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Resource Description
The K¹² International Academy is an accredited, private online school that offers the world-renowned curriculum from K¹², the market leader in online curriculum programs for grades K-12. K¹² also offers a virtual public school; be sure you understand the difference as the virtual public school is under the umbrella of a local school district.
Website: K¹²
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(67 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Enrollment, Staff, No Admins contacts
Grades Used: 9th
If you're thinking about this school, DON'T DO IT! I couldn't get my child in due to them keep denying my child's documents. It's much easier getting your kid into school a normal public school. They refused to give me the admin phone number and thought that getting smart with me by repeating themselves was the answer instead of being helpful and just getting my child enrolled. They need to lose their accreditation. I read others' reviews and I'm glad I couldn't get him enrolled. It's usually a sign that I like it if too many issues occur before I even start. Yelp this is a no for me.
Cons: 7 hour workload, stress, no fun.
Grades Used: K
K12 for my daughter when she was in kindergarten was awful to say the least. The workload was way to much. She had no time to play and she was only 5. Workload took like 7 hours a day, it was ridiculous, no 5 year old can sit that long. Just the phonics/grammar took like an hour and a half.
Cons: Too many assignments/lessons per day
Grades Used: K, 1
The K12 day for my K then 1st grader was WAY too much daily work. He spent 3.5 to 4 hours in live, online classes, plus he was required to finish 6-7 lessons a day that on average each took 45 minutes to an hour. He never got to play outside. We started at 8:30am and it would take until 5 or easily 6pm each night to get them all finished. I would then take photos of workbook pages he had done and upload them to their website. It was extremely time consuming, stressful, and not enjoyable for me or my son. They would do testing every quarter, plus 3 times for the state. It was so stressful for him. The tests were horrible. They would get harder when he got answers right, but not much easier when he got them wrong. The questions on the tests were not matched with the curriculum he had learned. The tests were got increasingly hard, very fast. My son would always end up crying. He was left feeling dumb. I removed him from this horrible situation and put him in a real school where he can play and really interact with other kids. After 4 months, he just did his first required testing and said it was easy and had no complaints. In that same time period, he would have been tested twice at K12. K12 makes you do virtual lessons on so many subjects: math, phonics, English, science, music, art, and even gym. He had lessons for all of them most days, plus the live classes for them! Some days he had 2 English lessons in one day due. Plus he was required to spend 45 minutes a week doing an online reading app called Mindplay. He began hating it so much because the lessons got super hard, but no one teaches him the material. It just constantly asks questions he doesn't understand. When the computer voice reads the sentences, because he's not able to yet, the computer mispronounced some words and doesn't say it like a human, so it's not understandable. We did a curriculum through a California K12 program, then one in Florida. Both were horrible and expected way too much from us and our kids! I do not recommend K12 education. I did the online lessons, but he shouldn't have had so much work expected of him daily. He should only have had live classes, no online lessons, for art, music and gym. That would have cut down on the amount of time it took him to get his lessons done each day. He should only have had 4 lessons to do per day.
Cons: Rude people
Grades Used: None, could not get enrolled in anything
I tried to get information about this program and the first person that answered the phone was very rude and said that I should know that enrollment was over for the year but she would transfer me to the person that handled the tuition based program and that person was unbelievably rude. He lectured me about taking my child out of school and then hung up on me. I would not enroll my child in this program if it was my last option.
Cons: None
Grades Used: 8
DO NOT put your child through them. It stresses not only them but you as a parent trying to do what they want you to do. They want you to record the time they are doing their school work and yet because the work isn't online they tell you they are not signing into their classes. Much of their classes is book work using real books. suppose to have 25 hours a week of online instruction yet only scheduled 17.25 hours a week. That is if the teachers actually have class or don't decide after minutes that class is done for the day. Also teachers booting them off or putting them breakout rooms with no instructor to go over why they are there. Never seen a school that doesn't have subs to cover classes. They set up the kids to fail so that they can get federal money for have child enrolled with the,
Cons: none
Grades Used: 8
I enrolled my child here because of issues are her normal school. Saw how they were suppose to be good. Find out they are not. After going through a rough enrollment process with going back and forth with different paperwork and finally getting her in the beginning of the second quarter the problems started. With teachers telling her the first week that she didn't need to worry about a thing and the first thing that pops up is her attendance. She is suppose to have 25 hours a week and yet she is only has 4 classes with 45 minutes a day for 4 days a week with maybe 20 minutes of online assignments. Asked if off line works counts and was told yes and being told that I am over stating her time. If they can see her actual time why am I even recording it for them. Looking to put her into another school that will actually have the class time she is suppose to have.
