Connections Academy


Connections Academy is a for-profit corporate provider of online school products and services to virtual schools for grades K-12, including full-time online schools bearing the "Connections Academy" name across the country. It is based in Columbia, Maryland and is part of Pearson's Online & Blended Learning K-12 group. It supports public online schools for grades K-12 across the United States. A private online school, International Connections Academy, is also available to students who live abroad. Online schools are an alternative to traditional public schools. Similar to charter schools, they are subsidized by the state. Although they contract with many non-profit schools, they are a for-profit corporation.

History

In the spring of 2001, Sylvan Ventures started a separate business unit to create a virtual school program with its first virtual schools beginning in Wisconsin and Colorado. The company first began providing online school services to two schools in the fall of 2002. In September 2004, Connections Academy was sold to an investor group led by Apollo Management, L.P. The company now operates public schools under management contracts from charter schools or school districts.
A new corporate entity called Connections Education was established in early 2011. In this same year, on September 15, 2011, Pearson, an international learning company, acquired Connections Education for in excess of $400 million.
Connections Education is now Pearson's Online & Blended Learning division; delivering the Connections Academy online public school program and other online learning services called Pearson Connexus to educational institutions and other organizations nationwide. A private online school called International Connections Academy serves students across the globe. In 2019 it was announced that UK-based Harrow school would deliver an online education option leveraging Pearson Connexus.
In 2019 six new Connections Academy schools opened.

Awards