Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Davidson online high school option looks good!

I would do this in a HEARTBEAT were DD not now in college.

She looked at this program last night with me and was incredibly saddened to note that it is seven years late for her-- but this is all the things that were GOOD about distance learning for her, and more of those things, and (hopefully) very little of the things that were bad about Connections.


And yes, online school can very definitely be "real" school. This one looks completely solid, in my experience (8 y with Connections Acadmey, time on advocacy/boards/etc). I saw no red flags for anything that I know to look out for, and neither did DD.

This is the first such program (online high school) that I've seen that I can honestly say that about.

I can think of one significant con. How much did Connections Academy cost? This online option has a real private school sticker price: $15,000 if you're not a Nevada resident.

Did you know of Stanford Online High School back then? If so, what does the Davidson program offer that you found lacking in SOHS/EPGY OHS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University_Online_High_School

https://ohs.stanford.edu/

We are also strongly considering this, with one more year before we have to decide. The cost is definitely a concern, but probably not an insurmountable one.

They do offer FA to qualifying families.

This could work well for DD. We do not want to relocate to Reno and I do not want to send her to a boarding school.

I know. We will look into that when it's time to apply, but I feel that we will fall into the dreaded hole in between poor-enough-to-qualify-for-financial-aid and rich-enough-to-pay-for-school, just like I fear we will for college.

We were comparing Stanford, DA online, and other programs too. There are some advantages and drawbacks with all of these schools/programs.

Cost, of course. Ambleside Online, Outschool, MOOCs, and other providers that are free, or very low cost (ie. less than $50) beat them by miles on cost. And with some MOOCs, one could argue that you'd get better quality of instruction with them over what Stanford, Davidson or anyone else could provide.

Another big barrier to Davidson vs. Stanford is age. Stanford doesn't have age restrictions. Davidson does.

Stanford's OHS is not self-paced. That's a disadvantage for some kids. Not sure whether Davidson is going to be self-paced or not.

Davidson's math only goes to calculus, I believe. I didn't see much beyond the core curriculum for hs either with Davidson. Stanford's OHS does by comparison.

Stanford offers the chance for students to take university level courses. Davidson Academy does through U of NV at Reno, but not sure how the online program would work and it's questionable whether courses at U of NV at Reno come close to the university level courses at Stanford.

Stanford OHS operates on Pacific Time; Davidson's may do as well. That's maybe fine for some kids depending on where you live, but not for others.

With Stanford, you can see how the courses operate as they're samples online. With Davidson, this isn't possible yet. With Stanford, students are interacting and having discussions.

I had heard that Bard College at Simon's Rock was supposed to have an online program but haven't heard any news yet. They're better for humanities and not so much for math/science.

Some of the other online programs (now I can't remember which one - U of NE, U of IN, etc.) offer dual enrollment but with some restrictions. TTUISD offers kids to test out by credit-by-exam.

A lot of it depends on what type of child you have, their LOG, any 2e issues, etc. and whether the school/program is the right fit for the child. Some kids will excel in these schools/programs, but for other kids and families there are alternatives.

I didn't see any languages....could you just take that at the local college?

My son is happy right this second (could change he was unhappy last year for the last half of the year). Problem is he is young (already grade skipped) and has several subjects further accelerated. So next year he is technically an eight grader but will only be taking one class on the eighth grade level (civics). The next year will be his first actual high school year and he will already be taking 11th grade and tenth grade classes. So not sure it would be a good fit for us.