VRP is NSA’s most widely-used program, offering a personalized experience in a caring environment.

With Virtual Program courses, you will find:

• • Teachers are content experts as well as course authors, which ensures that they can answer students’ questions quickly and effectively.
  • Teachers use a variety of engaging multimedia resources to give students a rich learning experience.
  • Teachers have daily office hours Monday through Friday as well as a calendar where students can schedule one-on-one meetings to help clarify material and provide support and encouragement.
  • All work is graded by the teacher within 3 business days of submission, and all emails are returned within one business day.

NorthStar VRP courses can individualize your student’s learning. NSA’s flexible program offers the following:

• • Courses that are asynchronous, meaning students can choose the best time and place to complete their lessons.
  • Students, with their parents’ or supervisors’ permission, have the ability to craft their own schedule from working in a traditional 6-period day to working on one course a day or other combination.
  • Students have the opportunity to work at their own pace, having 52 weeks to finish a 36-week year-long course or 26 weeks to complete an 18-week semester course.
  • Courses with several individualized assignments, giving students the opportunity to choose how they want to demonstrate proficiency.

Enriched Virtual Classes are for those students who want a weekly live session with other students and for students or parents who want more accountability and firm assignment due dates.

A webcam, microphone, and stable Internet connection are required for EVP courses.

With an Enriched Virtual course, you will find:

• • A weekly live class session
  • Live sessions scheduled to accommodate different time zones
  • Firm, weekly assignment due dates
  • A cohort of students taking the same course at the same time
  • Courses for every core high school subject, plus some electives
  • Opportunity to email, instant message, or hold a live meeting with your teacher throughout the week

Important Notes:

• • Students are allowed to miss 3 live classes per semester but must listen to the recordings of all missed classes.
  • Our EVP courses use the video meetings feature in MS Teams for live course sessions. Enrolled students will be provided with an NSA MS 365 for Education license which includes the Teams platform.
  • Live course session times observe Central Daylight Time in the summer and Central Standard Time in the winter.
  • Each scheduled class time must have 5 registered students or it will be canceled. Students from a canceled class time will be notified and will be able to choose the other class time if convenient. Scheduled class times can fill up. When this happens, students will be invited to choose the other class time.
  • Enriched Virtual Courses do have an increased price point due to the live elements of the program. Please visit the Tuition Costs page to view these costs.

Semester Dates for the 2024-25 School Year:

Semester 1:

• Courses: August 26 – January 19
• Fall Break: November 25-29
• Christmas Break: December 23 – January 3

Semester 2:

• Courses: January 21 – June 8
• Spring Break: April 14 – April 18