DS started "attending" Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA) two years ago August, when he started 6th grade. We decided to go that route for several reasons, not the least of which, it resembled homeschooling, but had some perks that homeschooling didn't offer -- like free curriculum and the use of a computer, access to Special Education services (for which he is eligible because he has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome as well as ADHD), and someone for DS to be accountable to beyond mom and dad (generally a good thing for most tweens/teens, and certainly for mine). The Texas Education Agency (TEA), for its own reasons (which could be a whole 'nother post), doesn't consider it homeschooling. But, but for us, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, has feathers like a duck, well.... I'm sure you get the idea.
Anyway, at first, TXVA was working well for us, at least for the most part. As many people have heard me say, I subscribe to the philosophy that (paraphrasing Beetle Bailey's Plato), "The only thing worse than bureaucracy at its worst is bureaucracy at its best." And, while there were a bunch of hoops we had to jump through, we were, for the most part, pretty satisfied with the way things were going throughout 6th grade. My big issue was that the curriculum was not as interactive/multimedia rich as I had thought when I first learned about it (it relied almost exclusively on reading skills), but it seemed to work okay for us, at least at first.
We’d thought about switching to TCaH (Texas Connections Academy at Houston) as early as the summer between 6th and 7th grades, because their coursework seemed to be more interactive. I did some research, attended an interested parents’ seminar, and even spoke with the principal. I even went so far as to start an application for DS. But we'd heard that TCaH had different entry requirements due to the way its charter with the state was worded. For instance, any student applying must be working at grade level. Well, A. J. was -- sort of. He had been working at grade level, but he was failing most of his courses. (I’ll explain more about that below) And, they don't offer outside SpEd services (like occupational, speech, and physical therapists). Also, at the time, we had some really great teachers at TXVA, and we didn't want to mess too much with it. So, we decided to stick with TXVA, because we weren't sure what advantage there would be to switch.
A new SpEd director was hired over that summer, and over the course of the last school year (DS’s 7th grade year), it seemed as though his main focus was to make sure that SpEd services were delayed or denied as much as possible, facts, history, and expert recommendations be damned. For instance, in spite of evaluations that stated he needed certain tools to help him learn, it took from the ARD where they were first mentioned in January until June, almost the end of the school year, to actually get *some* what he needed to learn. He wound up failing most of his coursework in large part because of these issues, I believe. We were still waiting to hear about other items – including large-type editions of books the week before school was supposed to start.
(Lest you think it was just us, we know several other families in similar situations. As a matter of fact, a parent I’ve become friends with over the last school year during our time in the SpEd trenches just recently filed a complaint with TEA. She has two kids currently attending the school. Each child had a complaint filed in his name, and each complaint contained *well over 100* specific violations. And these students have only been at TXVA one year.)
They also proved repeatedly that they don’t put the students’ needs and interests first. My son is very definitely a kinesthetic learner. He loves the computer and loves doing things interactively. One of the few fun courses he took through TXVA was Spanish, using the Powerspeak Program. He wound up with a B for the year. So, what do they do? They decide, unilaterally, after we’d told them he wanted to take Spanish again this year, to transfer him to their music appreciation course, because, in their minds, it was “easier.” Maybe for some kids, but not my DS, because this program involved lots of reading from a text with no pictures, listening to some music clips, and using the computer strictly to take tests.
Finally, they changed the way they calculated grades. Previously they took into account certain projects as well as percentage of work completed. This past year, it was strictly what percentage of the course was completed. (Since their goal was mastery of the material, if you had completed the work, you knew it.) However, that doesn’t work for a child like mine. Every day was frustrating for the both of us, and little was accomplished.
After all our frustration – and DS failing almost every course, per the above -- we were finally committed to looking at other options. DH and I kept bouncing between three choices – stay at TXVA, switch to TCaH, or go to back to true homeschooling, which we’d done when DS first started elementary school. Our discussions made it obvious that neither of us considered staying at TXVA an acceptable option. Of the other two, we were willing to give TCaH a try, sticking with the same philosophy we’ve always used when making educational choices, “nothing is set in stone.” If it’s not working, we can always pull him out and find something that works better.
So, on August 18, 2010, I reopened the application to TCaH that I’d started the previous year. I worked really hard to get all of the paperwork I needed to turn in. I figured that, the sooner I got it to the admissions staff, the sooner he’d be in, and then (and only then) would we tell TXVA that we were leaving.
Then the Texas Education Agency (TEA) threw us (and TCaH, really) a *huge* curveball. I don’t understand exactly why it happened but, basically, in spite of what TCaH had been told earlier in the year about being able to expand their class size, TEA – two business days before school was supposed to start, mind you – let them know that it wasn’t going to happen. So while TCaH appealed this decision, it also sent out word that they weren’t accepting any new applications but that anyone whose application had already been started had until 5PM the next day to complete it. Fortunately, I’d already gotten everything we needed, and I spent most of those 24 hours faxing and calling the school to check on DS’s status. I knew that the biggest issue would be his grades from the previous year, but, fortunately, I was able to explain to them what had happened and why his grades weren’t where they should have been.
Finally, at about 4:50PM (after using about half of my monthly cell phone minutes in two days), I was told he’d been accepted.
But, of course, it’s *never* that easy, even if it *wasn’t* actually that easy. Within the next few weeks, TCaH notified us that their appeal had been denied. They had to cut their numbers back to 1,000 students in their 3rd grade through 8th grade classes. The way the TCaH staff handled this news was remarkable. It showed me how they really *do* have their students’ needs as the main priority.
What they did was this: They kept all of the 3rd through 5th graders in TCaH. The 6th through 8th graders were given two options. They could either choose to remain in the TCaH program or they could voluntarily be placed in National Connections Academy at Texas (NaCATX). They would see if the numbers worked out that way. If not, they’d then have to move any students over the cap to NaCATX and move them back in to TCaH as room became available.
What you have to understand about this decision is that this cost National Connections Academy, because it was covering the cost for all of these overflow students until things could be worked out. I can’t be sure, but my guess is that most (all?) other organizations would have said, “Sorry. There’s no room for you after all.” And a lot of kids would have been stuck, particularly since, when they accepted their places at TCaH, they had to withdraw from their old schools.
They decided which additional students would be moved based on when they were finally accepted into TCaH initially. Well, since DS was probably the last student accepted before the cutoff, we knew he'd most likely get transferred to NaCATX, where we figured he'd stay for this school year while TCaH worked things out with TEA for next year.DS was just given his place back in TCaH this week, even sooner than we expected it to happen. A few things are different – while in the national program, we could ignore some of the Texas-centric hoops. But, on the whole, we’re so glad we’re in this program, even with these hoops.
Now, he’s enjoying his classes, which include lots more multimedia presentations. He’s actually willing to do his work each day. There are some classes he even *asks* to work on, which *rarely* happened before.
And the best proof that we made the right decision? DS’s GPA this year is 98.
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