Acellus Academy?

[Aloysia]

Hi - Has anyone used Acellus Academy for their kids school (online based program)? If so, what has your experience been? Please also comment if your kid has dysgraphia/dyslexia and if the program has helped them or not. I'm considering trying this for my 7th grade daughter. Thanks!

[Onthemove1971]

To be honest ( or I could not find it) they do not have any information about how their curriculum can assist a child with any modification or accommodations. Some of the questions I would wonder:

What happens if my child needs extra time on an assignment or test.

Is there tutoring for the subject matter in case my child needs extra assistance.

What happens if my child takes a test and doesn't do well?

Is the audio support for any reading assignments/tests? If yes, will the software highligh the text and read it?

Is my child allowed to use text to speech for assignment or other tools?

They promote themselves as private education so they may not cover the same material as your local school district. How would you find out more?. Most states have all of their standards online for parents to follow by grade and subject.

Curious what others think. I didn't see any sample lessons.. maybe they can allow you to see what lessons they offer.

Just some thoughts.

[Aloysia in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thank you for the suggestions! Some of these questions I have answers to:

- it's all self-paced, so if they need extra time, they are welcome to use it.

- if they don't do well on a test, yes there are opportunities to retake after completing some remediation.

- audio support- I didn't ask about that since my daughter doesn't need it.

- speech-to-text for writing is not embedded in their software, but she can easily use speech-to-text in a Google document and then copy/paste to their software. It would work similarly in the other direction.

- they do have sample videos on their website. Drill down to the specific grade, then the specific subject to find an example video for each subject.

- is there tutoring available? Not sure about this. But if you aren't doing well in a lesson the software puts you in review mode and goes over those areas again in a different way. I think the parent may need to help out at some point if it's not successful.

- I'm sure there are definite differences between the standards for this school (Missouri based) vs our local school district (California based). But overall, the syllabus for each subject seems equivalent. At least for 7th + 8th grade which is what I've looked at.

I just need a school where my kid can be successful academically for a while in order to build back her confidence and her willingness. As well as to get her math and writing skills closer to or at grade level.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to Aloysia]

Sounds like you have some answers. A few things to consider, sounds like you are in CA, like me. You could consider contacting the "home school" division of your child's school district and ask any questions you have.

I would wonder if the online academy is only for English and Math. The state of CA has requirments for each grade, one being physical education amd of could all of the elective classes, so if the academy is only online then you would need to supplement the other classes, but speaking to someone in your child's school might really help.

Also, you said your child doesn't need audio support, but you said your child has Dyslexia. Not sure what type she has but from my understanding using both the skills of visually looking at the print and listening is something that helps a lot. In addition, some people really struggle with spelling.

I noticed the Academy didn't give an outline of what they teach and any sample lessons.

I am so sorry your daughter can not find a safe, comfortable and supportive academic settling to be in.

Best of luck with this journey, we are always here for you.

[STEM_Dad]

My kids didn't use Acellus Academy, but I've found reviews and articles about it that bother me. Basically, what I read sums up to the program being too simplistic (not rigorous enough), and claims that some of the content seems offensive (particularly in early grades). I didn't find a rebuttal for those negative reviews, while positive reviews lacked any details about the program.

My younger kids were signed up with IXL for a year for Second and Fifth grades respectively, and I would not recommend it. The math format was to give problems first, and only give instruction when the students couldn't get the answers right. The English Language Arts was not much better. The other subjects were only available for for elementary grades. Aside from a screen reader, there seemed to be no other help for dyslexia.

• There is some sort of connection between IXL and Acellus, but I am not sure if they are directly related programs. Perhaps it was that IXL students switch to Acellus for high school content.

~

Our older son finished high school during the COVID pandemic using Abeka, a Christian homeschooling program. We found it to be rigorous enough, even a little challenging for him. We paid extra for some online live classes that used Abeka curriculum (I think from BYU), and he got more out of that. He doesn't have dyslexia, so I don't know what support Abeka has for dyslexia.

• I would recommend Abeka for quality of the program, but my younger kids used it from Kindergarten until they started in IXL, and it was a fair bit of work for their mom to teach them. It is a traditional homeschool program.

~~~~~

Regardless of the homeschool program you use, be prepared to be involved. My family's experience is mostly with traditional book-based homeschooling curriculum. All the web-based experience we have is summarized above.

I would recommend Khan Academy lessons to supplement whatever program you choose, especially for a student who has dyslexia. Khan Academy is well known for excellent content for teaching individual topics in math, science, computing, economics, etc. It's free and high quality content, but it is not a homeschool program.