Stride Learning Review: Services, Costs, Terms and Reviews

Stride is a well-known online and blended learning services company that operates across the US as well as in 100+ countries. The company works as a conglomeration of multiple enterprises, each of which specializes in a different segment of online and in-person education. Services are available to learners of all ages, and courses cover core subjects, electives, and various career preparation and development options. But is Stride really worth it?

This Stride review focuses on an overview of the company, the offered solutions for different beneficiaries, the instructor background and qualifications, the pricing structure, the terms, and the software requirements. In addition, we analyze customer reviews and summarize the pros and cons of Stride. Finally, we offer top 3 Stride alternatives that might be better suited for different stakeholders in the online educational space.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for comprehensive e-learning services used by school districts and schools across the nation, check out Fullmind.

Stride Overview

Stride comprises an umbrella organization for a number of companies that operate in the online, blended, and in-person educational space. The company offers a wide range of services, products, and programs that aim to meet the needs of various stakeholders, including districts, schools, individual students and parents, adult learners, professionals, businesses, and military personnel and families. Importantly, Stride partners with multiple organizations to offer scholarship and financing options to students and learners at different levels.

Ronald J. Packard founded Stride in 2000, which makes it one of the oldest providers of e-learning services. The company headquarters are located in Herndon, VA. Stride is a publicly traded company with a long history in the online education field. Services are available across the US in addition to internationally.

The Stride mission is to help learners of all ages reach their full potential through inspired teaching and personalized learning. The company values are defined by PACT: Passion, accountability, courage, and trustworthiness.

Stride educational solutions include online public and private schools, on-demand teachers, supplemental courses, credit recovery options, e-libraries, one-on-one and high-dosage tutoring, career preparation and advancement, professional development in the educational, software, and medical fields, technical implementation support, and others.

Stride Services

A Stride review shows that the company offers a wide range of online educational services that are planned and designed to meet the needs of various beneficiaries. Each group of services is delivered by one of Stride subsidiaries.

The main learning services offered by Stride include:

• Full-time online schools for districts
• On-demand teachers for districts
• Credit recovery for districts
• Career readiness programs for districts
• Adaptive learning for districts
• Virtual tutoring for districts
• Implementation consulting for districts
• E-libraries for districts
• Education professional development for districts
• Online public schools for K-12 students and military families
• Online private schools for K-12 students and military families
• Homeschooling assistance for K-12 students and parents
• Online tutoring for K-12 students and parents
• Career development for adult learners
• Professional development for businesses

The courses offered by Stride cover core subjects, electives, music and arts, world languages, career prep courses, and professional development classes in various areas. However, interested users should keep in mind that Stride uses its own course content which might lead to discrepancies between the knowledge of Stride-instructed students and their more traditionally educated fellows. Moreover, this makes switching between online and in-person education and vice versa rather challenging.

Following is a detailed description of the available services for each group of beneficiaries:

Stride Services for Districts

Stride provides a number of services to school districts that are delivered by Stride Learning Solutions, a part of Stride, and include:

Stride Custom Online Schools

Stride Learning Solutions establishes tailor-made virtual schools that allow districts to win back lost students, attract families with online educational options, and bring funding. School districts can create full-time online schools as an alternative to homeschool environments and students dropping out.

Stride services include outreach and marketing to re-engage families of students who dropped out, student enrollment, professional development for virtual teachers, and state reporting to ensure compliance.

Stride Teachers

Stride provides a solution for the grave problem of teacher vacancies via virtual staffing. Options include both filling immediate gaps on a short-term basis and offering long-term virtual instructors.

Available solutions to teacher shortages cover fully synchronous, completely asynchronous, and in-between teaching services. With the Stride National Live Lesson program, students can learn in both virtual and in-person settings.

Stride Teachers collaborate with district staff to create lesson plans and assessments and follow the district bell schedule for daily instruction to ensure synchronization.

Stride Rebound

Stride Learning Solutions provides an online or blended credit recovery solution that offers high school credit recovery courses and learning assistance to students. This helps put students back on the path to graduation through a flexible and supportive model.

Credit recovery courses are adapted to the individual learning needs of every student and aim to inspire motivation to learn and succeed.

Stride Future

Stride Learning Solutions helps districts design and implement career readiness and technical prep programs that prepare students for the future, beyond education. These programs allow students to develop skills that go beyond the classroom and can be utilized once they enter the workforce, such as technical skills, problem-solving mindsets, and innovative thinking.

Career readiness programs can be implemented virtually or in a blended environment. They can be customized from 27 CTE/CRE paths and over 100 career-focused electives.

