Connections Academy

Our decision was we wanted to know exactly what our children were being taught and as well wanted a challenging curriculum. Unfortunately the school district we live in does not have stellar public schools. OKCA has been an awesome experience for us. I as a parent love that I have the support of teachers, principal and counselors like I would in a traditional school setting, but have my children home with me learning. I am able to view exactly what they are learning and as well help them understand what they are learning. Please note...for elementary ages this DOES require parent involvement. I sit by my 1st grader for about 3-4 hours a day helping her navigate her lessons and then she does other learning activities independently, like math worksheets, reading, and art projects.

I love the electives that are offered. Everything from Chess club, foreign languages, computer skills classes and even an ASL class. We also love the flexibility this setting provides for our family as we can work ahead so we can have days off, or work their calendars to suit our own schedule around doctor's appointments, field trips, extra long weekends for quick trips and we have even gone on vacation during the school year and the kids are able to complete their lessons while away in our downtime.

I mentioned I've learned nothing. They have you take a mandated/required test about every 2 months to assess you. I was dubbed "unsatisfactory" in the Math portion. Now they have me take a mandated/required extra-curricular math class called "FRECKLE." Here's the problem: if you don't spend 120 minutes in FRECKLE MONTHLY, they give you an unsatisfactory grade. My computer can't do FRECKLE, and my friend lends me his computer once every 2 weeks for a little bit of time to get it done. Also, if you don't contact your teacher every 2 weeks, you become in alarm. If you are in alarm for too long, they threaten to call the police. So that's my experience. Against my will, I will be returning next year. Hopefully, they will change EVERYTHING.

As the weeks dragged on I realized that I was screwed. I wasn't doing well in this school. I didn't know how to write notes or do homework since I didn't even know what was expected of me. If your child was given the choice to either do school or play video games, what do you think they would do? I had no enforcement and the teachers said nothing. Eventually, I realized I needed to do better. Did I do that? No. Instead, I turned to another way to lessen the burden of 7-8 lessons a day, cheating. I want to make it clear before this school, I thrived in public. I had straight As and tested out for most of my classes. Here, sure, I could be called a bad student, but in my defense you can do corrections and get 100s anyway. I finished 7th and 8th grade cheating. I don't agree with what I did, and I regret it. Yet, the school is textbook learning with little to no help, I did what I had to...

9th grade hits. I couldn't do the cheating anymore. I picked myself up from the ground and started the journey to recovery. I worked hard, and yes, I still had to beat the cheating habits. It became very rare that I would cheat, but sometimes it was necessary. They would give you tests and quizzes EVERY single day and you'd most of the time get no study guide. These tests and quizzes were after pages upon pages of information with no help. As a 9th grader I had 4 core classes to do, and couldn't spend my time on the electives. Plus, I was like 14, I couldn't focus to save my life.

Come 10th grade, this was the best year for me. I cut way back on the cheating, but here I come into an issue. My teacher would put questions we never saw before on these tests. That or they would pull questions from the first semester with no help or even a mention. The workload is insane. It's so much more than an hour per class. It's at least 2 if you are taking minimal notes. The electives are truly awful. Motivation is so low when you can just correct your tests for 100s.

I started cheating again second semester, badly. I would be so scared that my grade would suffer, since I just cared about my grades, not my mental health. I would do maybe 1 or 2 questions per test. I regret it, but if the school was truly capable of teaching children they should've helped more. My French reviews literally just say "Go back and review the material." Not to mention the fast pace and completely out of date lessons. My French lesson is literally the same age I am, 16.

I can't fully blame the school for my cheating habits, I'm stressed beyond belief, and that's my problem. The issue is this school does nothing to help mental health. In a normal school you get days to review this material and learn. Here, *against the belief of a flexible schedule* you are given pages upon pages to do each day, FOR ONE CLASS. Half the time I'm stuck on Google figuring out how to do math or science. I can't learn this way, and your child shouldn't have to either. I literally had a teacher tell me that she knows most of the students cheat. You shouldn't have a need for them to cheat, instead you should have systems where they can help instead of hurt. I take blame for my cheating, but the course load is insane. I had my French lessons literally give me no translation and 4 tests per unit, literally I had so many tests they would count for 3% of my grade.

The school needs more teachers, better lessons, and more ways to learn than textbook. I hope you don't discount my arguments based on the cheating, because let me tell you something. Probably 90% of the kids cheat. Maybe 80% if you want to not count look at notes as cheating. It's not good. I can't just read and read and read with no help or payoff for the work. Why should a student work hard if another student can get the same grades with corrections with 1/4th the effort?

