Today I have another review for you of an accredited online school that you can enroll in either full or part time. It’s called the Keystone School, and it’s an online private school owned by the K12 company. So if you’ve seen my review of the K12 online school, this school is going to be similar.
But there is a lot that you need to know about The Keystone School, so let’s get started.
The Keystone School Basics
First, let’s talk about the basics. The Keystone School is an accredited online private school that offers a complete curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade, including courses for homeschool students as well as honors and AP courses, credit recovery courses, and courses for adults who are looking to get their high school diploma. Students in the US as well as international students can enroll in the Keystone School, and the only requirement is that you must be able to read, write and speak English.
In addition to being accredited by Cognia and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the Keystone School also has NCAA approval for all of their core high school courses. So this might be a great option for student athletes.
All courses at the Keystone school are self paced, so you can enroll any time throughout the year. There are no live classes to attend so this is great for families who want the flexibility of making their own schedule. You will have access to teacher support when you need it, and they do employ a team of certified teachers, but you won’t have a teacher actually teaching a class. This is all done more like an online homeschooling program than a school. So just keep that in mind.
All of the regular elementary and middle school courses are done online, but they do have the option for many of their high school courses to be done in print form, where you just do the assessments online. So that may be a good option if being on a screen for a long period of time is an issue.
The Keystone School for Elementary School
So now let’s talk about each section of the Keystone School in detail. We’ll start with elementary school. This online school offers full time or part time enrollment for all grade levels including elementary, and you will enroll for each course individually. So if you sign up online you just find the courses you want and add them to your cart. You don’t have to choose the same grade level for each course, it’s entirely up to you as the parent. So if you’re a homeschooling family just looking for one or two courses, think of this just like ordering a curriculum. You can use it however you want to.
There are 40 different course offerings for elementary school, and with most of the courses you’re just going to pay for the full year. Each of these courses is $500 for the year. They have 4 core courses for each grade level in math, language arts, history, and science, as well as electives in art, fitness, and health. There’s also a full-year PreK course offered that is designed to help prepare kids for kindergarten.
The Keystone School for Middle School
For middle school, there are 26 different course offerings, and again, you can choose whichever course you like and just add it to your cart. If you need help deciding, they do have middle school placement exams that you can print off. Middle school includes 4 core courses for each grade level in language arts, math, science and social science. They also offer Spanish and Chinese 1 and 2, art, health, and some other electives.
The courses for middle school can all be purchased either as 1 1-semester or a full-year course. There is a bit of a discount involved in purchasing the full year up front rather than just 1 semester.
The Keystone School for High School
For high school, there are 178 different courses including 39 print courses. There are also placement tests for high school to help you decide which courses to enroll your child in. You won’t need any documentation other than a birth certificate if your child is 14 or older, but if you want to enroll earlier than that, you’ll need to prove that your student has successfully completed 8th grade.
The cost for the high school courses is the same as for middle school, and you’ll have the option to purchase either one semester or the full year. There are also 14 high school honors level courses, and the cost for the honors courses is slightly higher than the regular courses.
There are also 17 AP courses, and the cost for these courses is per semester. These courses are designed to help students prepare to take the AP exams. Just keep in mind that you will need to schedule those exams yourself. And don’t worry, it’s not hard. Just go to the AP course ledger and you’ll be able to find a school near you where your child can take the exam.
As far as the available high school courses, I’m happy to see they include calculus in their math course offerings and physics in their science courses. Some online high schools don’t have all the upper-level high school courses like this. The Keystone School does seem to have a good selection of courses, so I don’t think you’ll be disappointed there.
Additional Information
You’ll also find a lot of options for both middle and high school credit recovery courses. And if you’re an adult who is looking to go back to school and get their diploma, you can enroll in their adult learning program for $99 a month.
If you want to view the details of any of the courses, you can open them up and take a look at what’s going to be covered in each course. There is a course overview, a course outline, and then if any additional materials are needed for the course, they’ll let you know that as well.
So whether you’re looking to enroll your child part time in just a few courses, or full time, you can just add the courses to your cart and checkout. There’s not really any enrollment process. You can call if you need assistance, but otherwise you can just purchase the courses and you’ll receive instructions on how to get started within 24 hours.
Payment Options
Once you enroll in a course at The Keystone School, you will have 30 days to test it out and request a refund if it doesn’t meet your needs. This 30-day refund policy is only valid in the US. They also offer a 10% sibling discount and a 15% military discount, but you’ll need to call if you want to get those discounts. You can’t get them if you pay online.
There is also a scholarship that you can apply for. They award up to 5 scholarships per school year for students in 6th through 10th grade. So if that’s something you think your student may qualify for, you can fill out the application form, but you’ll need to do that before you enroll in a course.
If you pay online through Shop Pay, you can also set up a payment plan. So you can apply at checkout and choose from the options that are offered to you. If you’ve ever used Affirm or Afterpay or PayPal Pay in 4, it’s like that.
Graduating From The Keystone School
Since The Keystone School is an accredited online private school, if you take your high school courses here you can graduate with an official transcript and diploma from the school. In order to graduate from the Keystone school, students need to earn at least 21 credits in high school, and at least 5 of those credits must be from the keystone school.
If you enter the Keystone School, after 9th grade you will need to transfer the credits from your public or private school by submitting a copy of your transcript. The Keystone School also accepts homeschool transfer credits, and there’s an online form you can fill out and submit to have the credits evaluated. They also accept transfer credits from outside the US, but those credits will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for an additional fee.
Student Experience
And now let’s just talk about the curriculum a little bit. As you know, this is a self-paced online school where all of the work is done at the student’s pace without any actual classes to attend. So they use an online learning management system similar to a lot of other online schools.
The Keystone School is part of the Stride Learning Company, which is the same company that owns the K12 online public school as well as K12 Private Academy. So I am assuming they will be using the same curriculum that they use in the other schools in their portfolio. If you go to the K12 Private Academy website, you can see a sample of some of the courses. Like most online schools, you’ll have a mix of video and text on screen, and all the work will be submitted online.
As far as teacher support goes, students will be able to reach out to their team of certified teachers for help with assignments or questions on the material. For middle and high school they also have student success advisors and guidance counselors. There is also an online student community, and the Keystone chapter of the National Honor Society.
There is also an online calendar you can view which I think will give you more of an idea of what to expect from this school. Every weekday from 9am to 5pm Eastern, time you will be able to email the teachers for questions and receive a response within 90 minutes. These are generic emails, so it doesn’t look like you’ll have an assigned teacher. It’s more like whoever is available will respond.
There are also specific times designated to work with the student success advisors and guidance counselors. And they also have things like student assemblies, clubs, and parent events. So that gives you kind of a feel for what your child has available to them outside of the curriculum.
Homeschooling or Private School?
I also just want to point out to you that even though this is an accredited online school, in most cases, you are still going to need to follow the homeschooling laws for your state. Every state is different, but you definitely need to check the laws.
In states that require testing, you will most likely still need to take care of that. Enrolling in an online school is not the same as if your child were attending a brick-and-mortar, private school. The Keystone School is not going to be responsible for helping you satisfy the homeschooling requirements for your state, so just make sure you understand them and aren’t letting anything slide because the school is not going to do that for you. All state tests or portfolio reviews, or anything like that that may be required in your state, are likely still going to apply, and it will be your responsibility to set those things up for your child.
I think that’s everything I wanted to share with you today about the Keystone online school. I hope my overview helped you learn about another online school option that you can use either part-time or full-time. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to get you the answer. And if there are any other online schools you’d like me to review, let me know and I’ll add it to my list.