Stride Elevate

In line with modern learning trends, Stride offers game-based learning tools and content that focuses on sparking curiosity in students that are used to working in digital spaces. Stride Skills Arcade is an adaptive program that inspires children from pre-K to 8 grade to achieve district benchmarks through entertaining, reward-based learning.

Stride Tutoring

Stride provides high-dosage personalized virtual tutoring for K-12 grade students that aims to extend the learning experience beyond the classical classroom. Personalized learning is achieved via live, face-to-face, teacher-assigned tutoring and is delivered by state-certified teachers. High-dosage tutoring is available in one-on-one or small-group settings and is individualized based on the specific level and needs of each student. Supplemental instructions are delivered by the same tutor to build a consistent relationship and boost results.

Stride Assist

Stride Learning Solutions provides e-learning implementation consulting and services to facilitate virtual teaching and learning for districts, their staff, and students. The Stride Client Success Team simplifies the setup and backup process to ease processes and ensure the right balance of technology, curriculum, and instruction to maximize the benefits of blended learning.

Stride eLibrary

Stride eLibrary offers an online library that helps districts and schools build a balanced reading program and encourage a lifetime love for books and reading among their students. The library comprises more than 17,000 titles including e-books of fiction, nonfiction, nonfiction-fiction, Spanish-language books, and Hi-Lo. Books are appropriate for K-12 grade. Meanwhile, teachers can enhance literacy programs with read-alouds, guided reading, shared reading, and reading workshops.

Stride Coach

Stride Coach refers to providing lifeline learning opportunities for educators themselves. School teachers and staff can obtain the skills and support they need in order to create a thriving online or blended learning environment that delivers consistent, coordinated, engaging, and collaborative experiences for their students. School administrators can learn how to efficiently and successfully plan, implement, and support teaching and learning in an online classroom. These services ensure a smooth and effective transition to online education.

Stride Services for K-12 Students and Parents

Stride offers the following services to online students and their parents:

Stride Online Schools

The main services that Stride offers to K-12 grade students and their parents are online public and private schools. These comprehensive solutions comprise full-time school programs with flexible education options that are customized to each student’s needs, interests, and goals. This service is delivered by K12, part of Stride.

There are two main types of Stride online schools:

• Tuition-Free Online Public Schools: This allows students to attend classes from home and work at their own pace, for free. Instruction is delivered by state-certified teachers following innovative digital curriculum while offering the support and structure of a school community.
• Tuition-Based Online Private Schools: This option is available to students globally and provides them with access to well-rounded, individualized education and the support of the  vibrant international community of K12 Private Academy. Teachers are state-certified, and students and parents can choose between full-time and part-time enrollment.

Both public and private schools run by K12 are fully accredited. They offer various extracurricular activities and socialization options to ensure that students don’t miss on the benefits of in-person education.

Stride online schools cover all grades and levels including:

• Elementary school (K-5 grades): Online public school, online private school, advanced learner program, and special education
• Middle school (6-8 grades): Online public school, online private school, advanced learner program, STEM education, and special education
• High school (9-12 grades): Online public school, online private school, AP and Honors program, STEM education, dual enrollment, credit recovery, special education, career and college prep curriculum, and college and career services

Stride Online Homeschooling

In addition, Stride provides support for families that have decided to homeschool. K12 online homeschool products include:

• Comprehensive curriculum
• Individual courses
• Enrichment programs

These services help parents meet the unique educational needs of their child when homeschooling. Once again, grade coverage starts with kindergarten and ends with high school.

Stride Summer School

Stride, via K12, runs an online summer school program for K-12 grade students. With summer school, students can:

• Get back on track with credit recovery courses
• Prepare for the transition from middle school to high school with key courses
• Get ahead in core subjects
• Start learning a new language
• Explore electives

Summer school options are very flexible to allow students to choose courses and modules that correspond to their needs and interests.

Stride Tutoring

Stride Tutoring, powered by K12, delivers one-on-one online tutoring that allows parents to make sure that their children are prepared for all life challenges. Each student is matched with the right tutor. Meanwhile, all tutors are state-certified. Online tutoring is available in core subjects (math, English, and science) as well as other subjects and is customized by the tutor to the student’s learning style and interests.

Stride Services for Adult Learners

Stride Adult Career Development serves the needs of professionals and adult learners through career development options in high-demand fields. Available programs help both advance one’s career and change fields altogether.

