Jubilee Academy is an accredited PreK-12 Christian affiliated with The MorningStar Academy, the Grace Academy, and the Southern Baptist Academy. You should know that there have been serious complaints about the quality of their products, their customer service, removing parent access to their children’s work, overcharging, providing an ill-organized and therefore difficult to use curriculum, This article is a review of their materials, as understood from the website, the downloads they offer, and reviews by customers.
Philosophy
Jubilee Academy explains itself as a partnership with homeschooling parents. Jubilee Academy courses are offered online and through textbooks, CDs that you are required to rent, ebooks, and supplemental materials. Students assignments include the following:
- Online reading
- Multiple choice
- Fill in the Blank
- Free response
- Discussion board
Assessment is done through tests and quizzes. And all aspects are overseen by and graded by the student’s parents.
Subjects
Jubilee Academy offers courses in English, Math, Science, Health and Physical Education, Social Studies, Art and music, Bible, Languages, Life Skills, Christian Living, Technology, and Humanities.
Caveats
Here are some things you should be aware of:
- The materials offered by this organization are not guaranteed to work with a Macintosh computer. In testing their sample materials, I found that the fractions lesson, the only lesson element out of the four or five that I tried that was actually on the school website and not simply a link to some other organization’s website, here: http://learningbygrace.org/mathmasters/files/Preview/LevelC/2_F1_3-M.htm did not work on my G4 laptop. It was impossible for me to see enough material that was actually prepared by Jubilee Academy to be able to offer any assessment.
- Student work entered into the school system is not available to parents after June 30 of the school year. Neither is coursework (i.e. assignments), unless you pay extra. That there should be any time at which a student’s own work is not available to the student and his/her own family, I find a bit incomprehensible. It’s not clear if some of the stduden’ts work is entered directly into the computer so that there is no hard copy available. In any case, if you choose this program, keep a copy of everything.
- Although the FAQ says, “If our program appears to be able to meet your student’s needs, you may wish to include our academy as a part of your special education program along with other resources in your community,” the program criteria state explicitly that “Students may not be enrolled in other schools programs while enrolled in academy.” This is certainly confusing, and potentially problematic.
- Normally, you would compile a portfolio by choosing samples of your child’s work across the year. There is a portfolio offered by Jubilee Academy that includes selections they make from your child’s work, along with an attendance log, and grade report . . . for a fee. You will lose access to the gradebook, timelog, and school record.
- In testing out the sample curriculum offered I noticed several things: 1) much of the material that is part of the “Jubilee Academy program” takes you off site to other organization’s websites; 2) some of the activities that are offsite require you to sign up or provide information. This means that your child is visiting other websites with no announcement and no notice. Read the next point in regard to this.
- The copyright is concerning for two reasons: 1) It states that “This online home school material is presented for informational purposes. The contents are not necessarily endorsed by this home school website nor necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of this website.” I certainly wouldn’t want my children interacting with a website for which the maker is unwilling to take responsibility. 2) Apparently, material that Jubilee Academy does not have the rights to is used on the website, because it also says, “Substantial efforts have been made to insure that online home school materials presented are presented within the wishes of the copyright owners. If you are a copyright owner with material presented on this home schooling site that is presented in a manner contrary to the terms of your copyright please inform us immediately by following instructions on our COPYRIGHT page so that we can make any necessary corrections. If any online home school material presented on this home schooling website is not attributed correctly please send an E-Mail to us so that we can properly list credits and/or authorship.”
Accreditation
Jubilee Academy is accredited by the National Private Schools Accreditation Alliance.
Sources
http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/204/mimi-rothschild-taking-over-homeschooling/
http://www.thejubileeacademy.org/faqs/
