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Acellus/Power Homeschool Reviews
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Cons: Everything else
Grades Used: 10
You know it’s bad when I can get more from Khan Academy in two minutes than I can get from Acellus in 30. The lessons are extremely drawn out, which completely disengages you. The content being taught is often not explained very clearly; which is especially frustrating in topics like math, where you need to know literally everything that’s happening. Truthfully, I can not tell you how many times I’ve had to rely on sites like Khan Academy or Mathway to get me through my Algebra 2 class.
Lack of communication is also something you’ll notice. It’s not a person teaching you, but rather a buggy computer program paired with a library of 6-8 year old videos. If you don’t have someone who you can reliably contact, it can be extremely difficult to get ahold of someone if you’re stuck and need help. It also doesn’t help that when you get something wrong or get lower than a 70%, Acellus won’t actually tell you what you’re doing wrong; it just makes you redo the entire lesson.
Other than that, students don’t get access to a syllabus. This makes it difficult for the student to plan ahead and stay on track. There’s no social interaction with peers- again, it’s just a computer program. Probably the biggest thing, though, is the fact that it’s all virtual. There are no workbooks or textbooks, no resources outside of the few they provide, and no hands-on activities other than a few “special lessons”, which are most of the time aren’t doable (I had one that wanted me to dig a four-foot hole in my backyard).
Take it from an actual high-school student when I say DO NOT GO WITH ACELLUS! The entire program is literal garbage!
Grades Used: 1, 2, 6
I homeschool my children and found this curriculum to work for us very nicely. It came recommended by a friend and I’m glad I tried it out! I have a newborn and was getting bogged down with grading. The grading is now done for me!! I can enjoy the videos with my children, see their grades, what they did on a daily basis, attendance and amount of time on each section at just a glance in the parents app. They offer special assignments that include some written work as well.
I read some negative reviews about having to retake exams. Personally, my children and I don’t mind them. My teachers had me do this in private school growing up and I’m certain it helped me feel more confident as I went through the material, aided in my SAT and ACT scores, and laid a foundation of joyful learning because I got to develop confidence in the subject matter. I think it’s important to learn how to learn and develop a joyful sense of mastery with learning as you go along. Many career paths require continued learning and excellence as part of the discipline in order to be competitive in that field. So I personally don’t see a problem with retaking exams until you know the material better. But if this is a feature that bothers you, then this curriculum probably would not be a good fit. Best of luck in your curriculum discovery journey!
Cons: Everything
Grades Used: 11
I forgot to mention in my last post that the videos are outdated and poor.
Cons: Everything
Grades Used: 11
I do not feel this program was beneficial. You are forced to retake test until you get over a 70%. I want to have the choice to retake the test. I was ok with the grade that I received on my final because my grade in the class should have ended up being a b at the lowest. I got a 65% on my test and was forced to watch all of the videos again that where 20 minutes long each which where a waste of my time and did not help my at all. I had to redo all of the questions I missed then retake the entire final all over again. There was nobody that I could ask questions even during the lessons. I had to resort to google to answer all of my questions. And when I followed the teachers instructions to a T I still the the question wrong so I resorted to google and used a completely different formula. Half of the time the videos make no sense. I would have done so much better in person or on another website.
Cons: Discriminatory and Religious content
Grades Used: 3rd and Kinder
In using this software with my children I noticed inappropriate and sexist content, as well as lack of rigor. I reported this to my school and they discontinued the program. Our Department of Education did a curriculum review and found discriminatory and religious content throughout. It is available for public review so you can decide for yourself what is appropriate for your student/child. Here is the link to the full Instructional Review of Acellus from the Department of Education, but if you aren’t comfortable clicking on it here you can just google it for yourself. http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/DOE%20Forms/Parent%20Communication/Comprehensive%20final%20report%20Acellus.pdf
Cons: Biased and inaccurate
Grades Used: 6
This curricula is full of religious indoctrination, sexist, and racist content. Don’t use it if you care about actual history or science.
It’s ok but little slower than the actual school grade. I think if you make it double click would better than dragging the letters to fill-in to make the word! Overall it’s a very good educational apps for students.
Cons: very repetitive, lack of communication
Grades Used: 9-10
In the beginning, the program places you in what class they feel fits best based on tests. However, as you progess, if you get less than 70% correct on topic questions, it repeats the topic video, not helping clarify anything further.
Cons: Retakes, bad videos
Grades Used: 11,12
I would not recommended using this program It is alright but there are better out there if you miss questions it won’t let you move on past that text till you pass it so it’s Easy to get stuck on a text for a week cause of the retake questions then you have to totally retake the test like 3 times before getting past it and the video are way to long sometime, 30 minute video just to explain something that only take 10 seconds and the video are SUPER repetitive
Cons: Not so focused on written work, but hey that's probably a sign of the times
Grades Used: 6th and 7th
So far we love this curriculum. It is checking all the boxes other curriculum has missed.
