Because many of our high school students plan on pursuing a college education, having accredited courses simplifies the admissions process. The Bridge School (www.thebridgeschool.net) allows us access to a full course catalog with a wide variety of electives and AP course. Our students are assisted by local facilitators and also have access to on-line instructors.
Island Academy has chosen to partner with the Calvert Curriculum program for grades Pre-K through 8 and The Bridge School for grades 9 through 12. For the 2013-2014 school year, we had the opportunity to utilize a full-set of Texas curriculum textbooks. This was a wonderful gift and learning opportunity for our students but our teachers asked a simple question and we couldn't give them an answer. The question was, "What do we teach?" Traditional school districts have a curriculum development staff that determine what children need to learn during the course of a school year and we do not have that in our school.
That began our search for not just textbooks, but curriculum. We had parents that were familiar with the Calvert Program (www.calverteducation.com) and had great success with their children. Calvert gives us the ability to test and place our students based on the same standards as students in the United States. Our teachers have a clear beginning and end point. We can ensure our students are where they need to be regardless of where they are going.