If you are going to send your child here, think before you do. You need to seriously think about how much time you can help your kid with. Even the most academically gifted students can break under the intense workload, and little help from teachers. They may cheat and even if they don't their mental health will be damaged in the process. Please, if you truly care about your child, think about the implications when you click yes to enrollment.

His teachers are supportive. High school can be a tough transition but they had programs and lessons that help the students through it. I found that the little quizzes that they have at the end of the lessons are good because the students can recap what they have learned through the lesson. The only thing I would suggest is that there is a way that the student could meet once a week for a fun time just the kids so they can form some friendships and exchange information so they can be friends out of school like they would at regular public school. Thanks. Florida Connections Academy.

My 11th grader is planning to go back to the local public school next year, as she misses her friends and wants to graduate with them... But she is also very happy that she has had Reach Cyber as an option this year. She cannot imagine having to deal with all of the changes and learning curves that the local school has dealt with during this pandemic. She is very happy to have had a choice!

As a mom, I am very happy that we have had the choice of a cyber school. I love the flexibility of Connection Academy! There are a lot of live lessons but none of them are required. So, if my children have a doctor's appointment or something else going on, they can just complete their assignments later on in the day. But, at the same time they always know that there is a live lesson to go to, if they want/need to. The lessons/curriculum is challenging and there are always fun things added into school also.

If he ever needs additional help with his lessons, his teachers are always right there for him. They are more than happy to video chat, talk on the phone, or email and text too. They've been there for me too whenever I've had a question, and have been very helpful and involved. Once COVID-19 has passed, there are many opportunities to get together with other local Connections families for clubs and field trips that we'll definitely be joining. We are so happy with Connections, that we will be staying on for 7th grade instead of returning to brick and mortar next year, and foreseeably through graduation.

Through her classes, she’s becoming friends with kids all around Pennsylvania and it’s really cool to see. Kids from her former dance classes are even in REACH and they reconnected recently. Neither knew they were both at REACH. Nothing is a secret or kept from the parents. My daughter loves working at her own pace and has thrived this school year! We will be continuing on next year into the 6th grade and adding Spanish to her schedule too. We didn’t add a language this year but there is a variety of languages and music classes to choose from as well as clubs.

I had so many issues, they escalated my account to the director of schools for connections academy. But it was the principal of the school in Utah that told me “Too bad, you missed the deadline, we can’t do anything for you. But please apply next year.” I wouldn’t bother, they’ll tell you it all looks good, then blame you for not submitting something, even though you’ve done everything requested and wasted your time, just to be told, you didn’t submit everything. This is a poorly run system, they don’t communicate properly or provide correct information. Then they wait until there is no way to enroll your student to truly escalate your concerns and problems.

CONS: They don't have a music department, so there is no opportunity to participate in music. You can't participate in regional music festivals. For me, participation in district festivals was a highlight of my middle school and high school years, but for my students staying at TECCA means my children will never know this fabulous opportunity for collaboration. And while TECCA has other student activities and clubs, the club advisors don't get paid unit the SECOND year of active club participation, so the overworked teachers have to volunteer their time for free for the first year which I really find awful.

The Connections Academy teachers can only do so much not getting to be in the house with you. If you follow the curriculum and do the work and attend the live lessons you'll do well here. SCHOOL IS HARD AT HOME. Be dedicated to your child's education and they will respond accordingly. We recently had my son diagnosed with Aspergers and this explains why we've had struggles at home behavior-wise. With that said, He is keeping up with the lessons! He is also catching up on days he gets behind.

PORTFOLIOS are projects that take more than one day/step to complete. Follow the rubric and you'll get a good grade. The Teachers are quick to respond and are very encouraging. They even help with pep talks when your student isn't feeling his best or needs moral support. Online school isn't for everyone. We won't be doing this his entire school career. This works for us now but maybe not every year. Yes online school is hard but what are your expectations? Be involved and communicate daily and you will see results.

I got an email a day ago saying that I will be unenrolled in three days because rules wasn’t being followed. Today (the next day) I am not even allowed to turn in the rest of my work... SO MUCH FOR 3 ** DAYS!! This is honestly the worst homeschool. It says you can work at your own speed, but doesn't give you the warning that they are going to pile up a bunch of work on top. Which then makes you rush, and if you don’t get everything done you get emails and texts saying you need to get this done now or it’s a zero. I was in public school and it was not near as stressful and complicated than this...

Before researching everything, my mom would always get onto me because she thought I was just slacking. Not knowing that the school piles work up on the, and then if you don’t do it on time you get a zero (which makes you fail) and if you don’t do the portfolios perfect you also fail. Lol, but that’s fine. I’m not going to let this school ruin my chance of graduating. I will find a different school and I will graduate. So, good luck to all of you that are signed up or getting signed up for this school.

