One of the concerns often heard in regard to online high school programs is how students and teachers interact. Since students are not in a classroom every day, parents may worry that their children aren’t getting the teacher interaction and help they need to learn. But in-classroom interaction isn’t the only way that students can learn the material effectively; teachers can effectively help students in online settings.
Getting into college is already tough enough; acceptances are often left to the discretion of admissions officers, who may be looking for a reason to reject an applicant. Some may be hesitant to attend an online private school because of the worry that a college admissions officer may not view the school as a “real” school.
There’s a misconception that passing the General Education Development (GED) exam and earning a high school diploma are the same thing. But they’re worlds apart. The average GED-holder earns only $18,776 a year, and 95 percent of them will drop out of four-year college programs. Three-quarters of GED holders don’t make it through a career training program. Most employers and the military prefer applicants with an actual high school diploma. To make it very clear how GEDs aren’t enough, two economists have found that, essentially, earning a GED is almost the same as dropping out of high school altogether.
One question we get all the time from parents is how to transfer credits to and from our online high school. It comes up when students transfer in, when students are looking to take electives not offered in their brick and mortar schools, and when students are attending our online high school with plans to transfer to another high school in the next year. The simple answer is, it’s actually pretty easy to transfer credits back and forth.
Between new requirements by states and those by the federal government, there is an increasing trend toward more and more testing of students, and higher and higher stakes in the process. Twenty-five states even require kindergarteners to take state assessments, some with hour-long multiple choice tests.
Sterling Academy offers online Latin courses for both middle school and high school students. In this article, Emily Cassello, Sterling Academy's Latin teacher, discusses the advantages of studying Latin.
I talk to at least one parent every day whose child is a victim of bullying at school. I’ve heard countless stories of parents going to their child’s school for help, only to be told there is nothing they can do. I’ve cried on the phone with numerous parents wondering what I would do in their situation.
Written by Carol Moser, our Enrollment Counselor, with input from Gabriela Ayala, our College Admissions Coach
In 7th grade through 11th grade in my growing up years, due to school crowding, we had split sessions and my class went to school from 12:30 to 5:30. Once the new high school was completed, they put us on a "normal" school schedule: we started school at 7:35 AM and finished at 2:45 PM.
