VHS Learning

What VHS Learning is

VHS Learning is a provider of online high school courses taught by teachers. Its home page describes it as "an accredited nonprofit organization providing teacher-led high school online courses in a wide variety of disciplines with over 30 years of experience." The organization is VHS, Inc., with an address in Maynard, MA, and its stated mission is "to provide high school students with world-class online courses and teachers that ignite a passion for learning."

This is a learner product with a school-facing side. A school uses it to put courses on its own schedule that it cannot staff or timetable itself; a student or parent uses it to take a course the local high school does not offer. The home page sums up its reach in six numbers: 30 years of experience, 500+ high schools, 15,000+ student enrollments, a 21 to 1 student to teacher ratio, 200+ unique courses and 33 AP courses.

Three audiences

The home page speaks to each reader in turn. For schools, the pitch is solving scheduling conflicts with over 200 online high school courses, including AP and STEM courses, so a school can widen its catalog beyond what it can timetable. For students, it promises a global community of students and a variety of courses to spark their interests. For parents, it points to specialized honors and AP courses with the flexibility to fit any high school schedule.

Schools work with VHS Learning through partnerships, and the site also names a Dual Diploma Program for educators and a VHS Learning Academy for parents and students, and publishes school case studies. As a nonprofit it also presents its board of directors, management team, strategic plan, and corporate sponsorship and partner pages. Students and teachers work in the same online environment through a student and faculty login, and the site publishes a course catalog, an academic calendar, FAQs and a way to request support. The current year's offer is summarized in a 25.26 Program Overview.

How the courses run

VHS Learning offers its courses in several formats:

• Paced courses follow the regular semester schedule starting in September.
• Self-paced courses cover a selection of AP and other full-year courses on a weekly rolling schedule.
• Summer courses let students earn initial credit or pursue their interests over the summer.
• Credit recovery courses are self-paced, and the home page says students can make up credits in as little as 4 weeks.

Courses carry either full or half credit. On the AP page, self-paced full credit courses are one credit and begin on Wednesdays from September to December, while the 0.5 credit courses begin on Wednesdays from September to the second week of January.

The AP catalog

Advanced Placement is the most fully listed part of the offer, and it comes in two forms.

The self-paced AP courses at full credit are AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1, AP Environmental Science, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Networking, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, AP United States History, AP United States Government & Politics, AP Spanish Language and Culture and AP Music Theory. Four self-paced courses carry half credit: AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and AP Physics C: Mechanics.

The paced AP courses, on the semester schedule from September, are a wider list. In the sciences: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C. In math and computing: AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, and two courses marked new, AP Cybersecurity and AP Networking. In English: AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition and AP Seminar. In history and the social sciences: AP African American Studies, AP European History, AP U.S. History, AP World History, AP Human Geography, AP Psychology, AP Economics, AP United States Government and Politics, and AP Business with Personal Finance, also marked new. In world languages: AP Chinese, AP French and AP Spanish Language and Culture, and AP Latin. In the arts: AP Art History and AP Music Theory.

The two lists differ in ways that matter when choosing. Economics and Physics C are split in the self-paced format into two half credit courses each (Macroeconomics and Microeconomics; Electricity and Magnetism and Mechanics), while the paced list carries AP Economics and AP Physics C as single courses. Several subjects appear only in the paced list: AP Precalculus, AP World History, AP European History, AP African American Studies, AP Art History, AP Seminar, AP French, AP Chinese, AP Latin, AP Cybersecurity and AP Business with Personal Finance. A student who needs one of those is looking at the semester schedule that starts in September rather than a rolling start.

The site notes that Advanced Placement and AP are registered trademarks of The College Board.

AP results

The AP page says that for over 10 years VHS Learning students' scores on AP exams have exceeded the global average, and it gives three examples as the share of students who passed with a score of 3 or higher, VHS Learning against the global average: 95% against 72% in AP U.S. History, 100% against 76% in AP Precalculus, and 80% against 64% in AP Computer Science Principles. These are the site's own figures for three subjects, not a pass rate for the whole catalog.

Prices and registration

The AP page prints the prices. Each enrollment in a full credit AP course, self-paced or paced, costs $980, and each 0.5 credit self-paced AP enrollment costs $730. Every price line adds that bulk discounts are available, which matters for a school enrolling several students. The AP page says registration is open now, and the home page announces standard and AP self-paced courses available for registration. Prices for the non-AP catalog are not given on the AP or home page.

The accreditation claim comes from the home page's description of an accredited nonprofit and an "Accredited by" heading in the footer; the accrediting body is not named in the page text.

Who it suits

VHS Learning suits high schools that want to offer more courses than their staff or timetable allow, especially AP courses, with every course teacher-led, as the site stresses. It suits students who want an AP subject, an honors course or an elective their school lacks, students who need to make up a credit quickly through self-paced credit recovery, and those who want to use the summer for initial credit. The paced semester format fits a student who wants a class rhythm; the weekly rolling self-paced format fits one who needs to start later or work around another commitment. For a family paying alone, $980 per full credit AP enrollment is a real cost to plan for, while a school enrolling a group benefits from the bulk discounts the site advertises.