They were confusing so we reached out to teachers several times. They'd call back and say, "I web mailed you the instructions follow them." None would actually take the time to stay on the phone and walk us through the steps which was discouraging. They said portfolios are 23% of overall grade. Turns out they are 100% of grade. My son (16) has 45/45 assignments 17/17, 36/36, etc, All 100% complete and still failed EVERY SINGLE CLASS?

After working so hard to catch up & submit every assignment/test he still failed which has made him feel HOPELESS, depressed & give UP!!! In my opinion this school set him up for failure and now he just WANTS TO DROP OUT ALL TOGETHER, DROP OUT OF SCHOOL 3 months shy of 17!!! What is a parent to do? NOW I'm feeling HELPLESS.

So 3 weeks later and many threats to dis-enroll my son they decided to allow him to start class and they would override the error. Now we are doing the classwork together as we started 36 lessons behind but the problems still existed. We could not complete many of the courses due to whatever was the case being we never found out even though we called many times. I watched my son complete many courses and the academy continued to have problems (I believe because my son was behind to begin it would not let many courses to be submitted but not positive.).

Finally we get a threatening message that this meeting was mandatory. After a few words the COMPLIANCE DIRECTOR said as long as my child did 6 lessons a day all would be ok) So I had my son do 8 but we now the very next day I was locked out 1 day before break, I immediately tried to call and messaged them and also had my son message them to let them know I cannot check any of his work off or turn in his hours.

Now after break we get a call stating my son was dis-enrolled due to truancy. When I spoke to registration person (BTW who could do nothing to actually help) she was there to tell me my son was basically expelled due to truancy. Now mind you I had my son logging in 6 days a week and sometimes 7 just to get caught up oh yeah and his BENCHMARKS were within the TOP 20%. I am so frustrated with this school. I punished my child and he was telling the truth all along. This School in my opinion needs to be completely overhauled. I have 2 degrees and I must say that this setup is more complicated than Bannerweb and Blackboard. Please review all options before you enroll your child here. It was the biggest mistake I made.

Learning Materials and Lessons:

Learning comes in three forms: through live lessons, textbooks, and/or the lesson pop-ups themselves.

- Live Lessons (LLs): A live lesson is a recorded classroom meeting between the teacher and any students who wish to attend. The teacher shares their computer screen with the students and uses a microphone and/or video feed to teach the lesson. Students can communicate directly with the teacher and other students through an active chat pod. These LLs are recorded for other students to watch.

- Textbook: CA will ship you all relevant textbooks and provide digital copies of them as well. Some classes do not utilize textbooks whatsoever (specifically for high school electives) and students must rely on LLs and lesson pop-ups for learning.

- Lesson Pop-Ups: I’m not actually sure what these are called. But basically every day the student has regularly scheduled classes that come up on their planner. Each class has an individual lesson link that you click on and a pop-up comes up. On that pop-up is an overview of the lesson, extra learning materials, activities, readings, and assignments. If you miss a lesson, they pile up and become “overdue” (though there is no penalty for overdue lessons, unless this policy has changed).

It is important to note that ALL of these are optional, and that’s where ambition, drive, and dedication come into play. Without them your student will spend the next so-many years of their education scraping by and learning nothing. My Experience & Strategy:

Middle-School: In middle-school, teachers kept a much closer reign on us in one specific way: they would often phone home, ask questions about the lessons over the phone, and ask to speak to a parental guardian. This is because it is expected that a parent be home with the student during the school day. These phone calls ceased during high school (perhaps due to age, or perhaps because school policy changed).

Overall: I never had patience for live lessons and never attended them live. I would watch recordings of LLs for my math classes only (these were invaluable). In essence, I self-taught myself for 6 years using textbooks. This has its advantages because exams and quizzes are usually word-for-word from the textbook (as the textbook authors generally write exam questions for teachers to use). It also saved me from having to watch the LLs for an hour, read the textbook, take notes, and take assignments. This is where many parents complain because their children get caught up in doing too many things. Honestly, you need to find what works for you (be it LLs or textbooks) and stick with that.

Teachers were very helpful if you reached out to them. You cannot be shy—in cyber school, no news is good news. If you are not communicating with your teachers you WILL fall behind and get buried underneath things you don’t understand. I had numerous math teachers who I could literally call when I had questions on my math tests and they would help me through the exam, but only because I reached out for help.

In addition, some teachers will use the quick checks, quizzes, and tests that are in the lesson pop-ups. In my experience many of these questions were poorly written or incorrect. If I noticed a question was out of order I emailed my teacher with the evidence and they would fix my grade if I was correct. By the time I was finishing high school many of the teachers had started making their own tests and hosting them on Google forms. This had a lot of benefits because these tests better reflected lesson material (especially for math) and test questions would change if you closed and reopened the window (meaning you’d have to start over if you exited a window accidentally). I had some English teachers who would help me navigate tricky questions one exams if I called them as well. But make sure you take exams/quizzes during business hours so teachers are available for you to call.

