BJU Press

BJU Press describes itself as producing Pre-K through grade 12 educational materials with a biblical worldview. Its main address is in Greenville, South Carolina, and its homeschool site sells textbook kits and video courses.

Last updated: 2026-10-08 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Textbook-based: a student edition or worktext, a teacher edition, and assessments, with video courses as an option
Worldview	Christian; the publisher says biblical worldview shaping is at the heart of all the materials it designs. The publisher pages we reviewed do not name a denomination
Grades	Pre-K through grade 12; the homeschool site describes a K3 through grade 12 core curriculum
Formats	Parent-led textbook kits, online video courses on the Homeschool Hub, and physical materials with DVD lessons, per the publisher's grade kit page
Cost tier	Standard (Every Homeschool classification); current prices are on the publisher's store
Parent intensity	2 with video courses, 3 with textbook kits (Every Homeschool rating, 1 to 5)
ESA-common	Not stated by the publisher; the homeschool pages we reviewed do not mention education savings accounts
Accredited	The publisher says textbooks cannot be accredited and that, because online video courses are not an online school, accreditation does not apply to them; its Academy of Home Education offers enrollment with accreditation and names Bridgeway Academy as its accreditation partner
Website	bjupresshomeschool.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Our assessment. The publisher's bjupress.com About page lists academic rigor among its distinctives (its homeschool site lists active learning in its place) and offers a course sequence through grade 12, including Bible Doctrines, Biblical Worldview, and Ethics
Ease of teaching	4	Our assessment. The publisher says its video courses have a teacher for each lesson and that the video content is the same online and on DVD; for textbook kits it says parents still provide some teaching and grading
Content quality	4	Our assessment. The publisher says its textbooks are biblically integrated at every grade level and names analysis, evaluation, and creation as its critical thinking skills
Flexibility	3	For online video courses, the publisher says individual subjects can be ordered for grades K5 to 12 and that two substitutions per grade level are allowed, and the Hub lists an adjustable calendar
Value for money	3	Our assessment. The publisher sells grade kits, subject kits, and components, and its special offers page lists a multi-course discount; see the cost section
Worldview scope	1	Written from one stated worldview: the publisher says the Bible should be central to education
Visual/design	4	Our assessment. The publisher offers eTextbooks with its online courses and describes colorful maps, charts, photos, and illustrations
Support resources	4	The Homeschool Hub adds a scheduler, gradebook, and teacher edition PDFs, and the publisher invites families to reach a local Homeschool Consultant

Who the publisher is

BJU Press's About page says its first textbook, Physical Science, was published by the University Press and that the book's success ultimately launched Bob Jones University Press. It gives its size as over 450 employees and facilities of over 190,000 square feet, and says it works in four areas: content development, technology solutions, digital media production, and print production. The Contact page lists a main address in Greenville, South Carolina.

The homeschool site's history page says the company's resources started reaching homeschool communities in the 1980s. It says the company opened an academy for home educators in the 1990s and launched its first digital learning option through a satellite broadcast system. It lists online streaming through Distance Learning Online for the homeschool market in the 2000s, its first student edition eTextbooks in 2013, and the BJU Press Homeschool Hub in the 2020s, which it describes as a response to the growing post-COVID homeschool community. The publisher's online video FAQ says the Distance Learning Online platform has been discontinued and that homeschool video curriculum is now accessed on the Homeschool Hub.

BJU Press describes its materials as written from a biblical worldview. Its Biblical Worldview Shaping page says the Bible should be central to education and that a biblical worldview is best expressed in the biblical story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. The homeschool site lists four distinctives: biblical worldview shaping, active learning, critical thinking, and educational technology. The pages we reviewed do not name a denomination for BJU Press. On science, the homeschool science page says the program examines the evidence for a young-earth model.

The core pedagogy

A textbook kit contains, per the publisher's textbook page, a student edition or worktext, a teacher edition, and assessments, and some subjects also include an activity manual. The page says the teacher edition gives the parent instructions, activities, and additional explanation, and describes assessment questions in multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and essay formats. The publisher's curriculum FAQ calls the teacher edition the foundational piece of each program, the source of its activities and lesson plans.

The video courses page says online grade kits include a child's core subjects for the grade, among them English language arts, math, science, and history. They can be customized to remove printed materials, shift the grade of certain subjects, or add an elective. The page also lists subject kits for math, science, Bible, Heritage Studies, writing and grammar, reading, literature, handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, Spanish, and electives. The FAQ says the video content is the same in the online and DVD options, that video courses are offered for K4 through grade 12, and that online assessments are available for grades 5 to 12 only.

The Homeschool Hub page describes a learning management platform with a Day-at-a-Glance dashboard, a calendar with a quick scheduler and rescheduling tools, a gradebook with reporting that can generate transcripts, and resources such as teacher edition PDFs, student handouts, and quiz files. Its comparison chart lists streaming video lessons, auto-graded tests and quizzes for grades 5 and up, teacher edition eTextbooks, and student edition eTextbooks under the online video and DVD options, and a schedule, a calendar, and a gradebook under the textbook option.

Some subject details come from the publisher's own course pages on bjupress.com:

• Bible. The Bible overview lists a question-and-answer approach in grades 1 to 3, Inductive Bible Study in grades 7 to 9, and Bible Doctrines, Biblical Worldview, and Ethics in grades 10 to 12.
• Math. The math page says students complete practice activities on the current lesson and spiral reviews of previous concepts, with Reviews available for grades 1 to 5 and Activities books for grades 7 to 11, and that students develop understanding through frequent review.
• Literature. The Elements of Literature Student Text lists Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a major piece studied in grade 10, and the British Literature Student Text lists Macbeth in grade 12.
• Social studies. The social studies page names the line BJU Press Heritage Studies; our Heritage Studies review covers it.

