Digital Learning Department

Website: www.NoDropouts.com
Email: Info@TheAmericanAcademy.com
Phone: 866-689-1932

Grades Served: 9-12

OSPI Approval

Approved as an Online Course Provider and Online Program Provider through the 2015-16 school year.

Access

Overview

The American Academy provides an innovative dropout recovery program in partnership with public school districts. Once the school district authorizes TAA’s Dropout Recovery Program, we request the district’s list of kids who are no longer attending school. Then our Recruiting Team gets to work. Our on-the-ground mentor assists with recruiting and holds local in-person “meetups.” If your students need computers to complete their school work, we provide them. The American Academy handles the work – from recruiting, to enrollment, to course registration. Our state-licensed teachers work with your kids at a course level, while our mentors work with your kids at a program level. All efforts are backed by our student services and support team and the systems we’ve built to run our own school.

The American Academy is an online high school and educational services provider serving students in 43 states and 8 countries. The school has earned full regional accreditation from the Northwest Accreditation Commission, and offers more than 200 online courses, all supported by state-licensed teachers. We apply online learning to solve real problems faced by schools and school districts every day.

Our mission is to help students who have dropped out or who are at risk of dropping out of high school to complete their high school diplomas online. We partner with local school districts to recover lost students and put them on the path to success.

One key element to online learning success is our recognition that online learning requires timely intervention and direct human support; we balance flexibility with accountability and support.

Online learning requires and helps build self-management and self-directed learning skills. It’s not for everyone, but for many it’s not only a viable approach but it’s one that makes sense given the students’ life circumstances.

We know from experience – we operate our own online high school and work directly with students across the country – that with the right support structure students can thrive in an online learning environment. We provide on-the-ground mentors who know the kids that they work with and know the community in which they work. Our mentors are available to make sure our students have the support, tools, and guidance they need to truly succeed. While technology (the online learning environment) is the enabler, it’s the human element (the mentors and our student support teams) that drives success.

Course Offerings

The American Academy offers more than 200 quarter-credit courses, including courses in the following major subject areas:

• English
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• World Languages
• Career and Technical Education
• Arts
• Health and PE

For a complete catalog, please see http://www.NoDropouts.com/courses .

Students

The American Academy partners with districts in both their dropout recovery and dropout prevention efforts.

TAA’s Dropout Recovery program focuses on bringing dropouts back into their resident district with a full-time online program. Dropout Recovery is intended for kids who have been out of school for months — and in some cases, years – because life got in their way: we generally work with teen parents, kids who are working to support themselves or their families, kids who are medically fragile, kids who were bullied or had social issues in the traditional school environment, or kids who have been asked to leave school as a result of disciplinary action.

The American Academy also offers Courses On-Demand, which allows districts to offer access to individual courses to students in need of credit remediation, acceleration, or other learning options. The American Academy’s Courses On-Demand program is designed to serve students who are concurrently attending traditional school programs.

Curriculum Alignments

The American Academy’s core courses are aligned to Washington state and national standards. Standards alignments are available to district partners upon request.

Accreditation

The American Academy is fully accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC).

Instructor Certification

The American Academy provides highly-qualified, Washington-licensed teachers for all courses offered to Washington students. Teachers evaluate and provide feedback on student work and are available for individual and small-group discussions with students by phone, IM, and email during regular weekly office hours and by appointment. Additionally, students have access to professional tutors for help with core academic courses 24×7×365.

Courseware Platform

The American Academy delivers its web-based courses via Brainhoney, a student learning environment developed by Agilix Labs. Brainhoney was designed in collaboration with The American Academy to meet the specific needs of high school-age full-time online learners. For students who do not have ready access to high-speed internet, The American Academy also offers an offline course player that allows students to work in an occasionally-connected environment.

The American Academy offers our district partners access to our fully-integrated, proprietary Partner Portal™, which allows students, parents, mentors, and administrators complete transparency into activity and performance at both the student and program levels. Proactive alerts and notifications and role-specific dashboards provide a support infrastructure for student success.

Student Performance and Demographics

Teacher-to-student ratio: 20:1

Course completion rate: 75%

Course pass rate: 96%

Student Satisfaction Survey

Average Student Satisfaction:
4.4 (57 responses)

Sample Comments

See all survey results and comments for No Dropouts

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