OUR LEGACY OF SUCCESS
AMERICAN HERITAGE CHARTER SCHOOLS
90%
The percentage of TCP and CLP students who attend college after high school graduation.
CLASSICALLY INSPIRED: we provide students with a truly unique opportunity to participate in the timeless conversation that shaped American culture.
A few great stories, a few great authors, a few great books have profoundly shaped Western tradition and the American story we embrace. These books contain the collected wisdom from thousands of years of conversations about what it means to be human and what it means to live well.
What if we could get these great authors into a room and get them talking to each other about the most fundamental and important questions in our lives? And what if we could place students in that room so they could listen to the conversation, ask questions, and even engage in the conversation themselves? That is what our Great Books program is doing. Teachers guide our students through the great conversation, and they train our students to read well, think well, and communicate well, so they can enter into that conversation themselves. We believe this unique approach to learning will profoundly change the lives of our students for the better.
LEADERSHIP opportunities and co-curriculars
The early years of ECHS met many successes. Word spread throughout North County about the school’s achievements, and the school began to grow. By the fall of 1998, ECHS expanded to occupy most of the three-building complex where it originated, doubled its staff size, and the student population grew to almost seven hundred TRAD and IS students.
During this time, the changing of state charter school laws made it necessary for all charter school teachers in California to be credentialed. The willingness of ECHS staff members to undergo this one-year commitment, in addition to their eight-hour workdays and after-hour grading schedules, was a testament to the staff’s dedication.
In 1999, the school achieved its first landmark accomplishment since its founding – the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) officially accredited the high school, making ECHS an official college-prep institution.
EXCEPTIONAL MENTORSHIP
The AHCS staff is passionate about helping students realize their personal goals and challenging them to continually grow in virtue. Our teachers provide after-hour tutorials, they chaperone field trips and social events, and they oftentimes play a central role in organizing community outreach excursions. Our sports coaches make character building the central goal of our junior high and high school athletics departments, and this approach has brought our teams great success. In addition, our schools support students with academic advisors to help family’s determine appropriate goals for their students, and to help coordinate that effort with the administrators and teaching staff. At the high school, these advisors help students establish and navigate a pathway to either a career or post-secondary education.
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT
At AHCS, we honor America’s unique history and founding principles, and we appreciate the many thought leaders and historical figures who have contributed to America’s enduring story.
Our students begin each day pledging allegiance to our nation’s flag and attend various patriotic assemblies throughout the school year. We foster a culture of gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States by hosting events where our students have the ability to showcase the amazing people and philosophies that founded and have sustained our great nation.
Our campuses are adorned with pieces of art that commemorate our country’s fundamental principles and call to mind the great struggles our fore fathers endured for the sake of the American experiment. Our high school student athletes compete in a gym that proudly displays a massive American flag that was retired from a U.S. Navy destroyer. A sculpture of Abe Lincoln is seated right outside the ECHS library, statues of children raising the flag stand at the ECHS main entrance, and a bronze rendition of the iconic “Spirit of ‘76” (pictured here) welcomes every visitor to the AHCS American Spirit Theater.