Home-schooled students show positive academic achievement compared to traditional schooling, which seems to be supported by Confluence Academy's experience during and before the pandemic.
A 2017 study from the Journal of School Choice revealed that the majority of peer-reviewed studies had a positive academic achievement compared to traditional schools.
Confluence Academy in St. Louis, Missouri, has been using Acellus for four years to recognize the quality in its educational programs. It has been able to utilize Acellus to see how students are reviewing new models of learning brought forward by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leslie Muhammad, principal at Confluence Academy, said since the coronavirus, the school has been using a variation of learning models.
"I'm having asynchronous and also synchronous type classrooms with zoom and also Google Classroom," she told St. Louis Reporter.
Muhammad also said they use Acellus for class credit, credit recovery during summer school and supplemental learning.
"In addition to that, we have also utilized it for blended learning," she said.
An example would be a student having a particular difficulty in math. Acellus may be used in addition to the online instruction from the teacher to move past the problem.
Acellus is also used to help students with specific IEP requirements. This will give the students additional support, while getting information back from the program.
Muhammad said the program really helps because students are always learning from a certified teacher who is comfortable and able to teach them over a video call. Teachers can easily see where the students are struggling and help them in those areas. They are also able to put the student in a different programming if they see a learning gap that needs to be closed.
"So you have some real time feedback, in essence, when you're using Acellus because it is able to email you, it's able to email the parents [and] are able to communicate back and forth with the student," Muhammad told St. Louis Reporter.
The ability to promote consistent learning is just like being in a classroom.
"You have students that may or may not give feedback readily right then even if you're doing a thumbs up, thumbs down," she said. "Sometimes they'll do it and don't really understand it. But online, you can actually see the fact that there may be a question that they're not asking for something that is clarity, based on their responses and algorithm of their answers."
As for individual subjects, Muhammad said she believes Acellus does a proficient job at teaching them all.
"I believe that it works for school because the program has been set up where it is to encapsulate what you really need," she said.
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