Is PA Leadership Charter School the best choice?

Question

My daughter is going to kindergarden this fall. I want to teach her at home with the assistant of cyber school. It is the time for me to make decision which school is the best for her. I agree with the responsers of my previous question that the success of cyber school student depends upon parents involvement greatly. I also believe that the support of the school especially teachers, the quality of curriculums, the quality of teachers are important too. I have looked around and it appears to me that PA Leadership Charter School is quite good. Can anyone give me his/her advice or opinion? Many thanks for any help!

Answer 1

I'm in PA Leadership Charter School.  It's pretty good.  Occasionally there are system errors and stuff, but that happens with any cyber school, I'm sure.

Everyone is assigned a teacher that calls you every two weeks and tells you how you're doing, if you need to catch up, stuff like that.

I like it a lot.

Answer 2

I personally would look into using PAVCS or Agora.  They use the K12 curriculum, which is awesome, and it's what I've used for over 5 years (as an independent HSer).

http://www.pavcs.org

http://www.agora.org

You should probably attend any charter school's open house to get a feel for their curriculum and staff.  Most have many of them in the spring & summer.

Answer 3

If I may make an alternative suggestion... I am currently enrolled in 21st Century Cyber Charter School. I know for a fact that it is currently the only one in the state that has consistently met the PA school standards, which is the problem with the cyber schools that act as a third party. They buy their courses from all over, so it might not necessarily meet the standards. Now, where 21cccs is different, is that instead of the cyber school suppling you with the course material, while you teach the student, 21cccs has teachers, that you meet via a program called Elluminate once or twice a week, and they are available all the time, and they call fairly frequently (it's always awkward when they call asking to help with anything, that I say I'm eating. Heh). All the teachers are non-union, which means they HAVE to give a d**n, or they get fired, and they genuinely care about the student's education. At the open house i heard more enthusiasm to teach from those teachers, than I have all my life in a public school! They are all youngish too, because the older union ones don't see a reason to leave. They get guaranteed raises and bonuses, REGARDLESS of how their performance is, and it takes a court case to get them fired, and even then it's not assured. 21cccs also teaches a lot better than them too. Lat year, my highest grade was a B, in Gym. This semester, I made the distinguished Honor roll! And it's not because the courses are easier, oh no I wish, it's because the teachers are awesome, the courses are fun, and i can sit at my computer at 10 o'clock at night, in my PJ's, eating donuts! You can't beat it! You can also stand over your kids making sure they are working. They also rent you a mac with blocking software (for a dollar a month to be able to put insurance on it), and all the text books and peripherals you may need. But the downsides are, lack of social interaction, although we go on field trips twice a month, and we have email, but even so, you should be doing something out of school. And it takes an ENORMOUS amount of self-discipline, which I kind of learned through this. But, I believe the benefits outweigh the downsides. I would advise 21cccs over anything else. But that's just me. And I guess I would be biased if I am in it. Still, check it out, go to an open house, whatever.