ACADEMICS CURRICULUM

Download EPA Curriculum and Course Descriptions for 2012-2013

The immediate focus of Elite Prep is to prepare students for academic success in their post-secondary education, enable students to keep open a broad spectrum of options for their future endeavors, and prepare them to be responsible and productive citizens. We believe that an educated citizen in the twenty-first century must have the skills and understanding necessary to participate and work productively in a multicultural, globally-oriented community. This includes the skills required to use technology to its full potential.

An interest in rigorous early education crosses all demographic boundaries.

Elite Prep will seek to create a diverse student body and offer students both excellence and equity in education. The school's strong academic program will reduce achievement gaps by eliminating an important cause of them - the insufficient mastery of basic knowledge and skills required for further academic achievement. The Elite Prep will use a variety of teaching methods to ensure mastery of appropriate skills, ideas, and knowledge by all students, regardless of their race, gender, or family's socioeconomic background.

Elite Prep will be responsible for meeting all the educational needs of its students without forcing parents to resort to outside tutoring — provided parents and guardians support the school's mission by ensuring home study sessions and homework completion.

Beyond its core program, Elite Prep is dedicated to challenging and stimulating all of its students. By meeting these objectives, Elite Prep will provide children with a positive educational and social experience in a structured, challenging, yet nurturing environment. It will be a community in which students, teachers, and parents are jointly aware of and committed to the mission and goals of the school.

Elite Prep expects its graduates to demonstrate a mastery of specific subject competencies. The following is a list of suggested subject matter competencies that will continue to be revised and improved. These competencies are based on state, national, and international standards.

English Literature:

• Understand and appreciate literature and the arts as expressions of and ways to interpret the human experience.
• Obtain meaning from a variety of complex texts.
• Be well read as demonstrated by reading a variety of literary works representing different genres.
• Make informed interpretations of the purpose and meaning of literary works.
• Convey interpretations of personal experience gleaned from literature.
• Explain how literature from various cultural/ethnic groups expresses both distinctive and similar values, experiences, struggles and contributions.
• Evaluate how the form and content of a literary work contributes to its message and impact.

History:

• Understand and apply civic, historical and geographical knowledge in order to become a citizen in a diverse world.
• Apply information, concepts and perspectives from the history of our nation and the history and development of other nations.
• Deliberate on public issues, which arise in a representative democracy.
• Use historical research to ask and answer questions about the past.
• Recognize that regions can be defined in cultural, physical or political terms.
• Accurately interpret and summarize information from maps, charts and graphs.
• Understand the building blocks of representative government.
• Understand the evolution of early civilizations and the development of new ideas, institutions and systems of thought.
• Recognize that events in the past inform the present.
• Understand the rich and varied achievements of diverse peoples.

Math:

• Construct mathematical models.
• Use a variety of problem-solving strategies.
• Use advanced computing procedures.
• Understand and apply advanced properties of numbers.
• Understand and apply advanced methods of measurement.
• Understand and apply advanced concepts of geometry.
• Understand and apply advanced concepts of functions and algebra.
• Understand and apply advanced concepts of probability and statistics.
• Understand and apply advanced concepts of data analysis.

Science:

• Analyze real world phenomena using scientific concepts, principles, and processes (e.g. cause and effect, energy, systems).
• Use the scientific method to ask and answer questions about the world.
• Understand essential ideas about the composition and the structure of the universe and the motions of objects in it.
• Know basic earth, biological, physical and chemical concepts.
• Understand basic concepts of matter and energy, motion and forces.

Arts:

• Participate in artistic activities.
• Make informed interpretations of the purpose and meaning of artistic works.
• Convey interpretations of personal experiences in expressive forms.
• Explain how art from various cultural/ethnic groups expresses both distinctive and similar values, experiences, struggles and contributions.
• Explain how the form and content of an artistic work contributes to its message and impact.
• Explain the role of the artist in providing service to the community and the World.

Foreign Language:

• Obtain sufficient verbal fluency and written proficiency to communicate effectively in a foreign language.
• Understand and appreciate the culture behind the language.

Technology and Computer:

• Use technology to increase learning.
• Understand and use current word processing systems.
• Understand and use current spreadsheet software.
• Understand and use current database software.
• Understand and use current presentation software.
• Understand the uses of a networked system and the Internet.
• Understand how technology can be of service to the community.