Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments CTY and EPGY Online High Schools

Taking to heart the advice in a previous post to not look too far ahead, but to also start researching accreditation and high school classes, I have a few questions.

I noticed both John Hopkins and Stanford offer online high schools which are accredited. Since these are gifted to begin with, why is this not a main path the children on this board take? I can see cost being a big deterrent, but it seems reasonable from a private school standpoint. I also noticed at Stanford specifically, if you are advanced you can choose other college level courses until you reach emotional maturity.

Are the classes just not rigorous enough? Are the college level courses they offer not the same level? I would think these courses would be better than almost anything Pearson put together.

Since the CTY groups the accreditation as 7-12, does that mean a high school level class taken in 7th grade would count toward graduation?

Thanks,
Portia

I have a friend IRL whose DC attended Stanford's OHS part time while attending public school.
Pros: access to classes at the right level, sometimes of excellent quality, and sometimes with excellent scheduling flexibility (oh, you are going to be unavailable for 6 weeks in the middle of the term? Let's see how we can handle that).
Cons: It's expensive, really expensive, and the class quality is mixed. They weren't able to get out of public school classes to attend, and the school did not accept the credit transfer, so the student now has two separate transcripts for high school. Not a real problem, but definitely annoying. Online formats don't work well for everyone, either.

As a parent of a child entering high school, I can tell you why our sample of one (so far!) isn't attending either of these online high schools. As you mentioned, the cost of both is expensive, so if our ds had been interested, that might have been a brick wall. As it is, these two schools were never really on his (or our radar). I did think about the Stanford high school a few years back when ds was younger - but a huge thing happens between elementary school and high school - our kids grow up, mature in many different ways, and by the time they are entering high school they usually have strong opinions about what they want to do, so parental input and wishes are starting to take a back seat

So - our ds picked his high school program. He's taken a few courses online from CTY - with mixed experiences (some good, some not so good... most depending on the instructor). Those courses also helped him see he wouldn't really enjoy online school full-time. He's extroverted, likes being around other kids, and he likes working in groups on projects. He's a typical teen in that he can zone in front of a screen for hours playing a game that interests him, but he doesn't like to receive his education through a screen

The second big piece of the equation is that there were a number of programs he could choose from going into high school. No guarantees he could get into all of them (most are lottery), but he had choices. He was able to research the different programs, think through what he wanted, and make a choice. While it's not probably the *ideal* program, I think it will be a good fit for him. And it's in a regular high school where he'll get to participate in sports and school clubs etc - things that he's looking forward to in high school.

Another piece of the equation which I honestly *don't* know about re the online schools, but I feel good about re the school ds will go to is support in his college search in a few very short years. It's clear that from the beginning of high school on the counselors will be guiding the kids to think forward to college and beyond, and it's clear that most of the kids get good advice on college search and applications etc.

One thing that changed through the years of school we've been through is that advocating for a gifted student and access to higher level classes + classes with intellectual peers became easier as our kids got older. I know it's not the same everywhere, but there was a combination here of less parents fighting for gifted placement (in kindergarten it felt like every other parent was convinced their child was gifted and most were far more whiny and outspoken about it than I was lol), in middle school classes start to "track" and subject acceleration in a few areas starts, and in high school there is a lot more freedom to choose classes that a student is ready for - including attending college classes or online courses to fill in where the school can't fit the need. The school ds will be attending offers a wide range of AP courses too.

It's most likely not going to be perfect by a long shot, but it's his choice, and that's why he landed where he did.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - fwiw, we asked about hs credit for CTY courses, and were pooh-poohed in a big way. We're not pushing it at the moment, so I don't know if we would be able to get a CTY course credit included on ds' local high school transcript - but we definitely ran into a brick wall when we asked. I'd rather not mention the reason that the public school staff had the opinion that they did about it, but will share it via pm if you're interested.

My son the same experience with CTY. Some great, some definitely NOT worth even a fraction of what they were charging. This information is from another thread:


My advice with any pricey online course is to find out what you get for your money, and don't believe them if they answer in marketing-speak (e.g. "You get access to such incredible teachers!!"). Ask specific questions, as in, "Oh, your teachers are so incredible. Great. How many hours per week do they ACTIVELY teach the class? What percentage of the course is based on multiple choice exams that are graded by a computer system? How many long-answer exams graded by the teacher are there? How many writing assignments are there, and how, precisely, does the teacher grade them/comment on them?"

In the case of AP History, the teacher spent an hour(-ish) a week in an online chat room. Apart from this, the sum total of teaching amounted to a weekly email saying, "Read Chapters x-y and take the quiz." All quizzes were graded by a computer, and writing assignments, well, don't ask. For $1300, I would expect a couple of hourlong lectures at a minimum.

What Val said seems to be the norm for all of the online stuff that we've experienced or looked into.

Bottom line?

You can do independent study for a lot less, and with a lot less irritation along the way, and about the same amount of interaction with a teacher.

Doing it as a charter school thing is probably fine (well, I don't know-- but it is what we've done) but then again, that's FREE.

No way would I pay for what we've endured. No. WAY.

As accrediting goes, it's been great-- but for that, I think that a full service high school that leads to a diploma is essential in some respects (if you're a homeschooler, I mean). College advising/counseling? Gimme a break-- absolutely nothing of the kind. DD's classmates know what their parents know, and that's about it.