ASU gives gifted homeschool students access to college courses

Jaime Smith’s students don’t fit the traditional high school mold. Many of the students enrolled in her school’s online classes are gifted or twice exceptional, and the majority are homeschooled.

During the 2022–2023 school year, a reported 5.2 percent of school-aged children in the United States received some homeschooling — an increase from 3.7 percent of children during the 2018-2019 school year. 

With the increasing demand for nontraditional, flexible educational options, Smith founded Online G3, an online school serving homeschooled students who seek challenging courses in an accessible format.

In 2021, Smith began a partnership with Accelerate ASU to bring dual enrollment to Online G3 students seeking college-level courses. 

Accelerate ASU offers an affordable path to college credit without the typical enrollment barriers that homeschool students face, requiring no application, transcript or minimum GPA.

Proof of college readiness

Since partnering with an Accelerate ASU, Online G3 has seen 130 students enroll in 490 of ASU’s flexible, self-paced Universal Learner Courses (ULCs), choosing between 75 course offerings that cover STEM, the humanities and more. 

Smith finds that ULCs are a fantastic option for homeschoolers who need proof of college readiness when applying to college.

“If you go to your local university and say, ‘Can I take a class?’ They say, ‘We want to see your report card, or we need your principal’s verification,” says Smith. 

“Well, [for homeschoolers], my principal is my mom, and my transcript is this Excel spreadsheet that I’m going to print out for you. That makes it a lot harder. ULCs are so accessible, so students are able to build up this credit and show that they’re successful in college. And they don’t have to live near a college. They don’t need to prove that they’re ready. They don’t need to pay some astronomical amount of money.”

A safe place to try something new

Smith is currently facilitating Accelerate ASU’s English 102 Universal Learner Course for her Online G3 students. She realizes that the course is effectively preparing her homeschool students as writers, focusing on properly citing sources and avoiding plagiarism.

“Several of them have gotten flagged for citations [that] are not clear enough,” she says. “They’re learning now that you’ve really got to be on top of the citations.”

To Smith, ULCs offer a safe landing place for students to experience failure — an especially important exposure for her gifted students, who may be accustomed to succeeding academically.

She says Accelerate ASU’s dual enrollment program stands out for its transparency in sharing data with facilitators like her, which allows Smith to monitor her students’ course progress.

“I can do an early alert system for students and parents if something is looking dicey,” she says. “That is so good for everyone, because it allows the parents to kind of step back and let their students dabble and maybe fail. This is the place to fail. It’s not once you’ve gotten to the four year university. Please don’t fail there. Fail here. Let me support you. Have the class just disappear and try again with no big penalty.”

Because Accelerate ASU is open-access, students can try college-level coursework and, if it’s not the right fit, leave without a withdrawal appearing on the transcript. 

With a high course completion rate, Smith’s homeschool students are showing their readiness for the rigors and challenges of college — all through an affordable, self-paced platform they can access from anywhere.

A community of partner schools

Online G3 is one of more than 550 past and current partner schools across the world that have accessed Accelerate ASU’s flexible course offerings through dual enrollment.

To Audrey Moreno, senior director at Accelerate ASU, serving learners of all kinds is inherent to Accelerate ASU’s charter.

“Our work with Online G3 reflects Accelerate ASU’s commitment to expanding opportunity for every learner, no matter where or how they attend school,” says Moreno. 

“Homeschool students often run into barriers when trying to show they’re ready for college, and they deserve pathways that recognize the rigor of their learning. What’s been especially exciting about this partnership is seeing how intentionally Online G3 has scaled it. Their students aren’t just trying a single course — many are taking multiple courses each year and completing them at strong rates,” continues Moreno. 

“They’re building momentum, exploring different fields and gaining real confidence in their ability to succeed in college-level work. When open access is paired with thoughtful support, students don’t just earn credit, they begin to see themselves as college students.”

To learn more about dual-enrollment opportunities for your students or child, visit accelerate.asu.edu.