Online High

I came across this video for The American Academy and have added it to the Best Online High Schools Channel. Look at some of the numbers that have been paid recently for online high schools. Serious cash! I like, though, that The American Academy talks about the problem (”Many people need a high school diploma”) as much as their solution (”Come to our school”). I think potential students much prefer this approach.

If you look off to the left, you will see that Best Online High Schools now has a new featured listing. Blueprint Education in Arizona has a long history of providing high school education to students around the world. Importantly, it is accredited by NCA, CITA, and NCAA.

Welcome aboard!

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has announced that it will be offering online high school courses through Wisconsin Web Academy. These courses will be offered in collaboration with a student’s home district.

Pennsylvania has long been friendly to homeschoolers and online learners. It has, at this count, seven online high schools. They are:

21st Century Cyber Charter School

Agora Cyber Charter School

Commonwealth Connections Academy

SusQ-Cyber Charter School

iQ Academy Arizona is part of Pinnacle Education in Arizona and part of the growing chain of iQ Academies. Loyal readers know that there is also an iQ Academy Washington and an iQ Academy Wisconsin. All three of these schools are free of charge to students.

Please do not think that this school is the worst of the bunch. There are many that are equally bad, but that look more professional. A fake is still a fake. A diploma mill is still a diploma mill.

Something important to know: Many of these folks get caught. They get fired. They get their admissions application rejected. Don’t let this be you particularly because there are so many alternatives out there that are legal and legitimate.

Here is my pledge to you: If you come across one of these websites and you are not sure if it is legitimate or not, please feel free to post a question in the forum. You will get an answer.

A cursory look at the website of this school shows:

1. No names of administrators or teachers.

2. No postal address.

3. No email address.

4. No telephone number.

And so on. I should mention, though, that there are some of these diploma mills that will give you some of this information; some fake and some real. In this case, it would be important to evaluate the site based on the entire list.

Some of these sorts of schools will say that they are accredited. In the case of the school I have been detailing, it says it is accredited by Alder International Accrediting Organization. This is not even a very good fake. The good fakes accredit more than one school. This is a bad fake. Note, however, the use of the word “fake” to describe both kinds.

Legitimate accreditors are listed here and here.

While one of these fake schools do not have to be cheap, they often are. They exist to prey on those people who need a high school diploma the most and figure that they will make up for the cheap cost by getting many students to sign up.

The example that I have been using is even having a summer discount of only $160. Yes, this is absolutely a rip-off. The reason it is so cheap now are the “grants from our sponsors.” Yeah. Right.

One way that you can tell the target audience for this is that they will even let you pay the money in installments.

Let’s see:

1. Tuition = $160.00 +
2. Piece of paper = $0.10 -
3. Profit = $159.90

That seems a rather nice profit margin. Note, though, that it is a piece of paper and not a diploma. A diploma is based on something.

One more way to know if a school is legitimate is the use of an equivalency test* to prove that you have high school knowledge. On that “school’s” website, it says:

If there are still some credits needed for a diploma, then you can choose to take our equivalency test.

There is one legitimate equivalency test called the GED. Most of us know about that one. It is a quite legitimate way to earn an alternative credential to a high school diploma. However, the GED is not offered online and has no relationship with websites that offer to let you take one of these sorts of tests.

Tomorrow, yet one more point.