Two Types of Students: There are two types of students at Academy Central, those enrolled for academic credit and those who are not enrolled but who may freely use the academic materials and the electronic library.
Graduation Requirements: For graduation from Academy Central High School, the student must successfully accumulate a total of 24 academic credits, 15 from required courses and 9 from elective courses. The required 24 credit total may include transcripted credits from previous schools.
Required and Elective Courses: Required are 3 mathematics credits, 4 English credits, 3 science credits, 3 history credits, 1 citizenship credit, and 1 physical education/health credit. Elective courses include studies in non-English languages, art/music, religion, business, psychology, sociology/anthropology, computer use, and others.
Who Constructed the Courses and the E-Library: It is important that all students understand Academy Central High School’s role in your studies whether you are enrolled as a credit-seeking student or otherwise. Academy Central makes use of freely available electronic learning facilities developed by other institutions, for example MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Carnegie Mellon University, Free-Ed.net, and MindQuest.org, to name several. Our course pages are “linked” to their courseware. For enrolled students, we provide tutoring and testing via the Internet. At our home base in Houston, we also offer classroom facilities and supervision, but even there, students study courses we link to on the Internet. Our Electronic Library is the most extensive one on the Internet because we link to a large number of individually huge E-Libraries operated by institutions of higher learning, foundations, and government agencies. Our students, thus, have all the best of the best.
Prior Studies: In order to enroll here, students must complete our transcript request authorization form which we will supply. We examine all of the transcripts of prior study and apply the earned credits to your participation here. Grades less than “D” or “71%” are not transferable.
Academic vs. “Life Experience” Credit: We do not provide academic credit for vocational or voluntary experience. For example, if your previous school granted academic credit in music for your participation in the school band, we can transfer that credit. If you played the piano for an entertainment group, we would not transfer any credit.
Enrollment and Tuition Fees: Costs include a one-time enrollment fee of $99 and a charge for tutoring and testing of $67 per academic credit. There is no specified time for completion of your studies here, so you can proceed at your own pace according to your own time schedule for graduation. If you do not enroll to earn academic credits, we charge nothing for your use of our facilities because we do not pay for course materials or the E-library except for our in-house expenses.. Fees are subject to change, up or down, according to changes in the rates of inflation and costs of the Internet.
How the Honor System Works: Quizzes are designed to help students learn course materials. Final examinations are designed to help the student show that he or she has mastered the course material. Most final examinations are of the “essay” type. Many are “open book” examinations that simulate real life situations. With each final examination the student provides Academy Central with a notarized statement that the student completed the examination with no outside help.