ACE Online versus Virtual Virginia

[Anonymous]

I am going nowhere with getting answers out of DD's school counselor. Other than a general note to everyone that the last day to make changes to HS schedule is 3/1. So I thought I would ask here.

Has anyone done ACE Online or Virtual Virginia classes for their children? What is your general impression of them? How do they compare to the instruction that is provided in schools? If ACE and VV offers a summer course, does FCPS allow you to take either?

DD would like to do PE9 online. Because ACE provides a window of time for lessons, and VV provides a firm time (plus recorded synchronous instruction in case the kid has to miss a lesson), we would prefer to use VV for her lessons. Anyone know if she can take classes through VV instead of ACE?

DD is taking a language that is not offered at her base school or any nearby schools. If she wants to continue with her language, she would need to take it through VV. How does this work with her HS class schedule? Does she have an extra free period during the school day? Does she login to the VV class instead? Her current freshman year schedule has no world language on it (and I have no idea how she signed off on it).

How are VV or ACE credits transferred to FCPS transcript?

How does one sign up for VV anyway? This is what's on their website, and it looks like the school has to create the student account (which is frankly, not going to happen, going by the counselor's lack of response): https://virtualvirginia.org/article/enrollment-process/

[Anonymous]

My son is taking a Virtual Virginia math class right now. I signed him up as a homeschool parent, essentially. I haven't been thrilled...the year started out great with small classes and an excellent teacher, but then halfway through fall semester, they consolidated class sections and it was 3x the size and he had much less individual attention. Also, there were only 4 days/week of synchronous classes, and those were no more than 20 mins long.

Now during 2nd semester, he has a whole new teacher. She is not as good at presenting and engaging the kids, but she does teach for 30-40 mins rather than 20. But now they have only 3 synchronous days per week. There are a LOT of assessments and not much actual "homework"...it's just quiz, mastery check, test, benchmark, mastery test, quiz, etc.

That said, he's getting the concepts. And maybe it's about as much content as he'd get in class when you cut out all the time for
Classroom management and behaviors and stuff.

[Anonymous]

For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

The grade and course is placed on the transcript by the local school counselor. If the counselor isn’t setting up the account, you can’t do it. I’m guessing your HS doesn’t do VV so there is nothing you can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

+1
DC’s school told her no because VV requires someone to oversee the student or something and they didn’t have anyone that would do that and wouldn’t let us as parents do it.

We did get approval to take a Keystone Academy asynchronous summer PE class though and that was great. Way better than the FCPS one she had to do the next year (keystone doesn’t have the drivers ed element).

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure Oakton HS has a person dedicated to students taking VV classes. The "overseeing" is just the admin work for it. They don't do anything else in regards to the actual coursework. They register you in March and then probably process the grade at the end to add it to your transcript.

We had a good experience with VV PE. Was able to start it while school was still in session and finish up mid July instead of end of July.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure Oakton HS has a person dedicated to students taking VV classes. The "overseeing" is just the admin work for it. They don't do anything else in regards to the actual coursework. They register you in March and then probably process the grade at the end to add it to your transcript.

We had a good experience with VV PE. Was able to start it while school was still in session and finish up mid July instead of end of July.

This is not true. My child is going into 9th at Oakton and was not allowed to sign up for VV PE. Was told that if FCPS is offering the course, they have to take through FCPS. Do you have a kid going to Oakton taking a VV PE class this summer? If so, how did you swing that?

[Anonymous]

I know a kid taking sixth grade math with VV this year and it is very poor. The teacher teaches for a few minutes, does a few problems with the kids, and they do a few problems, which they can redo over and over until they get them right.

[Anonymous]

I heard back from the counselors, and once that happened, everything moved quickly. It turns out that the HS has to be involved as someone else said, and since she goes to a school that's okay with VV, she is now signed up for summer PE (the later option; she did not want to tack on more work to the end of the school year).

The language signup doesn't happen until later in the month, when VV opens for 24-25 school year. I really hope the teacher is competent, but have looked into tutors, just in case.

I really wish FCPS had some sort of uniform policy on this, and the information about what to do is spelled out somewhere. It seems unfair that some kids can take summer PE through VV and others cannot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

+1
DC’s school told her no because VV requires someone to oversee the student or something and they didn’t have anyone that would do that and wouldn’t let us as parents do it.

We did get approval to take a Keystone Academy asynchronous summer PE class though and that was great. Way better than the FCPS one she had to do the next year (keystone doesn’t have the drivers ed element).

