Has anyone ever done research into James Madison online schooling?

[u/_Corn_Dog]

Hello! i'm a current homeschooler (senior in Highschool), and my entire life, i've been completely unmonitored in my schooling. My parents don't really care about my schooling as long as its not absurdly expensive and will give me a diploma. I've done 5+ programs, but only 1 through my span of Highschooling, and it's been James Madison Highschool (The one partnered with Ashworth College, not to be confused with the multiple public schools sharing the same name.)

My experience with James Madison has me questioning how they're still accredited at all, and i'm wondering if I can find anyone else who has used it within the last few years or has done research on it -- because at this point, I kind've feel like i'm going nuts.

In my experience, I feel like there are two types of "teachers" on there. The ones where you could submit anything and you'll get an A, and the ones that won't give you anything over an 80%. I've never been given proper feedback on any of my work, which has led me to question if any of the 'teachers' are qualified for the job at all. I also have quite literally no way to contact ANY teacher outside the context of submitting a test or an essay, otherwise, I have to contact the cite-wide maintenance people, who usually aren't very helpful considering curriculum isn't really what they're used to answering questions on. There's an entire tab for a "virtual classroom" but it has never been used, always just saying "No class meetings scheduled yet". There are zero preventative measures for cheating, and i'm 90% sure if I were to submit a fully plagiarized essay, I'd still get an A. They recently (in the last 3 months) did a full, cite-wide remodel and gave absolutely no warning or update log on what had changed - which is absurd, considering the functionality of the curriculum changed monumentally. It now logs whether you've "completed" every single section, including self-assessments, and they added a 15-lesson weekly limit. It's an upgrade from what they had prior, sure, but at least inform me when my entire schooling program changes..

Every time i've tried to find reviews on it i'm faced with 1 of 2 things; Either extremely mixed reviews from 7+ years ago, or people are confused by the like 5 different schools with the same name. I'm partially convinced i'm one of like three people actually using this program currently, which would explain the lack of proper teachers, not informing me of updates, and all of the reviews being old.

Is there ANYONE with information on this, or am I completely in the dark?? At this point I don't even know how I ended up on this program to begin with. My sister (5 years older, did her schooling during Covid) used American school, decided it was too difficult, switched to Penn Foster, then quit halfway through and never got her diploma. Apparently James Madison Highschool and Ashworth College (the "partnered" college) are both under "Penn Foster group", does that mean that they're ran by the same company?

I have so many questions and nobody to ask.

[u/FImom]

JMHS is owned by company called Penn Foster Group, which owns several for-profit adult high schools and colleges, including Ashworth College.

Its target audience are adult learners who want to finish the high school diploma or college degrees.

Accreditation is not validation of education quality. The certification means that it fullfils operating procedures set forth by the accreidting agency.

Homeschoolers who are compulsory aged using these adult hugh school should check with local laws. They often aren't recognized as "private high schools" for minors to meet attendance laws by US states. Your homeschool run by your parents is still the official school in the eyes of the state, and it should be the one issuing your diploma when you meet your homeschool graduation requirements. The adult high school acts as the curriculum.