Online & Blended Learning

Empower students to reach their highest potential with full-time and flexible online learning solutions.

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See how we can work together to help students in your district or state.

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Online & Blended Learning

Reimagine learning  

Academic leaders recognize that full-time online K-12 schools are an important public school option. Online public schools create opportunities for underserved populations, provide personalized instruction, and offer greater flexibility in a safe learning environment. Administrators, charter boards, and authorizers who partner with Pearson can offer a trusted, proven academic program to students in their district, region, or state.

Students are at the center of everything we do. We believe in the power of learning and have seen students transform in an online environment. With more than 18 years of experience in online education, we can help you build a full-time online school that will fuel your students' academic success.

“E-learning can be life-changing or even lifesaving.”

— Full-time online learning student

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How it works

A full-time partner for your full-time online school

We help communities build programs that meet the diverse and complex needs of their students with a variety of implementations. Our turnkey programs deliver the know-how, starting with a state-of-the-art learning management system (LMS), online courses, and expert teachers.

District full-time school
partnership option

Your district’s Virtual School in a Box partner program allows administrators to deliver full-time online programs using our powerful LMS, K–12 courses designed for online learning, training, and support from a district liaison. Your district's full-time school will use Pearson's online courses taught by your teachers (who we'll support with professional development) or by our expert online teachers if needed. Meet their needs with a dedicated, experienced partner.

Regional
partner option

Many of Pearson’s innovative partners seek to expand their full-time virtual school beyond their district borders and serve additional students across a region. By doing so, they’re able to provide the same flexible and personalized full-time program to students across multiple districts.

Statewide Connections Academy
partner option

Select partners expand their reach even further by offering a Connections Academy® full-time turnkey online school to students statewide. This full-service option from Pearson includes curriculum, teachers, and our custom, state-of-the-art platform, plus all of the required services to run such a complex school, including enrollment services, administration, student information systems, clubs, field trips, state testing, board support, counseling, special education services, and much, much more.

Who benefits from full-time online education?

Flexible options to address the new reality of online learning

Superintendents all over the country have one question in mind: “As we look forward to the Fall, how are we going to keep our students learning, no matter what?” Online learning has proven to be a challenge for many families and districts, and having a continuity of learning plan for the Fall is crucial. Our services can help students learn no matter where they are.

CoursewarePLUS  

Our CoursewarePLUS gives you the power and flexibility to keep students on track with your district teachers or our expert instructors. Build a program to suit your needs using our catalog of more than 500 courses made specifically for online learning, plus optional support services to help you provide a complete, well-prepared solution for your students. Find success using our full implementation support, online training, and suite of optional add-on services.

District Backup Plan

Prepare for any kind of disruption with a core course catalog and an organized, immediate virtual learning solution. You can never predict when and how academic interruption will happen. Weather. Sickness. Facility issues. Unforeseen emergencies. During these events, your district needs to flip a switch so students and teachers can seamlessly transition from brick-and-mortar to online learning.

Teacher Training & Special Ed Consultation

Empower your teachers to confidently instruct online with Teaching for Impact, our professional development course designed to help teachers become skilled online instructors. Also, ensure online learning extends to all students in your district. We’ve worked with state and federal regulators for nearly two decades providing online special education services to public schools. Our Special Populations Consultation Service enables your staff to serve students online and maintain compliance.

Benefits

Take the lead and shape the future

A full-time online school presents an opportunity for you to deliver innovative, flexible learning to students. Leverage our time-tested platform, content, and services to expand enrollment and choices for your district, region, or state.

Broaden opportunities

Provide award-winning, engaging curriculum and expert teachers, in a student-centered learning platform.

Become a district of choice

Meet students’ and families’ diverse needs and expand choices for learning.

Get A–Z solutions and support

Leverage our 18+ years of experience in online education to turn your digital concepts into reality with full support.

Our program delivers hundreds of courses and electives, including honors and Advanced Placement® (AP®) courses, and the latest instructional tools so you can easily offer personalized learning and prepare your students for the rigors of higher education. Additionally, we provide certified online teachers who are experts in their fields of instruction and online learning.

A new research study provides evidence that Connections Academy students can attain the same level of achievement as that offered at traditional brick-and-mortar schools when accounting for mobility. Overall findings show that students in Connections Academy schools statistically outperform cohorts in other online schools in terms of the percentage scoring proficient in reading on state assessments.

"Both of my children love Connections Academy. My son has made wonderful improvements, not only academically but also with his confidence. My daughter loves the challenge she gets from Connections Academy."