Available Stride career development solutions include:

• MedCerts: 3-to-6-month online skills training program preparing people for in-demand healthcare or IT certifications delivered in immersive 3D environments, featuring 3D animated demonstrations, interactive skills activities, simulated software applications, and game-based learning
• Tech Elevator: 14-week full-time virtual or in-person programs helping individuals become skilled coders and switch to a career as a software developer
• Galvanize: Military coding programs, corporate training and upskilling, and Hack Reactor Coding Bootcamps helping learners and leaders across industries advance their careers

Stride Services for Businesses

Stride for Business helps businesses support the professional development of their teams in order to benefit from available talent and be prepared for the future.

Available services for businesses include:

• Talent pipeline creation
• Upskilling and reskilling
• Management workshops
• Solution-oriented online curriculums

Stride for Business solutions are available in the following fields:

• Software engineering, programming, and data science
• Healthcare
• Information technology
• Networking

Stride Services for Military Personnel and Families

Stride provides solutions specifically designed for the needs of military service members, spouses, and families that cover education, licensure, certification, scholarships, financial assistance, and others.

Military personnel and families solutions include:

• Online public school: Tuition-free K-12 online public schools available in multiple states
• Online private school: Tuition-based K-12 online private schools for students in the CONUS or OCONUS that offer various start dates, military discount, and summer school
• Career prep: Equipping students with the skills they need to get into higher education, the workforce, or the military
• Adult education: Workforce training in software engineering, data science, and IT-related careers for enlisted members of the U.S. armed forces, their spouses, and military veterans to help transition to civilian life and the workforce

Stride offers financial assistance and scholarships for some courses in partnership with the Army Credentialing Opportunities Online (COOL) and My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA).

Stride Staff

Stride K-12 teachers and tutors are state- and content-certified, and they have extensive training in online teaching strategies, tech platforms, and the Stride curriculum portfolio. Instructors hold a bachelor’s degree or a higher degree from an accredited college or university. In specific, 62% of Stride-supported teachers have a master’s degree, and 6% have a doctorate degree. Stride teachers have an average total teaching experience of 17 years and average experience in digital-first learning of 5 years. Moreover, they are part of the Stride instructional team, which is a Cognia-accredited institution.

Meanwhile, Stride career preparation and professional development courses are taught by experts in the relevant field. Qualifications vary by solution and field.

Stride Costs

A Stride review reveals a complicated pricing structure to reflect the multiple services provided by the company and the numerous beneficiaries that it serves.

Following is a breakdown of the costs and fees per service:

• Online schools: Undisclosed cost for districts
• On-demand teachers: Undisclosed cost for districts
• High-dosage tutoring: Undisclosed cost for districts
• Professional development for teachers and administrators: Free courses, paid courses starting at $29.99/course, subscriptions at $79/year, and custom pricing for schools and districts
• Online public schools: Free in most states (for students and parents)
• Online private schools: From $3,995/year for preK to $6,995/year for high school for full-time enrollment, with sibling discounts
• Independent study courses for students: From $24/month and $260/year per course, with available discounts
• One-on-one online tutoring for students and families: $19.99/session
• MedCerts programs: $1,300-$6,000
• Tech Elevator bootcamp: $16,000 with financing and scholarship options
• Galvanize: Undisclosed tuition with financing and scholarship options

In general, Stride pricing depends on the services, amount, frequency, and beneficiary. Interested districts, schools, parents, learners, and businesses need to contact the Stride team to get a custom quote and discuss available financing and scholarship options in each case.

Stride Terms

Stride has different terms and conditions when it comes to different services and solutions. Each service has its own enrollment, attendance, and payment requirements.

Stride Software

Stride does not specify the type of software that schools and students need to have access to in order to use their services. In all cases, students need software and hardware tools for video conferencing.

Stride Reviews

There are very few Stride reviews by parents and learners on third-party websites.

Online Stride reviews can be found on:

• Reviews.io: 4.7/5 stars based on 140 reviews
• BBB: 1.0/5 stars based on 6 reviews

Positive customer reviews of Stride focus on tutoring services. Happy customers highlight the impressive improvement in material understanding, the easy-to-use platform, the flexible timing, the enjoyable sessions, the caring and patient tutors, the positive and supportive learning environment, and the reasonable pricing.

Meanwhile, negative reviews mention substandard educational quality, student overload, scammy practices, unexpected charges, major technical glitches and difficulties in using the platform, and lack of proper communication.

Stride Pros and Cons

Using Stride learning services comes with important advantages and disadvantages that interested users need to consider before deciding if this is the right solution for their needs.

