Today’s focus school is Liberty University Online Academy. Related to Liberty University, the largest Christian evangelical university with the largest Christian online programs in the world. If you are looking for a Christian online high school, this is a particularly good choice because fees paid to LUOA count toward Liberty University (should you elect to attend that college).

Best Online High Schools Link: Liberty University Online Academy

Address: 1971 University Boulevard, Lynchburg, VA 24502

Snippet from listing: Offered through Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical university with the world’s largest Christian Distance Learning Program, Liberty University Online Academy is quality, accredited education you can trust.

Something to consider: Money spent on your education at Liberty University Online Academy is applied dollar-for-dollar toward your tuition at Liberty University. The school accepts both full-time and part-time students. It offers a high school graduation ceremony.

If you head over to the Articles section, you will discover a brand-new article by Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, director of Laurel Springs School. She makes the case for why you should seriously consider her school. It’s worth a read.

Also and importantly, Laurel Springs has positioned itself as an elite school; their students tend to go off and be rather successful. That’s probably something you should know.

Looking for an online private school?

Focus school for today is Orion High School. Located in Midland, Texas, it has students in other states and charges the same amount regardless of where you live. Reasonably priced, it focuses on the whole student without regard to past educational “issues.” If you have had problems in the past (or even if you did not), you might want to talk with the folks at Orion.

Best Online High Schools Link: Orion High School

Address: 4500 W. Illinois, Suite 203, Midland, TX 79703

Snippet from listing: Orion is proud to provide high quality private school education at the lowest per course tuition of any online school (from our internal study). Full-time learners pay an average of 166.00 per course; home schoolers pay 180.00 per course; and non-Orion students (taking courses for transfer back to public or private school) pay 225.00.

Something to consider: While not large, it is run by the founders. The cost is reasonable and so is the quality. Well worth a look.

This week’s focus school is Penn Foster High School. It seemed a reasonable choice to choose the school that had the longest history of serving students in the United States. Take a read!

Best Online High Schools link: Penn Foster High School

Internet link: Penn Foster High School

Address: 925 Oak Street, Scranton Pennsylvania 18515

Accredited: Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools

Snippet from listing: Earning your high school diploma at home with Penn Foster is convenient, affordable, and accredited. Since there is no set class schedule, you study when and where it’s convenient for you. You work at your own pace. There’s no one to rush you or hold you back. And while you’ll work independently, you’re never alone. Expert instructors and support staff – dedicated to helping you complete your coursework ? are just a phone call or an e-mail away.

Something to consider: Penn Foster has been around for over a hundred years (since 1890). You don’t last that long without having a sense of what you are doing and what it takes for students to achieve. The school accepts both teens and adults and, importantly for many of you, the program is self-paced.

Penn Foster High School

I tend to ignore what other online high school sites have listed. When you are the largest and oldest, it is easy to do so. However, it is harder to ignore them when some of the information they offer is false and could be harmful.

Take, for example, the site I came across the other day. Typically, they have listed online high schools only (and clearly have borrowed some of that listing information!). They have recently decided to offer courses. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but not something I would do (because of conflict of interest). However, take a look at their accreditation statement:

XXXXXXX is an Independently Accredited online high school. Independent Accreditation is a status that our school has voluntarily chosen in order to achieve its motto of “Setting the Standard” in online education. While regional accreditation or accreditation by other DETC or CHEA accredited agencies is an option we have not ruled out for future consideration, our concerns are that the burgeoning field of online high school education may not fit squarely into the mold of the brick and mortar school accreditation process. For example, many of the school campus related standards in traditional accreditation have little to no application in a virtual environment. An online high school would either be easily waived of these requirements (a process not fair to brick and mortar schools), or they may be denied on grounds that the standards don’t apply (a process not fair to online schools).

Until the novelty of online high school education reaches a state of normalcy within the academic world, our school has opted to set the standard for other schools and accrediting agencies to consider.

Wow! I don’t even know where to begin. Here are a few things:

1. There is no such thing as “independent accreditation.” Accreditation comes from an outside source.

2. As for not fitting squarely into the brick-and-mortar accreditation process, there are hundreds that have been able to do so. Somehow, I think they will survive.

3. This “novelty” doesn’t exist. There are many, many online high schools that are regionally or nationally accredited. This is all very normal and anyone trying to state otherwise knows very little about online high schools.

Now, importantly, there is nothing wrong with the Apex Learning curriculum they have chosen to use. The problem is acceptability. Offering an online course is one thing; getting that online course accepted at a high school or college is something else entirely. While I am sure that this website is not trying to do anything wrong, the outcome is exactly that.

Be careful out there, folks.