Cons: No access to gradebook
Grades Used: 4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Powerhomeschool/Acellus has worked well for our family. My children appreciate that the lessons are quick and to the point emphasizing only the information that they need to know. We switched from another popular online program that was very dry as it was primarily reading with very few videos/multi-media options. We LOVE the extra help videos/and the ability to repeat exams through exam recovery mode.
We enjoyed and utilized the “Special Lessons” which I can access from the teacher’s app. This took a small amount of planning/printing on my part on Sundays before our week began, but was well worth it. In the parent’s support group on FB, I was able to download and print textbooks for many subjects and organize them into binders. It would be wonderful Powerhomeschool/Acellus made this information more readily available and easier to access. A one-stop place to download everything all at once, for example.
Although the program offers great instruction on HOW the writing process should be conducted, there are very few opportunities to actually write…even in the “Special Lessons.” We supplemented with co-op classes for writing. Time4writing is also a great option! I believe that combined with co-op classes or worktext curriculums for writing/grammar, this is a great curriculum.
Another con is that teacher’s do not have access to the grade book. I have not personally found any other online program where this information isn’t made available to the teachers/parents.
Although children can be independent with Acellus/Powerhomeschool, they still need parental involvement. From what I’ve witnessed, those that seem to struggle and have the most complaints seem to be families who don’t want to take the time to plan and provide guidance and oversight. As with ANY online curriculum, it’s a valuable tool to help parents to step back and facilitate the education of their children.
Cons: Video-based learning and poor downloadable content options for homeschooling parents/guardians on subjects best supported by worksheets to cement learning
Grades Used: 5th through 8th
So grateful for this homeschooling option! Our son has ADHD and struggles with writing by hand. Not only are his quirks a bullying magnet in a public classroom environment, he is also very exasperating for the teachers overwhelmed with oversized classrooms. He needs constant individualized attention, and busywork is just another word for torture that doesn’t engage his crazy fast-paced mind and bottomless well for engaging information. Power homeschool’s short videos followed by targeted quizzes and puzzles we can access from any smart phone, tablet, laptop with an internet connection makes learning fun again. Being able to retake tests when he rushed instead of focusing in, and even switch tutoring mode on and off to cover old lessons one more time before the reviews or final exams is phenomenally helpful.
We started at 5th grade, and now we’re doing elective full-in classes after completion of core classes for 8th grade in just 2 1/2 years. He’s excelling in classes he struggled just to pass in public school. Parents can choose common core, simplified, and remedial versions of classes for the grades we’ve covered, and now I’m starting to see (as of Jan ‘19) AP classes prior to high school, with new electives popping up all the time we will let our son take just to fill in school time so it’s not all math or all history all day. This freedom to choose and wide selection has been the best part of our experience so far! A truly tailored curriculum to suit any learner’s needs. And don’t worry, ordering work books online from an independent retailer, or picking some up at a local book store that are subject and grade appropriate to supplement video-based learning is not very hard when a learner needs extra help, because the same information is covered in common core classes as is in those work books; you may need to hunt some things down. I’ve spent plenty of volunteer hours at public school helping teachers march workbook sheets with their curriculum too, so I was prepared for that!
Our personal experience was that hunting down work books to help cement math skills and some language arts subjects was very helpful; the section for homeschool parents to Dow load I formationprovided theough the app was not very helpful. That added expense paying for whole workbooks when our learner o my needed a section here and there for additional practice added up over 4 grades. Also we found the history, civic and social study classes to be very generalized/abbreviated and dry, which stood out from other core and elective subjects. Much supplemental work was required to get our learner to retain the information, which may speak more to our learner’s interests than anything.
Cons: poor teaching methods
Grades Used: 4th
I am a homeschool dad working with 4 th grade Acellus. Have to say that the teaching methods used with the math program are pretty ridiculous and not really conductive to a good understanding of the subject matter.
Social studies curriculum is extremely boring and very narrowly focused. I have had to replace both programs with more comprehensive ones.
Cons: company is not as familiar with the home school community as they should be, however they are working to correct that.
Grades Used: 7th, 8th
We are on our second year using Acellus (now called Power Homeschool) and despite some bumps in the road we adore this program. We use it as a complete curriculum and it’s short lessons are well suited for my son who has Tourette’s and ADHD. His retention skyrocketed after we started Acellus mid way through his 7th grade year and the educational maturity I’ve seen blossom in him had me sold. This year he is taking FUNdamentals of math (a math program designed to fill in gaps students weak in math need to bridge for algebra), middle school geography, 8th grade Language arts, physical science, and music appreciation. We are one week into our 8th grade school year and its going very well. There are placement tests your student can take to gauge where they are but its only a guideline and you can place your child in whichever class you feel appropriate. Each class has a pretest that is a better indicator if they class is appropriate. If they pass the pretest, they don’t need to take the class, they know all the material. There is also an online Facebook group that is a wealth of information and creative ways to use power home school. Unfortunately, earlier this summer the company alluded that they were going to discontinue the power home school side of Acellus but there was a massive backlash so they formed a task force of home school Mom’s, listened to our demands, and worked out a situation that worked for everyone. Power Homeschool is $25 a month or $250 a year, which I find to be a great deal.