at the computer for 7-10 hours a day, then I really don't think this is what you are looking for as an alternative to regular school. There is NO REAL FLEXIBILITY, because if you take advantage of the illusory flexibility, you will fall so for behind it will make your head not only spin, but fall off. This school took my 4 years' consistent A-honor roll (straight A's, no B's at all) child, and made her dislike nearly everything about school. This really crushed me as a parent, because I had hoped that the flexibility with a little bit of structure would be beneficial. Well, I was wrong. And I want as many parents out there who are researching this to see my review and I pray it gives them pause. Don't do this to your child!

We are still doing homeschool, but I have pulled her out of this "slave to the computer 40+ hours/week" insanity that is Connections Academy, and gone back to my more laid back parent-driven curriculum. We don't have enough focused resources, it is true, but CA is NOT the answer - please believe that.

My daughter has had multiple days where she works on school until bedtime. ALL DAY. She is a very good student & has always gotten good grades. We lost our house in a fire & had to move in with relatives. The local public school here is really bad, so I did Connections Academy as a alternative, figured it would just be while we got back on our feet.
We are all miserable. It takes up HOURS every day of our lives. All 3 of us (my spouse, me, our daughter) will work on things & it will still take HOURS to do.
But the real kicker came yesterday. I have been unable to find time to schedule a conference call with her homeroom teacher.
These calls, she has had 2 already this year, in like 3 months... have never been important in any way. The teacher has chatted about what my child had for dinner... forgive me for not thinking this call was vital...
Now, for 2 days I have been unable to access the website. Her teacher told my daughter, through email, that it was because I didn't schedule the call...
If I cant log in, I cant record my child's attendance, which means she falls behind on required public school attendance, AND I cant submit her school work, which is part of my job as her "learning coach".
So we did schedule a call, for this morning, and her teacher never called! So I STILL cant submit her hours or work. At this point my childs education & future is on hold because of a phone call.
I have emailed them 3 times & left a voicemail & never heard back.
DO NOT USE THIS SCHOOL!

We have been with this school for a few years know and we absolutely love it. Its flexible for our busy schedules, the teachers go above and beyond for the students. We absolutely love it.

I have enrolled my son in ALCA since the 5th Grade and we absolutely enjoy our learning journey online with interactive learning videos, books, live lessons and especially help with a well organized learning schedule/planner and still continue on strong till present. My son is now finishing up his 7th Grade and doing very well, he has straight A's in every subject and an Honor Roll Student, every single semester.
As a busy business woman/ Mom and his learning coach, I am very happy to see my son studying very hard on his own pace and accomplishes his online classes on time using a very organized planner and build up a good strategy to finish all his classes and work on some a little bit ahead. We love Flexibility, Live Lessons and opportunity to learn with no distractions nor frustrations of not being able to understand the subjects. The teachers are always ready to help and keep up with their students via the phone, text messaging. And web mails. And if you do well it's nice to be granted with an extra score to help you stay on top! Thank you for all you do- ALCA!

I have two children currently at NC Connections Academy. I have expressed concern with the overload of schoolwork and/or communications that seems to be new this year. My honors student is struggling to keep pace and the stress from the volume of information has me exploring other curriculum paths. I intend to keep my son in for the time being since he has some modifications due to special education and he needs to get a curriculum from another source (not me; otherwise we just argue about why he has to do it)... but for my 8th grade daughter I am ready to quit. The teachers assign so much work. They make up for not having a textbook in science by webmailing excessive information (her teacher LITERALLY sent 37 pages in multiple document attachments today in ONE webmail). I have emailed the principal three times but have heard nothing back. I dont know why the changes have taken place. My kids loved Connections last year. This year the stress level in our home to keep up with the work means we have one foot out the door.

When we came back from overseas (where we spend 12 years in 4 countries) our children joined San Ramon (one of the best school districts in the country) unified school district. We thought the ratings are high and the schools would be at the same level as our previous schools with International Baccaloria curriculum. Well, little have we known. I have to mention that all three of our kids are highly capable (or gifted and talented as it is called here, which I do not like at all!). And they were all placed on the GaTe program but it did not make any difference for them: the work was finished in 5-10 m and they were just left to read books... Our K, 3 and 8 grade children were getting extremely bored and frustrated with the "best" schools. So we moved to California Connections Academy. Our 8th grader said after the first day that these teachers (even being far away) are more alive and interested in what they are doing than those who were in his public middle school.
We finished a whole year with all As and an honour roll. Was not easy, but it was interesting, challenging, fun and fulfilling. We are going back this year. Yes, it is hard to keep with fitness and socialising, yes it has moments of tremendous fatigue for a learning coach but at the end, you have a state of art education and you give your kids the philosophy you believe in. And you start feeling enlighted and embrace being different. Great school! Great teachers! Great support for learning coaches.

This school is incredibly stressful. The assignments are easy for me, but because of the constant projects forced on me every single week I am beginning to experience academic burn out. I no longer have any motivation to work on anything. They make you do 6-4 lessons everyday which is already hell enough, and a lot of the teachers take ages to grade assignments. Some of the staff are extremely rude aswell. I had to switch home room teachers due to the harassment they kept giving me. CA is more focused on your education than a students well being, and the "mindfulness live lessons" are incredibly useless. I can't wait to graduate so I dont ever have to go back to this god awful school. Until they minimize the portfolios in classes and quit making our lives so stressful with constant tests, then maybe so many people wouldn't be dropping out from this school.
Not to mention, but their grading system is absolutely garbage. They grade you based on the percentages of how well you do in tests, quick checks, portfolios, etc. Once you mess up on one of those by failing an assignment, a 2/5 quick check can easily bring you to an F. The assignments are also super poorly written, and the teachers do not tell you when there is an alternative assignment from the messege boards. I'm hoping by spring break I can recover from this awful depression this school gives me. Thanks.

My daughter has been attending Connections Academy for the last couple of years, and the online school has greatly declined. Recently, they decided to make all textbooks online. Worse, the books aren't available in their entirety for download or in one location to view. The student receives it in sections per given lesson which makes it difficult to review previous sections. Science is through BrainPop, an online site. Is the site helpful? Yes, but what child wants to go back through numerous videos and/or transcripts for review? Math is completely through Mathia online. We are not a fan of this program. (Posting below an actual question from their program. I still scratching my head on who thought this would be a good question to use.) Social Studies still offers a physical book but it's completely about religion. Physical Education keys on psychology and tests are given to students on that subject. The material is very similar to what I learned in college. My daughter is 11 and needn't learn about projection, schizophrenia, and various other mental disorders. The school clearly cares more about their bottom dollar than a student's education, and it is for that reason, we will be finding another online school. I do not recommend the school.

MATHIA QUESTION: Edward's mom makes him blow his nose for 24 minutes before he starts to cry that his nose is sore. How many times did Edward blow his nose before he started to cry?

My eleven-year-old didn't need her Physical Education psychology class to know that Edward's mom is experiencing issues.