AE Partner Experience: The Independent Virtual Academy

Speaker: Christopher Price, Program Administrator/Head of School, The Independent Virtual Academy

Christopher Price: Hello, I'm Doctor Christopher Price, the program administrator for the Independent Virtual Academy. Our school provides the online courses made available to students and several independent school associations across the Southeast United States. In addition, we offer a dual diploma program for high school students based internationally. Accelerate Education has proven to be a vital partner in the success of our school in each of our endeavors. In a time where traditional schools are struggling to find certified teachers for many subject areas, we, with Accelerate Education serving as the backbone of our program, have been able to fill their needs. In addition, the leadership team from Accelerate Education has been willing to work with us through the development steps of our international program. Their willingness to think outside the box and help us refine that offering over the last few years has proven to be a large part of its growth and continued success.

Christopher Price: The Accelerate Education support staff has been critical to our launch of the program each year. They provided us individualized support, customizing the program and individual course settings to our desires while also providing valuable input from their experiences with other clients. I appreciate their willingness to quickly resolve the very few issues that arise over the course of the academic terms. The teaching staff provided by Accelerate Education has handled our needs and those of our students with the utmost professionalism. Their interaction with our students and the high-quality instructional services they provide are largely responsible for the fact that most of our students will enroll for multiple courses across multiple terms. As a school administrator, I appreciate that the Accelerate Education teachers our students have worked with provide timely and valuable feedback in addition to assignment grades. This feedback allows our students to better grasp the material being taught and to better prepare for their semester exams.

Christopher Price: Since our program began nearly a decade ago, we've had the opportunity to work with several education service providers. While there are many similarities from one to another, a few key points set Accelerate Education apart. The first of these is consistency of the instructional services provided. The Accelerate Education team has met our high expectations for onboarding new students and providing them a quality and productive academic experience. This consistency is also important as students transition from course to course, because they know what to expect from one to another and can move seamlessly within the program. The second point is Accelerate Education's willingness to customize their offerings to meet the needs of our various delivery methods. Whether we're using their product line with or without instruction, as is or with customization of the course shell, or for a domestic or international student, the Accelerate Education team works with us to create and provide a student-centered experience. The third important consideration is pricing. Every student in Independent School we serve is rightfully price conscious and the Accelerate Education team and the products they offer have proven to be and remain high value. We appreciate that they present us with contract offerings that fit within our budget and match up to real world cash flow situations.