VAVA (K12) - How is it for a homeschooling option

[Anonymous]

Anyone use Virginia Virtual Academy for lower ES as a pseudo home-schooling approach? Any feedback?

[Anonymous]

We are using K12 private academy and we love it! VaVa may not be as flexible as the private academy but the great thing about the K12 program is that the learning coach has a lot of influence in how the lesson is presented. You are able to tailor the lessons to how your student learns best. In that way, I think it would be great for homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

While I have no experience with VAVA, I was the learning coach for two children through TXVA, and I also used the homeschool option in Utah (no virtual school, just us). If VAVA has synchronous classes, avoid it; if not, it should be great.

There is more input from the learning coach into how, when and how much to teach. However, if VAVA is anything like TXVA, you also have to track minutes per subject (with a daily and weekly minimum), and there were synchronous classes (akin to DL) that the students had to attend. Because it was a public school, they implemented the K12 curriculum in their own way for some subjects, while they chose to use other curriculum for some subjects.

My takeaway is this: Synchronous classes through a virtual school are better than DL, due to the teachers planning to teach that way instead of scrambling. For someone who feels capable of choosing, implementing and perhaps even designing their own curriculum, synchronous classes are only useful if you have too many balls in the air that year. Because you’re tied to the school’s video schedule, you lose all of the flexibility to do things on your own timetable. If the classes are asynchronous or they don’t have classes, it’s great.

Also, rigor varies. The basic K12 curriculum is very basic, and associated virtual schools range from low rigor to gifted only.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the thoughtful responses. This is really helpful. I had not considered the constraints of the synchronous component.

[Anonymous]

No experience with VAVA, but with another K12/Stride private school. We love it. DC is in high school. As rigorous as a good private school. The ability to customize is really helpful.

[Anonymous]

I want to resurrect this and ask if anyone has used VAVA for middle school.

Also, I am curious about the parental role in VAVA - what exactly does the parent do, as the "learning coach"?

[Anonymous]

I just started for my elementary school student at VAVA and I love it. I'm not sure about the middle school. The curriculum is much better than the Fairfax county esp. if you are looking for a structured learning. The schedule is flexible. We have two 45-minute synchronous classes a week (Math and ELA). You are free to plan your day with your student.
The Learning Coach (LC) needs to be hands-on in the elementary school to direct through the learning material.

[Anonymous]

We are using VAVA-k12 for our 8th grade FFX county middle school student this year. We were also in VAVA-k12 in 5th and 6th grade. We tried FFX county schools for 7th grade but just too much focus on everything else apart from academics.

VAVA-k12 is great. You do get some books for math, history and English - plus materials for science etc. No stashes of papers and the online learning system makes it easy to stay organized. The number of mandatory online classes are about 5 or 6 hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings (for 8th grade - will depend on academic level and classes chosen.) Typical school day would be 9am to 3 or 4pm (with the mandatory online classes on some days within that time.)

As a parent you can be as involved as you want. All the material is available for your review, and you can supplement as needed. You can use the VAVA electives (that are optional) or you can create your own and log those hours (within their guidelines.)

As a learning coach you are required to supervise and log hours every day. How much supervision that is required for a middle schooler varies by the child - but I would say 30-60 minutes a day. More time may be needed before big tests or when material gets difficult. Depends on the child though.

There is a requirement to be able to do state mandated testing a few times of the year. Also, if you leave Virginia for more than 5 days school days in a row you need to notify VAVA and get approval.

It is not true homeschooling. The required curriculum is set by the school (except for what you supplement.) I think their curriculum is great and my child is learning much better in VAVA-k12 than in a regular classroom.

VAVA k-12 is adhering to the updated VA school guidelines if that makes a difference to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are using VAVA-k12 for our 8th grade FFX county middle school student this year. We were also in VAVA-k12 in 5th and 6th grade. We tried FFX county schools for 7th grade but just too much focus on everything else apart from academics.

VAVA-k12 is great. You do get some books for math, history and English - plus materials for science etc. No stashes of papers and the online learning system makes it easy to stay organized. The number of mandatory online classes are about 5 or 6 hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings (for 8th grade - will depend on academic level and classes chosen.) Typical school day would be 9am to 3 or 4pm (with the mandatory online classes on some days within that time.)

As a parent you can be as involved as you want. All the material is available for your review, and you can supplement as needed. You can use the VAVA electives (that are optional) or you can create your own and log those hours (within their guidelines.)

As a learning coach you are required to supervise and log hours every day. How much supervision that is required for a middle schooler varies by the child - but I would say 30-60 minutes a day. More time may be needed before big tests or when material gets difficult. Depends on the child though.

There is a requirement to be able to do state mandated testing a few times of the year. Also, if you leave Virginia for more than 5 days school days in a row you need to notify VAVA and get approval.

It is not true homeschooling. The required curriculum is set by the school (except for what you supplement.) I think their curriculum is great and my child is learning much better in VAVA-k12 than in a regular classroom.

