[Accredited Online Schools] Is This a Good Family Choice?

Is the choice of one of the [accredited online schools] right for your high schooler?

Accredited online schools are a great choice, in my opinion, for a high school student who doesn’t fit in the mainstream, a college student, or an adult wishing to reenter school. Today I will discuss the option for high schoolers. I have first hand experience dealing with accredited online schools because my daughter and best friend’s daughter both attended high school online.

It’s ironic but my best friend (who is my neighbor) and her daughter, Lindsay and my daughter Sara both have severe asthma. Both were missing multiple days of school. Lindsay is four years younger then my daughter and was attending regular junior high school.

My daughter attended regular high school up until 11th grade when we knew we would have to find an alternative. We investigated a number of alternatives and made a choice of one of the accredited online schools, PA Learners Online. Sara graduated with honors in 2003 in a class of about 100 other online students. After hearing about Sara’s success, Lindsay enrolled in and attended the Western PA Charter Cyber School which had 5,000 students as of last year and 500 students in her graduating class.

PA Learners Online was one of the first, more established accredited online schools in our area of Western PA. This choice became an excellent alternative for Sara. She was able to sleep in the morning (she had trouble sleeping at night because of her asthma) and get up when she had some energy to complete her work. Her school day lasted about 4 hours. On a typical day she would login to a special program called “Blackboard”. She would choose the classes she needed to work on during the day and finish the assignments.

The best parts to working from home with one of the accredited online schools? No homework. No interruptions. No bells to change class. No pressure to dress like everyone else. No boys to distract. She could work anytime night or day. And, the work was fun and challenging. She could email her teachers questions. She would participate in group discussions with other students online at the same time. Her tests were open book for the most part, but some weren’t and some were timed and you couldn’t go back and make any changes once you submitted the test. She had homework deadlines. They had to put in a predetermined amount of time each week on the school work.

They still had to do a high school project as a graduation requirement and the courses they took were every bit as compatible with the ones she would have taken in her own school district. They had to be approved by the local school district as well. To meet the physical education requirement, she could attend a local Y, or be part of a swim team or other sport. Sometimes the schools will cooperate and allow your student to attend phy ed classes at their actual local school. Sometimes they don’t though because traditional brick and mortar schools look down on the cyber schools. They take students away from the traditional classroom and that’s where the money battles begin.

If your son or daughter is interested in attending tech school, the accredited online schools are prepared for that as well. My daughter was taking graphic arts physically at the tech school for part of the day (the teacher was very cooperative in sending work home on the days she didn’t feel well) and then finishing up her online course work at home. It can be done and the tech schools are pretty cooperative. After all, they still get paid.

Oh, and did I mention that your own tax dollars have already paid for the accredited online schools education? Both Sara and Lindsay also got free use of a computer and printer (we did have to pay for the ink and paper). They had high speed internet paid for as well. All we did was set up a work station and school was in session.

Lindsay had the same types of experiences at her school, only Lindsay took advanced placement classes that were offered through her school. The result? After 4 years of attending her choice of accredited online schools, she has enough college credits to go right into her sophomore year of college. She will be attending the local community college and transferring to a four year school next year.

Sara continues to take courses at the local community college (she is married and has a baby, and works full time so time is a problem for her.) She has taken several of her courses on line through the community college and is contemplating finishing her degree in accounting/teaching online as well.

Do we like accredited online schools? The answer is a resounding yes. Accredited online schools are the wave of the future. It’s well worth checking them out.

For information on online college degrees, visit this page for accredited online schools.

We’ve covered alot of general territory in this article. I will go into more specifics on some aspects of accredited online schools in a later post. Our next discussion about accredited online schools will be in relation to how employers view graduates from these programs. So check back again.

Have a blessed week. Margaret