TTU K-12 — Local services in Lubbock

Worst semester in 11 years of kids at school. We moved to Texas in the summer of 2021 and were not allowed to continue at their previous virtual school, so we enrolled in what our only other virtual option was, Texas Tech K12. My 3 sons are A/B students and have been attending virtual school for more than 2 years through Connections academy, so they are well versed in virtual education. This school really is not set up for anybody to complete on their own. Without a tutor, my kids are failing several classes at the end of semester 1. Reaching out to the counselors for help is useless because they are nothing more than enrollment assistants, who take days if not a week or more to return calls and e-mails. The teachers take weeks at times to grade assignments and then don’t give any feedback to the students. Not one teacher or counselor has reviewed the material. So many things are incorrect in the lessons and the teachers tell the students to basically figure it out on their own when they email for clarification. There is no teacher offering study assistance or guidance. We’ve not been able to access a grade other than a cumulative percentage the entire semester even though the counselor told us they would be posted the 3rd week of the semester. The platform is a literal joke. The kids have to access several websites to get to each class, and even more for others. The parents have no way to check work or offer the kids assistance if they start falling behind. Some of the assignments take 8+ hours to complete and the teachers have no idea until the student writes them for clarification on how much they are expected to complete. With 8-10 hours a day to finish the assignments each day, there is no time for holidays if you try to complete this school on a traditional school timeline. To study for the Spanish final my sons teacher told him to use several things in the lessons, of which all are completely inaccessible after the lesson has been completed and turned in. He asked for a study guide and was told if he didn’t print each lesson out before he did them, he was out of luck. At no point were we told that the students needed to print all of the lessons for their use or to study with later. We feel as if our students have been robbed by this school and the state of Texas’ laws surrounding virtual school during a pandemic, of this school year. It has caused an indescribable amount of stress on the students trying to navigate and learn the material with little direction and zero assistance. At one point our sons teacher quit, stopped grading assignments and abandoned the class. It took several weeks to get it figured out and by that time he was completely lost and needed tutoring to get back on track. We had no way to know because some of the classes take a very long time to grade the assignments. They sent T-shirts in toddler sizes even after they asked us the kids sizes. If they don’t do well on a test or assignment they can redo it but only with a possible max grade of 70%. Also anything below 70% is a fail. It’s incredible that there seems to be no accountability for this school to make sure they are providing a sound, structured, and...

I planned on graduating high school early, so I took an online science course to fulfill that credit. The first semester I actually took the class (Astronomy 1A) and ended with a 90. I would give 10/10 for the first semester. Also, my instructor was amazing and super helpful the whole time, I am grateful he was my instructor. He has nothing to do with the situation. However the second semester is a whole different story. With time cutting short towards my graduation date, I decided to take a CBE for the second semester. I was supposed to take it on Wednesday August 7th, but TTU K-12 sent the wrong exam. I was about 20 questions into the exam when I realized the questions look fairly similar. I flipped to the front of the exam and saw that it was the final for the first semester of Astronomy (1A not 1B). I ordered/payed for Astronomy 1B, I have the receipt. We called and let them know and they said they were going to overnight ship the correct exam. Friday comes and the exam has arrived and I finally take the correct exam. Fast forward 2 weeks, keep in mind during this time I had been checking at least 10 times a day everyday to see if my score was inputted (and it still has not been, but we're getting there). Decided to call TTU and ask and they said the CBE has not been received yet. What? Right, okay. My high school said it was sent out (with packing they supplied them with) the day I took the CBE. Now a week later, there has been no progress at all whatsoever. We have called TTU numerous times and everytime we speak it's either "when was the CBE sent" or "you can't speak to that department" (about tracking the CBE...). They have also YET to respond to my email about when the CBE was sent out (almost 3 days later now and nothing from them). This is completely absurd and unbelievable. This is ruining/affecting my official high school transcript and jeopardizing things. This has been very stressful and frustrating, I am completely shocked that TTU K-12 is not doing anything at all, not even attempting to track the package or give us any insight. As of right now (August 29th) nothing has been done. They have said numerous times as well that my case would be "escalated". Also, I forgot to mention that they pretty much lied to us, or have no clue what is going on. They tried to blame the poor instructor and say he hasn't graded it when in reality that is not the case. First it was "the instructor hasn't graded yet" and then it switched to "we haven't even received the CBE". I can guarantee you if it arrived, the awesome instructor most definitely would have had it graded within the week it was received. This is beyond unacceptable of TTU K-12, I am beyond in disbelief. Hopefully something happens soon but time is ticking as I already have started college classes. 0 stars for TTU K-12 and 5/5 stars for the instructor and first semester. If anyone else has had a situation similar to this and is reading this, please let me...

For the sake of simplicity, I would have given them a 5 out of 4 if not for the learning curve involved on my part to "get started and figuring things out". I decided on TTU after narrowing down the better part of a 20 option spreadsheet. In the sheet I evaluated: mandated structure / "meetings", book fees (ended up being even cheaper than I anticipated), inclusion of all the current social / political topic drama, teacher availability, reports available, parental involvement involved (continuously teaching/grading/etc.), diploma/graduation, mandated / rotating start times, electives, teaching style (common core/religious/basic traditional), accreditation, and basic course fees. In the end, TTU came out on top and all that was left was for me to see if it stood up to my expectations. The initial sign-up process can be a bit stressful if you're already an overbearing kind of person. I like to see/call regarding what is going on at every moment which, is a bit to overcome for me when that's not how it works! Haha me! Anyhow, I got the greatest counselor (Mrs. Jackson), bless her patience because I have awful telephone reception, a million questions, and multiple kids. Mrs. Jackson has a lot of time on staff in this environment and clearly operates with "team" ethic, moving and shaking making things happen. She definitely gets a gold star from me. After everything was in order (entry exams), we discussed options (starting or not / class order). I started with one class for each of two kids (1st & 4th grade) to get them and myself accustomed as well as test the waters before I went full $. The 4th grader's teacher (Mrs. Boyd) is on-point, traditional southern lady, and turns papers around quickly (most of the homework is electronically graded on the spot). She has "online office hours" to log onto almost 5 days a week every week which really provides a lot of confidence boosting for my 4th grader even though they don't always talk "homework". These activities also provide an opportunity for other students to look forward / see / know what to expect in future classes (enrollment is rolling-format). Mrs. Boyd is a well oiled, streamlined teaching machine! As for the 1st grader, we don't have the same office hours available which would probably help (an over the moon incredible amount) to avoid confusion but I'm working through it. In short on the last front, there's awesome programs/teachers and there's less than awesome programs/teachers. Some formats flow easily and are pretty darn straight forward whereas others are not. This is probably the way things always have been and will be, perhaps TTU will standardize a couple things to streamline the student/parent transition through classes? They seem early (electronically) but definitely well positioned to make an...