HS Curriculum

As an accredited, college prep school, C/A has a rigorous but achievable set of academic standards. High school classes follow the Virginia Standards of Learning and parallel those offered at other independent schools as well as public schools. What’s different?

• First is the way we teach, and the specific accommodations and that are embedded in our curriculum or directly taught—from the structure of the academic day, mandatory and extensive use of Edline, to classroom set-up, assistive technology, and incomparable advisory system.
• Just as important, teachers have latitude, commensurate with their expertise, to alter both specific content and how that content is taught in order to fully engage their students and deepen subject mastery. Students also benefit from a separate Writing class, taught every day in every grade; and junior and seniors benefit from a SAT/ACT prep course, including a college essay and research paper. (It’s no wonder so many alumni tell us how prepared they were for college papers.)

Constantly evolving, our curriculum is frequently enhanced to reflect the special talents of individual students. If a student needs more advanced challenges, we will develop coursework or a new class to keep him or her progressively engaged. We offer honors components in all English and history courses, most science and Spanish courses, and some math courses.

In addition to core academic subjects, students participate in physical education, community service, and a wide variety of electives through which they can sample new activities and explore their interests in more depth. We highly value success in all student endeavors—academic, artistic, and athletic—and celebrate students’ talents throughout the year.