Ilead Charter School

My wife and I couldn’t be happier with Ilead! My daughters is excelling with incredible speed. Ilead is teaching our kids how to take responsibility for their school work and NOT I repeat NOT rely on the parents to come home from work and spend more time figuring it out. Studies show that charter schools are less stressful and more beneficial for a child’s overall education. We know as adults how we get working 10 – 15 hour days, but we expect our children to be happy and productive with a 11 hour (including homework) school day. Overall WE LOVE ILEAD AND THE GREAT FACULTY!

My son started in their home-​study program, and has transitioned to on-​site learning. We have loved both options immensely! My son feels valued by his teacher and other iLead staff. The facilitators in his grade collaborate and integrate the kids for many projects and activities. I don’t feel like his learning time is ever wasted, and they undertand kids’ need to wiggle and change position! I am proud to have my son attend iLead!

My family has been homeschooling through iLEAD Lancaster Charter School for 3 years and couldn’t be happier!
The home school (or «GoSchool») program itself is amazing!!! We have total freedom to educate in whatever way works best for our child. We receive as little or as much assistance from our Home school Facilitator as we want. We receive generous stipend funds of $ 1,000 per semester to spend on our choice of curriculum (any curriculum, not a limited list of options), books, supplies or enrichment/​extracurricular classes as we see fit. iLEAD’s «Approved Vendor List» is extensive and we only need ask if we want a new vendor to be added. The paperwork and work samples are minimal and incredibly easy to complete (no piles of paperwork for verification).
Despite being homeschoolers, we are frequently on campus for classes and other activities (homeschoolers are just as much a part of the school as on-​site learners). The campus is open, airy and bright with large windows and many open gathering spaces. It is completely up-​to-​date, up-​to-​code and efficient; no fluorescent lighting and no lingering maintenance issues, problems are fixed as they occur.
All of iLEAD’s «facilitators» (teachers) are credentialed (including the home-​school facilitators). The student to teacher ratio is only 25:1. The girls in the front office are always friendly and eager to help. iLEAD doesn’t assign endless amounts of busy work and repetitive memorization exercises (no worksheets), instead they utilize other avenues for academic advancement like Project Based Learning. Learners are taught to be real world problems solvers and contributors as opposed to only consumers and individuality and expression are not only allowed, but encouraged for learners and staff alike.
If for some reason I was no longer able to home school, I would place my child in the iLEAD on campus program without hesitation. I whole-​heartedly recommend both iLEAD’s on-​campus and home school programs to all of my friends and family!

I don’t understand how my lil ones don’t know how to do things that public schools are doing already they don’t understand any of there work they are learning more at there NEW PUBLIC SCHOOL

I was torn whether or not to write this review but I feel it is my duty to share our experience. The positives: They have a great vision, they really do. I love their open-​classroom set-​up and really like the teacher’s creative/​positive attitude. The extremely downside of it all is: The majority of the kids are not learning at their level. My kindergarten for example… would come home with many creative drawings, coloring pages, cut & paste papers… but hardly any academic stuff. They gave the parents the sole responsibility to teach the kids all the academics while they focus on the «fun» stuff in class. I must say, the kids love not doing much writing, reading or math in school… just play, draw, and run around for hours, so I guess, this is why it works so well for them. I finally decided to pull my daughter out of school, just like many other parents have decided to do as well… The school doesn’t have the same accountability as the regular public school do, they don’t test the same, they create their own and interpret their scores in the school’s favor. My child is creative at heart, so I know she will forever have the creative spirit in her, but as a parent, my job is to ensure she is academically prepared for the future and this school just doesn’t do that for them. It is very deceiving because they do make it seem as if they offer a lot of services and opportunities for your child, but it’s just smoke and mirrors. They say hey offer a variety of languages, but quality is what really matters here… and i don’t think that having a bilingual volunteer reading a 3 minute Spanish or Chinese book to your child should count as a foreign language lesson!!! Or having a group of 30 kids in a room, moving chess pieces around for 10 minutes — count as a chess lesson! It is pretty pathethic…
My child was able to catch up to her kinder class in 3 weeks, now she is at their same level and ready to enter 1^st grade in a few months…

We have homeschooled through iLEAD, and we love it! There is very little paperwork, not invasive at all, and the stipend is $ 750/​semester/​child. Best homeschooling program ever!