Can you share more about Keystone Academy? My child isn't able to take PE through ACE during the summer because of a conflict in July. Is there a website for Keystone, and is the class P/F, or did your child receive a letter grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

+1
DC’s school told her no because VV requires someone to oversee the student or something and they didn’t have anyone that would do that and wouldn’t let us as parents do it.

We did get approval to take a Keystone Academy asynchronous summer PE class though and that was great. Way better than the FCPS one she had to do the next year (keystone doesn’t have the drivers ed element).

Can you share more about Keystone Academy? My child isn't able to take PE through ACE during the summer because of a conflict in July. Is there a website for Keystone, and is the class P/F, or did your child receive a letter grade?

Virtual Virginia has an asynchronous option. That might be helpful in working around the July conflict (we have one as well, which is why we chose VV instead of Ace).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

+1
DC’s school told her no because VV requires someone to oversee the student or something and they didn’t have anyone that would do that and wouldn’t let us as parents do it.

We did get approval to take a Keystone Academy asynchronous summer PE class though and that was great. Way better than the FCPS one she had to do the next year (keystone doesn’t have the drivers ed element).

Can you share more about Keystone Academy? My child isn't able to take PE through ACE during the summer because of a conflict in July. Is there a website for Keystone, and is the class P/F, or did your child receive a letter grade?

Virtual Virginia has an asynchronous option. That might be helpful in working around the July conflict (we have one as well, which is why we chose VV instead of Ace).

Thanks! I checked into Virtual Virginia, but Session 1 conflicts with the end of this academic year. I was concerned that my child would be in the middle of exams + taking that PE class online -- it might be too much. I thought maybe Keystone Academy could be the answer ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For your first question (VV v. ACE for gym):

It’s up to the individual high school. Even with VV, a local counselor at the HS is assigned to oversee the course. Some FCPS HSs don’t do this, and therefore no VV classes can be taken. That’s why those schools only allow summertime online pe to be through FCPS’ ACE program.

+1
DC’s school told her no because VV requires someone to oversee the student or something and they didn’t have anyone that would do that and wouldn’t let us as parents do it.

We did get approval to take a Keystone Academy asynchronous summer PE class though and that was great. Way better than the FCPS one she had to do the next year (keystone doesn’t have the drivers ed element).

Can you share more about Keystone Academy? My child isn't able to take PE through ACE during the summer because of a conflict in July. Is there a website for Keystone, and is the class P/F, or did your child receive a letter grade?

Virtual Virginia has an asynchronous option. That might be helpful in working around the July conflict (we have one as well, which is why we chose VV instead of Ace).

Thanks! I checked into Virtual Virginia, but Session 1 conflicts with the end of this academic year. I was concerned that my child would be in the middle of exams + taking that PE class online -- it might be too much. I thought maybe Keystone Academy could be the answer ....

She can't take Session 2 PE? That's what my DD is doing. She didn't want to do Session 1 for similar reasons. We have a week long vacation scheduled in the middle of Session 2, but she should still be able to login for an hour a day, and get her 30 minutes of exercise in.

[Anonymous]

https://courses.keystoneschoolonline.com/high-school?custitem_course_subjects_ks=Health&custitem_grade_levels_ks=High-School

DC did the health course plus PE course (both) to knock out the 9th grade PE requirement.

VV would have been fine but her school refused to let her do it. They were ok with Keystone as no teacher/counselor needed to do extra work like with VV. Be careful though. Definitely keep the emails if you get this approved. Her HS tried to give us a hard time about the credit until we showed the prior school’s written approval.

The one extra thing we also needed to do was a CPR class I think. Did that during the school year once we learned it was missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure Oakton HS has a person dedicated to students taking VV classes. The "overseeing" is just the admin work for it. They don't do anything else in regards to the actual coursework. They register you in March and then probably process the grade at the end to add it to your transcript.

We had a good experience with VV PE. Was able to start it while school was still in session and finish up mid July instead of end of July.

This is not true. My child is going into 9th at Oakton and was not allowed to sign up for VV PE. Was told that if FCPS is offering the course, they have to take through FCPS. Do you have a kid going to Oakton taking a VV PE class this summer? If so, how did you swing that?

I literally just paid for this about 5 minutes ago (the price is crazy, BTW). I sent an email to our counselor with the class session/number we wanted, she forwarded it to the VV guy, who then emailed me that she was now registered. Registration opened in March. This happened over 3 days max. Took PE last year as well, same way. She has a summer job and cannot commit to a synchronous time.

Maybe they have some rule about incoming freshman not doing it. DD did it after 9th and now 10th grades.