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What you need to know about power homeschool (acellus)

Discover Power Homeschool's features, strengths, and limitations for effective homeschooling.
Lisa Thorsen
Written byLisa Thorsen
4 min read
Key takeaways
  • Power Homeschool (Acellus) offers a parent-led, video-based curriculum that allows students to learn at their own pace with automatic grading and progress tracking
  • However, it is not accredited, does not provide diplomas, and costs $99 per month, making it essential for families to consider their educational needs and budget before enrolling.

Power Homeschool (Acellus) offers a parent-led homeschooling experience with video lessons and adaptive technology. It helps students learn at their own pace while tracking progress through a parent dashboard.

Research from the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) shows that homeschooled students typically score 15 to 25 percentile points higher than public school students on standardized academic achievement tests. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), approximately 3.3 million students were homeschooled in the United States as of 2023, representing roughly 6% of the school-age population.

What is power homeschool?

Power Homeschool is the homeschool version of Acellus Academy, designed for parents to lead their kids' education. It uses the same video lessons and smart tech. Students watch short lessons—under 10 minutes—by certified teachers. After that, they take assessments. The platform grades automatically and tracks progress in a parent dashboard. If students have trouble, the system finds gaps in their knowledge and offers specific help. The curriculum is secular and meets national standards.

How it works

Students log into the platform and watch video lessons focused on single concepts. After each lesson, they answer questions to show they understand. If they get it, they can move on. If not, the system gives more instruction through something called 'Vectored Instruction,' which helps them review earlier material. Parents can see grades, how much time was spent on each lesson, attendance, and get printable reports. Plus, grading is all done by the platform, so parents don’t have to worry about it.

Strengths

Power Homeschool shines in independent, video-based learning. Many reviews praise the teachers as 'outstanding' and 'encouraging.' The adaptive tech really helps find and fix knowledge gaps. Short lessons are great for students who struggle with focus. Automatic grading and detailed records save parents a lot of time. Families wanting non-religious content will appreciate the secular, standards-aligned curriculum. There are also special education features like closed captioning and text-to-speech.

Limitations

Power Homeschool isn’t accredited and doesn’t offer diplomas—you’re buying a curriculum, not school enrollment. Science courses don’t include full lab activities; high school biology might not count as a lab science for some colleges. Math courses may skip cumulative review, which can hurt retention over time. AP courses might not cover all exam parts. Parents have to help if students struggle since there’s no teacher support. Some users mention tech issues and customer service problems. Plus, the recent price hike from about $25 to $99 a month has upset many families.

The bottom line

Power Homeschool is a great fit for self-motivated learners who like video lessons and don’t need much parental involvement. The adaptive tech is helpful, and the record-keeping makes documentation easy. But at $99 a month per student and no accreditation or diploma, it’s a big investment for just the curriculum. If you need accredited education, consider Acellus Academy instead, which costs $150 or more each month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Lisa Thorsen
Written by
Lisa Thorsen

Co-founder, BetterSchool

Lisa is the co-founder of BetterSchool and a homeschool mom of three. BetterSchool administers the largest independent homeschool community in the country — over 350,000 families across all 50 states.

When COVID hit, Lisa and her husband pulled their children out of school and hit the road. Homeschooling wasn't the plan — it was a necessity. But somewhere along the way, the family fell in love with it: the time together, the ability to tailor lessons to each child's interests, learning at their own pace, the freedom to travel, eating healthy on their own schedule, and the countless other benefits that come with homeschooling.

As they traveled, Lisa kept discovering incredible hands-on learning experiences that most homeschool families had no way of finding. She built BetterSchool to make it easy for every family to find and book the experiences that make learning come alive.

Through her community, Lisa has helped hundreds of thousands of parents navigate homeschooling, while also helping local businesses find and serve the homeschool community. She is the former managing partner of a law firm focused on business law and mergers and acquisitions — BetterSchool is her second technology startup. She holds a J.D. from California Western School of Law and a B.A. from Penn State.

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Table of Contents

  • What is power homeschool?
  • How it works
  • Strengths
  • Limitations
  • The bottom line
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