Kaycee
- Reviewed on Monday, March 08, 2010
- Grades Used: 9-12
- Dates used: 2006-2010
My daughter wanted to use American school high school because she wanted an accredited school (which it is in all 50 states) and she wanted to be able to work independently. There is a mix of required courses and electives and one can choose a college prep program or a general program. It is an economical choice. During our time frame it was $1100.00 for the whole 4 year program including books, study guides, tests, grading and record keeping. You could pay $50 per month interest free until the entire amount was paid.
They use typical public school type textbooks and have study guides to guide one through. The student can go at their own pace, they do not have quarters or semesters, etc. The students mail in their tests and the American school grades them and sends them back.
So, my daughter liked it initially until...
This past year American school lost 17 of her tests in 5 different subjects all mailed at different times over a period of many months!
We are completely disappointed and disgusted. I can see them maybe losing a test now and then or maybe one complete subject but so many tests in so many subjects? What on earth could have happened to them?
We asked them to just send the rest of the textbooks and study guides and we will go through them on our own. I will grade the tests myself and make my own transcript and our own diploma.
They have about 40,000 students currently and it must be too many.
If you choose American school be sure to have your student make copies of completed tests before sending them. If you haven't seen a grade posted in 3 weeks call them (and call them and call them-you will get a different person each time most likely and the next one you talk with may have no idea what you are talking about and no record that you previously talked with someone at the school).
I should have stayed on top of this before letting so many tests get by but we were in the midst of selling our business and moving.
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earthmommy
- Reviewed on Saturday, February 23, 2008
- Grades Used: high school
- Dates used: 1989 and 2004
I completed high school with this curriculum in 1989 but I was very self-motivated as a student. I found a lot of the texts dry.
My oldest used it in 2004 and it wasn't a success at all.
A student who is very geared to text book learning and very self-motivated will do well with this option, but any student needing more individual attention or hands-on learning will need this to be heavily supplemented. I wouldn't recommend it for kids who are any type of learner except book learners.
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coffeygrounds
- Reviewed on Tuesday, May 01, 2007
- Grades Used: 9th-11th
- Dates used: 2003-2006
When our son was in junior high, we started investigating our options for high school. Since we also had two very young children, I was scared to try to do high school myself. After looking at a lot of options, and talking to people who had tried different things, we decided to try American School. I'm really sorry now that we did.
As some have mentioned, American is an inexpensive way to get a diploma. It is accredited (if this matters to you), they do the grading, and they do get the papers back to you in a reasonable amount of time.
However, some classes are too easy (especially Essential Mathematics 1 and 2 which are considered freshman and sophomore classes), some classes are too hard, and some are just plain boring. The biggest disadvantage to me was that while someone else was grading his papers for me, it wasn't always the same person for the same class. For example, in English 2 he had 8 tests and a total of 6 different people graded those tests.
This may work well if you have a highly motivated student who wants an accredited diploma, but I will be looking for something else for my other children.
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Susan
- Reviewed on Monday, March 07, 2005
- Grades Used: High School
- Dates used: 2004-present
My son is using American School to complete his high school studies. Overall, it has not been a good experience for him. Some of the courses, such as Accounting, are not explained satisfactorily, and my son was not permitted to speak with an instructor. My son finally had to withdraw from Accounting, and switch to Algebra. Since we switched a course, we were charged an additional $40.00.
They are affordable, as mentioned previously. I do agree that the textbooks are pretty bland, and have a liberal slant, particularly in the US History course.
For my other children, I will look into another program.
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