All curriculum reviews

    Miacademy

    A low-cost, fully self-paced online K-8 curriculum where recorded video teachers deliver the lessons and the computer scores the work, with the parent acting as administrator,…

    Nobody reads the workVisit site
    As a full curriculum
    2.5/5
    As a supplement
    3.1/5
    How this is scored
    Not sufficient on its own as a full curriculum

    This scores below our floor on at least one of content, assessment, accountability or academic demand. Use it with a documented plan alongside it.

    Rating capped at 2.5 as a full curriculum

    Most of the work happens in an app and no qualified adult is required to read what the student produces. It can still serve well alongside another programme.

    A student can move through this quickly with nobody checking

    Finishing fast is not the same as learning. Worth pairing with your own checkpoints.

    How it scored

    Nine dimensions, each scored 0 to 4 by a reviewer working from the programme's own published materials.

    3
    Standards, Accuracy & Content Scope

    Is the content accurate, at the right level, and does it cover what it claims?

    2
    Focus, Coherence & Cognitive Rigor

    Does it build in a sensible order and make a student actually think?

    2
    Research-Consistent Instructional Design

    Is it taught in a way the research supports, with honest claims?

    2
    Assessment, Feedback & Demonstrable Mastery

    Can you actually see what your child learned, not just what they finished?

    1
    Accountability & Feedback Loop

    Does a qualified adult read your child's work and respond to it?

    3
    Adult Usability & Implementation Support

    How much work is this for you, and does it help you do that work?

    3
    Differentiation, Access & Learner Fit

    Does it flex for a struggling learner, an advanced one, or a different kind of learner?

    3
    Practical Feasibility & Transparency

    What does it truly cost, in money and time, and will it work where you live?

    1
    Academic Demand & College Readiness

    Is this preparing a student for college, or just for a diploma?

    The practical details

    Grades
    Kindergarten through 8th grade only. Grades 7-12 are served by a separate product, MiaPrep, which is a separate subscription and separate…
    Subjects
    Over 80 courses and 3,000+ lessons, all included in one subscription with no per-subject upsells. Grades K-2 and 3-5: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music and Arts, World Languages, Life Skills. Grades 6-8: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, World Languages, Life Skills (Music and Arts is not…
    How it runs
    100 percent self-paced and asynchronous. There are no live classes, no scheduled sessions, no cohorts, and no teacher meetings. A typical lesson is a short teaching video with an on-camera instructor, followed by step-by-step interactive practice and an…
    Who teaches
    Pre-recorded video only. Lessons are written and delivered by Miaplaza's in-house team of experienced educators and filmed with on-camera instructors. There is no live teacher, no assigned tutor, no advisor, and no instructor a student or parent can email about academic content. Any teaching that the videos do not…
    Who grades
    No human employed by Miacademy ever reads your child's work. This is the single most important fact about the program. Miacademy's own documentation states that the majority of coursework is completed on a laptop or tablet and is "graded automatically," and that when a child completes a lesson the parent gradebook is automatically updated with the grade and time spent. Quizzes and assessments are machine-scored.…
    What the parent does
    The parent is the teacher of record. In Alaska under the homeschool statute the instructor must be the parent or legal guardian, and Miacademy is curriculum only, so nothing about buying it changes who is legally responsible. Concretely the parent must: enroll the child and set or correct the auto-assigned grade levels for each subject, choose which courses are active, set the school calendar and pace, unassign…
    Credit and records
    Miacademy holds supplemental accreditation from the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC), covering Miacademy, Always Icecream, Clever Dragons, and MiaPrep in Art, Culture, Language, Life Skills, Math, Music, Reading, Science, and Writing. That accreditation applies to the curriculum, not to a school. Miacademy states…
    Cost
    Priced per student, from miacademy.co pricing section (https://miacademy.co/#pricing). Monthly: $48 per month per student, with the first month at $1.99, auto-renews monthly, cancel anytime. One Year: $480 per year per student, equivalent to $40 per month, does not auto-renew. Lifetime: $1,120 one time per student. Family Lifetime: $2,520 one time for up to 4 students. Every plan includes all 80+ courses, all grade…
    Alaska notes
    Bandwidth is the real constraint. The platform streams video from Vimeo, pulls assets from Amazon S3, and runs PhET science simulations in-browser, and no offline or lesson-download mode is documented, so a satellite or metered rural connection is the main risk. The printable PDF activities can be downloaded while on a good connection and worked offline, but the graded lesson…

    Strengths

    • One flat per-student price covers all 80+ courses and every grade level K-8 with no per-subject upsells, and the $1.99 first month makes evaluating it nearly free
    • Genuinely granular placement flexibility: a parent can run a child at Level 3 in math and Level 4 in language arts simultaneously, and can unassign or reassign any individual lesson
    • The gradebook, time tracking, and downloadable attendance and grade reports are built specifically for homeschool compliance paperwork and update automatically as the child works

    Weaknesses

    • No human ever reads student work. A child can finish the entire K-8 sequence without a single essay, paragraph, or open-ended answer being read by an educator. Writing quality feedback exists only if…
    • It is a curriculum, not a school. Miacademy states it cannot issue enrollment letters, official records, or transcripts, so the parent builds every record and remains the legal teacher of record
    • Writing and spelling are the documented thin spots. Independent reviewers recommend supplementing both, and reviewers also describe the courses as on grade level rather than rigorous or advanced,…
    Good fitA budget-conscious family with one or more K-8 children who wants an affordable, self-running, screen-based full core that the child can work through largely independently while the parent stays in an administrator role. It fits especially well when the parent is comfortable being the legal teacher of record and…
    Poor fitA family that needs an accredited school of record, an official transcript, or a diploma should not buy this, and neither should a family with a college-bound high schooler, since Miacademy stops at 8th grade and MiaPrep is a separate purchase. It is also the wrong product for a child who needs a human teacher to read…

    Reviewed from the programme's own published materials. Pricing and features change without notice, so confirm details with the publisher before buying. How FrostBoard rates curriculum