— Connections Academy Parent

Online school is the right choice for many families and students whose needs may be better met outside of a brick-and-mortar setting. An online school program can help you extend awareness of your district, encourage homeschool and private school families to return to your district, expand your course catalog, address teacher shortages, and ultimately become a district of choice among families — increasing enrollment, and creating better educational opportunities for students.

With our turnkey program, we’ll help you build a comprehensive digital learning solution. We provide online courses and curriculum, instructional services, program management, professional development, and everything in between. You provide the dedication to your students’ needs, knowing what they need to succeed. 

Students, teachers, parents, and staff have 24/7 access to an extensive searchable online help system and online training resources. “Online” doesn’t mean “on your own,” — we’ll be there every step of the way to support your program and answer questions. 

“I think our students are performing better by just the fact that we can see how they are doing on any given lesson. [We can] reinforce the right factors and provide immediate feedback on work relating to any concept or standard that might not be heading in the correct direction. The platform allows us to catch any issues very quickly. A lot of our colleagues in the classroom are interested in what we do. They wish we could do that in the classroom!”

— Online Program Coordinator

About us

18+ years of experience in online schools

In 2001, the first Connections Academy online school was established, and in 2011, Connections Academy became part of the Pearson family. Since then we have:

  • partnered with more than 3,000 districts, boards, or chartering authorities to launch online programs throughout the world
  • grown to serve more than 70,000 full-time students each year in Connections Academy partner schools
  • established 43 regional or statewide Connections Academy programs in 30 states
  • received numerous awards for our innovative technology solutions and outstanding staff and teachers

Introducing our partner leadership team

Select an individual to learn more about them.

Tom ap Simon, Managing Director
Tom ap Simon

Managing Director
Holly Atwell, Senior Vice President, Academic Services
Holly Atwell

Senior Vice President, Academic Services
Eric Hilfer, Vice President, Software Engineering
Eric Hilfer

Vice President, Software Engineering
Dr. Donna Hutchison, Vice President, Sales
Dr. Donna Hutchison

Vice President, Sales
Amar Kumar, Senior Vice President, Product & Portfolio Management
Amar Kumar

Senior Vice President, Product & Portfolio Management
Anne Parmley, Senior Vice President, Client Development and Partnerships
Anne Parmley

Senior Vice President, Client Development and Partnerships
Jay W. Ragley, Senior Director, State and Strategic Client Relations
Jay W. Ragley

Vice President, State and Strategic Client Relations
Michelle (Shelly) Shires, Vice President, Content
Michelle (Shelly) Shires

Vice President, Content

Tom ap Simon

Managing Director

Tom ap Simon joined Pearson in 2004 and has been successfully leading many aspects of our various businesses. Prior to becoming managing director, Tom was senior vice president (SVP) of finance for growth markets where he focused on building our talent, culture, and financial discipline to drive the turnaround in 2016. He helped lead a sharper strategic focus within the growth division, deliver year over year profit growth, and increase profit margins. As managing director, Tom oversees the Online & Blended Learning division at Pearson. He executes our strategic vision to deliver the best possible services for the schools, programs, and families we support. Tom has a masters of Economics and Politics from the University of Edinburgh.

Tom ap Simon, Managing Director

Holly Atwell

Senior Vice President, Academic Services

Holly Atwell is a leader in school services. She oversees the Student Academic Services division which provides services to students, including teaching, tutoring, speech, and special education management. She also leads several teams that support training, program management, facilities management, state reporting, school counseling, human resources, and compliance services for schools. Prior to joining Pearson in 2008, Holly taught high school math and led district STEM and magnet initiatives in a Maryland county school district. She began her career as an industrial engineer and program manager and has 20 years of experience in the industry. She holds a masters of Education from University of Maryland University College and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Holly Atwell, Senior Vice President, Academic Services

Eric Hilfer

Vice President, Software Engineering

Prior to joining Pearson, Eric Hilfer ran Rosetta Stone's language product portfolio spanning curriculum, speech technology, engineering, quality assurance, devops and Agile delivery. Eric joined Rosetta Stone in 2014 from Scholastic and Tom Snyder Productions, where he built and scaled the engineering organization that delivered the award-winning Read 180 and Math 180 intervention suite for K-12 literacy and math. He has been driving technology innovation since the early 1980s and has excelled at bringing rigorous development methodologies and best practices like Scaled Agile and Lean to the mission-driven edtech sector. Eric graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and conducted post-graduate research in experimental physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eric Hilfer, Vice President, Software Engineering

