Agora Cyber Charter School

I have been at Agora sense September 2011 and i gotta say, This school is GREAT! The teachers are always nice, informative and sometimes VERY funny! The school is relativity simple to get around when it comes to finding classes/Live sessions. The teachers are ALWAYS kind and offer MANY opportunities for extra credit or to complete over due homework.

Excellent teachers do not make up for all the technical problems. After researching different cyber schools, we decided on Agora K12. I had a fantastic enrollment agent who worked with me. Only problem was there was a mandatory class I had to take for their records. When I drove to the location, I found out the class was for parents who hadn't decided on Agora. Since I was already enrolled, I didn't really need the class and had just wasted my time and money going out there. When we started Agora, we had fantastic teachers help up set up and try to learn the program. If they didn't know the answer, they would ask peers until the question was answered. Problem with Agora is that they don't have good technical support. We had problems with the laptop since the first day we got it. My husband eventually figured out there wasn't proper virus protection, and the laptop had never been properly set up! I don't know why it wasn't properly set up before they sent it to us, but that caused us to miss many days since we didn't have the proper equipment. Tech support ran a back up during busiest hours, rendering system unusable. So many tech problems we can't work. Ridiculous!
--Submitted by a parent

We love Agora! Maybe we just got really lucky, but our FTC is so awesome! He really bonded with my son and the rest of our family enjoys him as well. He's awesome at keeping us up to date with field trips (a.k.a. Agora Days Out) and will even schedule additional events throughout the week. My son's online teacher is also really great! She almost always gives the kids a few minutes before and after class to chat with each other. Any time I've needed to call her, she has always responded the same day. My son attended a high profile private academy before enrolling at Agora and the Agora curriculum, staff, and bonding experience with my son is MUCH preferred! We are relocating this month to South Carolina and are so sad to be leaving this system. But, we have decided to stick with the K12 program there because of the success we have had with Agora. Thank you Agora!
--Submitted by a parent

Great courses and informative teachers! But don't be fooled, everyone says they will be available for questions in the beginning of the year. If you have a problem, contact them for help is what you're told. Well I've had one problem, they threaten me with law action even though I've been to school on the two days they say I wasn't. No one will work with me to fix it. The academic director, attendance office, pretty much everyone ignores my phone calls! Too bad a decent alternative to brick and mortar schools is overshadowed by poor quality administrative figures. I am a good student, 4.0 GPA for two years in a row, never missed a day, always submitting work on time, and never mouthing off. I get treated like a slimy thug when it comes to getting these WRONG "unlawful" absences removed though. Administrative figures ARE a joke! They NEVER call you back! It's been a week and 30 calls...

The problem with Agora is that it is at the mercy of K12, a for-proft business that shamelessly recruits disadvantaged and disengaged students and then expects them to master a very demanding and mostly asynchronous curriculum. It's a recipe for disaster. Agora targets Title-1 families: poor, badly educated and coming in without the necessary skills to succeed, especially in cyber school. Many of the kids had truancy issues, failed out of their last school or had disciplinary problems. So Agora and K12 snatch them up for the $$$. Once they get to Agora, they find that it's basically failproof. Administration has done away with fixed due dates and penalties for late work; students can retake open note tests unlimited times and work is excused left and right to get students to pass (with a 60% no less). This way they keep the kids and the money from the state, while dismal PSSA and standardized tests reveal the sad truth behind the reality of the hollow passing rates. Many parents never return calls from teachers, students don't bother reading emails, and teachers are made to call students multiple times a week and beg them to actually turn in work. It's a nightmare.
--Submitted by a teacher

Agora's curriculum is top notch. This has been the best decision I could have made for my son. We have been with Agora for three years. It has given me the freedom to educate my child the way I see fit, yet gives me the support I need when necessary. If you are looking for someone to educate your child at home and are not willing to put any effort into it yourself, cyber school is not for you and your child. Cyber school is not easy, it takes more time and energy than B&M schools. Every school has it's issues but you must weigh that against the advantages your child is receiving. I have never had a computer issue and that is K12 not Agora. I have always received feedback or returned phonecalls the day I called.
--Submitted by a parent

I have been a student here for four years now, and it had been by far the best schooling experience I've ever had. Cyber schools are good, but Agora is great.

I pulled my son out of Jim Thorpe Area High School and enrolled him in Agora this year. He has a 504 plan and the teachers are very accommodating. My son is thriving and getting A's and B's, where he was failing in the B&M. My son works independently and is very intelligent, which is why I think he is doing so well. He rarely talks with the teachers, but has contacted them maybe 12-15 times for one problem or another and they have always given him an immediate response. I have also "talked" with the guidance counselor on Messenger and it was not a problem. Enrollment was a nightmare, with them losing faxes, but after that, it was smooth sailing. I recommend them for high school.
--Submitted by a parent

The good thing about Agora is that they use K12 materials. The bad thing is that the administration is unresponsive to any kind of problem. They seem to bury their heads in the sand and not care that they have dissatisfied parents. The teachers we have this year are all new. They don't know answers to our questions, or give us the wrong ones. Many questions have not been answered. Just ignored. We had a lot of trouble getting assigned to the correct classes. My child is still not in the correct language class, so now we're a year behind in language. The workbooks all arrived safely, but we did not use their computer equipment; not sure if we ever received it. We've never received a printer or ink, didn't know we were entitled to it. In summary, we don't plan to continue with Agora. I would be careful registering my child in this school. You can find K12 materials elsewhere.
--Submitted by a parent

So far I regret taking my son out of the B & M school he was in, I've had nothing but problems with Agora since Day 2 of speaking with an enrollment specialist, from not receiving or misplacing faxed paper work to three weeks into the start of school and still no computer or printer! Nobody is on the same page at Agora it's just a disabling feeling as it seems every conversation with a rep ends with a ticket number that leads to nowhere.
--Submitted by a parent