Does anyone use Ohio Virtual Academy or Connections Academy? If so I would love to hear your views...?

Question

I would love to hear your opinion on the 2 schools so that I can better choose between them.

Thanks for any info

Answer 1

OHVA has been weighed in the scales and found wanting. They are corrupt and running for cover after the recent allegations. They will likely be shutdown by ODE and the Governor soon. Don't plan on a 2015=1016 school year for this corrupt for profit corporation.

Answer 2

Do Not Go Near The Ohio V Academy. They are about to be exposed for years of corruption and will likely be shut down by the 2015-16 School Year. They are running for cover after the recent true allegations of keeping truant students enrolled. They also have students that are currently enrolled that have credit graduated but have not passed the OGT. They are getting funding dollars for students that are enrolled and take no classes because they have already graduated. They need to be exposed. They hurt more students than they help.

Answer 3

Ohio Virtual Academy is such a good school and if my mom sent me to any other school I think I would die. Check them out and you will see. They are the best!!!

Answer 4

I had my son at OHDELA and it was the worst experience ever. He was 15 years old at the time and I would check his work and it appeared he was working but turns out he was not. I found this out when one of OHDELA's counselors called me to remind me to log hours. Log hours for what? My son didn't go to class for two weeks. It would have been nice if they would have called me to tell me he was not in class instead of telling me to log fake hours. Then when I tried to talk to someone about his behavior, I had no one to talk to. They don't have a PTO like they advertise. They are nothing but liars. Look at the truancy records and see if I am lying.

Answer 5

I use ohdela and they are more hands on than ohva.  they work with you and help you.  you talk to your teachers almost daily. sorry but i dont know anything about connections.

Answer 6

I highly recommend the Ohio Virtual Academy. As a former teacher, I have to say the curriculum is superior to most and the students find it very engaging and interactive. The Teachers are very caring and want to see your child succeed. K12 inc. is an international curriculum provider. For more information see their website http://www.k12.com/ohva/. They have information meetings you can attend to learn more. Best of luck!

Answer 7

The best way to decide which school is for you, is to make a list of what you are looking for and then find the school that matches your needs best.

An e-school needs to do more than just provide curriculum, it needs to have the resources to support your needs as a parent while your child attends the school and it needs to meet the varying stages of learning that your child will go through every day, month and year. You need to check out the details of what makes the school click, what flexiblity it provides and how much work it will require of you as a parent vs. how much work the teacher will do to support you.

After trying a couple of different schools, we found Connections Academy was a perfect fit for our family. I have a son who is twice exceptional (gifted with a learning disability) and I needed more than a curriculum, I needed great school support. I didn't just want them on a computer, I wanted them them to learn to communicate with others using the computer.  I wanted teachers to grade papers and give feedback on a regular basis. If my son was having trouble understanding something, I wanted a bunch of options for him to get help understanding the concepts and objectives of a lesson (without me having to figure it out on the internet).  The teachers are there to help you when you call and having real textbooks has been great. OCA Met AYP in 2006–07 and 2007–08 too.

I'm not sure what the other commenter meant about Connections Academy only using Calvert.  They don't just use one curriculum, they use several of the best providers so that the program can be individualized for your student. It is incredibly engaging and provides many tools that allow it to adapt to the requirements of any learning style without sidetracking the student from the purpose of the lesson.  A few of the curriculum providers they use are Discovery Education, Brain-Pop, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Houghton Mifflin, Jump Start, Hotmath, Headsprout, Zaner-Bloser, and Scott Foresman, but the list goes on and on!  Another thing that I like about the curriculum is that it correlates with traditional grade levels in case my kids ever decide to use a different school setting. Here's the link to their curriculum. http://bit.ly/72zo6X

There are a lot of clubs to choose from.  My daughter likes the poetry club, but the chess club is really cool too. http://bit.ly/8BPSqO

The system that they use for the school uses (the LMS) is very easy to use.  http://bit.ly/4ChMVl  

They provide real textbooks and online textbooks (so when we travel we don't have to carry everything with us) and the online textbooks have some great extras like games and learning tools.  

Tech support has been really nice to us when we called for help.  

And if you haven't tested one of their lessons yet, you should, so here's the link for those too. http://bit.ly/WKG6F  

As you can tell, I love Connections Academy.  But that's because it was everying I was looking for.  Ask yourself what you want in a school and you'll find the right match for your family too!  Choice is great!

Answer 8

I can only give you my opinion and introduce a third option.  We have attended both OHVA and OHDELA.  Ohdela has been a great fit for our family. I have 6 kids in OHDELA. We have been with OHDELA for 2.5 years and found the teachers, staff and curriculum to be wonderful. You learn at your own pace, in the comfort and safety of your home. The only thing better than that is it is tuition-free and they provided everything including the computer, printer/scanner/fax machine and even internet. You can learn more by going to their website at http://www.ohdela.com or attending one of their online information sessions on Monday or Saturday at 12:30 or on Thursday evening at 6:30 at http://www.ohdela.com/infosession.html or even just call them and ask questions at 800.493.8680