Dr. Donna Hutchison

Vice President, Sales

Dr. Donna Hutchinson leads a national sales team and works with public school districts, charter schools, and state agencies to design and establish turnkey Connections Academy schools and robust full-time online learning programs. Before joining the Online & Blended Learning division at Pearson in 2010, Donna served as superintendent of Idaho Digital Learning Academy, a state virtual school for eight years, where she collaborated with superintendents throughout the state of Idaho. She has a PhD in Online Education & Curriculum from the University of Idaho, EdS from Boise State University, MS in Educational Technology from Boise State University, and BS in MIS/Marketing from the University of Virginia. Donna is also a certified teacher and school administrator.

Dr. Donna Hutchison, Vice President, Sales

Amar Kumar

Senior Vice President, Product & Portfolio Management

Amar Kumar leads a team that defines the strategy and sets the plans for the products and services used at all Connections Academy schools. Prior to Pearson, Amar was working with McKinsey & Company’s education and high-tech practices. He also served as a teacher and a principal at a rural school in Bangalore, India, which is where his passion for education was ignited.

Amar Kumar, Senior Vice President, Product & Portfolio Management

Anne Parmley

Senior Vice President, Client Development and Partnerships

Anne Parmley is charged with acquiring, retaining, and supporting our institutional customers. She is accountable for the success of institutional customer relationships, developing and executing growth plans, building effective relationships with key stakeholders, and collaborating with the Online & Blended Learning team to launch and manage programs successfully. Anne has 15 years of experience in education services within Pearson’s School Assessment team where she led over 200 assessment delivery experts to provide comprehensive educational assessment solutions to state, national, and federal organizations.

Anne Parmley, Senior Vice President, Client Development and Partnerships

Jay W. Ragley

Vice President, State and Strategic Client Relations

Jay W. Ragley has been with Pearson since 2013. In his current role, he supervises a team of eight state and strategic client relations directors who manage government affairs, new virtual school development, parent advocacy, and external relationships. He also manages multi-million dollar budgets and virtual school funding and monitors virtual school legislation. In his previous role as director of legislative and public affairs for South Carolina Department of Education, he managed the legislative agenda and communication strategies for the state superintendent of education. Jay is a member of the Pearson Ventures Advisory Group and he holds a BS in Economics from Clemson University.

Tom ap Simon, Managing Director

Michelle (Shelly) Shires

Vice President, Content

Michelle (Shelly) Shires is a visionary, collaborative, and innovative product leader. She has 17+ years of experience managing large, complex, and transformational product initiatives with both internal and external, geographically distributed teams in the digital product and services industry. She is a subject matter expert known for establishing and implementing top-notch full product development lifecycle and large-scale global delivery. Shelly is a strong leader who provides organizational direction, development, and coaching, and has been credited for transforming teams recognized for high performance and adaptability.

Michelle (Shelly) Shires, Vice President, Content

More about online learning

We have the resources and events (including live webinars and webinar recordings) to help you on your virtual learning path.

Explore resources Join us at events

Partner success stories

Read our customer stories and see the impact online schools have on students, families, teachers, and communities.

Woman teaching others using a white board

District embraces online learning for families seeking alternatives

See how Wauwatosa Virtual Academy stopped students from leaving the district by creating just what they were looking for — a non-traditional path for students to graduate and achieve success.

Read their story >
Illustration of city office buildings

County meets the needs of military and rural students

Robertson County Virtual School successfully serves students from a variety of backgrounds. Discover how this district is able to maintain a 100% graduation rate and meet students’ diverse needs.

Read their story >

Student success stories

We help students develop pathways to success by building on their individual strengths and interests in an online setting that’s both safe and connected to a larger community. Discover how full-time online schools create lifelong learners who are prepared for future school and careers through:

  • outstanding curriculum
  • exceptional K–12 teachers
  • individual attention
  • parent-supported online learning
  • easy-to-use technology
  • socialization, community, and friendships
Read about some of the amazing students enrolled in different Pearson partner schools and programs:
Woman teaching others using a white board

Caroline takes steps towards STEM

Read her story >
Illustration of city office buildings

Carter creates his own learning style

Read his story >
Rocket taking off

Carlie thrives with an expansive curriculum

Read her story >

Request more information

Want to learn more about our online learning solutions? Connect with a representative and see how partnering with us can help you reimagine learning in your district, region, or state.