Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does the application process work?

Families considering admission to the program need to follow the admission criteria outlined below.

(2) Campus Visitation
Spending a day on campus will answer many questions and help the interested family formulate other questions. Our goal during this process is to provide prospective families as much information as possible. Informed parents are more likely to make wise decisions regarding their children’s education.
CCHSA school days are always on Wednesday, but not necessarily every Wednesday during the school year.
Once you have made an inquiry, a representative will contact you to schedule a visitation (if during the school year).
• Visitation begins promptly at 8:00 am and concludes at 3:00 pm.
• All potential students are required to visit with their parent(s) unless other arrangements have been made.
• A parent must accompany the visiting student.

Open House schedule: 8 am – 3:00 pm. Prospective students shadow a current CCHSA student, while parents meet with the CCHSA Academic Director before visiting classrooms.

(3) Applicant Pool, Not a Waiting List
CCHSA maintains an applicant pool that is different from a waiting list. A waiting list operates primarily on a first-come, first-serve basis and implies the next in line. CCHSA does not utilize a waiting list.

An applicant pool would be a more accurate term for the admission process. Essentially, CCHSA is an organization comprised of volunteers who pool their time and talents to support each other in the education of their children. Because education is the reason for our existence, teaching positions have priority when considering admission. If we were to operate under the waiting list mentality, it would not accomplish our objectives to enroll the next students on a waiting list and subsequently not have room to accept the children of a prospective teacher. A logical sequence produces a priority list for admission; the first is the teacher’s children; the second is the children of the support staff.

Once the primary positions are filled, the next priority is the admission of siblings of currently enrolled students. Our experience over the past several years has been that it is helpful to families when all their school-age children are enrolled in the same program. We have a high commitment level to the families admitted to CCHSA, and their success is extremely important to us.

2. May we choose which classes the student will take?
We have designed our program to closely follow the classical learning model, and we desire all students to take a full day of classes. All elementary students will follow their classmates' daily program and receive the same homework assignments. That being said, parents of elementary students may modify curriculum and assignments as they see fit for their child by auditing.
All students take the three core classes of history, humanities, and literature in the middle-grade levels. These classes are built around a common time period of history. In addition, middle school students may choose two additional classes out of three available choices: Latin, logic (7th and 8th grade only), and science. Our science class also follows a four-year rotation of science studies We recommend entering fifth graders take:

Latin I and Science (5th)
Latin II and Science (6th)
Logic I and Science (7th)
Logic II and Science (8th)

We recommend entering sixth graders take:
Latin I and Science (6th)
Latin II and Science (7th)
Logic I and Science (8th)

We recommend entering seventh graders take:
Latin I and Logic I (7th)
Latin II and Logic II (8th)
All students will need to complete a math curriculum at his or her level each year.

In high school, the core classes are history and literature, following a four-year rotation. There are limited class selections available for 9th and 10th graders.

We recommend the following additional high school courses on a rotating basis that will match the needs of our students each year.

Spanish I and II, High school Logic and Debate, Rhetoric, Worldview I and II, Economics and Government, Old Testament Survey, Rhetoric II (Senior thesis).

In high school, the core classes are also history and literature, following a four-year rotation. A humanities course is typically taken in 9th grade. Limited class selections are available for 9th and 10th graders.

We recommend the following additional high school courses:
9th grade: Spanish I, High school Logic
10th grade: Spanish II, Rhetoric, or Worldview I
11th grade: Spanish III, Worldview I, and/or economics and government
12th grade: Worldview II, Rhetoric II (Senior thesis), and/or economics and government.

We cannot offer high school-level math and science courses at this time. Most students take these from other providers in the Austin area or through home study.

3. What can we do now to prepare for the Fall?
We recommend that elementary and MS 1 students and parents familiarize themselves with the elements of structure and style taught by the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

In the same way, IEW elements of structure and style are TAUGHT in the elementary grades at CCHSA, but familiarity is ASSUMED for older students. CCHSA would be happy to “check out” the video series to interested parents who want to prepare their child for CCHSA writing assignments for the next school year in the summer.