Is cyber school more work? Yes. It is. But it’s not as bad as some of the reviewers make it seem. When you first join cyber it is very overwhelming because you think you have to do everything in the lesson pop-ups. You don’t. Actually, for most classes, you only need to do two things: read the textbook pages assigned (usually 5-7 pages) and take a quick check (QC) (a short “test” between 3-5 questions). The other things (activities, videos, extra text) are usually irrelevant (unless it’s an English class (consider that a pro-tip)).

What does suck is that for most classes, at least in high school, you take QCs every single day, and these small tests usually make up 10% of your overall grade for the school year. Which means that your grade is on the line every day when you take a lesson. I think they instituted this policy because kids weren’t taking the QCs seriously enough and they were letting their textbook readings pile up to extreme levels.

In CA’s high school you get to take classes you normally wouldn’t. Some of the offerings when I was in school included some basic medical classes and business classes. Which means you can get a taste of what you want to go to college for while you’re still in high school. Also, scheduling is not a problem. In a brick-and-mortar school you wouldn’t be able to schedule two classes at one time, but in cyber school the “timing” of classes is of no concern.

You can work ahead or work behind. For my elective classes I would dedicate a week to finishing them for the entire semester so I would only have to work on my major classes during the year. You can also take time off if you need it and let your work pile up, or you can work ahead and finish school early for the summer (I would usually get an extra 3 weeks to my summer break as a result). You can work at night if you’re more productive, or on the weekends. Your schedule is up to you.

Drawbacks:

• Poor communication about college credit opportunities that can hurt you in the long run (no one communicated with me the value of AP classes or mentioned CLEP exams while I was at CA, and thus I had to do catching up in college in order to accomplish my goals).

The Result: With CA I graduated high school in 2016 with over a 4.00. Because of the flexible scheduling I was able to do a lot of extracurriculars and spend time with family. Even though my parent earn too much money for me to qualify for most scholarships, my GPA and class history with CA was able to get me an $11,000-yearly scholarship to my university.

In high school I was able to take several business classes which helped me pick my majors in college (I ended up going for marketing, management, and HR). Because CA didn’t communicate with me the credit-value of AP classes and CLEP exams I had to take a full course schedule throughout college (in addition to working) and take CLEP exams on the side (8 total) to make up the credits I needed to graduate with my majors and an MBA in 4 years (through an integrate undergrad and graduate program). Overall, I can actually say I learned a lot in CA without having to worry about the pressures of a traditional school. But I had to work long hours to get there. Would I recommend it? Yes (if you’re dedicated).

When I went to public school I would often learn things that are more advanced than my grade. My teachers have accused me of cheating multiple times, but with no proof, because I used something they didn't teach me yet... Before enrolling in this school I had plenty of friends and was really happy. After being in this school for half a year... I lost all of my friends because I was busy with school work, there is no way to make more friends with this school, I got diagnosed with anxiety and depression. My migraine problem has gotten worse and I have started to have fainting spells (neurologist says it's because of stress).

I begged my parents so much for this school and worked so hard to convince them, that they won't let me switch back to public school. I used to be a straight A student, and had never had anything under a C in my entire life. Since starting this school I barely passed last year and this year, I'm not sure if I will pass. If this school shuts down my life will instantly improve and it will be the best day of my life.

TL;DR: This school ruined mine and many other peoples lives, trust me, don't enroll in the school. If you go to Connections Academy right now, feel it out, see if you have the same opinion as me. If you do feel the same as me please leave a review so we can get this school shut down, or at least stop other people from having to go through it.

As a result of our family’s experience at UCA, I filed a Complaint with the Utah State Board of Education. UCA has continued to openly refuse to follow through the State’s findings that would be in my child’s best interest. You are welcome to find me on FB and I will share the Complaint and Findings with you. You can also call the State Board and request a copy. If you have a child with special needs unenroll him now. If they have refused to provide assessments or provide services file a State Complaint.

If you are a parent who is willing to review lessons, encourage and even be the teacher some days, then this school is for you and your child. I have a website called ** to encourage parents who have their children in this program or are considering it. I have a masters degree in Informatics, which is the study of how information flows across and through systems. I think this program is one of the best I have seen at presenting information in manageable increments. I have been able to email or phone his teachers with issues and help when we are stuck. I am an involved parent and know what classes my son needs me to sit down and help him with and what ones he can do by himself. This is his 4th year with Connections Academy and he gets better and better. Every job available to our children as adults will require interaction with a computer. Allowing them to learn on one can only benefit them in a career or college.