The Keystone School Reviews

In order to make sense there has to be some level of interaction and guidance from the teachers. If kids need clarification, then clarify. Point towards more practice, etc. Even if we are there, we do not know everything that's expected in each course. Grading- not consistent. The few meets- not consistent. Very disorganized. Even teachers didn't know policies had changed.

P.S. My son had been home schooled since Covid and that was the plan before it happened. He did extremely well with me teaching plus he had a tutor to come in 4 days a week for added support! He honestly learned so much on his own. I loved home school because of the benefits of being independent but I would not pick this school again. I'm all for kids finishing and completing their work but they leave NO room for errors! Heck, even I missed an assignment here and there when I was in school! This will not happen again! I had bought school material off of Amazon and our local store called Lakeshore Learning Center, they offered great material to work through! Choose wisely....

I am mentioning this so when buying your classes you do so with that in mind. You need to buy by semester instead of the whole year (even if you have a discount if you do so). Why? Because their reporting system is a bit confusing to send (it will be on a % done of the total year class and your semester grade won't be showing if bought for the year). If your goal is to come back to a regular school, buy your classes by the semester (especially for high school!, Each semester will be 0.5 cr). While the reporting is great on your screen it does not translate as good on paper since the system FORCE a logo on your printer (regardless of which layout you choose!) and you can't remove the logo. So it will appear very messy.

What I did was screenshooting it and saved as PDF file (for the quarter report cards) for semester. They actually have a very "Academic record or Unofficial transcript" which is pulled out at PDF format with all the certification. This format is great but again the current semester won't be showing if you choose to buy by the year for 1 full credit, instead of buying by the semester for 2 times 0.5cr. Only matters if your goal is to come back to school as you will be asked to show some semester and quarterly reports. Semester grades (and yearly grades) automatically transfer to the transcript/academic record once a class closes.

Be mindful that if you are on a deadline, the system still needs a 24h refresh update to transcribe, also all your assignments need to be graded (sometimes long assignments will take a few days to be graded by the teacher so please be mindful of that if you are waiting to send your transcripts/academic for the semester or year end.)

Do not use IPAD we have had a few issues with computer based tests (I think they do mention not to use it, but daughter at the beginning was using it and it worked until we realized many of her assignment were lost in limbo in between the program and the teacher interface). Tech support fixed it but we needed to understood first what happen and so tech are better than others (the tech support is for the all K12 companies). Once we used regular computer we no longer had the issue. Follow your child assignments and grades so you know when something has not been graded (lost in the system) or your child somehow missed it. Saying this because you do not want to be trying to get back grades from the beginning of the year... There are redo options depending on the type of quiz (practice tests) so push your child to do his/her best.

We used the teacher link often (and I suggest to do so as the pool of teacher will answer quicker than if you just email your assigned teacher). Not everyone is on the same time zone. We requested teacher recommendations and we got them (please make sure if it is done through the school system you are trying to get into that you are using the right email, and as such as the teacher link which name and which email. ). If they ask you for a director recommendation, you will get none (Ms. ** did not reply, besides she does not know us!), this recommendation could be replaced by the counselor (Mrs. ** is very available, I suggest you get a meeting with her and discuss your needs).

If you are on your last year of high school and need recommendation, you will be asked to fill out a long thing so the teacher gets to know you better than by your grading exchanges. We had that but had to let them know we were not going to college but trying to go back to school from middle school... So the teacher ease up her demands and filled out the new school forms for rec.Registrar is just like tech support, you could get a good one or someone who do not understand your needs. Ms. ** understands, the others not really. Anyhow if you ask registrar to send your unofficial academic records or unofficial transcripts to your new school (as a semester and as a report cards) they will do it. They won't send finals, this will be done through PARCHMENT (you can choose electronic or / and papers). Arrives in the next 5 min if you do emails!

Parchment provides also info if it has been downloaded/received or if it is still sitting in the mailbox after being sent (so to speak). You will need to be on top of it or to hire a tutor (regardless if you have academically driven kids) because that's how you understand a class or elevate in a class (especially with math or ELA). I do not expect an online program to drive the brain... System is slow at time and a bit confusing at first. (Yu also have as a parent/tutor) your own interface. I suggest to look at BOTH every morning. What you see as a parent is not what has been done necessarily by the child. You see nothing until graded but on your child interface you see it has been submitted. You do not see the teacher feedback, but they do on their own interface. We did not like the forum board, I don't think it brought anything to the academic but some assessments are mandatory on it. Felt like "bots" replying at times...