Signature mechanics: (1) The Homeschool Hub. Scheduling, assignments, grading, and records in one place; the publisher's chart lists fewer Hub features for textbook buyers than for video buyers. (2) Video courses on the Hub or on DVD. The publisher says the video content is the same in both formats, and its FAQ lists online assessments for grades 5 to 12 among the online option's features. (3) Textbook kits built around the teacher edition. The publisher's textbook page describes the teacher edition as the essential guide that supports the parent.

A day in the life

The publisher's textbook page describes a typical day with its textbooks. With younger children the parent spends more time with them, and the teacher edition guides the parent through questions to ask before, during, and after reading. There are usually a couple of exercises to work through together before the child receives a larger assignment from a worktext or activity manual to do alone. As children grow, the page says they read assignments and complete activities on their own, and the parent still provides some teaching and grading.

With video courses, the Homeschool Hub page says the Day-at-a-Glance dashboard shows a course progress overview, the lessons and assignments due that day, completed work, materials needed for the day's work, and upcoming assignments. The FAQ says the length of video lessons varies by grade, averaging about 1 hour for K4, 2 hours for K5, 2.5 to 3 hours for grades 1 to 6, and 3 to 3.5 hours for grades 7 to 12, with individual videos between 10 minutes and 1 hour. The Grade 4 kit page lists an average daily video time of 1 hour 50 minutes, so confirm the figure on the kit page for the grade you plan to buy. The FAQ also says online assessments for grades 5 to 12 are stored under the child's login, and that some assessments have an essay or map section that the facilitator prints and grades manually.

What they do exceptionally well

Scheduling and records on the Hub. The Hub puts the daily plan, a rescheduling calendar, a gradebook, and transcript reporting in one place, and the publisher says the gradebook and schedule are available to textbook buyers as well as video families. In our assessment this is the program's clearest practical strength for families who want the planning handled for them.

A single publisher from preschool through high school. The publisher's course list runs from early childhood titles (Pathways for Preschool, Footsteps for Fours, Focus on Fives) through Bible, math, science, social studies, literature, writing and grammar, Spanish, and Latin. Families who want one publisher across subjects can do so; the publisher says its homeschool site covers all core subjects from K3 to grade 12.

More than one way to buy. The publisher sells grade kits and subject kits in online, DVD, and textbook formats and lets families customize a grade kit to remove printed materials or change the grade of a subject.

What they do poorly

Time-limited online access. The FAQ gives a 20-month access period for online courses from February 1 to May 31 and 16 months for courses from June 1. The Video Course Agreement defines the online access period as 16 months after the original shipping date and says no extensions or reuse options are available for the online program. The publisher's pages differ on the length and on whether the period counts from the order date or the ship date, so confirm both when ordering. Families planning to reuse the video courses with younger siblings should read both pages first.

Per-child logins and licenses. The FAQ says each child needs a login, and that a second student in the same grade needs a secondary license requested through customer service.

One stated worldview throughout. The publisher says biblical worldview shaping is at the heart of all of its materials, and its science page says the science program examines the evidence for a young-earth model. In our assessment, families who want worldview-neutral materials, or who are looking for a different faith tradition's materials, will be adapting the program rather than using it as designed.

Limits on mixing courses. The online option allows two substitutions per grade level, and the online video FAQ says only grade-level kits with video and textbooks qualify for the multi-course discount, while the special offers page also lists a discount on three or more subject kits with books. In our assessment, families who want to assemble a program from many publishers will find the kit structure most useful when they buy from BJU Press across subjects.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick BJU Press if: you want a complete Christian program from one publisher with a biblical worldview in every subject; you want the option of teacher-led video lessons with a built-in scheduler and gradebook; you want a textbook route built around a teacher edition; you want the publisher's Academy of Home Education, which offers enrollment with accreditation.

• Skip BJU Press if: you want secular or worldview-neutral materials; you want a science program that does not examine the evidence for a young-earth model, which the publisher's science page says its curriculum does; you want to reuse online video courses for several children over many years; you want to mix many publishers; you need a publisher that lists state education savings account participation on its own site.

Cost honest assessment

BJU Press's homeschool store sells online grade kits and subject kits, DVD kits, textbook kits, and individual components. Every Homeschool does not quote prices for this publisher in this review; the current price of each kit is on the publisher's store. The product pages on bjupress.com, such as the American Government Student Edition, serve Christian schools and label their prices as Christian School Pricing, so they are not homeschool prices.

The publisher's special offers page lists a multi-course discount for video course kits, a payment plan for larger orders, free shipping within the 48 contiguous states, and a military discount arranged by phone, each with restrictions. The online video FAQ says only grade-level kits with video and textbooks qualify for the multi-course discount, which differs from the special offers page, so confirm the current terms before ordering.

ESA eligibility notes

The publisher pages we reviewed, including its shipping and purchasing FAQ, do not state that BJU Press participates in any state education savings account program, and the FAQ lists personal checks, money orders, and Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards as accepted payments. Families using an education savings account should ask their program administrator whether BJU Press is an approved vendor for the specific products and formats they want before ordering.

Alternatives

• Abeka, a family comparing complete Christian textbook programs with video options can read Abeka's own description on its Every Homeschool page.
• Christian Light Education, a family comparing Christian publishers that use a different format from BJU Press can read the publisher's own description on its Every Homeschool page.
• Memoria Press, a family looking for a classical approach rather than a textbook-based one can compare it on its Every Homeschool page.