“No two students learn in the same way or at the exact same pace,” said Joshua Billings, executive director of Acellus Academy. | Canva
Teaching and learning will continue to become more data-driven and adaptive to each individual student’s need, according to a home-schooling expert.
“The past year has highlighted the need for a flexible, customizable, and engaging curriculum that meets students where they are, regardless of their circumstances,” said Joshua Billings, executive director of Acellus Academy.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected about 55.1 million students in 124,000 U.S. public and private schools, according to media reports, as most states ordered closure for the 2019-20 remaining school year.
As a result, the average parent was forced to experience home schooling firsthand in the form of remote classrooms.
“Online learning has the unique capability to provide personalized and inclusive experiences for students of all levels of learning development and backgrounds,” Billings told Education Daily Wire. “No two students learn in the same way or at the exact same pace.”
While the Acellus Academy home school program offers a standards-based curriculum in all core subjects, it distinguishes itself from others with its use of prism diagnostics and vectored instruction technologies. For example, the Garden State Times reported that a New Jersey mother praised the Acellus program for improving the reading skills of her daughter, who was beginning to suffer academically in the weeks and months following COVID-19 lockdowns and subsequent school closures.
“The purpose of these tools is to deliver the right kind of help to students when they need it,” Billings said. “By collecting student response data, we can pinpoint problem areas in all of our courses and create interventions accordingly.”
Leveraging under-used assessments and embracing asynchronous learning can help students perform better in changing learning environments, Acellus Academy founder Roger Billings wrote in Education Daily Wire in a Dec. 30, 2020, op-ed piece.
"The need for new education approaches has become more obvious as teaching and learning increasingly moves online," he said.
Prism diagnostics and vectored instruction provides Acellus Academy teachers with a method for using real-time data to meet students at their level and guide them to achieve their full learning potential instead of employing a one-size-fits-all approach.
“By collecting student response data, we can pinpoint problem areas in all of our courses and create interventions accordingly,” he said. “Analyzing the data makes it possible for our team to figure out why students are struggling and to create the most effective help resources possible. In the aggregate we can identify trends in misunderstanding and develop patches to fill in gaps in foundational knowledge.”
In addition to offering elective courses, such as foreign languages, fine arts, social-emotional learning, and career and technical education at the high school level, Acellus Academy offers a STEM-10 pathway, which teaches coding and prepares students for careers in technology.
“Acellus students move at their own pace, which means that they can work on a concept until they fully understand it without worrying about falling behind,” Roger Billings said. “Individualized data allows Acellus Academy teachers to assist students on a case-by-case basis. This dual approach to student success sets Acellus apart and allows us to continually improve the quality of our instruction.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that other apps, online tutoring and games and YouTube channels are also helping children learn math at home. These include apps Photomath and Brainly, website Tutor.com, games and lessons from Numberock and Khan Academy, and videos from Numberblocks and Math with Mr. J on YouTube.
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