Compare Pearson Online Academy with us
At Pearson Online Academy, an online private school, teachers run live lessons and set due dates. Here, your child's lessons are written for them, graded the instant they are submitted, and planned around your family's hours.
An online private school or a homeschool curriculum
Pearson Online Academy is an online private school for Kindergarten through Grade 12. Its courses include AP, honors, college prep, and electives on the Pearson Online Classroom platform, formerly Connexus. Families follow its school calendar and course deadlines.
Your family chooses the hours, and our courses follow your child's progress rather than a school calendar.
Where your child starts
Pearson Online Academy enrolls students in the grade and courses they need. Families can enroll full time or part time, with those choices sitting within the school's curriculum and calendar.
To start your child where they actually are, we write a placement test for each subject. It has 25 questions, or 12 for younger learners, and it adapts as your child answers.
From every answer, we estimate where your child is solid but not yet finished, and that's where they start. Each subject is placed on its own, so your child might begin in the middle of fourth-grade math and the beginning of fifth-grade reading. In grades 3 to 12, a child who prefers paper can print the free placement test, then upload a photo of the answer sheet for grading.
What a school day looks like
Pearson Online Academy students choose when to do their coursework but must meet their teachers' due dates on a school-year calendar, and a parent acts as Learning Coach, expected to be involved every day.
Our Parent Dashboard lays out today's lessons by subject. You can build the week around your family's hours and print it for the fridge.
Interactive articles weave in your child's interests, with images and videos made for them. Reading checks confirm understanding, then your child applies the idea in a project, such as optimizing lap times for F1 or working out a rocket’s fuel load.
When your child gets stuck
Pearson Online Academy students turn to their assigned teachers for help. Teacher-led LiveLesson sessions are part of that arrangement, with questions and explanations taking place through the school.
Our Always-On Mentor sits beside every reading and project, so help is there the moment your child needs it.
The mentor also steps in on its own when your child seems stuck, explains the idea another way, and can make it visual by drawing on its board. In a reading check or a project, it guides your child's thinking without giving the answer away.
Learning to keep a notebook
From Grade 3, our readings offer an optional Notebook guide to help your child organize their learning. It encourages lesson headings and unit labels, and the printable guide offers tips for taking notes in their own words rather than copying the article.
The guide encourages your child to note where they struggled and how they got past it. One tip is to star a useful takeaway, then gather those takeaways into a review page. When your child scans and uploads their notebook pages, we help them remember those ideas and shape practice problems around the places they struggled.
Who grades the work
Pearson Online Academy teachers review and grade the student's coursework. Students wait for that review before receiving their result, under the due dates and calendar of the school.
We grade everything your child submits as soon as they submit it, so grading never lands on you. When your child gets something wrong, we help them work through it, and projects come back with feedback so they can revise them.
Records, state paperwork, and the transcript
Pearson Online Academy is accredited by Middle States and by divisions of Cognia, and high school students need at least 21 credits to graduate.
At TheHomeschoolingCompany, your child's school record builds as they work: daily check-ins log attendance, and everything they finish is saved automatically. Attendance logs and learning summaries are ready to export, and we draft the documents your state asks for from that same record, including portfolios with real work samples.
Our high school transcript builds from completed work, with courses, letter grades, credits, and GPA calculated for you.
Moving from Pearson Online Academy to us
School in a Box includes up to 12 subjects, from the core to custom electives on anything your child is curious about. Single Subject covers one course, if you would rather start there.
Start the 14-day trial and choose School in a Box or Single Subject.
Pick your child's subjects, including any topics they have been asking to learn more about.
Your child takes a placement in each subject, and their whole curriculum is built around them.
Other questions
- Can we use ESA funds?
- Yes. We are an approved vendor in Arizona, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Utah. Your program decides which purchases it covers and how to pay through ClassWallet or Odyssey.
- Can brothers and sisters each have their own path?
- Yes. Every child takes a separate placement test, and every subject begins at that child's level, all under one parent account.
- Can a child who is not reading yet use it?
- Yes. Kindergarten through Grade 2 is spoken: your child hears each lesson and answers out loud, and an adult only needs to be close by.
Your child's curriculum. Your family's time.
Let your teen pursue serious coursework on your family's hours, with every assignment graded as soon as they submit it.
$149/month per child after the trial.