Whitmore School

My daughter likes that her teachers are engaged with her when she starts the class. That feels less isolating for somebody that's stuck at home. They ask her who she is as a person and how she's doing. She can tell them why she's choosing online school and what's going on in her life. That feels much more personal. Even though it is just at the beginning of the class and it seems simple, that makes a huge difference.

I would definitely recommend Whitmore. It's been a great experience and we wanna stick with the program. All of her teachers are great. She just has one teacher whose response time seems a little all over the place. It's a reflection on the school in a way because that's their employee. There'll be a couple of times where he's very responsive for math and it is one of her harder classes she's in for a sophomore. She's in trigonometry and precalculus. But 95% of the time, it's days, so it's dragging out this class. It is a time limit when you sign up. She could complete it early, but she has 12 months to complete everything. That's been an added stress level. She reached out to her counselor and has tried to say a couple of times, "I'm trying to finish this class. How can I get my teacher to respond faster?" I don't know if her counselor misunderstood her email, but her counselor asked, "Do you want to drop the class?" She was not trying to drop the class. She just wants her teacher to respond to her.

I like their idea of mastery learning. They allow you to learn, and there's a time and place to make mistakes and to get things wrong, and to revise, and learn from your mistakes before you actually send in a submission or an assignment that you're proud of and that you know you've completed to the best of your ability. I loved doing things online. It’s very convenient. Everything is at your own pace and in your own time. You can make it work with your schedule, your hobbies, your family, and your work. I also work at a Mathnasium, which is like a Math Learning Center where I'm a tutor. So, I can change my hours to make it work with my work, and with my other extracurriculars like studying for the SAT. You’re not fixed into a strict schedule, which is great.

In this day and age, with the public school system and how it is in so many different districts across the country, a lot of students are falling behind because the system is not set up to be catered to individuals. So, don't hesitate. Go and get an individualized experience at Whitmore. They're going to cater to you and your strengths and help you with your weaknesses.

Whitmore is very suitable if the students have side things that they're interested in such as dance or athletics or they want to spend extra time for drawing or anything specific besides school. That was excellent for those are strengths. My daughter is not. So, I wish she is. The program is a self-directed study and even though my daughter started very slow, she learned through her experiences. When she goes to college, she may able to catch up more than when she was in public school. Eventually, in her college years, it’s gonna be a benefit for her.

My daughter never read aloud so I don’t hear anything. There is auditory at the lecture but there are so many words that even American people don’t know how to pronounce. So, I wish that Whitmore has that system added. She doesn’t know how to say many words because she’s only reading with her eyes. If it is improved, that would be better. Other than that, this is a good program, especially after the pandemic. I don't have to worry about the virus because she doesn't have exposure to kids.

For a student that might struggle with the amount of reading that might need to happen, things might need to be taken into consideration since it's a very text-based schooling. There's no option for paper or a textbook to get something to be able to print it off so that my son could not necessarily have to scroll as much to go back and look for instruction. If he's struggling with a problem, it can get tedious to go back and forth and scroll, and everything gets lost. There's no way to underline or highlight a thing and that type of thing. So, it's been a little struggle for him in that respect.

My son has cerebral palsy, so that makes typing and stuff a little difficult. That is also another reason why it was a little hard for him to type in all his answers. There are options to take pictures and submit them, too, but those are extra steps that make it difficult. We told them about that, but I don't see they're having an option for an IEP type of situation or 504 type of situation where there could be accommodations made for certain things like that.

I feel like the cost is a little high. The curriculum is great, but I do feel like there's nothing tangible that we get, other than his grades. So, for the cost of what it was, it's been hard. The communication side of it worked out well. I just feel like for what I paid, it's been kind of hard to communicate some of the things that I've needed and to wait to hear back, but I could try and use the chat box. I could have picked up the phone as well.

Enrolling was very simple. You just go online, you pick the track that you want to take, you process your credit card, and you have your old transcripts sent over to them. They really walk you through it. They’re right on top of everything. You can start on your own time. Most kids who are in online school are just sitting at a computer all day. If they're on virtual with the regular school, it's not healthy for them. So, this is great. You make your own scheduling. You do your courses. You send them in.

What I like about Whitmore is that you don't do a lesson and then you just get graded and you move on. You have to master it. You don't move on unless you get to a nine or a 10. So, there might be a lot of revisions if you're struggling. For some courses, my son did have a lot of revisions. But he's been really doing well at other courses. The school personnel is all very friendly. They call you right back. They get right back to you. They are very happy, sweet and kind people. They're there to help. I really am blown away. It's funny how I found them and it's been a great thing for our family. My son's on the spectrum and he's really flourished.

- Why not encourage students to stick to some steady performance to achieve targets?