4. How can we find out if there are staff positions available?
CCHSA is an organization of parents volunteering their home-schooling talents and time to support other like-minded families in the education of both their children and our own. God, in His sovereignty, has brought our families together to accomplish the common goal of educating our children to His glory. Assembling a staff that utilizes their gifts and talents, God is working both in us and through us to accomplish this purpose, and each staff position is filled after much prayer. If you feel God is leading you to minister at CCHSA, the first step would be to let our campus director or academic director know. An interview may be scheduled depending on the availability of positions and the applicant’s qualifications.

5. Do you only admit Christian homeschool families?
Yes, the purpose of CCHSA is to collaborate with parents to provide a godly, classical education to Christian homeschooled students.

6. What standard for behavior do you have for the classroom?
CCHSA bases its standard for behavior on the Word of God, the Bible. Students are accountable for their behavior, setting a godliness standard by addressing their peers, siblings, parents, teachers, and staff. Our behavior policy is designed to help students thrive academically and, more importantly, to help them develop self-control and mature in character. Implementing a behavior policy that includes instruction, correction, reproof, discipline, and reward, along with biblical principles, is essential. Specifics to this policy are found in the CCHSA Manual.

7. How have graduates done in college?
We are so proud of our graduates. Since graduating the first of our seniors in 2004, many of our CCHSA students have been able to attend their first-choice college or university. In fact, over 95% of our students attend college, with a few taking a gap year to focus on missions and a couple of students entering the military or attending a junior college. We are confident that students who complete all assignments diligently and timely can successfully transition to the college environment.

8. How do current students handle the workload?
However, the time it takes individual students may vary depending on reading speed and attention to task.

One of our stated goals is for our students to learn how to manage their time in preparation for college studies. It is our experience that most students require many years of parental guidance to learn how to plan for and manage their time. We advise parents of younger students to schedule their days for them and slowly allow students in 7th grade and above to gain responsibility in using a planner or calendar to learn how to manage their time. This is an individual learning process for most students and requires lots of practice.

9. What social activities do the students participate in?
Social activities will vary from year to year and from class to class. School-wide events may include a Back to School Picnic, Art Fair, End of Year Celebration, and field trips. The HS students can participate in a Spring Formal, including dance lessons. We encourage parents to brainstorm and provide other opportunities, such as movie nights (often educational) or game nights, to further build relationships among the students.

10. Do students have time to participate in extracurricular activities?
Most CCHSA students participate in various extracurricular activities, such as athletics, music lessons or orchestra, AWANA and Bible quizzes, and church youth activities. We have found that these extracurricular activities often motivate students to complete their work without procrastinating. However, for many students, the combination of extracurricular activities and CCHSA leaves little “downtime.” To help combat fatigue, our school calendar includes about one week “off” approximately every four weeks. No homework is assigned during off weeks, leaving families time for other activities and a more relaxed schedule.

11. What curriculum do you use?
We use a variety of curriculum products as well as our own “homegrown” lesson plans, worksheets, and tests. At the elementary level, you will find Well Ordered Language, IEW, the Story of the World, Prima Latina, a variety of literature selections, and teacher materials gleaned from sources such as The Mystery of History. (deleted)

In the middle-level classes, we use our own formatted and designed version of TRISMS (Time Related Integrated Studies for Mastering Skills) for the majority of our history and humanities work, adding lots of historical fiction and literature writing. In the high school years, history and literature are more text-based, but we focus heavily on the Great Books and begin the Vocabulary for the Classical Roots series.

Other curriculum includes Latin Christiana, Critical Thinking, Introduction to Logic, Introductory Logic, Classical Rhetoric, and Spanish. We use our own teacher materials for our World View classes, and our science classes use the Elemental Science classical curriculum.

12. My student is very advanced; can he be in the next level?
For the most part, our curriculum and homework are advanced enough to warrant keeping the majority of students with others their same age. Our classes are designed to match particular grade levels and allow parents to decide whether to leave a child in a level for an extra year or move up that child.

That being said, we allow some exceptions, but only if we are sure the student can fit well with the older students socially. This decision will be made individually if space is available.

13. What is involved in orientation?
CCHSA offers two types of orientation. The first type is for new families only and is held in late Spring or Summer after families have been notified of admissions decisions. This orientation usually occurs on two mornings and covers such subjects as Course books, IEW, Shurley grammar levels, turning in homework, what supplies to purchase, how to complete homework assignments and how to list sources, and answering any other questions new families might have. It is designed to give parents a step up into the “CCHSA way” so that the first few weeks of school in the fall will be less overwhelming. Parents are given the first week’s homework assignments to get a head start.

