Connections AcademyReviews 623

I would spend over 12 hours a day with my kid on assignments and was never ending. And never caught up. Some of the answers in Math were completely wrong. Imagine math is stupid. We spend over 50 hrs on it and it states we only completed 1 percent. A waste of time. I regret enrolling with the program, it's a big burden especially for young children to be expected. Especially when when assignments don't stop piling up. I don't see why the teachers don't reach out? I'm pretty much homeschooling my kid and someone is getting paid for it and giving them grades.

My son has been enrolled in Minnesota Connections Academy for 6 years. I did not think that it would be difficult to transfer to Coastal Connections when we moved to Florida last month. Enrollment was closed for the fall, but we were told we could enroll him for the spring semester. His immunization record was refused because it was not on a Florida form (funny, Minnesota does not use Florida forms). I made him a pediatrician appointment to get a new physical and the immunizations transcribed to the Florida form. Just this week I confirmed with the enrollment department that Coastal Connections did not have a student cap and I was fine to wait until his scheduled appointment next week. Imagine my shock to get an email yesterday that the school had placed a cap on enrollment and no more students could enroll for the next semester. However, I was graciously provided an invitation to enroll my child in Pearson Academy (the private Connections program) at a generous 50% off. The 50% off value leaves me paying a tuition of $2,000 for spring semester to keep my son enrolled in a program we have attended for the past 6 years. The private school will not provide any of the IEP/IHP services my son has received from Minnesota Connections. I will now have to pay for those too. All of this when the enrollment office confirmed with me last night that they could indeed see all of the conversations I have had with them regarding my son's transfer. And still, the answer is too bad for me. I will have to pay up to stay with the program. Let me reiterate. I was told Monday I was fine waiting to submit the last two forms until after my son's appointment with the pediatrician next week. "The school does not have a student cap." The very same week I get an email that the school has implemented a cap and I must pay to keep my son enrolled in online classes. They further acknowledge that they can see the documentation of this conversation, but will not honor their word. I am now writing a check for $2K plus what his support services will cost throughout the semester, and the response is "Tough luck. We changed our minds." We have always been so happy with Minnesota Connections. This has really shattered our trust in Coastal Connections.

This is my daughter's second year with INCA. I am so happy that I chose this school! The teachers' and staff are very helpful, and caring. My daughter has had some learning issues, and the teachers' have made a plan for her to get the help she needs to succeed. I would suggest this school to anyone!

This year has not been so good for my kids. The math is not set up for kids with learning issues and there is issues with the teachers not getting back to you when you need them and you have to set up a time and day to meet them and sometimes, they don't show up for that. The math is just trash the kids don't know when to stop and the lessons are not set up for kids with issues and the teachers is no help. You don't get the grades and don't know they are behind until you see their grades fall then the kids get upset because they don't understand why. I really hope they change this and get back to the why things was and stop with all these changing things. Ive been with them for seven years and this is bar far the worse year. Teachers are not teaching, and lessons is just bad. You can't find the head of the school so you can talk to that person about all the issues so tell me who do you contact for this?

My son attended a brick and mortar school from Pre-K until half way through 4th grade. He had an IEP in reading. They were not giving him the right help and too many accommodations in the wrong subjects. We then had to deal with a racial teacher. I had finally had enough and moved him to Connections. After moving him to Connections they immediately helped us get settled in and review his IEP. We found that he had fallen further behind and now needed help in math and writing. They put him in online IEP classes. He now is receiving the correct amount of help he needs in math, reading and writing. We are so glad that we moved him. We can do it on our schedule and that works great since I still have to work while being a learning coach.

My kids and I decided to have them move from the local brick and mortar school to Indiana Connections Academy back in 2020, when they're school was closed due to the pandemic. There were too many unknowns and I felt it would be easier and healthier to have them try online school. The results have been better than expected! We struggles, the first year, trying to understand how everything worked, but it has reduced my daughter's anxiety, allowed for easier travel, has helped my son through two illnesses to keep up with his schoolwork, and given each of them more control over their education and personal time. While communication was, at times, delayed with the teachers, we were patient and tried to understand their workload in these new and developing times of remote work and school. I'll recommend INCA to anyone I know!

Homeschooling might not work for everyone however, we have had a fantastic experience with Florida Connections Academy. The teachers and staff are great and they act fast when you need something from them. The lessons are just about right for my learner and interactive. No plans of returning back to a brick-and-mortar school considering our amazing moments with FCA. We have all the control over her lesson time and if you are lucky that your learner doesn't need too much of your time, just like mine, bonus point!

This school has zero tools for the "learning coach" but if your child is failing it's entirely your fault according to their educators. You cannot limit the assignments your child has access to, you cannot send assignments back to your child to look at them again before submission, and once submitted the assignment can't be reset. Essentially if your child for whatever reason decides to blow through all the assignments in one night there is nothing you can do and nothing the school will do but fail them. I was told having three children in this program would be just fine as the school is the same as brick and mortar. Now I'm being told It's my fault because I'm the primary educator. There's a reason most of these reviews are negative. Do not put your child in this school.

