An Insight Parent

As I said at the beginning, I want this blog to be a forum for parents of virtual students. I want it to be a place of information, not publicity. I have been contacted by an Insight parent. This is her story.

I saw the blog that spoke on the different virtual online schools and I would like to make a comment on Insight in particular. We have a daughter who is a sophomore at Insight and she was also using Insight last year for 9th grade as well. I have to say that last year was GREAT!....really, really GREAT! The teachers actually worked with the parents and the students. Whenever I questioned the materials being used (ie., dark, morbid poems in English.....or morally unacceptable reading materials in History) the teachers bent over backward to provide an acceptable alternative. This year is the polar opposite. I have to preface this year's experience with this fact, however.....Insight was BOUGHT OUT by another company. OK, so this year for 10th grade, we have a teacher who locks her "classroom" down in the first 5 minutes of class and there are NO EXCEPTIONS. If you are not there (even for tech issues with a tech support ticket number), you MUST watch the recording and email the teacher with a phrase embedded on each slide or answer a question from each slide. There is no hope of catching the teacher on IM, calling the principal, calling the counselor...NOTHING. The teacher-proposed solution to this is to log into class 2 hours BEFORE class. This way, if the computer "kicks you out" you can still log into class. Biology teaches evolution in the 10th grade. We were told that it was only for 2 units, but it is entrenched throughout the year. Evolution is presented as THE ONLY WAY/FACT. If you do not go along with phrasing your answers as such, you will receive a "0" on your assignments (this DID happen to our child). You do not receive your class schedule for online required attendance classes for the first two weeks of the semester and even then, it is still up for change per the teacher's choice. Full credit courses will change their day/time of class with the change of semester. So if you had an activity planned for first semester at 2pm on Wednesdays for semester one, don't count on being able to do it for semester 2. I understand this as typical for a 1/2 credit or one semester course....but for a course like English, Math or Science that goes the entire year? Insight School's TV commercials boast flexibility. NOT TRUE. If you are not at class, you still MUST watch the recording, whether you need it or not, in order to submit to your teacher the "special phrase" for credit. If you do not attend class, your grade WILL GO DOWN. Attendance points are built into the curriculum. The teachers have FREE REIGN on grading. Our child is in a science course which clearly lines out an objective sheet for each assignment. Our child will turn in the assignment making sure to address each point on the objective list. On first submission, the teacher grades the paper at 50% (no matter what your actual grade should be). Then the teacher decides on completely random "extra paragraphs" that our child must add in order to receive another grade. For example, our child was asked in an assignment to critique two different articles on oil eating bacteria. She received a 50% on first submission. The additional requirements after first submission were, "to write a paragraph about a fictitional scenario regarding the extreme of overabundance of oil eating bacteria....like Star Wars and the overuse of clonning (this was the teacher's wording)." Our student was also told for a previous assignment in this same class that if she couldn't figure out where to "fit this extra paragraph in, just stick it wherever." This causes the student to worry about completing assignments because there is always one that they may have to redo and there is no possibility of doing it "right" on the first submission.

I have to admit, I was really thinking that the above examples were just unique to our child as of this year, but in reality, there are many, many students that speak of the negative changes noticed as of the beginning of this school year. This is noticed in the chat at the side of the classroom. It all seems to boil down to the change in ownership of the school.

I appreciate you allowing me to give a current factual experience with regard to Insight Schools. Incidentally, our child is a straight A student and takes honors courses as well, so this is not coming from a disgruntled parent of a failing student.

Parent of Insight School Student



(edit-I want to add one note, I believe the reference she makes to Insight being sold is the leaving of executive director Jeff Bush. To the best of my knowledge, the corporation based in Washington was not sold during the 2009/10 school year.)