Cons: ugh
Grades Used: 4th
OK, DO NOT PUT YOUR KID THROUGH THIS STRESS!! my daughter failed 4th grade because the teachers did NOT teach properly, they lack explanations and they can't even teach right! this put so much stress on my baby girl, NEVER do this to you child this was awful!
Cons: see above
Grades Used: 8
DO NOT use this school! I enrolled my son in the private homeschool curriculum. First, the assignments are confusing and difficult to follow. When you try to call the school there is never anyone who answers the phone. 6 months into going to their school my son was flunking everything and was demoralized. We did our best to help but he was still flunking everything. We finally pulled him out of the school and enrolled him in another school. He is now getting A's and B's and is gaining confidence. To add insult to injury they continued to take the money out of my account stating that I had signed a contract. I requested a review from their billing department and no one ever contacted me. I then requested a review from their billing escalation department and I still was not contacted. To date, they are still taking the money out of my account even though the school year is over and my son does not attend their school. Please, if you love your child, do not subject them to the same torture that my son went through
Cons: Nothing
Grades Used: 10
I absolutely love k12 when I was in brick and mortor school I was failing all of my classes and not understanding my assignments. When I started on k12 my grades went from all failing to almost all A's and B's
Cons: yes.
Grades Used: 4th - 11th
The workload, like others have said, is insane. I have been here for over 7 years and my grades have gradually started falling as I entered 8th grade to high school.
I have so many projects and essays and it's already finals week. I am under so much stress, my depression has gotten so severe over the course of the years.
Grades Used: 7,and 8th
My son is in 8th grade he is failing badly, the homework he is giving is overwhelming there is no way he will ever catch up. teachers just keep giving him homework and homework. if you go on the weeks schedule there is homework already and with finals now he will definately not catch up. my daughters went to high school and now in college and i have never seen them have this much work.. K-12 teachers if your bored then you do the work.
Cons: everything
Grades Used: 7th - 8th
Public school is awful but this is just so much worse. The work load is ridiculous and even if you manage to get it done, it's a miracle if it even gets graded. The software constantly messes up, the classes are usually poor quality and half the teachers don't seem to care about their jobs.
Cons: everything
Grades Used: 7th -11th Grade
I’ve been using k12 for 5 years now and this is where i unenroll myself from this school.
let me just say the first few years weren’t that bad but when you get to highschol it gets worse. im a junior in highschool right now and the work load is unbelievable i have 18 over due because of it. and they assign us home work due on the same day. like for example i had a quiz that was due at 8am before any of my classes even started AND it was assigned that same morning and if i don’t get it done it’ll go into my over due tab which is just totall crap
this school also hasn’t replied to any important emails i sent them with all the workload and im constantly having to do 4-5 USATP assignments that are a major grade while on top of the regular school work i have. its jusy ridiculous im gonna enroll into another school later tonight
Cons: The list is too long to fit
Grades Used: 6th
Platform is not user friendly. Unbelievable workload. They have way too many enrolled that there is little or no individual attention. It’s been an awful experience.
Cons: To much screen time
Grades Used: 7-8
I’m currently on k12 and I’m getting bad grades even tho when I was in physical school I would only get A and B.I felt overwhelmed by all the supplies and screen time that it required
Cons: way too much workload for parents and students
Grades Used: kindergarten
WAY TOO MUCH WORKLOAD FOR KINDERGARTEN
im completely overwhelmed when I receive all the materials from K12
is only kindergarten
you have to spend everyday 4-6 hours on all subjects
while our school kindergarten only 3 hours and have 1 hour is outdoor playtime,
I don't understand why this is so much work just for kindergarten
Cons: To much work, too much screen time.
