Student Success Stories: Giving School Focus

Online learning, sometimes referred to as homeschool, has led to student success for thousands of families. This series, Student Success Stories, features highlights from What’s your Story?, a site that’s home to real stories from real students about how their lives have changed because of individualized, online education through K12 programs.

Bobbie shared her grandson’s story for K12’s What’s Your Success Story contest during the last few weeks of the school year. (Right now, families are invited to share their stories for a chance to win up to $1000 for a summer camp scholarship. All entries must be received no later than 5 P.M. EST on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.)

Conor was struggling in a regular brick-and-mortar school setting.  He has significant focus issues along with OCD, and, despite his efforts, he couldn’t keep up and was not retaining information in class. By the end of the school year,  he brought a report card of D’s and F’s home along with a low self-esteem. His mother and grandmother knew that something had to be done to help his school focus.

They began researching options, and learned of the K12 program. At first, they were pessimistic based on what they’ve heard of homeschooling. Conor’s mom had to continue working for financial support, so his grandmother, Bobbie, would be the one guiding him on a day-to-day basis. Bobbie says her biggest concern was whether or not she “had the knowledge, or, more important, the patience to take this on.”

With the support of the K12 staff, and Conor’s enthusiasm, they decided to give online education a shot.

“So we were off and running in September,” Bobbie says, and, “totally lost and confused!” She struggled not knowing when to do what, but found comfort in the fact that, “K12 was a tremendous support.”

“We learned the system,” she says, and we’re “happy with what we were doing and where we were.”

Bobbie adds that she  has “seen tremendous changes in Conor’s work and attitude. He is very conscious of what work needs to be done, so if he chooses not to do the scheduled lessons today, we have to do them done tomorrow.: She adds that “Letting HIM be in control over his schedule has been total success.”

“The most important things were that the student was learning and loving it!!” She says “His self-esteem is back, he is learning and maintaining A’s and B’s!!”

When asked if he wanted to continue with online education next year or not, Conor gave them no choice. He wanted to go forward!

Take the self assessment quiz to see if online learning is right for your family.

To learn more about K12 online schooling, click here to register for an event in your area.