VAVA k-12 is adhering to the updated VA school guidelines if that makes a difference to you.

I’m interested in doing this next year for my current 7th grader. The school day seems long. Does it feel like a slog to your child? My DD’s current issues with school (going on since 5th) are not finding a good group of friends and also just feeling the day is so long and boring. She is a bright A student though (at least in public) and hates all the downtime and repetition and waiting/killing time.

[Anonymous]

The school day length varies quite a bit depending on time of year and day of week. There is really no fluff/busywork - just learning. Our son loves that. So, some days he can get the mandatory work done before a late lunch. On other days, if he hasn’t worked ahead or is behind, he can do schoolwork until 5pm or later, usually due to poor planning. There is no homework - but assigned work/projects/reading can fill up the day.

It doesn’t feel like a slog - there is little wasted time and he is learning a lot. He does schoolwork and when done early he fills the day with other qualifying activities. You need to hit the mandated 990 hours total for the year. That is easy when adding in PE (done on your own supported via optional/mandatory PE and health classes - they have guidelines on activities/sports and what counts) and qualifying independent study (our son does things like researching topics, practice presenting and then publish YouTube videos)

School year starts mid-late August and ends mid to late May. No snow days, fewer vacation days. Socially, not much from VAVA but there are online local and national clubs, and a few in-person interaction opportunities. Our son hangs out with friends in the neighborhood after their school day or on weekends and that is enough for him.

Do enjoy cooking and eating lunch at home most days together.

[Anonymous]

We did VAVA/K12 for 6th and 7th grade, partly because of the pandemic but also because FCPS just wasn't working for us. The quality of the education is good. My kids (who had been in FCPS AAP) were very behind in English in terms of grammar, punctuation, and composition, and VAVA addressed all of this and taught them to write well. The math instruction also is excellent.

It is a bit of a slog. It's a lot of work, which is fine, but there really isn't as much flexibility as we needed. But the biggest things for us were the daily assessments and the temporary zeroes that showed up if work was not completed on time (even if for an excused reason, like missing school for an illness or a tournament); this caused a lot of stress, even though both kids knew the zeroes weren't permanent until a later date.

It also was isolating, even though one of mine is in a sport where online school is common.

We switched to a co-op for 8th grade last year, which was not as structured as we needed, and a hybrid school for high school.

[Anonymous]

^^ Also, as to your question about parent involvement - it really depends on the kid. My self-sufficient learner needed minimal parent involvement. My other one needed lots of hand holding and oversight (and calming down from freak outs when zeroes would show up).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did VAVA/K12 for 6th and 7th grade, partly because of the pandemic but also because FCPS just wasn't working for us. The quality of the education is good. My kids (who had been in FCPS AAP) were very behind in English in terms of grammar, punctuation, and composition, and VAVA addressed all of this and taught them to write well. The math instruction also is excellent.

It is a bit of a slog. It's a lot of work, which is fine, but there really isn't as much flexibility as we needed. But the biggest things for us were the daily assessments and the temporary zeroes that showed up if work was not completed on time (even if for an excused reason, like missing school for an illness or a tournament); this caused a lot of stress, even though both kids knew the zeroes weren't permanent until a later date.

It also was isolating, even though one of mine is in a sport where online school is common.

We switched to a co-op for 8th grade last year, which was not as structured as we needed, and a hybrid school for high school.

I am interested in researching hybrid high school options for my teen. Would you mind sharing the name of the school? I couldn't find any in the area, other than co-op tutorials. TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I have no experience with VAVA, I was the learning coach for two children through TXVA, and I also used the homeschool option in Utah (no virtual school, just us). If VAVA has synchronous classes, avoid it; if not, it should be great.

There is more input from the learning coach into how, when and how much to teach. However, if VAVA is anything like TXVA, you also have to track minutes per subject (with a daily and weekly minimum), and there were synchronous classes (akin to DL) that the students had to attend. Because it was a public school, they implemented the K12 curriculum in their own way for some subjects, while they chose to use other curriculum for some subjects.

My takeaway is this: Synchronous classes through a virtual school are better than DL, due to the teachers planning to teach that way instead of scrambling. For someone who feels capable of choosing, implementing and perhaps even designing their own curriculum, synchronous classes are only useful if you have too many balls in the air that year. Because you’re tied to the school’s video schedule, you lose all of the flexibility to do things on your own timetable. If the classes are asynchronous or they don’t have classes, it’s great.

Also, rigor varies. The basic K12 curriculum is very basic, and associated virtual schools range from low rigor to gifted only.

Can you name any low rigor or gifted-only virtual schools?

[Anonymous]

Most of the hybrid schools in our area (or at least the outer suburbs) are religious - Loudoun Classical in Purcellville and Saint John Bosco in Sterling. Logos Classical Academt in Lorton might be hybrid. Regina Caeli has a location in Baltimore.

Not a hybrid school, but if you are looking for secular, some students take most of their classes at Compass in Herndon. There is a good group of middle school kids there.

If you are looking for online only, Well Trained Mind Academy has some very rigorous classes.