Grades Used: 9th-10th
I completed my 9th grade year at OHVA and felt completely overwhelmed. I have gotten good grades and worked hard throughout my time at school but K12 was almost too much for me to bear. I was on the computer for almost 7hrs everyday and felt completely stressed. The workload and classes I was required to take was ridiculous. We found out that K12 requires 2 times as many classes as any other school to graduate. They kept telling me to pack on classes and I could barely keep up. Staying on the computer that long every day left me with headaches. I eventually dropped out after completing the school year. Overall terrible experience, would not recommend.
Cons: Way too much work, Very Annoying
Grades Used: 7th
I was a student myself and was highly excited to try out homeschool, until it became overwhelming and the more work I did the more popped up. Even though I had good grades I still failed, my parents scolded me because they thought it was my fault I didn't pass and this ruined me
Cons: Software problems, general annoyance, bad methods, ineffective and redundant, no continuity
Grades Used: 10th
I currently attend online school, and honestly I haven't been impressed. Geometry has taken me through a billion things that aren't even really classified as geometry, history (honors) doesn't stick to a timeline whatsoever (we keep jumping around and its confusing as hell), Spanish II is way more advanced than I was expecting (and I did take spanish I trust me), about the only classes I understand and can follow are fine arts, english, and biology
Also, the computer they sent is mediocre, and the geometry tools are literal garbage (the compass barely works)
I attended a charter school before this, and during the pandemic we had our own online system that I worked with really well, so I figured going through this year online wouldn't be so bad. I was very wrong, its nothing like my old school's online program and i can safely say my grades are the worst they've ever been
Not only that, but a lot of the time the software for assignments wont show me what i did wrong, so i have no clue what i need to work on. this is specifically aimed at the math quizzes.
I should also have the option to drop out of classes and take different ones I think, but no dice. Also, the fact that the parent/"learning coach" can just pick your classes and sign you up for them without asking the student first ticks me off majorly (my dad did this, if you were wondering) and I could go on and on about the technical problems that this school has, for hours probably.
TL;DR please DO NOT send your child to this school unless you actually want them to fail! Its awful and they'll put a lot of unnecessary information into the lessons.
Cons: Completely unrealistic expectations for 1st grader
Grades Used: First
Completely overwhelming with amount of work expected from 1st grader. Literally 6 hours logged everyday. For example 2 hrs 45min of ELA work alone. The content is great but way too much of it. And crazily enough, if we complete the days assignments (nearly never happens) and log the estimated time need to complete each course, it falls hours short of the 6 hours required. Where do we invent those 2 plus hours somedays?!?
And from the mouths of truancy people at NCVA, the only excused absence is for extended hospital stays. So if you, the student or learning coach is sick, or has appts for anyone in the family that would normally be excused for hours attending an actual school, those hours need to be made up. Not just the work, I get that. The hours. Miss 2 days. That's 12 hours to spread out over a week. Not realistic.
Cons: political lessons, extrememly hard work, time consuming, terrible teachers, and terrible system
Grades Used: 7
we were very excited at first about the flexibility but the school ended up being the worst year of my daughter's life. she was always a smart girl but this year they have literally set her up to fail. all the teachers are terrible and don't deserve their jobs. needless to say, she will never be going again.
Cons: None
Grades Used: 2nd, 4th
So many of these reviews are about various k12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS and NOT about the International Academy. The public schools may be horrible or great based on your state.
The k12 International Academy is a PRIVATE school. There is tuition. The courses are not the same! The teachers and admin are not the same. The degree of flexibility is not the same. K12 International Academy is wonderful especially for ELA and History. It is mastery based, great depth, and provides multiple opportunities for acceleration. Truly a great program. I hope readers will understand the dofference as they comb through these reviews. I hope the administrator of this site will delete some of these public school reviews as they are misleading about the International Academy (renamed K12 private academy).