14. When will you know which families are accepted for Fall?
Our goal each year is to know which families we can accept by the end of April, though sometimes due to circumstances beyond our control, our decisions have come a little later.
Prior to making decisions we take registration from current families to see where children might be placed the following year and see what spaces might be available. Siblings of current students who were too young to enroll before or who could not attend the prior year due to class size considerations are enrolled next. We would then try to fill spaces, first allowing for new teachers (and their kids) to be placed and then selecting other students from our applicant pool. We do not use a waiting list, nor do we always take students in the order they visited. We simply must fill any available staff positions first.

After staff positions are filled, we will select from the applicant pool, most often in order of when families visited the campus, AS SPACE is AVAILABLE. Families may have to choose if they would like to accept a space for one of their children, even if we do not have space for all.

Families not accepted in the Spring should let us know if they still want to be considered during the summer months. At times, we have openings available as late as August.

15. How do new students do when first admitted?
All new students experience a “learning curve” as they adjust to the new requirements of CCHSA, which are usually very different from what they have experienced at home or in other home school programs. We require typed assignments, homework folders, strict deadlines for homework (both date and time turned in), school uniforms, and class changes, all of which are new.

Parents should expect that students will forget some of these details when starting the program and that a bad grade on one assignment or a zero for a forgotten assignment is part of that learning curve. Grading matrices are set up to allow a mistake now and then, and grades are weighted so that student grades will not suffer too terribly while they are “learning the ropes.”

That being said, most students adjust quickly and do exceptionally well. Not all students will earn an A on every assignment—indeed, if they did, we would consider our assignments or our grading to be too easy—but A’s can be earned by diligent work. Many students have “straight A’s” at CCHSA, but not all can achieve this. We consider a grade of B on any assignment or test to still be quite good.

16. How much is the curriculum service fee?
The monthly fee we charge to support your family as you endeavor to homeschool is called a curriculum service fee (CSF). The CSF for Elementary (E) 1, 2, 3, and 4 is $150 per month. The CSF for Middle School (MS) 1 and 2 is $200 per month, and the CSF for High School (HS) is $250 per month. CSF is paid for the months of August through April, for a total of nine months.

17. What is the involvement of the parent?
At CCHSA, parents are still the backbone of their students’ education. It is simply not possible to teach a child all he needs to know about a subject in only one hour a week. Parents will still need to be VERY involved in their students’ schooling through middle school, slowly giving the child more autonomy as he gains skills and is able to manage the workload and the time on his own. This will differ from student to student.

ALL CCHSA students benefit from having a parent who can discuss school topics and books with them to help them process information and formulate opinions. We hope that parents will read books alongside their children and take an active supporting role in research, editing papers, and supervising other work completed. Students with actively involved parents tend to do better work and adjust more quickly.

We recommend that a parent be available to help during all of the student’s study time.

18. What is a Classical Education?
We believe in the classical education model known as the Trivium. By integrating classical curriculum with biblical teaching, we provide an education that presents history through the lens of God’s sovereignty. Classical education with a biblical world-view enables students to organize facts into arguments and convey those arguments clearly and persuasively.
Dorothy Sayers, in her essay, “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning,” divides the Trivium into three distinct areas:

Grammar Stage
Kindergarten through 4th grade are concerned primarily with laying the foundation for each subject. Students memorize facts, such as spelling rules, math facts, history dates, and other basic information. Understanding underlying causes is incomplete at this stage.

Logic Stage
In grades 5 through 8, students begin to question the world. They may become argumentative, enjoy the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, and are curious about why things are the way they are. We allow time for discussion, debate, visual aids, and role-playing. At this stage, students can better handle research, begin to study formal logic and Latin, and present information orally.

Rhetoric Stage
In grades 9 through 12, the student moves toward a greater ability to express ideas and thoughts more comprehensively, both in writing and orally. The formal study of rhetoric, greater research skills, and the ability to evaluate and synthesize information are features of this age level. Teachers for this age group will give greater opportunities for discussion, the synthesis of ideas, and opportunities to specialize through research and presentations.

According to the Well Trained Mind newsletter, classical education incorporates many well-known ideas throughout the homeschool community. Because of its emphasis on research and primary sources, classical education is a good fit for those whose teaching philosophies center on Charlotte Mason, with her emphasis on narration and using living books.