THE AHCS DIFFERENCE
AMERICAN HERITAGE CHARTER SCHOOLS
RIGOROUS ACADEMICS and high expectations
At AHCS, we believe a rigorous core curriculum and high expectations are essential for effective student development. We challenge each and every student to wrestle with difficult academic material, and our incredible faculty provides students with the mentorship needed to be successful inside and outside of the classroom. We maintain that every student, regardless of background, needs and deserves to be educated from the perspective that he or she has an innate capacity to master challenging coursework when provided the right resources.
Across all grade levels, we encourage a love for our subject matter that extends beyond the classroom in order to foster a truly unique educational culture. We host student showcases that focus on the arts and humanities, and at the high school, we commemorate our favorite math book publisher with a truly one-of-a-kind celebration in the Fall. Every year, dozens of ECHS seniors join the Academic Motivator squad to help keep students enthusiastic about the pursuit of academic excellence.
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
AHCS gives students the opportunity to participate in clubs, performing and visual arts, career technical classes, Civil Air Patrol, ASB, and a full catalog of fall, winter, and spring sports. We encourage students to take advantage of these opportunities not only to broaden their formative experience but primarily to diversify their application of virtue and leadership skills in creative and challenging ways.
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 opportunity to showcase the amazing people and unique philosophy that have inspired our great nation.
Our campuses are adorned with pieces of art that commemorate our country’s foundational principles and call to mind the great struggles our forefathers 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 Abraham 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.