Stride Pros

The main benefits of the services provided by Stride include:

• Diverse services that benefit districts, schools, education staff, students, parents, adult learners, professionals, and military personnel and families
• Online, blended, and in-person experiences for different services and solutions
• Qualified teachers who are state- and content-certified, well educated, and experienced in online teaching
• Wide range of preK-12 grade courses including core courses, electives, and career readiness courses
• Ability to establish a fully online school that is state-accredited
• Gamified learning experiences
• Implementation consulting services and support
• Nationwide and international access to services
• Affordable tutoring fees
• Financing and scholarship options

Stride Cons

The most significant drawbacks of the Stride platform are:

• Stride uses its own content (instead of district content) that results in potential discrepancy between online and in-person educated students within the district
• Focus on online, tech-supported learning might be too heavy, creating bad habits for students
• Total cost is likely to be high for districts and families

Stride Learning Solutions Availability

Stride services are available in all 50 US states as well as internationally, in more than 100 countries. There might be some restrictions for specific programs, such as those that require in-person presence.

The states where the platform has the most customers include:

• Wisconsin
• Illinois
• Colorado
• Pennsylvania
• Idaho
• Texas

The charter schools and districts where Stride Learning is most widely used are:

• Nevada Virtual Charter School (NVCS)
• Michigan Virtual Charter Academy
• San Antonio Independent School District (ISD), TX
• Julesburg School District, CO
• Genesee Intermediate School District, MI

Stride Learning Solutions Alternatives

Stride offers a wide diversity of education solutions that serve different stakeholders and learners of all ages and various backgrounds. However, the Stride-created content, the unclear pricing, the few online reviews, and the negative experiences of some customers mean that this might not be the best e-learning provider for all parties and in all cases.

Following are the 3 best competitors of Stride who are a better fit in some situations:

Stride vs Fullmind

Fullmind is a leader among e-learning providers and a top Stride alternative. The company focuses on solving the most pressing issues in the US educational system through comprehensive services provided to districts and schools.

Fullmind solutions include synchronous core instruction, supplemental instruction, and virtual staffing for K-12 grade students and are available across all 50 US states and school districts. A major benefit of Fullmind over Stride is that content is customized to the needs of each district to ensure compatibility and smooth transitions between online and in-person education. Meanwhile, instruction is personalized to the individual needs of each student or group of students. Modules include one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class instruction and tutoring.

Fullmind instructors are state-certified. They are carefully selected and diligently vetted to ensure qualifications that go beyond the minimum basics of state certification. In case of filling teacher shortages, Fullmind teachers get integrated in the school community via real-time communication with students, staff meetings, and parent-teacher conferences.

Fullmind has extensive expertise in working with homebound students, students in suspension, and students with difficulties. Solutions are individualized to meet each student’s specific requirements and necessities.

Fullmind rates are affordable and depend on the purchased services.

Stride vs Proximity Learning

Proximity Learning is a direct competitor of Stride that focuses on e-learning services to K-12 students. Customers, though, include school districts and schools rather than individual students and families.

Proximity Learning services include virtual K-12 instruction, online tutoring, live virtual summer school, and virtual schools. Courses cover core subjects, electives, AP courses, and world languages. Like Stride, Proximity uses their own content that is not customized to the district content, which is not best practice in the e-learning space.

Similar to Stride, Proximity Learning teachers are state-certified. The company ensures that teachers are qualified and engaged.

Proximity Learning costs are not disclosed, so interested users need to contact the team to get a quote.

Stride vs Imagine Learning

Imagine Learning is a Stride alternative that specializes in online educational services for K-12 grade students. Typical customers include both schools and school districts, on the one hand, and students and parents, on the other hand.

Imagine Learning solutions comprise instructional services, tutoring and intervention services, specialized services including speech teletherapy and exceptional education services for fulfilling IEPs and 504 plans, and summer school. Instruction and tutoring are available for core subjects, world languages, and exam preparation, and there is less attention to electives. Imagine Learning also provides professional development opportunities for teachers.

Imagine Learning teachers are state-certified and have an average teaching experience of 17 years. They are trained in online teaching as well as student and family support, trauma-informed teaching, and cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Imagine Learning does not provide pricing information on the company websites, so districts and parents need to contact the team to get a custom price.

Bottom Line

Stride is a major online, blended, and in-person education services provider that aims to offer solutions to learners of all ages and different backgrounds. In addition to online schools and virtual teacher staffing, they offer online tutoring, credit recovery, career preparation, and professional development. However, there are very few Stride reviews by customers, and some of them show negative experiences, which means that Stride might not be an ideal option for districts, schools, and students.