I enrolled both of my youngest children into Ohio Connections Academy due to covid19. Overall it is a pretty good school... the teachers are present and active with my kids and the classes all all great with the exception of math. My daughters 7th grade math class uses Mathia for all assignments except for tests. The mathia program is absolutely useless! The teacher expects the students to complete two mathia workspaces a day and one workspace usually takes my daughter over an hour to complete. The wording they use on the program is confusing at best and doesn't teach the kids steps to complete the problems that they will find on the test thier teachers give at the end of the week. My daughter is about 20 assignments behind in math because of this mathia program and always struggles with the unit tests because nothing on the test is what she is seeing on mathia... she is not being taught how to do this math using mathia program so i am having to find alternative lessons for her so she will pass her unit tests. Because of Connections Academys use of mathia in their cirriculum, I do not recomend this school if your child struggles in any way with math because they will just end up more confused than they were when they started.

Teachers only teach subjects for one hour per week live per subject. The kids get different assignments with each subject on different topics everyday. I have transferred my son to K12 which has teachers teach live everyday with homework help daily. Daily assignments parallel weekly topics.

PEARSON IS NOT WORTH THE MONEY AS PARENTS WILL END UP BEING THE STUDENT'S TEACHER (FULL-TIME).

As a student, I absolutely love this program! Not only do my teachers communicate with me and check up on me, the work is absolutely amazing! I only do 6 hours a day (which is shorter than public schools i've been to in the past) and its really easy to focus! The teachers constantly give you help if you need it and give you tips on how to make school easier (like breaks, time management, and how to schedule your day). For some weird reason everyone is giving bad reviews which I don't get, for me this program is really easy for me (the only way you can completely fail is if you don't study what you're working on at all and you never reach out for help) and the teachers are really nice to me. I absolutely reccomend this to any parent who is thinking of putting their kid in this program, as someone who genuinely cannot focus while also being diagnosed bipolar I have trouble with depression that practically makes me crippled and not able to do anything, in other programs i've gotten so behind in my work i practically gave up, nobody ever checked up on me either. Yet in this program I find it easier for me to focus and though i still struggle with the same depression, your grades don't even go down with missing assignments and my teachers constantly encourage me with ways I can make catching up easier and I really do appreciate that. They even host parties and field trips! I don't plan to quit this program any time soon :).

The school is overall good but can be stressful if you get the wrong teachers. The school didn't enroll my child until 4 weeks into the first day of school so they were very behind in lessons. The home room teacher is incredibly disrespectful, rude, and unhelpful. My child tells me they understand nothing from the lessons, and the feedback they get from their teacher is nothing but slander. Please pick a different school because this one is not it.

I have two students that were straight A and B students, Now they're failing because this school wont grade work on time and they do not Participate in anyway to help the students. My daughter was in Beta Club and now she is failing. I'm really considering placing them back in regular school. I'm starting to dislike this school. I forgot to mention how much hard work they give kindergarden students, its ridiculous My 3 children are suffering all because of these lazy $#*! teachers.

This is not an online charter school in the sense of what you think. If you sign your kids up for this - you are not simply an "Aide" to the learning process - you ARE the teacher. The live lessons do not deliver course content. All content is electronic with learning coach providing context and assistance. And while you might think "sure - I can spend a few hours a day with my kids working on school - I've done that with homework" this is completely different. Every day I regret this decision.

Content is not consistent - and assessments can be poorly written. End of content assessment has 4 or 5 questions so miss one or two - goes against grade greatly. Assignments in the course content - as I've spoken to a couple of teachers - are poorly written so make sure to check the message boards for the correct information.

We selected this school to avoid live instruction until Covid is under control - and now I fear that this experience has significantly increased the negative impact of this pandemic.

To be fair a couple of pros:
- teachers are very responsive when you do have questions
- If you truly want to homeschool - this might be the place for you so you don't have to submit any homeschool paperwork and you know the content is inline with your state's curriculum

Our experience has been terrible! They promised things like kids could work at their own pace and they would be supportive and this couldn't be farther from the truth! The whole reason I chose this school was because my daughter is very talented in art! But they lied about having art classes or art clubs! My daughter cries all the time now! She is in 9th grade and the work they give is so advanced and overwhelming,,, that even having a college education isn't helping me to help her! We try to contact people there at the school that are in charge in order to get help and you either get someone snooty that talks down to you or you dial the number it rings then hangs up!(tried several numbers there several times!) Not only do they pile on the overly heady workload but they also want the student to email that each assignment has been completed! Mom's beware this school is not conducive to our children's self esteem or health & wellbeing! Claudia Moore!

So for the last 3 and a half weeks I have been waiting on OCC to process documents to get my student started. Just 2 days ago they called me to verify my students schedule and what classes they would be taking. Well today I called back to get an official date to start and they tell me they have been waitlisted. Waitlisted after I just wasted nearly a month of back and forth with them for someone to finally tell me they cant even go here!?
What a giant joke! And also dont even think about calling this school. The first time I called I was hung up on after waiting for nearly an hour on the phone. Then a day later I called and I was called 75 in line. I finally hung up!
Find a different school this one is crap.

After 1 full month in, I would say the school is failing it students.
Issue # 1. Some teachers have never read the materials in the course (90% of which is reading text and watching very short videos), nor have they reviewed the test given at the end of text. I would never expect my students to take a test that I had not reviewed or created myself. Each Teacher can have over 500 students each. Though the teachers, so far, are very helpful the content that in presented and the manner in which it is presented is overwhelming in content and lacking in creating an environment where students can succeed.
Issue# 2. The teacher/student instructional time i. E. "live Lesson" consists of a shockingly short 30-50 minutes per wk! And available for questions 4 hr per week. It is my fervent belief that unless a child is gifted with photographic memory or a parent can spend 8 hours with your child teaching the lessons the student will not be successful. Hopefully things improve.