As schools and families adjust to the post-COVID-19 world, difficult choices are being made among virtual learning, hybrid instruction and — for some families — full-time homeschooling.
One program seeking to address school and family needs is Acellus, a program from the International Academy of Science, a nonprofit organization.
The target market for the core Acellus product is schools, where it can be used as a learning accelerator or as an alternative when in-person instruction may not be possible, according to the company website.
"Backed by scientific research, Acellus delivers online instruction, compliant with the latest standards, through high-definition video lessons made more engaging with multimedia and animation," the website states.
Aaron Chard, director of 21st Century Learning for Fredonia Public Schools (FPS) in Fredonia, told Southeast Kansas News that FPS uses Acellus for in-house students and for its virtual academy that serves, among others, adults wishing to receive a diploma.
"For our in-house students, it provides content that we're not able to provide through a classroom teacher, primarily foreign languages, initially," Chard told Kansas News.
It has also enabled the district with approximately 700 students to offer Continuing Professional Education classes it hadn't before, such as HVAC, electrical technology and plumbing. The school district was even able to add a fine arts program due to Acellus.
(2:05) "We have a couple of students that are enrolled in that this first semester, and they seem very excited about it," Chard told Kansas News.
Fredonia has even offered AP classes through Acellus for students needing college prep, he said.
The content from Acellus is better than any similar program the district has looked at, Chard said.
"The instructional method is very sound and allows us to keep better track of their progress, as well as set thresholds for assessment," he told Kansas News.
For those families, Acellus offers two options: The online, accredited Acellus Academy, or the non-accredited, less expensive Power Homeschooling.
A comparison of the two versions by How Do I Homeschool stated that the key differences between the programs are accreditation and price.
Acellus Academy is an online school and has accreditation, whereas Power Homeschool, though also online, does not provide accreditation. However, the academy option costs $249 a month, compared to $25 per month for Power Homeschool.
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