Cons: Limited teacher availability
Grades Used: 3rd
Not going to lie, at the beginning of the pandemic, the K12 curriculum was very difficult for my daughter. Having been in a public school that never left her homework, she was overwhelmed. The courses were very advanced and some of them referred to the 2nd grade curriculum. I had to teach without having the curriculum, but we got through it okay. In our second semester, we finally found our groove. I am lucky enough to be able to be her full time teacher and I’m by her side 90% of the day. Some days we finish by noon, other days we’re still going at it until 6PM. It is not easy to teach and I respect every single teacher out there who do this with children who aren’t theirs. Can it be stressful? Absolutely! Is it fun? Absolutely! I love everything she’s learning and every challenge that comes with it. I make school fun for her and she gets to pick which class she’s ready to learn. Her prior school didn’t have honor roll, so it was an amazing shock to see she made honor roll with distinction! She definitely feels a lot more confident about her education. I understand that the pandemic has put a lot of pressure on parents and I can see why this school isn’t for children of parents who can’t be by their kiddo’s side. It’s also not for closed minded people who are offended by history or parents who don’t find education fun. This has been the best year for my kiddo and puts us in a bind going forward. We only intended this to be while the pandemic happened, but with reports of children falling behind in public schools, this may be our new norm. My 5th grade nephew was kept in regular school and was put in a blended classroom with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Comparing that education to K12, my nephew is completely unprepared for middle school.
Cons: Way too much work/Lack of teaching
Grades Used: 10
My son used K12 through a virtual academy with his regular school as a result of the pandemic. My son is on the spectrum but does well in his regular school. His K12 course workload was insane as compared to anything he's done at his brick and mortar school. History required at least one five-paragraph essay every week. Other than his geometry class, none of his classes were taught live or gave appropriate interaction between the teacher and students. Thankfully I work from home so I could help him during the day, but he spent almost every weekend of the semester (and every school break) catching up on assignments just so he could finish by the K12 permanent zero deadlines. This experience with K12 was the most stressful semester I've had with my kids in school and I'm glad we aren't doing it any longer.
Cons: No communication with parents; Extremely difficult to navigate (Parent #1 = IT Professional and Parent #2 Post Grad Student intimately familiar with Black Board and Focus); Not sending emails to parents just to child. Sterile, flat curriculum = reading only. No Differentiation w/ Learning Styles; Not for 2e kids or G/T kids.
Grades Used: 8th grade Math and Art
Deeply conflicted if we will use again. (1) It is regular public school curriculum (secular homeschooler here) using regular school text books with no verbal/power point presentation or video instruction. THIS IS INTESELY, MIND NUMBINGLY BORING. I assumed the videos they mentioned in catalog would at least be more than just a few math videos from text producer - not full lectures. This has killed the love of learning my child once to display. (2) Parent Portal (old and new) is useless. Extremely difficult to navigate and know where to look to see what/how your child is doing- especially if you are a part time student. My husband is an IT professional and I have used Blackboard and Focus throughout my academic career = not our first time at the rodeo. It is easier to log in as child and read curriculum, see grades, read communications from teacher (if there are any) and add supplementation from there (which you will need to do) = might as well go back to homeschooling completely myself, which was less work even while working full time and going to grad school. (3) The only reason we might continue is for "credits" for maths and sciences -BUT- you must attend as FULL TIME high school student for TRANSFERABLE CREDIT. TTU K-12 will only "keep and report" (read transfer) grades if you are "full time" - not "part time" students (they send you an unofficial report and do not keep your grades). Unless you officially "transfer" credits to a public high school (and many private) or take extra courses at TTU already enrolled in your ISD= they will not accept as a credit at our ISD nor any other ISD I have spoken with (We live in Houston = there are many). This means if my child decides to go back to public school (or even private) they would be started in HS Algebra opposed to whatever math they had already advanced too. I just don't think he can put up with all the vapid busy work = why we left traditional schooling in the first place. Sad, public/private education continues to cling to old ideas of education and squander decades of research not to advance online learning for all. You would think a University would be leading, not trailing behind.