You don't have to do the "Keystone classes" if your goal are to come back to a school. (Though they will still show on your progress report card as unfinished or % not done, you will have to explain what it is). You do have to do them fully if you plan on graduating from Keystone (those are 2 credits required to get your diploma). I suggest you buy your 2nd semester quickly (if you like the way the first semester is going). Why? Because in order to follow the regular school system you would need to provide your second semester report cards before May and your final transcript /academic by June usually. Keystone does not allow to rush through the classes (and I do not advise to do so, I don't even think it's doable, as there is like many reviews mentioned before, tons of work to be done.

A very demanding program, like I wrote before). The minium is 8 weeks, so by buying it earlier you will not have to worry about the time frame, your only time frame will be the one you set for yourself as a goal (the timeline of the school you are trying to get into will be your timeline). Keystone does not do Testing as part of the regular program, but they offer to do MAP (though If I remember right you can sign up for it but it will be advertised in the news link). I suggest to do it on your own instead (SSAT, ISEE) as many school ask for it anyway (register on those program websites). Too many emails from the system. I suggest to just keep the news link (has all the best info about clubs, testing, zooming live, everything school "alive").

I suggest also to have a student ID card done, not just for discount but as a proof of enrollment and also have at least one school t-shirt done so when you go someplace (doc appointments and all) you avoid the bizarre question as "you don't go to school??). We had good teachers for the most part but as mentioned by other parents' reviews some courses are better than others (not for the quality of the content but the quality of the instructions when it come for assignment and work to do). Clarifications were needed at time or pleading for a redo when unfairly reviewed (because of poor instructions). Overall we do not regret doing Keystone as it was fully recognized by all the schools we applied. Children got into them all (COGNIA CERTIFIED is the best labels). But it was stressful since the Keystone timing is for 12 months and a regular school year is merely 9... so different timeline and more work.

I think Keystone might be best if your goal is to graduate from it and if your child/children have no difficulties learning. In any case, I hope this help. We finished in May for my 7th grader and mid June for my 9th grader. Both got their transcripts and records in a timely manner. Thank you Keystone, you are tough and we are glad we are DONE! PS: Be careful when buying your class (do not do one cart only if you have 2 children, even if you have a coupon), the classes needs to be bought under each child profile. I made the mistake to buy all 7th grade with all 9th grade and had to spend some times to get it fixed (they did fixed it).

By the way, extensions cost money. It seems everything takes as long as possible to get you to get another extension. They also screwed up me and other people's transcripts that were very clear in what courses were completed, and I ended up having to basically pay for a second Junior year when I already finished my Junior year. That cost thousands of dollars. They want you to be stuck in a cycle of repeating and paying. Teachers are also unresponsive most of the time, and most of them don't offer much help, especially in the Print courses (Ex: Art & Music History Print, Economics Print).. The curriculums are horrible, genuinely. The only good one was the Image Design course, which also had one of the few actually good, as well as responsive teachers. I don't remember his name since it was a year ago, but if you are in this school and have a choice of elective, I suggest that class.

One of the only good curriculums otherwise was for the programming class, but that wasn't even their curriculum- it was Code HS! Digital Photography and Culinary arts are decent classes but both of them, especially Culinary Arts, have so much busywork. In Culinary arts, much of it does not even help you grasp the course material. Don't even get me started on the math classes like Precalculus. The course material is so unrelated to one another, and there are no actual STEP BY STEP explanations. They do not show where each value goes throughout the process, just the end of one step, and the end of the next. Understanding where each value goes is crucial for mathematics, especially when you start getting into PreCalculus and above.

I had to end up watching a DIFFERENT TEACHER who uploads his explanations in his class to YouTube in order to understand half of the PreCalculus class, because nothing was explained well. In my opinion: Just go to a regular high school. You don't have to pay and they won't screw up all of your credits and keep making you redo everything to pay them thousands of dollars. You will also have a better experience and be able to have the social abilities to make friends.